10 * Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
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290 Copyright \copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
291 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
294 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
295 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
296 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
297 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
298 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
299 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
300 License'' in the Emacs manual.
302 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
303 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
304 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
306 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
307 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
308 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
309 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
317 This file documents Gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.
319 Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
320 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
322 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
323 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
324 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
325 Invariant Sections being none, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
326 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
327 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
328 License'' in the Emacs manual.
330 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
331 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
332 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
334 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
335 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
336 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
337 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
345 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
348 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
349 Copyright @copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
350 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
352 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
353 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
354 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
355 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
356 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
357 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
358 License'' in the Emacs manual.
360 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
361 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
362 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
364 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
365 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
366 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
367 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
376 @top The Gnus Newsreader
380 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using Gnus. The news
381 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@sc{nntp}, local
382 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
385 This manual corresponds to Oort Gnus v0.07.
396 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
397 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
399 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
400 being accused of plagiarism:
402 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
403 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
404 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you
405 can even read news with it!
407 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
408 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
409 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend Gnus to make it behave
410 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
411 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
417 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
418 * Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
419 * Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
420 * Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
421 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
422 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
423 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
424 * Various:: General purpose settings.
425 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
426 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, FAQ, History, Internals.
427 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
428 * Key Index:: Key Index.
431 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
435 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
436 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
437 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
438 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
439 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
440 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
441 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
442 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
443 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
444 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
445 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
449 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
450 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
451 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
455 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
456 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
457 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
458 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
459 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
460 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
461 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
462 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
463 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
464 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
465 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
466 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
467 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
468 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
469 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
470 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
471 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
475 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
476 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
477 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
481 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
482 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
483 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
484 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
485 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
489 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
490 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
491 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
492 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
493 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
497 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
498 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
499 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
500 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
501 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
502 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
503 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
504 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
505 * Threading:: How threads are made.
506 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
507 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
508 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
509 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
510 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
511 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
512 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
513 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
514 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
515 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
516 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
517 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
518 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
519 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
520 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
521 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
522 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
523 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
524 or reselecting the current group.
525 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
526 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
527 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
528 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
530 Summary Buffer Format
532 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
533 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
534 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
535 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
539 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
540 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
542 Reply, Followup and Post
544 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
545 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
546 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
547 * Canceling and Superseding::
551 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
552 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
553 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
555 * Generic Marking Commands::
556 * Setting Process Marks::
560 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
561 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
562 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
566 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
567 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
569 Customizing Threading
571 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
572 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
573 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
574 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over... but you were wrong!
578 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
579 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
580 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
581 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
582 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
583 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
587 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
588 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
589 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
593 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
594 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
595 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
596 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
597 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
598 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
599 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
600 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
601 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
602 * Article Miscellania:: Various other stuff.
604 Alternative Approaches
606 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
607 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
609 Various Summary Stuff
611 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
612 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
613 * Summary Generation Commands::
614 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
618 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
619 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
620 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
621 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
622 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
626 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
627 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
628 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
629 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
630 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
631 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
632 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
633 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
637 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
638 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
639 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
640 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
641 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @sc{imap} client.
642 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
643 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
644 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
648 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
649 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
650 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
651 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
652 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
653 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
654 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
658 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
659 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
663 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
664 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
665 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
669 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
670 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
671 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
672 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
673 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
674 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
675 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
676 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
677 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
678 * Washing Mail:: Removing gruft from the mail you get.
679 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
680 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
681 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
685 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
686 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
687 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
689 Choosing a Mail Back End
691 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
692 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
693 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
694 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
695 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
696 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
701 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
702 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
703 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
704 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
705 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
706 * Customizing w3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.
710 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
711 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
712 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a "compress mailbox" button.
713 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use IMAP namespace in Gnus.
717 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
718 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
719 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
720 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
721 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
725 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
729 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
730 * SOUP Groups:: A back end for reading @sc{soup} packets.
731 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
735 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
736 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
740 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
741 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
742 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
743 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
744 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
745 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with IMAP.
746 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
747 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
748 * Example Setup:: An example @file{.gnus.el} file for offline people.
749 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
750 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
754 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
755 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
756 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
760 * Group Agent Commands::
761 * Summary Agent Commands::
762 * Server Agent Commands::
766 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
767 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
768 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
769 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
770 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
771 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
772 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
773 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
774 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
775 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
776 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
777 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
778 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
779 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
780 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
781 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
782 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
786 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
787 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
788 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
789 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
793 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
794 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
795 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
799 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
800 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
801 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
802 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
803 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
804 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
805 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
806 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
807 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
808 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
809 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
810 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
811 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
812 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
813 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
814 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
815 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
816 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
817 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
821 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
822 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
823 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
824 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
825 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
826 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
827 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
828 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
832 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
833 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
834 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
835 * Toolbar:: Click'n'drool.
836 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
840 * Picon Basics:: What are picons and How do I get them.
841 * Picon Requirements:: Don't go further if you aren't using XEmacs.
842 * Easy Picons:: Displaying Picons---the easy way.
843 * Hard Picons:: The way you should do it. You'll learn something.
844 * Picon Useless Configuration:: Other variables you can trash/tweak/munge/play with.
848 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
849 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
850 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
854 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
855 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
856 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
857 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
858 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
859 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
860 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
861 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
862 * Frequently Asked Questions::
866 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
867 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
868 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
869 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
870 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
871 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
872 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
873 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
874 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
878 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
879 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
880 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
881 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
882 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
886 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
887 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
888 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
889 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
893 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
894 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
895 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
896 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
897 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
898 * Group Info:: The group info format.
899 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
900 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
901 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
905 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
906 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
907 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
908 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
909 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
910 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
914 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
915 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
919 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
920 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
926 @chapter Starting Gnus
931 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus
932 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
935 @findex gnus-other-frame
936 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
937 If you want to start Gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
938 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
940 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
941 variables in your @file{~/.gnus} file. This file is similar to
942 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when gnus starts.
944 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
945 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
948 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
949 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
950 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
951 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
952 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
953 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
954 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
955 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
956 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
957 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
958 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
962 @node Finding the News
963 @section Finding the News
966 @vindex gnus-select-method
968 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where Gnus should look for
969 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
970 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
971 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
974 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @sc{nntp} server is where
975 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
978 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
981 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
984 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
987 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
988 certainly be much faster. But do not use the local spool if your
989 server is running Leafnode; in this case, use @code{(nntp "localhost")}.
991 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
993 @cindex @sc{nntp} server
994 If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
995 @code{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
996 Gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
997 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter. If
998 that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs as an @sc{nntp} server. That's a long shot, though.
1000 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1001 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
1002 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
1003 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
1005 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
1006 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1007 You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
1008 @sc{nntp} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
1009 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), Gnus will let you choose between the servers
1010 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
1011 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this
1012 will set @code{gnus-nntp-server}, which means that if you then @kbd{M-x
1013 gnus} later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same
1016 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
1018 However, if you use one @sc{nntp} server regularly and are just
1019 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
1020 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
1021 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
1022 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
1023 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
1025 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
1027 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
1028 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
1029 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
1030 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
1031 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
1032 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
1035 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} back end to read your mail,
1036 you would typically set this variable to
1039 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
1043 @node The First Time
1044 @section The First Time
1045 @cindex first time usage
1047 If no startup files exist, Gnus will try to determine what groups should
1048 be subscribed by default.
1050 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
1051 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, Gnus
1052 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
1053 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
1056 Since she hasn't, Gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
1057 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
1058 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
1060 You'll also be subscribed to the Gnus documentation group, which should
1061 help you with most common problems.
1063 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, Gnus will just
1064 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
1068 @node The Server is Down
1069 @section The Server is Down
1070 @cindex server errors
1072 If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some
1073 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
1074 the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.
1076 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
1077 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
1078 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
1079 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
1080 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
1081 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
1082 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
1084 @findex gnus-no-server
1085 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
1087 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
1088 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
1089 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start Gnus. That might come in handy
1090 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
1091 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
1092 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
1093 levels.) Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1097 @section Slave Gnusae
1100 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the
1101 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
1102 are using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers),
1103 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
1105 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
1106 @code{.newsrc} file.
1108 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the Gnus
1109 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
1110 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
1111 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
1112 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
1113 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
1114 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
1116 Anyway, you start one Gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
1117 however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with
1118 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
1119 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
1120 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus
1121 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
1122 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
1123 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
1125 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
1126 information in the normal (i.e., master) @code{.newsrc} file.
1128 If the @code{.newsrc*} files have not been saved in the master when the
1129 slave starts, you may be prompted as to whether to read an auto-save
1130 file. If you answer "yes", the unsaved changes to the master will be
1131 incorporated into the slave. If you answer "no", the slave may see some
1132 messages as unread that have been read in the master.
1134 @node Fetching a Group
1135 @section Fetching a Group
1136 @cindex fetching a group
1138 @findex gnus-fetch-group
1139 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
1140 group and I don't care whether Gnus has been started or not''. This is
1141 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
1142 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
1143 It takes the group name as a parameter.
1149 @cindex subscription
1151 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
1152 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
1153 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
1154 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
1155 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
1156 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
1157 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
1158 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the back ends for new groups even
1159 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1162 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
1163 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
1164 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
1168 @node Checking New Groups
1169 @subsection Checking New Groups
1171 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
1172 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
1173 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
1174 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, Gnus will ask the
1175 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
1176 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
1177 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
1178 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
1179 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
1180 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
1182 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
1183 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
1184 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
1185 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
1186 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
1187 work. I could write a function to make Gnus guess whether the server
1188 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
1189 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
1190 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
1191 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
1192 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
1194 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will
1195 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
1196 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
1197 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
1198 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
1199 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
1202 @node Subscription Methods
1203 @subsection Subscription Methods
1205 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
1206 What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
1207 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
1209 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
1210 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
1212 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
1216 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
1217 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
1218 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
1219 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
1220 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
1222 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
1223 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
1224 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
1225 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
1227 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1228 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1229 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
1231 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1232 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1233 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
1234 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
1235 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
1236 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its
1237 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
1238 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
1239 up. Or something like that.
1241 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
1242 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
1243 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask
1244 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
1245 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
1247 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
1248 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
1249 Kill all new groups.
1251 @item gnus-subscribe-topics
1252 @vindex gnus-subscribe-topics
1253 Put the groups into the topic that has a matching @code{subscribe} topic
1254 parameter (@pxref{Topic Parameters}). For instance, a @code{subscribe}
1255 topic parameter that looks like
1261 will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under
1264 If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the
1269 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
1270 A closely related variable is
1271 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
1272 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you in a
1273 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
1274 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
1277 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
1278 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
1279 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
1280 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
1283 @node Filtering New Groups
1284 @subsection Filtering New Groups
1286 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
1287 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
1288 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
1291 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
1294 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
1295 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
1296 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
1297 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
1298 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
1299 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
1300 subscribing these groups.
1301 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
1302 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
1304 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
1305 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
1306 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
1307 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
1308 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
1309 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
1310 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
1311 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
1313 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
1314 Yet another variable that meddles here is
1315 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
1316 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous, but I
1317 thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is more
1318 meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is used
1319 more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new groups
1320 that come from mail back ends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
1321 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, @code{nnmh}, and @code{nnmaildir})
1322 subscribed. If you don't like that, just set this variable to
1325 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
1326 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
1329 @node Changing Servers
1330 @section Changing Servers
1331 @cindex changing servers
1333 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @sc{nntp} server to another.
1334 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
1335 very flaky and you want to use another.
1337 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
1338 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
1342 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
1343 @sc{nntp} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
1344 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
1345 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
1348 Gnus provides a few functions to attempt to translate a @file{.newsrc}
1349 file from one server to another. They all have one thing in
1350 common---they take a looong time to run. You don't want to use these
1351 functions more than absolutely necessary.
1353 @kindex M-x gnus-change-server
1354 @findex gnus-change-server
1355 If you have access to both servers, Gnus can request the headers for all
1356 the articles you have read and compare @code{Message-ID}s and map the
1357 article numbers of the read articles and article marks. The @kbd{M-x
1358 gnus-change-server} command will do this for all your native groups. It
1359 will prompt for the method you want to move to.
1361 @kindex M-x gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1362 @findex gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1363 You can also move individual groups with the @kbd{M-x
1364 gnus-group-move-group-to-server} command. This is useful if you want to
1365 move a (foreign) group from one server to another.
1367 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1368 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1369 If you don't have access to both the old and new server, all your marks
1370 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use the @kbd{M-x
1371 gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} command to clear out all data
1372 that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.
1374 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data
1375 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
1376 Clear the data from the current group only---nix out marks and the
1377 list of read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
1379 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
1380 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
1381 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
1382 @code{gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} will ask you if you want
1383 to have it done automatically; for @code{gnus-group-clear-data}, you
1384 can use @kbd{M-x gnus-cache-move-cache} (but beware, it will move the
1385 cache for all groups).
1389 @section Startup Files
1390 @cindex startup files
1395 Now, you all know about the @file{.newsrc} file. All subscription
1396 information is traditionally stored in this file.
1398 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
1399 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
1400 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
1401 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
1402 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
1403 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
1404 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
1406 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
1407 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
1408 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
1409 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
1410 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
1411 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
1413 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
1414 @vindex gnus-read-newsrc-file
1415 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
1416 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
1417 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster.
1418 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
1419 Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting
1420 @code{gnus-read-newsrc-file} to @code{nil} makes Gnus ignore the
1421 @file{.newsrc} file and any @file{.newsrc-SERVER} files, which is
1422 convenient if you have a tendency to use Netscape once in a while.
1424 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
1425 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
1426 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
1427 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
1428 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
1429 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
1430 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
1431 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
1432 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
1433 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
1434 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
1435 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
1437 @vindex gnus-startup-file
1438 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
1439 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
1440 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
1442 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
1443 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
1444 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
1445 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
1446 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
1447 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
1448 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
1449 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
1450 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
1451 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
1454 (defun turn-off-backup ()
1455 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
1457 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1458 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1461 @vindex gnus-init-file
1462 When Gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
1463 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
1464 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
1465 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
1466 @file{site-init} files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
1467 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
1468 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
1469 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
1470 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order).
1476 @cindex dribble file
1479 Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles,
1480 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
1481 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
1482 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
1483 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
1486 If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
1487 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
1490 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
1491 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, Gnus won't create and
1492 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
1494 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
1495 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
1496 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, Gnus will dribble
1497 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
1498 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
1499 file permissions as the @code{.newsrc} file.
1501 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
1502 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
1503 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
1506 @node The Active File
1507 @section The Active File
1509 @cindex ignored groups
1511 When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
1512 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
1513 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
1515 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
1516 Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the
1517 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
1518 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make Gnus
1519 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
1520 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
1521 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
1524 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
1525 @c if you set it to anything else.
1527 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
1529 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
1530 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
1531 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
1533 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
1534 you actually subscribe to.
1536 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
1537 variable to @code{nil} will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At
1538 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow Gnus down
1539 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
1541 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
1542 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
1543 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
1544 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
1545 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
1546 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
1548 Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for
1549 instance) do not support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group}. For these
1550 servers, @code{nil} is probably the most efficient value for this
1553 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will ask for group info in total
1554 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
1555 @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
1556 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
1557 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
1558 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
1560 If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three
1561 different values for this variable and see what works best for you.
1563 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
1564 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1566 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1567 secondary select methods.
1570 @node Startup Variables
1571 @section Startup Variables
1575 @item gnus-load-hook
1576 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1577 A hook run while Gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1578 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1579 times you start Gnus.
1581 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1582 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1583 A hook run after starting up Gnus successfully.
1585 @item gnus-startup-hook
1586 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1587 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1589 @item gnus-started-hook
1590 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1591 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1594 @item gnus-setup-news-hook
1595 @vindex gnus-setup-news-hook
1596 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1597 generating the group buffer.
1599 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1600 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1601 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1602 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1603 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1604 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1605 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1606 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1608 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1609 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1610 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1611 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1612 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1613 @file{.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @code{.emacs} instead.
1615 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1616 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1617 Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.
1619 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1620 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1621 If non-@code{nil}, play the Gnus jingle at startup.
1623 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1624 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1625 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1626 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1632 @chapter Group Buffer
1633 @cindex group buffer
1635 @c Alex Schroeder suggests to rearrange this as follows:
1637 @c <kensanata> ok, just save it for reference. I'll go to bed in a minute.
1638 @c 1. Selecting a Group, 2. (new) Finding a Group, 3. Group Levels,
1639 @c 4. Subscription Commands, 5. Group Maneuvering, 6. Group Data,
1640 @c 7. Group Score, 8. Group Buffer Format
1641 @c <kensanata> Group Levels should have more information on levels 5 to 9. I
1642 @c suggest to split the 4th paragraph ("Gnus considers groups...") as follows:
1643 @c <kensanata> First, "Gnus considers groups... (default 9)."
1644 @c <kensanata> New, a table summarizing what levels 1 to 9 mean.
1645 @c <kensanata> Third, "Gnus treats subscribed ... reasons of efficiency"
1646 @c <kensanata> Then expand the next paragraph or add some more to it.
1647 @c This short one sentence explains levels 1 and 2, therefore I understand
1648 @c that I should keep important news at 3 and boring news at 4.
1649 @c Say so! Then go on to explain why I should bother with levels 6 to 9.
1650 @c Maybe keep those that you don't want to read temporarily at 6,
1651 @c those that you never want to read at 8, those that offend your
1652 @c human rights at 9...
1655 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1656 is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1657 long as Gnus is active.
1661 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1662 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group,height=9cm}}
1663 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1664 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1665 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1666 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1667 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1668 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1674 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1675 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1676 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1677 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1678 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1679 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1680 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1681 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1682 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1683 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1684 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1685 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1686 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1687 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1688 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1689 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1690 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1694 @node Group Buffer Format
1695 @section Group Buffer Format
1698 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1699 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
1700 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1704 @node Group Line Specification
1705 @subsection Group Line Specification
1706 @cindex group buffer format
1708 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1709 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1711 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1714 25: news.announce.newusers
1715 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1720 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1721 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1722 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1723 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1725 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1726 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1727 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1728 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1729 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1730 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1732 @samp{%M%S%5y: %(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1734 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1735 the colon after performing an operation. @xref{Positioning
1736 Point}. Nothing else is required---not even the group name. All
1737 displayed text is just window dressing, and is never examined by Gnus.
1738 Gnus stores all real information it needs using text properties.
1740 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1741 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1742 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1744 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1749 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1752 Whether the group is subscribed.
1755 Level of subscribedness.
1758 Number of unread articles.
1761 Number of dormant articles.
1764 Number of ticked articles.
1767 Number of read articles.
1770 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1771 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1773 Gnus uses this estimation because the @sc{nntp} protocol provides
1774 efficient access to @var{max-number} and @var{min-number} but getting
1775 the true unread message count is not possible efficiently. For
1776 hysterical raisins, even the mail back ends, where the true number of
1777 unread messages might be available efficiently, use the same limited
1778 interface. To remove this restriction from Gnus means that the back
1779 end interface has to be changed, which is not an easy job. If you
1780 want to work on this, please contact the Gnus mailing list.
1783 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1786 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1795 Group comment (@pxref{Group Parameters}) or group name if there is no
1796 comment element in the group parameters.
1799 Newsgroup description.
1802 @samp{m} if moderated.
1805 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1814 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1818 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1821 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1822 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1823 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1824 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1825 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.e.gnus}.
1828 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1830 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1834 @samp{#} (@code{gnus-process-mark}) if the group is process marked.
1837 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1841 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1842 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1843 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1844 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1845 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1846 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1851 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1852 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1853 group, or a bogus native group.
1856 @node Group Modeline Specification
1857 @subsection Group Modeline Specification
1858 @cindex group modeline
1860 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1861 The mode line can be changed by setting
1862 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1863 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1867 The native news server.
1869 The native select method.
1873 @node Group Highlighting
1874 @subsection Group Highlighting
1875 @cindex highlighting
1876 @cindex group highlighting
1878 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1879 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1880 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1881 that look like @code{(@var{form} . @var{face})}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1882 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1884 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1888 (cond (window-system
1889 (setq custom-background-mode 'light)
1890 (defface my-group-face-1
1891 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face")
1892 (defface my-group-face-2
1893 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t))) "Second group face")
1894 (defface my-group-face-3
1895 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face")
1896 (defface my-group-face-4
1897 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face")
1898 (defface my-group-face-5
1899 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face")))
1901 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1902 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1903 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1904 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1905 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1906 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1909 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1911 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1918 The number of unread articles in the group.
1922 Whether the group is a mail group.
1924 The level of the group.
1926 The score of the group.
1928 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1930 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather, MAX-NUMBER minus
1931 MIN-NUMBER plus one.
1933 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
1934 topic being inserted.
1937 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
1938 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal Gnus
1939 functions for snarfing info on the group.
1941 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
1942 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
1943 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
1944 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}. This hook
1945 calls @code{gnus-group-highlight-line} by default.
1948 @node Group Maneuvering
1949 @section Group Maneuvering
1950 @cindex group movement
1952 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
1953 expected, hopefully.
1959 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
1960 Go to the next group that has unread articles
1961 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
1967 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
1968 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
1969 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
1973 @findex gnus-group-next-group
1974 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
1978 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
1979 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
1983 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
1984 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
1985 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
1989 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
1990 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
1991 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
1994 Three commands for jumping to groups:
2000 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
2001 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
2002 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
2007 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
2008 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
2009 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
2013 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
2014 Jump to the first group with unread articles
2015 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
2018 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
2019 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
2020 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
2021 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
2025 @node Selecting a Group
2026 @section Selecting a Group
2027 @cindex group selection
2032 @kindex SPACE (Group)
2033 @findex gnus-group-read-group
2034 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
2035 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
2036 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
2037 this command, Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
2038 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{N}, @var{N}
2039 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{N} is
2040 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{N} newest articles, if @var{N} is
2041 negative, Gnus fetches the @code{abs(@var{N})} oldest articles.
2043 Thus, @kbd{SPC} enters the group normally, @kbd{C-u SPC} offers old
2044 articles, @kbd{C-u 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 newest articles, and @kbd{C-u
2045 - 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 oldest ones.
2047 When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type
2048 @kbd{M-g} to fetch new articles, or @kbd{C-u M-g} to also show the old
2053 @findex gnus-group-select-group
2054 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
2055 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
2056 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
2057 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
2061 @kindex M-RET (Group)
2062 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
2063 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
2064 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
2065 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
2066 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
2067 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
2068 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), Gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
2069 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
2070 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
2073 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
2074 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
2075 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
2076 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
2077 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
2080 @kindex C-M-RET (Group)
2081 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
2082 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
2083 doing any processing of its contents
2084 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
2085 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
2086 manner will have no permanent effects.
2090 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
2091 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should consider
2092 to be a big group. This is 200 by default. If the group has more
2093 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, Gnus will query the user
2094 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many articles
2095 should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a negative
2096 number (@code{-n}), the @code{n} oldest articles will be fetched. If it
2097 is positive, the @code{n} articles that have arrived most recently will
2100 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
2101 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
2102 If @code{gnus-auto-select-first} is non-@code{nil}, select an article
2103 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
2104 Which article this is is controlled by the
2105 @code{gnus-auto-select-subject} variable. Valid values for this
2111 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article.
2114 Place point on the subject line of the first article.
2117 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article.
2119 @item unseen-or-unread
2120 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article, and if
2121 there is no such article, place point on the subject line of the first
2125 Place point on the subject line of the highest-scored unread article.
2129 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function
2130 will be called to place point on a subject line.
2132 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
2133 binary group with Huge articles) you can set the
2134 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} variable to @code{nil} in
2135 @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
2139 @node Subscription Commands
2140 @section Subscription Commands
2141 @cindex subscription
2149 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
2150 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
2151 Toggle subscription to the current group
2152 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2158 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
2159 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
2160 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
2161 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
2167 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
2168 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
2169 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
2175 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
2176 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
2179 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2180 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2181 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
2182 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
2183 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
2189 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
2190 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
2194 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
2195 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
2198 @kindex S C-k (Group)
2199 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
2200 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
2201 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
2202 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
2203 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
2204 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
2205 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
2206 @file{.newsrc} file.
2210 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
2220 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
2221 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
2222 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
2223 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
2224 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
2225 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
2230 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
2231 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
2232 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
2236 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
2237 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
2238 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
2240 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2241 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2242 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2243 If you have switched from one @sc{nntp} server to another, all your marks
2244 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
2245 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
2252 @section Group Levels
2256 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
2257 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
2258 can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
2259 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
2260 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
2262 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
2268 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
2269 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
2270 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
2271 prompted for a level.
2274 @vindex gnus-level-killed
2275 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
2276 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
2277 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
2278 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
2279 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
2280 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
2281 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
2282 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
2283 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
2284 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
2285 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
2286 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
2287 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
2288 reasons of efficiency.
2290 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
2291 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
2293 Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to
2294 understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you
2295 subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting @kbd{L} you can have it show
2296 empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type @kbd{l} to
2297 go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed
2298 groups are hidden, in a way.
2300 Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they
2301 are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and
2302 unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for
2303 information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie
2304 and killed groups. Normally, you use @kbd{C-k} to kill the groups you
2305 aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.
2307 Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when
2308 a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie
2309 group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups,
2310 but you can type @kbd{A z} to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe
2311 the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (@kbd{A k} shows a
2312 list of killed groups.)
2314 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
2315 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
2316 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
2318 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
2319 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
2320 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
2321 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
2322 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
2323 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
2324 relevant valid ranges.
2326 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
2327 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
2328 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
2329 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
2330 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
2331 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
2334 If this variable is @code{best}, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the
2335 one with the best level.
2337 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
2338 All groups with a level less than or equal to
2339 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
2342 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
2343 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
2344 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
2345 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
2348 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
2349 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
2350 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
2351 use this level as the ``work'' level.
2353 @vindex gnus-activate-level
2354 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
2355 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
2356 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
2357 to 5. The default is 6.
2361 @section Group Score
2366 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
2367 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
2368 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
2371 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can have Gnus assign a score
2372 to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort
2373 the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on
2374 score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is
2375 called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has
2376 a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score
2377 of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the
2378 least significant part.))
2380 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
2381 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
2382 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
2383 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
2384 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
2385 action after each summary exit, you can add
2386 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
2387 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
2388 slow things down somewhat.
2391 @node Marking Groups
2392 @section Marking Groups
2393 @cindex marking groups
2395 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
2396 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
2397 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
2398 bidding on those groups.
2400 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
2401 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
2402 with the process mark and then execute the command.
2410 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
2411 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
2417 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
2418 Remove the mark from the current group
2419 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
2423 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
2424 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
2428 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
2429 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
2433 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
2434 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
2438 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
2439 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
2440 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
2443 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
2445 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
2446 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
2447 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
2448 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
2449 the command to be executed.
2452 @node Foreign Groups
2453 @section Foreign Groups
2454 @cindex foreign groups
2456 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
2457 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
2458 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
2459 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
2466 @findex gnus-group-make-group
2467 @cindex making groups
2468 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
2469 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
2470 to subscribe to @sc{nntp} groups, @pxref{Browse Foreign Server}.
2474 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
2475 @cindex renaming groups
2476 Rename the current group to something else
2477 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
2478 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
2484 @findex gnus-group-customize
2485 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
2489 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
2490 @cindex renaming groups
2491 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
2492 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
2496 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
2497 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
2498 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
2502 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
2503 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
2504 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
2508 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
2510 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
2511 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
2516 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
2517 Make the Gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
2521 @cindex (ding) archive
2522 @cindex archive group
2523 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
2524 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
2525 @vindex gnus-group-recent-archive-directory
2526 Make a Gnus archive group (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). By
2527 default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created
2528 (@code{gnus-group-recent-archive-directory}), but given a prefix, a full
2529 group will be created from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
2533 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
2535 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
2536 match groups to be ``included'' in the kiboze group, and a series of
2537 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
2538 @xref{Kibozed Groups}.
2542 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
2544 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
2545 @code{nneething} back end (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
2546 @xref{Anything Groups}.
2550 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
2551 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
2553 Make a group based on some file or other
2554 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2555 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
2556 Currently supported types are @code{mbox}, @code{babyl},
2557 @code{digest}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward},
2558 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts},
2559 @code{standard-digest}, @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs},
2560 @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook}, @code{oe-dbx}, and @code{mailman}. If
2561 you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file
2562 type. @xref{Document Groups}.
2566 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
2567 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
2568 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
2569 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
2573 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
2577 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
2578 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2579 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
2580 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
2581 include @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}.
2582 @xref{Web Searches}.
2584 If you use the @code{google} search engine, you can limit the search
2585 to a particular group by using a match string like
2586 @samp{shaving group:alt.sysadmin.recovery}.
2589 @kindex G DEL (Group)
2590 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
2591 This function will delete the current group
2592 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
2593 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
2594 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
2595 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
2596 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} group), though.
2600 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
2601 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
2602 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
2606 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
2607 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
2608 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
2611 @xref{Select Methods}, for more information on the various select
2614 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
2615 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
2616 Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
2617 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
2618 groups from different @sc{nntp} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
2619 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
2623 @node Group Parameters
2624 @section Group Parameters
2625 @cindex group parameters
2627 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
2628 Here's an example group parameter list:
2631 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2635 We see that each element consists of a "dotted pair"---the thing before
2636 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2637 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2638 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2640 Some parameters have correspondant customizable variables, each of which
2641 is an alist of regexps and values.
2643 The following group parameters can be used:
2648 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2651 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2654 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2655 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2656 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2657 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2658 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2660 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2661 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2662 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2663 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2664 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2665 list address instead.
2667 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-address-alist}.
2671 Address used when doing @kbd{a} in that group.
2674 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2677 It is totally ignored
2678 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2679 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2681 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2682 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2683 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2684 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2685 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2687 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you don't have a
2688 @code{to-list} group parameter, one will be added automatically upon
2689 sending the message.
2691 @findex gnus-mailing-list-mode
2692 @cindex Mail List Groups
2693 If this variable is set, @code{gnus-mailing-list-mode} is turned on when
2694 entering summary buffer.
2696 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-list-alist}.
2701 If this parameter is set to @code{t}, Gnus will consider the
2702 to-address and to-list parameters for this group as addresses of
2703 mailing lists you are subscribed to. Giving Gnus this information is
2704 (only) a first step in getting it to generate correct Mail-Followup-To
2705 headers for your posts to these lists. Look here @pxref{(message)Mailing
2706 Lists} for a complete treatment of available MFT support.
2708 See also @code{gnus-find-subscribed-addresses}, the function that
2709 directly uses this group parameter.
2713 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2714 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2715 of whether it has any unread articles.
2717 @item broken-reply-to
2718 @cindex broken-reply-to
2719 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2720 headers in this group are to be ignored. This can be useful if you're
2721 reading a mailing list group where the listserv has inserted
2722 @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv itself. This is
2723 broken behavior. So there!
2727 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2728 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2732 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, Gnus
2733 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2734 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2739 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2740 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2741 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2742 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2743 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2744 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2745 (@pxref{Archived Messages}). CAVEAT:: It yields an error putting
2746 @code{(gcc-self . t)} in groups of a @code{nntp} server or so, because
2747 a @code{nntp} server doesn't accept artciles.
2751 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2752 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2753 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2755 See also @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups}.
2758 @cindex total-expire
2759 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2760 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2761 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2762 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2765 See also @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups}.
2769 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2770 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(expiry-wait
2771 . 10)}, this value will override any @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and
2772 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} when expiring expirable messages.
2773 The value can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or
2774 the symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2777 @cindex score file group parameter
2778 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2779 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2780 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2783 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2784 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2785 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2786 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2789 @cindex admin-address
2790 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2791 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2792 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2793 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2797 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2798 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2802 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2805 Display the last INTEGER articles in the group. This is the same as
2806 entering the group with C-u INTEGER.
2809 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2813 Display articles that satisfy a predicate.
2815 Here are some examples:
2819 Display only unread articles.
2822 Display everything except expirable articles.
2824 @item [and (not reply) (not expire)]
2825 Display everything except expirable and articles you've already
2829 The available operators are @code{not}, @code{and} and @code{or}.
2830 Predicates include @code{tick}, @code{unsend}, @code{undownload},
2831 @code{unread}, @code{dormant}, @code{expire}, @code{reply},
2832 @code{killed}, @code{bookmark}, @code{score}, @code{save},
2833 @code{cache}, @code{forward}, @code{unseen} and @code{recent}.
2837 The @code{display} parameter works by limiting the summary buffer to
2838 the subset specified. You can pop the limit by using the @kbd{/ w}
2839 command (@pxref{Limiting}).
2843 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")} are
2844 arbitrary comments on the group. You can display comments in the
2845 group line (@pxref{Group Line Specification}).
2849 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
2850 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
2851 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
2853 See also @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}.
2855 @item ignored-charsets
2856 @cindex ignored-charset
2857 Elements that look like @code{(ignored-charsets x-unknown iso-8859-1)}
2858 will make @code{iso-8859-1} and @code{x-unknown} ignored; that is, the
2859 default charset will be used for decoding articles.
2861 See also @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
2864 @cindex posting-style
2865 You can store additional posting style information for this group only
2866 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
2867 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
2868 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
2869 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
2871 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
2872 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
2873 like this in the group parameters:
2878 (signature "Funky Signature"))
2883 If it is set, the value is used as the method for posting message
2884 instead of @code{gnus-post-method}.
2888 An item like @code{(banner . "regex")} causes any part of an article
2889 that matches the regular expression "regex" to be stripped. Instead of
2890 "regex", you can also use the symbol @code{signature} which strips the
2891 last signature or any of the elements of the alist
2892 @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}.
2896 This parameter contains a Sieve test that should match incoming mail
2897 that should be placed in this group. From this group parameter, a
2898 Sieve @samp{IF} control structure is generated, having the test as the
2899 condition and @samp{fileinto "group.name";} as the body.
2901 For example, if the INBOX.list.sieve group has the @code{(sieve
2902 address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com")} group parameter, when
2903 translating the group parameter into a Sieve script (@pxref{Sieve
2904 Commands}) the following Sieve code is generated:
2907 if address \"sender\" \"sieve-admin@@extundo.com\" @{
2908 fileinto \"INBOX.list.sieve\";
2912 The Sieve language is described in RFC 3028. @xref{Top, , Top, sieve,
2915 @item (@var{variable} @var{form})
2916 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
2917 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
2918 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
2919 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
2920 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
2921 @code{eval}ed there.
2923 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
2924 A use for this feature, is to remove a mailing list identifier tag in
2925 the subject fields of articles. E.g. if the news group
2926 @samp{nntp+news.gnus.org:gmane.text.docbook.apps} has the tag
2927 @samp{DOC-BOOK-APPS:} in the subject of all articles, this tag can be
2928 removed from the article subjects in the summary buffer for the group by
2929 putting @code{(gnus-list-identifiers "DOCBOOK-APPS:")} into the group
2930 parameters for the group.
2933 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function, if you'd like.
2934 If you want to hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put
2935 something like @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that
2936 group. @code{dummy-variable} will be set to the result of the
2937 @code{(ding)} form, but who cares?
2941 Use the @kbd{G p} or the @kbd{G c} command to edit group parameters of a
2942 group. (@kbd{G p} presents you with a Lisp-based interface, @kbd{G c}
2943 presents you with a Customize-like interface. The latter helps avoid
2944 silly Lisp errors.) You might also be interested in reading about topic
2945 parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}).
2947 Group parameters can be set via the @code{gnus-parameters} variable too.
2948 But some variables, such as @code{visible}, have no effect. For
2952 (setq gnus-parameters
2954 (gnus-show-threads nil)
2955 (gnus-use-scoring nil)
2956 (gnus-summary-line-format
2957 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%d:%ub%-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
2961 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
2965 (gnus-use-scoring t))
2969 (broken-reply-to . t))))
2972 String value of parameters will be subjected to regexp substitution, as
2973 the @code{to-group} example shows.
2976 @node Listing Groups
2977 @section Listing Groups
2978 @cindex group listing
2980 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
2988 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
2989 List all groups that have unread articles
2990 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
2991 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
2992 only lists groups of level five (i. e.,
2993 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
3000 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
3001 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
3002 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
3003 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
3004 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
3005 unsubscribed groups).
3009 @findex gnus-group-list-level
3010 List all unread groups on a specific level
3011 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
3012 with no unread articles.
3016 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
3017 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
3018 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
3019 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
3024 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
3025 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
3029 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
3030 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
3031 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
3035 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
3036 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
3040 @findex gnus-group-list-active
3041 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
3042 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
3043 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
3044 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
3045 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
3046 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
3047 Take the output with some grains of salt.
3051 @findex gnus-group-apropos
3052 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
3053 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
3057 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
3058 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
3059 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
3063 @findex gnus-group-list-cached
3064 List all groups with cached articles (@code{gnus-group-list-cached}).
3068 @findex gnus-group-list-dormant
3069 List all groups with dormant articles (@code{gnus-group-list-dormant}).
3073 @findex gnus-group-list-limit
3074 List groups limited within the current selection
3075 (@code{gnus-group-list-limit}).
3079 @findex gnus-group-list-flush
3080 Flush groups from the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-flush}).
3084 @findex gnus-group-list-plus
3085 List groups plus the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-plus}).
3089 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3090 @cindex visible group parameter
3091 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
3092 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
3093 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
3094 get the same effect.
3096 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
3097 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
3098 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
3099 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
3100 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
3103 @node Sorting Groups
3104 @section Sorting Groups
3105 @cindex sorting groups
3107 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
3108 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
3109 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
3110 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
3111 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
3112 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
3117 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3118 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3119 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
3121 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3122 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3123 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
3125 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
3126 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
3127 Sort by group level.
3129 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
3130 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
3131 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
3133 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3134 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3135 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
3136 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
3138 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3139 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3140 Sort by number of unread articles.
3142 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
3143 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
3144 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
3146 @item gnus-group-sort-by-server
3147 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-server
3148 Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.
3153 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
3154 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
3158 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
3159 some sorting criteria:
3163 @kindex G S a (Group)
3164 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3165 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
3166 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3169 @kindex G S u (Group)
3170 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
3171 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
3172 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3175 @kindex G S l (Group)
3176 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
3177 Sort the group buffer by group level
3178 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
3181 @kindex G S v (Group)
3182 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
3183 Sort the group buffer by group score
3184 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3187 @kindex G S r (Group)
3188 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
3189 Sort the group buffer by group rank
3190 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3193 @kindex G S m (Group)
3194 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
3195 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by back end name
3196 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
3200 All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention
3201 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3203 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
3204 commands will sort in reverse order.
3206 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
3210 @kindex G P a (Group)
3211 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
3212 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
3213 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
3216 @kindex G P u (Group)
3217 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
3218 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
3219 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
3222 @kindex G P l (Group)
3223 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
3224 Sort the groups by group level
3225 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
3228 @kindex G P v (Group)
3229 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
3230 Sort the groups by group score
3231 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3234 @kindex G P r (Group)
3235 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
3236 Sort the groups by group rank
3237 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3240 @kindex G P m (Group)
3241 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
3242 Sort the groups alphabetically by back end name
3243 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
3246 @kindex G P s (Group)
3247 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups
3248 Sort the groups according to @code{gnus-group-sort-function}.
3252 And finally, note that you can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} to manually
3256 @node Group Maintenance
3257 @section Group Maintenance
3258 @cindex bogus groups
3263 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
3264 Find bogus groups and delete them
3265 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
3269 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
3270 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
3271 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
3272 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
3273 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
3277 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
3278 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
3279 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
3280 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}). That is, delete
3281 all expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
3282 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3285 @kindex C-c C-M-x (Group)
3286 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
3287 Run all expirable articles in all groups through the expiry process
3288 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
3293 @node Browse Foreign Server
3294 @section Browse Foreign Server
3295 @cindex foreign servers
3296 @cindex browsing servers
3301 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
3302 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
3303 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
3304 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
3307 @findex gnus-browse-mode
3308 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
3309 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
3310 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
3312 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
3317 @findex gnus-group-next-group
3318 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
3322 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
3323 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
3326 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
3327 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
3328 Enter the current group and display the first article
3329 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
3332 @kindex RET (Browse)
3333 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
3334 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
3338 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
3339 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
3340 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
3346 @findex gnus-browse-exit
3347 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
3351 @findex gnus-browse-describe-group
3352 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-browse-describe-group}).
3356 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
3357 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
3358 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
3363 @section Exiting Gnus
3364 @cindex exiting Gnus
3366 Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.
3371 @findex gnus-group-suspend
3372 Suspend Gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit Gnus,
3373 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
3374 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
3378 @findex gnus-group-exit
3379 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
3380 Quit Gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
3384 @findex gnus-group-quit
3385 Quit Gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
3386 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
3389 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
3390 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
3391 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend Gnus and
3392 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit Gnus, while
3393 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
3398 If you wish to completely unload Gnus and all its adherents, you can use
3399 the @code{gnus-unload} command. This command is also very handy when
3400 trying to customize meta-variables.
3405 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
3406 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
3407 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
3413 @section Group Topics
3416 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
3417 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
3418 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
3419 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
3420 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
3421 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
3425 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
3426 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group-topic,height=9cm}}
3437 2: alt.religion.emacs
3440 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3442 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3443 13: comp.sources.unix
3446 @findex gnus-topic-mode
3448 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
3449 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
3450 is a toggling command.)
3452 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
3453 dum... Nice tune, that... la la la... What, you're back? Yes, and
3454 now press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed under
3455 @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? Hot and
3458 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
3459 the hook for the group mode. Put the following line in your
3460 @file{~/.gnus} file:
3463 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
3467 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
3468 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
3469 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
3470 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
3471 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
3475 @node Topic Commands
3476 @subsection Topic Commands
3477 @cindex topic commands
3479 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
3480 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
3481 definitions slightly.
3483 In general, the following kinds of operations are possible on topics.
3484 First of all, you want to create topics. Secondly, you want to put
3485 groups in topics and to move them around until you have an order you
3486 like. The third kind of operation is to show/hide parts of the whole
3487 shebang. You might want to hide a topic including its subtopics and
3488 groups, to get a better overview of the other groups.
3490 Here is a list of the basic keys that you might need to set up topics
3497 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
3498 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
3499 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
3503 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
3505 @findex gnus-topic-indent
3506 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3507 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
3508 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
3511 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
3512 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
3513 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3514 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
3518 The following two keys can be used to move groups and topics around.
3519 They work like the well-known cut and paste. @kbd{C-k} is like cut and
3520 @kbd{C-y} is like paste. Of course, this being Emacs, we use the terms
3521 kill and yank rather than cut and paste.
3527 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
3528 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
3529 topic will be removed along with the topic.
3533 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
3534 Yank the previously killed group or topic
3535 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
3538 So, to move a topic to the beginning of the list of topics, just hit
3539 @kbd{C-k} on it. This is like the `cut' part of cut and paste. Then,
3540 move the cursor to the beginning of the buffer (just below the `Gnus'
3541 topic) and hit @kbd{C-y}. This is like the `paste' part of cut and
3542 paste. Like I said -- E-Z.
3544 You can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} on groups as well as on topics. So
3545 you can move topics around as well as groups.
3549 After setting up the topics the way you like them, you might wish to
3550 hide a topic, or to show it again. That's why we have the following
3557 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
3559 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
3560 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
3561 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
3562 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
3563 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
3564 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
3568 Now for a list of other commands, in no particular order.
3574 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
3575 Move the current group to some other topic
3576 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3577 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3581 @findex gnus-topic-jump-to-topic
3582 Go to a topic (@code{gnus-topic-jump-to-topic}).
3586 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
3587 Copy the current group to some other topic
3588 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3589 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3593 @findex gnus-topic-hide-topic
3594 Hide the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-hide-topic}). If given
3595 a prefix, hide the topic permanently.
3599 @findex gnus-topic-show-topic
3600 Show the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-show-topic}). If given
3601 a prefix, show the topic permanently.
3605 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
3606 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
3607 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
3608 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
3609 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
3610 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
3611 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
3614 This command uses the process/prefix convention
3615 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3619 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
3620 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3621 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
3625 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
3626 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3627 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
3631 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
3632 Toggle hiding empty topics
3633 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
3637 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
3638 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
3639 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}).
3642 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
3643 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
3644 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
3645 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}).
3648 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
3649 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
3650 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the
3651 expiry process (if any)
3652 (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}). (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3656 @findex gnus-topic-rename
3657 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
3660 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
3661 @findex gnus-topic-delete
3662 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
3666 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
3667 List all groups that Gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
3668 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
3671 @kindex T M-n (Topic)
3672 @findex gnus-topic-goto-next-topic
3673 Go to the next topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-next-topic}).
3676 @kindex T M-p (Topic)
3677 @findex gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic
3678 Go to the next topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic}).
3682 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
3683 @cindex group parameters
3684 @cindex topic parameters
3686 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
3687 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
3692 @node Topic Variables
3693 @subsection Topic Variables
3694 @cindex topic variables
3696 The previous section told you how to tell Gnus which topics to display.
3697 This section explains how to tell Gnus what to display about each topic.
3699 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
3700 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
3701 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3714 Number of groups in the topic.
3716 Number of unread articles in the topic.
3718 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
3721 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
3722 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
3723 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
3726 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
3727 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
3729 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
3730 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
3731 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
3735 @subsection Topic Sorting
3736 @cindex topic sorting
3738 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
3744 @kindex T S a (Topic)
3745 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3746 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
3747 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3750 @kindex T S u (Topic)
3751 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
3752 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
3753 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3756 @kindex T S l (Topic)
3757 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
3758 Sort the current topic by group level
3759 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
3762 @kindex T S v (Topic)
3763 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
3764 Sort the current topic by group score
3765 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3768 @kindex T S r (Topic)
3769 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
3770 Sort the current topic by group rank
3771 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3774 @kindex T S m (Topic)
3775 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
3776 Sort the current topic alphabetically by back end name
3777 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
3780 @kindex T S e (Topic)
3781 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server
3782 Sort the current topic alphabetically by server name
3783 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server}).
3787 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups
3788 Sort the current topic according to the function(s) given by the
3789 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable
3790 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups}).
3794 When given a prefix argument, all these commands will sort in reverse
3795 order. @xref{Sorting Groups}, for more information about group
3799 @node Topic Topology
3800 @subsection Topic Topology
3801 @cindex topic topology
3804 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
3810 2: alt.religion.emacs
3813 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3815 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3816 13: comp.sources.unix
3819 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
3820 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
3821 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
3826 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
3827 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
3831 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
3832 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
3833 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
3834 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
3835 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
3836 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
3838 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
3839 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
3840 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
3843 @node Topic Parameters
3844 @subsection Topic Parameters
3845 @cindex topic parameters
3847 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent (and
3848 ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid topic
3849 parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
3851 In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic
3856 When subscribing new groups by topic (@pxref{Subscription Methods}), the
3857 @code{subscribe} topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its
3858 value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that
3861 @item subscribe-level
3862 When subscribing new groups by topic (see the @code{subscribe} parameter),
3863 the group will be subscribed with the level specified in the
3864 @code{subscribe-level} instead of @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}.
3868 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
3869 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
3870 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
3871 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
3877 2: alt.religion.emacs
3881 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3883 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3884 13: comp.sources.unix
3888 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
3889 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
3890 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
3891 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
3892 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
3893 . "religion.SCORE")}.
3895 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
3896 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
3897 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
3898 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
3899 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
3901 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
3902 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
3903 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
3904 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
3905 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
3906 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
3907 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
3908 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
3911 @node Misc Group Stuff
3912 @section Misc Group Stuff
3915 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
3916 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
3917 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
3918 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
3919 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
3926 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
3927 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
3928 @xref{Server Buffer}.
3932 @findex gnus-group-post-news
3933 Start composing a message (a news by default)
3934 (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a prefix, post to the group
3935 under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
3936 Contrary to what the name of this function suggests, the prepared
3937 article might be a mail instead of a news, if a mail group is specified
3938 with the prefix argument. @xref{Composing Messages}.
3942 @findex gnus-group-mail
3943 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}). If given a prefix,
3944 use the posting style of the group under the point. If the prefix is 1,
3945 prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
3946 @xref{Composing Messages}.
3950 @findex gnus-group-news
3951 Start composing a news (@code{gnus-group-news}). If given a prefix,
3952 post to the group under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt
3953 for group to post to. @xref{Composing Messages}.
3955 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
3956 This is useful for "posting" messages to mail groups without actually
3957 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
3958 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
3959 for this to work though.
3963 Variables for the group buffer:
3967 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
3968 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
3969 is called after the group buffer has been
3972 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
3973 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
3974 is called after the group buffer is
3975 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
3978 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
3979 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
3980 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
3981 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
3983 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3984 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3985 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
3986 whether they are empty or not.
3988 @item gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3989 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3990 An alist of method and the charset for group names. It is used to show
3991 non-ASCII group names.
3995 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3996 '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))
3999 @item gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4000 @cindex UTF-8 group names
4001 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4002 An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names. It
4003 is used to show non-ASCII group names. @code{((".*" utf-8))} is the
4004 default value if UTF-8 is supported, otherwise the default is nil.
4008 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4009 '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)))
4014 @node Scanning New Messages
4015 @subsection Scanning New Messages
4016 @cindex new messages
4017 @cindex scanning new news
4023 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
4024 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
4025 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
4026 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
4027 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
4028 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
4033 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
4034 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
4035 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
4036 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
4037 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
4038 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
4039 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
4041 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
4042 @cindex activating groups
4044 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
4045 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
4050 @findex gnus-group-restart
4051 Restart Gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
4052 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
4053 Gnus variables, and then starts Gnus all over again.
4057 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
4058 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
4060 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
4061 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
4065 @node Group Information
4066 @subsection Group Information
4067 @cindex group information
4068 @cindex information on groups
4075 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
4076 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
4079 Try to fetch the FAQ for the current group
4080 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the FAQ from
4081 @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on a
4082 remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories. In
4083 that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
4084 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be used
4085 for fetching the file.
4087 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, Gnus will attempt to go
4088 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
4092 @findex gnus-group-fetch-charter
4093 @vindex gnus-group-charter-alist
4095 Try to open the charter for the current group in a web browser
4096 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-charter}). Gnus will use
4097 @code{gnus-group-charter-alist} to find the location of the charter.
4098 If no location is known, Gnus will fetch the control messages for the
4099 group, which in some cases includes the charter.
4103 @findex gnus-group-fetch-control
4104 @vindex gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url
4105 @cindex control message
4106 Fetch the control messages for the group from the archive at
4107 @code{ftp.isc.org} (@code{gnus-group-fetch-control}).
4109 If @code{gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url} is non-nil, Gnus
4110 will open the control messages in a browser using @code{browse-url}.
4111 Otherwise they are fetched using @code{ange-ftp} and displayed in an
4114 Note that the control messages are compressed. To use this command
4115 you need to turn on @code{auto-compression-mode}
4116 (@pxref{(emacs)Compressed Files}).
4120 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
4122 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
4123 @cindex describing groups
4124 @cindex group description
4125 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
4126 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
4127 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
4131 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
4132 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
4133 prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
4140 @findex gnus-version
4141 Display current Gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
4145 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
4146 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
4149 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
4152 @findex gnus-info-find-node
4153 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
4157 @node Group Timestamp
4158 @subsection Group Timestamp
4160 @cindex group timestamps
4162 It can be convenient to let Gnus keep track of when you last read a
4163 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
4164 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
4167 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
4170 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
4172 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
4173 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
4176 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4177 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
4180 This will result in lines looking like:
4183 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
4184 0: custom 19961002T012713
4187 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
4188 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
4192 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4193 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
4196 If you would like greater control of the time format, you can use a
4197 user-defined format spec. Something like the following should do the
4201 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4202 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %ud\n")
4203 (defun gnus-user-format-function-d (headers)
4204 (let ((time (gnus-group-timestamp gnus-tmp-group)))
4206 (format-time-string "%b %d %H:%M" time)
4212 @subsection File Commands
4213 @cindex file commands
4219 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
4220 @vindex gnus-init-file
4221 @cindex reading init file
4222 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
4223 @file{~/.gnus}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
4227 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
4228 @cindex saving .newsrc
4229 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
4230 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
4231 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
4234 @c @kindex Z (Group)
4235 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
4236 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
4241 @node Sieve Commands
4242 @subsection Sieve Commands
4243 @cindex group sieve commands
4245 Sieve is a server-side mail filtering language. In Gnus you can use
4246 the @code{sieve} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to specify
4247 sieve rules that should apply to each group. Gnus provides two
4248 commands to translate all these group parameters into a proper Sieve
4249 script that can be transfered to the server somehow.
4251 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4252 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-start
4253 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-end
4254 The generated Sieve script is placed in @code{gnus-sieve-file} (by
4255 default @file{~/.sieve}). The Sieve code that Gnus generate is placed
4256 between two delimiters, @code{gnus-sieve-region-start} and
4257 @code{gnus-sieve-region-end}, so you may write additional Sieve code
4258 outside these delimiters that will not be removed the next time you
4259 regenerate the Sieve script.
4261 @vindex gnus-sieve-crosspost
4262 The variable @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} controls how the Sieve script
4263 is generated. If it is non-nil (the default) articles is placed in
4264 all groups that have matching rules, otherwise the article is only
4265 placed in the group with the first matching rule. For example, the
4266 group parameter @samp{(sieve address "sender"
4267 "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu")} will generate the following piece of Sieve
4268 code if @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is nil. (When
4269 @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is non-nil, it looks the same except that
4270 the line containing the call to @code{stop} is removed.)
4273 if address "sender" "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu" @{
4274 fileinto "INBOX.ding";
4279 @xref{Top, ,Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
4285 @findex gnus-sieve-generate
4286 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4287 @cindex generating sieve script
4288 Regenerate a Sieve script from the @code{sieve} group parameters and
4289 put you into the @code{gnus-sieve-file} without saving it.
4293 @findex gnus-sieve-update
4294 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4295 @cindex updating sieve script
4296 Regenerates the Gnus managed part of @code{gnus-sieve-file} using the
4297 @code{sieve} group parameters, save the file and upload it to the
4298 server using the @code{sieveshell} program.
4303 @node Summary Buffer
4304 @chapter Summary Buffer
4305 @cindex summary buffer
4307 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
4308 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
4310 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
4311 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
4313 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
4316 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
4317 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
4318 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
4319 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
4320 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
4321 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
4322 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
4323 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
4324 * Threading:: How threads are made.
4325 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
4326 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
4327 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
4328 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
4329 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
4330 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
4331 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
4332 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
4333 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
4334 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
4335 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
4336 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
4337 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
4338 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
4339 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
4340 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
4341 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
4342 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
4343 or reselecting the current group.
4344 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
4345 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
4346 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
4347 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
4351 @node Summary Buffer Format
4352 @section Summary Buffer Format
4353 @cindex summary buffer format
4357 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
4358 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary,width=7.5cm}}
4359 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-article,width=7.5cm}}}
4365 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
4366 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
4367 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
4368 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
4371 @findex mail-extract-address-components
4372 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
4373 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
4374 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
4375 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
4376 @code{From} header. Two pre-defined functions exist:
4377 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
4378 fast, and too simplistic solution; and
4379 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works very nicely, but is
4380 slower. The default function will return the wrong answer in 5% of the
4381 cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the other function instead:
4384 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
4385 'mail-extract-address-components)
4388 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
4389 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
4390 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
4391 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
4394 @node Summary Buffer Lines
4395 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
4397 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4398 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
4399 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
4400 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
4401 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
4403 There should always be a colon or a point position marker on the line;
4404 the cursor always moves to the point position marker or the colon after
4405 performing an operation. (Of course, Gnus wouldn't be Gnus if it wasn't
4406 possible to change this. Just write a new function
4407 @code{gnus-goto-colon} which does whatever you like with the cursor.)
4408 @xref{Positioning Point}.
4410 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n}.
4412 The following format specification characters and extended format
4413 specification(s) are understood:
4419 Subject string. List identifiers stripped,
4420 @code{gnus-list-identifies}. @xref{Article Hiding}.
4422 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
4423 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
4424 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
4426 Full @code{From} header.
4428 The name (from the @code{From} header).
4430 The name, @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header (@pxref{To
4433 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
4434 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
4435 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
4436 may be more thorough.
4438 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
4441 Number of lines in the article.
4443 Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported
4444 in some methods (like nnfolder).
4446 Pretty-printed version of the number of characters in the article;
4447 for example, @samp{1.2k} or @samp{0.4M}.
4449 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4451 A complex trn-style thread tree, showing response-connecting trace
4454 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
4455 pushes everything after it off the screen).
4457 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
4458 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4460 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
4461 for adopted articles.
4463 One space for each thread level.
4465 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
4467 Unread. @xref{Read Articles}.
4470 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
4471 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
4472 or has been saved. @xref{Other Marks}.
4475 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
4477 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
4478 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
4479 default level. If the difference between
4480 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
4481 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
4489 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
4491 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
4497 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
4498 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
4500 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
4501 article has any children.
4507 Age sensitive date format. Various date format is defined in
4508 @code{gnus-user-date-format-alist}.
4510 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
4511 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
4512 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
4513 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
4514 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
4515 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
4518 Text between @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} will be highlighted with
4519 @code{gnus-mouse-face} when the mouse point is placed inside the area.
4520 There can only be one such area.
4522 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
4523 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will
4524 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
4525 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
4526 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
4527 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
4529 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
4530 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
4532 This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
4535 @node To From Newsgroups
4536 @subsection To From Newsgroups
4540 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
4541 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
4542 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
4543 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
4544 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
4548 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
4549 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
4550 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
4554 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4555 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
4558 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
4559 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
4562 @findex gnus-extra-header
4563 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
4564 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
4565 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
4568 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
4572 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4573 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
4574 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
4575 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
4576 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
4577 headers are used instead.
4581 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
4582 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
4583 to include extra headers when generating overview (@sc{nov}) files. If
4584 you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after changing
4585 this variable, by entering the server buffer using `^', and then `g' on
4586 the appropriate mail server (e.g. nnml) to cause regeneration.
4588 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4589 You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the
4590 @code{%n} spec to the @code{%f} spec in the
4591 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable.
4593 In summary, you'd typically put something like the following in
4597 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4599 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
4600 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
4601 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
4602 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4606 (The values listed above are the default values in Gnus. Alter them
4609 A note for news server administrators, or for users who wish to try to
4610 convince their news server administrator to provide some additional
4613 The above is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
4614 the @sc{nov} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
4615 nntp admin to add (in the usual implementation, notably INN):
4621 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
4622 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
4625 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
4626 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
4628 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
4629 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
4630 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
4631 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
4633 Here are the elements you can play with:
4639 Unprefixed group name.
4641 Current article number.
4643 Current article score.
4647 Number of unread articles in this group.
4649 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
4652 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
4653 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
4654 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
4655 and no unselected ones.
4657 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
4658 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
4660 Subject of the current article.
4662 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
4664 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
4666 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4668 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4670 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
4672 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
4676 @node Summary Highlighting
4677 @subsection Summary Highlighting
4681 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4682 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4683 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
4684 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
4685 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4687 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
4688 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
4689 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
4690 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4692 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
4693 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
4694 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
4695 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
4697 @item gnus-summary-highlight
4698 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
4699 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
4700 list where the elements are of the format @code{(@var{form}
4701 . @var{face})}. If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be
4702 italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable
4705 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
4706 ((> score default) . bold))
4708 As you may have guessed, if @var{form} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
4709 @var{face} will be applied to the line.
4713 @node Summary Maneuvering
4714 @section Summary Maneuvering
4715 @cindex summary movement
4717 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
4718 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
4720 None of these commands select articles.
4725 @kindex M-n (Summary)
4726 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
4727 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
4728 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
4729 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
4733 @kindex M-p (Summary)
4734 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
4735 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
4736 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
4737 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
4740 @kindex G g (Summary)
4741 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
4742 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
4743 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
4746 If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
4747 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
4748 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
4749 to the group buffer.
4751 Variables related to summary movement:
4755 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
4756 @item gnus-auto-select-next
4757 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
4758 no more unread articles after the current one, Gnus will offer to go to
4759 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
4760 empty, Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
4761 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, Gnus will select the
4762 next group with unread articles. As a special case, if this variable
4763 is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the next group without asking for
4764 confirmation. If this variable is @code{almost-quietly}, the same
4765 will happen only if you are located on the last article in the group.
4766 Finally, if this variable is @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n}
4767 command will go to the next group without confirmation. Also
4768 @pxref{Group Levels}.
4770 @item gnus-auto-select-same
4771 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
4772 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
4773 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
4774 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
4775 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
4776 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
4778 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
4780 @item gnus-summary-check-current
4781 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
4782 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
4783 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
4784 Instead, they will choose the current article.
4786 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
4787 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
4788 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
4789 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
4790 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
4791 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
4792 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
4793 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
4796 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
4797 the given number of lines from the top.
4802 @node Choosing Articles
4803 @section Choosing Articles
4804 @cindex selecting articles
4807 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
4808 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
4812 @node Choosing Commands
4813 @subsection Choosing Commands
4815 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
4816 and they all select and display an article.
4818 If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see
4819 @ref{Exiting the Summary Buffer}.
4823 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
4824 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
4825 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
4826 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
4831 @kindex G n (Summary)
4832 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
4833 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
4834 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
4839 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
4840 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
4841 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
4846 @kindex G N (Summary)
4847 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
4848 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
4853 @kindex G P (Summary)
4854 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
4855 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
4858 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
4859 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
4860 Go to the next article with the same subject
4861 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
4864 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
4865 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
4866 Go to the previous article with the same subject
4867 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
4871 @kindex G f (Summary)
4873 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
4874 Go to the first unread article
4875 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
4879 @kindex G b (Summary)
4881 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
4882 Go to the unread article with the highest score
4883 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}). If given a prefix argument,
4884 go to the first unread article that has a score over the default score.
4889 @kindex G l (Summary)
4890 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
4891 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
4894 @kindex G o (Summary)
4895 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
4897 @cindex article history
4898 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
4899 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
4900 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
4901 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
4902 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
4903 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
4908 @kindex G j (Summary)
4909 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
4910 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
4911 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
4916 @node Choosing Variables
4917 @subsection Choosing Variables
4919 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
4922 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
4923 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
4924 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
4925 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
4926 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
4927 the server and display it in the article buffer.
4929 @item gnus-select-article-hook
4930 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
4931 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. By default it
4932 exposes any threads hidden under the selected article.
4934 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
4935 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
4936 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
4937 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
4938 @findex gnus-unread-mark
4939 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
4940 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
4941 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
4942 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-unread-mark}. The
4943 only articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
4944 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
4945 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
4946 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
4947 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
4952 @node Paging the Article
4953 @section Scrolling the Article
4954 @cindex article scrolling
4959 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
4960 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
4961 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
4962 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
4963 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
4966 @kindex DEL (Summary)
4967 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
4968 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
4971 @kindex RET (Summary)
4972 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
4973 Scroll the current article one line forward
4974 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
4977 @kindex M-RET (Summary)
4978 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-down
4979 Scroll the current article one line backward
4980 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-down}).
4984 @kindex A g (Summary)
4986 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
4987 @vindex gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
4988 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
4989 given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the
4990 article treatment functions. This will give you a ``raw'' article, just
4991 the way it came from the server.
4993 If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual charset stuff.
4994 @kbd{C-u 0 g cn-gb-2312 RET} will decode the message as if it were
4995 encoded in the @code{cn-gb-2312} charset. If you have
4998 (setq gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
5003 then you can say @kbd{C-u 1 g} to get the same effect.
5008 @kindex A < (Summary)
5009 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
5010 Scroll to the beginning of the article
5011 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
5016 @kindex A > (Summary)
5017 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
5018 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
5022 @kindex A s (Summary)
5024 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
5025 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
5026 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
5030 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
5031 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
5036 @node Reply Followup and Post
5037 @section Reply, Followup and Post
5040 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
5041 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
5042 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
5043 * Canceling and Superseding::
5047 @node Summary Mail Commands
5048 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
5050 @cindex composing mail
5052 Commands for composing a mail message:
5058 @kindex S r (Summary)
5060 @findex gnus-summary-reply
5061 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
5062 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
5063 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
5064 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
5069 @kindex S R (Summary)
5070 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
5071 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
5072 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
5073 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
5074 command uses the process/prefix convention.
5077 @kindex S w (Summary)
5078 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
5079 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
5080 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
5081 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
5082 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers.
5085 @kindex S W (Summary)
5086 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
5087 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
5088 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
5089 the process/prefix convention.
5092 @kindex S v (Summary)
5093 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply
5094 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article
5095 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{very wide reply} is a reply
5096 that goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
5097 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers in all the process/prefixed
5098 articles. This command uses the process/prefix convention.
5101 @kindex S V (Summary)
5102 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original
5103 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article and include the
5104 original message (@code{gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original}). This
5105 command uses the process/prefix convention.
5108 @kindex S B r (Summary)
5109 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to
5110 Mail a reply to the author of the current article but ignore the
5111 @code{Reply-To} field (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to}).
5114 @kindex S B R (Summary)
5115 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original
5116 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
5117 original message but ignore the @code{Reply-To} field
5118 (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original}).
5122 @kindex S o m (Summary)
5123 @kindex C-c C-f (Summary)
5124 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
5125 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
5126 Forward the current article to some other person
5127 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If no prefix is given, the message
5128 is forwarded according to the value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime})
5129 and (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
5130 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
5131 as an rfc822 @sc{mime} section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
5132 forward as an rfc822 @sc{mime} section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
5133 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
5134 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
5135 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 @sc{mime}
5141 @kindex S m (Summary)
5142 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
5143 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
5144 Prepare a mail (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}). By default, use
5145 the posting style of the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
5146 If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
5151 @kindex S i (Summary)
5152 @findex gnus-summary-news-other-window
5153 Prepare a news (@code{gnus-summary-news-other-window}). By default,
5154 post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that. If the
5155 prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
5157 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
5158 This is useful for "posting" messages to mail groups without actually
5159 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
5160 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
5161 for this to work though.
5164 @kindex S D b (Summary)
5165 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
5166 @cindex bouncing mail
5167 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
5168 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
5169 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
5170 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
5171 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
5172 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, Gnus will try to fetch
5173 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
5174 very well fail, though.
5177 @kindex S D r (Summary)
5178 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
5179 Not to be confused with the previous command,
5180 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
5181 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
5182 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
5183 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
5184 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
5185 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
5186 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
5188 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
5189 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
5190 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
5191 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
5192 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muss sein!
5194 This command understands the process/prefix convention
5195 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5198 @kindex S O m (Summary)
5199 @findex gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward
5200 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
5201 result using mail (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command
5202 uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5205 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
5206 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
5207 @cindex crossposting
5208 @cindex excessive crossposting
5209 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
5210 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
5212 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
5213 This command is provided as a way to fight back against the current
5214 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
5215 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
5216 command understands the process/prefix convention
5217 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
5221 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
5222 Manual}, for more information.
5225 @node Summary Post Commands
5226 @subsection Summary Post Commands
5228 @cindex composing news
5230 Commands for posting a news article:
5236 @kindex S p (Summary)
5237 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
5238 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
5239 Prepare for posting an article (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}). By
5240 default, post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
5241 If the prefix is 1, prompt for another group instead.
5246 @kindex S f (Summary)
5247 @findex gnus-summary-followup
5248 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
5249 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
5253 @kindex S F (Summary)
5255 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
5256 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
5257 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
5258 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
5259 process/prefix convention.
5262 @kindex S n (Summary)
5263 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
5264 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
5265 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
5268 @kindex S N (Summary)
5269 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original
5270 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
5271 message through mail and include the original message
5272 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
5273 the process/prefix convention.
5276 @kindex S o p (Summary)
5277 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
5278 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
5279 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}).
5280 If no prefix is given, the message is forwarded according to the value
5281 of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}) and
5282 (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
5283 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
5284 as an rfc822 @sc{mime} section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
5285 forward as an rfc822 @sc{mime} section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
5286 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
5287 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
5288 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 @sc{mime} section.
5291 @kindex S O p (Summary)
5292 @findex gnus-uu-digest-post-forward
5294 @cindex making digests
5295 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
5296 (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command uses the
5297 process/prefix convention.
5300 @kindex S u (Summary)
5301 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
5302 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
5303 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
5304 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
5307 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
5308 Manual}, for more information.
5311 @node Summary Message Commands
5312 @subsection Summary Message Commands
5316 @kindex S y (Summary)
5317 @findex gnus-summary-yank-message
5318 Yank the current article into an already existing Message composition
5319 buffer (@code{gnus-summary-yank-message}). This command prompts for
5320 what message buffer you want to yank into, and understands the
5321 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5326 @node Canceling and Superseding
5327 @subsection Canceling Articles
5328 @cindex canceling articles
5329 @cindex superseding articles
5331 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
5332 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
5334 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
5336 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
5338 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
5339 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
5340 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
5341 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
5342 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
5343 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5345 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
5346 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
5349 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when canceling. If you
5350 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
5351 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
5353 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
5354 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
5355 your original article.
5357 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
5359 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
5360 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
5361 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
5364 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
5365 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
5366 have posted almost the same article twice.
5368 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
5369 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
5370 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
5371 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
5372 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
5373 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
5374 header by substituting one of those words for the word
5375 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
5376 you would do normally. The previous article will be
5377 canceled/superseded.
5379 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
5381 @node Delayed Articles
5382 @section Delayed Articles
5383 @cindex delayed sending
5384 @cindex send delayed
5386 Sometimes, you might wish to delay the sending of a message. For
5387 example, you might wish to arrange for a message to turn up just in time
5388 to remind your about the birthday of your Significant Other. For this,
5389 there is the @code{gnus-delay} package. Setup is simple:
5392 (gnus-delay-initialize)
5395 @findex gnus-delay-article
5396 Normally, to send a message you use the @kbd{C-c C-c} command from
5397 Message mode. To delay a message, use @kbd{C-c C-j}
5398 (@code{gnus-delay-article}) instead. This will ask you for how long the
5399 message should be delayed. Possible answers are:
5403 A time span. Consists of an integer and a letter. For example,
5404 @code{42d} means to delay for 42 days. Available letters are @code{m}
5405 (minutes), @code{h} (hours), @code{d} (days), @code{w} (weeks), @code{M}
5406 (months) and @code{Y} (years).
5409 A specific date. Looks like @code{YYYYY-MM-DD}. The message will be
5410 delayed until that day, at a specific time (eight o'clock by default).
5411 See also @code{gnus-delay-default-hour}.
5414 A specific time of day. Given in @code{hh:mm} format, 24h, no am/pm
5415 stuff. The deadline will be at that time today, except if that time has
5416 already passed, then it's at the given time tomorrow. So if it's ten
5417 o'clock in the morning and you specify @code{11:15}, then the deadline
5418 is one hour and fifteen minutes hence. But if you specify @code{9:20},
5419 that means a time tomorrow.
5422 The action of the @code{gnus-delay-article} command is influenced by a
5423 couple of variables:
5426 @item gnus-delay-default-hour
5427 @vindex gnus-delay-default-hour
5428 When you specify a specific date, the message will be due on that hour
5429 on the given date. Possible values are integers 0 through 23.
5431 @item gnus-delay-default-delay
5432 @vindex gnus-delay-default-delay
5433 This is a string and gives the default delay. It can be of any of the
5434 formats described above.
5436 @item gnus-delay-group
5437 @vindex gnus-delay-group
5438 Delayed articles will be kept in this group on the drafts server until
5439 they are due. You probably don't need to change this. The default
5440 value is @code{"delayed"}.
5442 @item gnus-delay-header
5443 @vindex gnus-delay-header
5444 The deadline for each article will be stored in a header. This variable
5445 is a string and gives the header name. You probably don't need to
5446 change this. The default value is @code{"X-Gnus-Delayed"}.
5449 The way delaying works is like this: when you use the
5450 @code{gnus-delay-article} command, you give a certain delay. Gnus
5451 calculates the deadline of the message and stores it in the
5452 @code{X-Gnus-Delayed} header and puts the message in the
5453 @code{nndraft:delayed} group.
5455 And whenever you get new news, Gnus looks through the group for articles
5456 which are due and sends them. It uses the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue}
5457 function for this. By default, this function is added to the hook
5458 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But of course, you can change this.
5459 Maybe you want to use the demon to send drafts? Just tell the demon to
5460 execute the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} function.
5463 @item gnus-delay-initialize
5464 @findex gnus-delay-initialize
5465 By default, this function installs the @kbd{C-c C-j} key binding in
5466 Message mode and @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} in
5467 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But it accepts two optional arguments,
5468 @code{no-keymap} and @code{no-check}. If @code{no-keymap} is non-nil,
5469 the @kbd{C-c C-j} binding is not intalled. If @code{no-check} is
5470 non-nil, @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is not changed.
5472 For example, @code{(gnus-delay-initialize nil t)} means to change the
5473 keymap but not to change @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. Presumably, you
5474 want to use the demon for sending due delayed articles. Just don't
5475 forget to set that up :-)
5479 @node Marking Articles
5480 @section Marking Articles
5481 @cindex article marking
5482 @cindex article ticking
5485 There are several marks you can set on an article.
5487 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
5488 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
5489 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
5491 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
5494 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
5495 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
5496 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
5500 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks:
5504 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
5505 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
5506 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
5510 @node Unread Articles
5511 @subsection Unread Articles
5513 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
5518 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
5519 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
5521 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
5522 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
5523 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
5524 tick it. However, articles can be expired (from news servers by the
5525 news server software, Gnus itself never expires ticked messages), so if
5526 you want to keep an article forever, you'll have to make it persistent
5527 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
5530 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
5531 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
5533 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
5534 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
5535 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
5536 Otherwise (except for the visibility issue), they are just like ticked
5540 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
5541 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
5543 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
5548 @subsection Read Articles
5549 @cindex expirable mark
5551 All the following marks mark articles as read.
5556 @vindex gnus-del-mark
5557 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
5558 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
5561 @vindex gnus-read-mark
5562 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
5565 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
5566 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
5567 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
5570 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
5571 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
5574 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
5575 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
5578 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
5579 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
5582 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
5583 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
5586 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
5587 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
5590 @vindex gnus-souped-mark
5591 @sc{soup}ed article (@code{gnus-souped-mark}). @xref{SOUP}.
5594 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
5595 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
5599 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
5600 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
5601 (@code{gnus-duplicate-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
5605 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
5606 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
5608 One more special mark, though:
5612 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
5613 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
5615 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
5616 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
5617 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
5618 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by Gnus at
5624 @subsection Other Marks
5625 @cindex process mark
5628 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
5634 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
5635 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
5636 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
5637 in the article, and Gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
5638 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}.
5641 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
5642 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
5643 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
5644 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
5647 @vindex gnus-forwarded-mark
5648 All articles that you have forwarded will be marked with an @samp{F} in
5649 the second column (@code{gnus-forwarded-mark}).
5652 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
5653 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
5654 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5657 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
5658 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
5659 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
5660 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
5663 @vindex gnus-recent-mark
5664 Articles that according to the server haven't been shown to the user
5665 before are marked with a @samp{N} in the second column
5666 (@code{gnus-recent-mark}). Note that not all servers support this
5667 mark, in which case it simply never appears. Compare with
5668 @code{gnus-unseen-mark}.
5671 @vindex gnus-unseen-mark
5672 Articles that haven't been seen before in Gnus by the user are marked
5673 with a @samp{.} in the second column (@code{gnus-unseen-mark}).
5674 Compare with @code{gnus-recent-mark}.
5677 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
5678 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
5679 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
5680 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
5681 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
5684 @vindex gnus-process-mark
5685 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
5686 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
5687 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
5688 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
5689 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
5693 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
5694 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
5695 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
5697 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
5698 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
5699 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
5703 @subsection Setting Marks
5704 @cindex setting marks
5706 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
5711 @kindex M c (Summary)
5712 @kindex M-u (Summary)
5713 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
5714 @cindex mark as unread
5715 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
5716 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
5722 @kindex M t (Summary)
5723 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
5724 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
5725 @xref{Article Caching}.
5730 @kindex M ? (Summary)
5731 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
5732 Mark the current article as dormant
5733 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5737 @kindex M d (Summary)
5739 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
5740 Mark the current article as read
5741 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
5745 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
5746 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
5747 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
5752 @kindex M k (Summary)
5753 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
5754 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
5755 and then select the next unread article
5756 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
5760 @kindex M K (Summary)
5761 @kindex C-k (Summary)
5762 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
5763 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
5764 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
5767 @kindex M C (Summary)
5768 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
5769 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
5770 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
5773 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
5774 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
5775 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
5776 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
5779 @kindex M H (Summary)
5780 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
5781 Catchup the current group to point (before the point)
5782 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
5785 @kindex M h (Summary)
5786 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-from-here
5787 Catchup the current group from point (after the point)
5788 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-from-here}).
5791 @kindex C-w (Summary)
5792 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
5793 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
5794 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
5797 @kindex M V k (Summary)
5798 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
5799 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
5800 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
5804 @kindex M e (Summary)
5806 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
5807 Mark the current article as expirable
5808 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
5811 @kindex M b (Summary)
5812 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
5813 Set a bookmark in the current article
5814 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
5817 @kindex M B (Summary)
5818 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
5819 Remove the bookmark from the current article
5820 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
5823 @kindex M V c (Summary)
5824 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
5825 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
5826 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
5829 @kindex M V u (Summary)
5830 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
5831 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
5832 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
5835 @kindex M V m (Summary)
5836 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
5837 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
5838 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
5839 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
5842 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
5843 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
5844 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
5845 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
5846 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
5847 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
5848 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
5849 The default is @code{t}.
5852 @node Generic Marking Commands
5853 @subsection Generic Marking Commands
5855 Some people would like the command that ticks an article (@kbd{!}) go to
5856 the next article. Others would like it to go to the next unread
5857 article. Yet others would like it to stay on the current article. And
5858 even though I haven't heard of anybody wanting it to go to the
5859 previous (unread) article, I'm sure there are people that want that as
5862 Multiply these five behaviors with five different marking commands, and
5863 you get a potentially complex set of variable to control what each
5866 To sidestep that mess, Gnus provides commands that do all these
5867 different things. They can be found on the @kbd{M M} map in the summary
5868 buffer. Type @kbd{M M C-h} to see them all---there are too many of them
5869 to list in this manual.
5871 While you can use these commands directly, most users would prefer
5872 altering the summary mode keymap. For instance, if you would like the
5873 @kbd{!} command to go to the next article instead of the next unread
5874 article, you could say something like:
5877 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'my-alter-summary-map)
5878 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
5879 (local-set-key "!" 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-ticked-next))
5885 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
5886 (local-set-key "!" "MM!n"))
5890 @node Setting Process Marks
5891 @subsection Setting Process Marks
5892 @cindex setting process marks
5899 @kindex M P p (Summary)
5900 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
5901 Mark the current article with the process mark
5902 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
5903 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
5907 @kindex M P u (Summary)
5908 @kindex M-# (Summary)
5909 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
5910 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
5913 @kindex M P U (Summary)
5914 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
5915 Remove the process mark from all articles
5916 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
5919 @kindex M P i (Summary)
5920 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
5921 Invert the list of process marked articles
5922 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
5925 @kindex M P R (Summary)
5926 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
5927 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
5928 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
5931 @kindex M P G (Summary)
5932 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp
5933 Unmark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
5934 expression (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp}).
5937 @kindex M P r (Summary)
5938 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
5939 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
5943 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-region
5944 Unmark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-region}).
5947 @kindex M P t (Summary)
5948 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
5949 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
5950 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
5953 @kindex M P T (Summary)
5954 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
5955 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
5956 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
5959 @kindex M P v (Summary)
5960 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
5961 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
5962 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
5965 @kindex M P s (Summary)
5966 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
5967 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
5970 @kindex M P S (Summary)
5971 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
5972 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
5973 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
5976 @kindex M P a (Summary)
5977 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
5978 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
5981 @kindex M P b (Summary)
5982 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
5983 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
5984 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
5987 @kindex M P k (Summary)
5988 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
5989 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
5990 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
5993 @kindex M P y (Summary)
5994 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
5995 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
5996 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
5999 @kindex M P w (Summary)
6000 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
6001 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
6002 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
6006 Also see the @kbd{&} command in @pxref{Searching for Articles} for how to
6007 set process marks based on article body contents.
6014 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
6015 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
6016 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
6019 All limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched
6020 from the servers. None of these commands query the server for
6021 additional articles.
6027 @kindex / / (Summary)
6028 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
6029 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
6030 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}). If given a prefix, exclude
6034 @kindex / a (Summary)
6035 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
6036 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
6037 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}). If given a prefix, exclude
6041 @kindex / x (Summary)
6042 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-extra
6043 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match one of the ``extra''
6044 headers (@pxref{To From Newsgroups})
6045 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-extra}). If given a prefix, exclude
6050 @kindex / u (Summary)
6052 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
6053 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
6054 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
6055 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
6056 dormant articles will also be excluded.
6059 @kindex / m (Summary)
6060 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
6061 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have been marked
6062 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
6065 @kindex / t (Summary)
6066 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
6067 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
6068 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-age}). If given a prefix, limit to
6069 articles younger than that number of days.
6072 @kindex / n (Summary)
6073 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
6074 Limit the summary buffer to the current article
6075 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}). Uses the process/prefix
6076 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
6079 @kindex / w (Summary)
6080 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
6081 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
6082 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
6086 @kindex / . (Summary)
6087 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen
6088 Limit the summary buffer to the unseen articles
6089 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen}).
6092 @kindex / v (Summary)
6093 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
6094 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
6095 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
6098 @kindex / p (Summary)
6099 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate
6100 Limit the summary buffer to articles that satisfy the @code{display}
6101 group parameter predicate
6102 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate}). See @pxref{Group
6103 Parameters} for more on this predicate.
6107 @kindex M S (Summary)
6108 @kindex / E (Summary)
6109 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
6110 Include all expunged articles in the limit
6111 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
6114 @kindex / D (Summary)
6115 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
6116 Include all dormant articles in the limit
6117 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
6120 @kindex / * (Summary)
6121 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
6122 Include all cached articles in the limit
6123 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
6126 @kindex / d (Summary)
6127 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
6128 Exclude all dormant articles from the limit
6129 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
6132 @kindex / M (Summary)
6133 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks
6134 Exclude all marked articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks}).
6137 @kindex / T (Summary)
6138 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
6139 Include all the articles in the current thread in the limit.
6142 @kindex / c (Summary)
6143 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
6144 Exclude all dormant articles that have no children from the limit
6145 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
6148 @kindex / C (Summary)
6149 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
6150 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
6151 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
6152 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
6155 @kindex / N (Summary)
6156 @findex gnus-summary-insert-new-articles
6157 Insert all new articles in the summary buffer. It scans for new emails
6158 if @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} is non-@code{nil}.
6161 @kindex / o (Summary)
6162 @findex gnus-summary-insert-old-articles
6163 Insert all old articles in the summary buffer. If given a numbered
6164 prefix, fetch this number of articles.
6172 @cindex article threading
6174 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
6175 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
6176 hierarchical fashion.
6178 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
6179 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
6180 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
6181 or simply missing. Weird news propagation exacerbates the problem,
6182 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
6183 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
6184 @pxref{Customizing Threading}.
6186 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
6190 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
6193 A tree-like article structure.
6196 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
6199 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
6200 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
6201 summary buffer. We then typically have many sub-threads that really
6202 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
6203 called loose threads.
6205 @item thread gathering
6206 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
6208 @item sparse threads
6209 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
6210 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
6216 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
6217 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
6221 @node Customizing Threading
6222 @subsection Customizing Threading
6223 @cindex customizing threading
6226 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
6227 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
6228 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
6229 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over... but you were wrong!
6234 @subsubsection Loose Threads
6237 @cindex loose threads
6240 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
6241 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
6242 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
6243 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
6244 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
6245 read or killed the root in a previous session.
6247 When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
6248 something. This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
6249 There are four possible values:
6253 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
6254 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-adopt,width=7.5cm}}
6255 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-empty,width=7.5cm}}}
6256 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-none,width=7.5cm}}}
6257 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-dummy,width=7.5cm}}}
6262 @cindex adopting articles
6267 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
6268 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
6269 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
6270 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
6273 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
6274 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
6275 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
6276 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
6277 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
6278 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
6279 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
6282 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
6283 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
6284 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
6288 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
6289 display them after one another.
6292 Don't gather loose threads.
6295 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
6296 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
6297 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
6298 variable is @code{nil}, Gnus requires an exact match between the
6299 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
6300 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
6301 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
6302 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
6303 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
6304 variable to a really low number, you'll find that Gnus will gather
6305 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
6307 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
6308 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, Gnus will
6309 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
6312 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
6313 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
6314 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
6315 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
6316 simplification is used.
6318 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6319 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6320 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
6321 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
6323 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
6325 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6331 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
6332 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
6333 "answer" "reference" "announce"
6334 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
6339 (mapconcat 'identity
6340 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
6342 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
6345 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
6348 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
6349 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
6350 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
6351 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
6352 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
6353 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
6355 Useful functions to put in this list include:
6358 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
6359 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
6360 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
6362 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
6363 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
6366 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
6367 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
6368 Remove excessive whitespace.
6370 @item gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
6371 @findex gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
6372 Remove all whitespace.
6375 You may also write your own functions, of course.
6378 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
6379 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
6380 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
6381 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
6382 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
6383 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
6384 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
6385 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
6387 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6388 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6389 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
6390 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
6391 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
6392 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
6393 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
6394 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
6395 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
6399 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
6400 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
6401 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
6402 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
6404 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
6405 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
6406 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
6409 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
6413 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6414 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
6420 @node Filling In Threads
6421 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
6424 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
6425 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
6426 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
6427 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you
6428 would like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still
6429 connect as many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable
6430 to @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than
6431 that number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case,
6432 fetching old headers only works if the back end you are using carries
6433 overview files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool},
6434 @code{nnml}, and @code{nnmaildir}. Also remember that if the root of
6435 the thread has been expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can do
6438 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
6439 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
6440 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
6442 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
6443 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
6444 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
6445 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
6446 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
6447 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
6448 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where Gnus guesses that an article
6449 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
6450 lines. If you select a gap, Gnus will try to fetch the article in
6451 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, Gnus will display all these
6452 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
6453 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, Gnus won't cut
6454 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
6455 @code{nil} by default.
6457 @item gnus-read-all-available-headers
6458 @vindex gnus-read-all-available-headers
6459 This is a rather obscure variable that few will find useful. It's
6460 intended for those non-news newsgroups where the back end has to fetch
6461 quite a lot to present the summary buffer, and where it's impossible to
6462 go back to parents of articles. This is mostly the case in the
6463 web-based groups, like the @code{nnultimate} groups.
6465 If you don't use those, then it's safe to leave this as the default
6466 @code{nil}. If you want to use this variable, it should be a regexp
6467 that matches the group name, or @code{t} for all groups.
6472 @node More Threading
6473 @subsubsection More Threading
6476 @item gnus-show-threads
6477 @vindex gnus-show-threads
6478 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
6479 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
6480 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
6481 slower and more awkward.
6483 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6484 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6485 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
6488 This can also be a predicate specifier (@pxref{Predicate Specifiers}).
6489 Avaliable predicates are @code{gnus-article-unread-p} and
6490 @code{gnus-article-unseen-p}).
6495 (setq gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6496 '(or gnus-article-unread-p
6497 gnus-article-unseen-p))
6500 (It's a pretty nonsensical example, since all unseen articles are also
6501 unread, but you get my drift.)
6504 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
6505 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
6506 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
6507 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
6508 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
6509 threads are expunged.
6511 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
6512 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
6513 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
6516 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6517 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6518 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
6519 this variable is non-@code{nil}, which is the default, the subject
6520 change is ignored. If it is @code{nil}, a change in the subject will
6521 result in a new thread.
6523 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
6524 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
6525 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
6528 @item gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6529 @vindex gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6530 Sometimes, particularly with mailing lists, the order in which mails
6531 arrive locally is not necessarily the same as the order in which they
6532 arrived on the mailing list. Consequently, when sorting sub-threads
6533 using the default @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number}, responses can end
6534 up appearing before the article to which they are responding to.
6535 Setting this variable to an alternate value
6536 (e.g. @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}), in a group's parameters or in an
6537 appropriate hook (e.g. @code{gnus-summary-generate-hook}) can produce a
6538 more logical sub-thread ordering in such instances.
6543 @node Low-Level Threading
6544 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
6548 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
6549 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
6550 Hook run before parsing any headers.
6552 @item gnus-alter-header-function
6553 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
6554 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
6555 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
6556 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
6557 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
6558 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
6559 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
6560 meaningful. Here's one example:
6563 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
6565 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
6566 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
6568 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
6570 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
6577 @node Thread Commands
6578 @subsection Thread Commands
6579 @cindex thread commands
6585 @kindex T k (Summary)
6586 @kindex C-M-k (Summary)
6587 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
6588 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
6589 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
6590 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
6595 @kindex T l (Summary)
6596 @kindex C-M-l (Summary)
6597 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
6598 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
6599 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
6602 @kindex T i (Summary)
6603 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
6604 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
6605 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
6608 @kindex T # (Summary)
6609 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
6610 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
6611 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
6614 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
6615 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
6616 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
6617 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
6620 @kindex T T (Summary)
6621 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
6622 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
6625 @kindex T s (Summary)
6626 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
6627 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any
6628 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
6631 @kindex T h (Summary)
6632 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
6633 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
6636 @kindex T S (Summary)
6637 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
6638 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
6641 @kindex T H (Summary)
6642 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
6643 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
6646 @kindex T t (Summary)
6647 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
6648 Re-thread the current article's thread
6649 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
6650 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
6653 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
6654 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
6655 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
6656 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
6660 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
6661 understand the numeric prefix.
6666 @kindex T n (Summary)
6668 @kindex C-M-n (Summary)
6670 @kindex M-down (Summary)
6671 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
6672 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
6675 @kindex T p (Summary)
6677 @kindex C-M-p (Summary)
6679 @kindex M-up (Summary)
6680 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
6681 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
6684 @kindex T d (Summary)
6685 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
6686 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
6689 @kindex T u (Summary)
6690 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
6691 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
6694 @kindex T o (Summary)
6695 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
6696 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
6699 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
6700 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
6701 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
6702 a command like `T k' (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
6703 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
6704 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
6705 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
6706 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
6707 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
6708 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
6709 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
6710 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
6714 @node Sorting the Summary Buffer
6715 @section Sorting the Summary Buffer
6717 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
6718 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
6719 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
6720 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
6721 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
6722 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
6723 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-random
6724 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
6725 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-thread
6726 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
6727 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which can be either a single
6728 function, a list of functions, or a list containing functions and
6729 @code{(not some-function)} elements.
6731 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
6732 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
6733 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
6734 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score},
6735 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number},
6736 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date},
6737 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-random} and
6738 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
6740 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
6741 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
6742 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread.
6744 If you use more than one function, the primary sort key should be the
6745 last function in the list. You should probably always include
6746 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
6747 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
6748 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
6749 ascending article order.
6751 If you would like to sort by reverse score, then by subject, and finally
6752 by number, you could do something like:
6755 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
6756 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
6757 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
6758 (not gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score)))
6761 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
6762 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
6763 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
6764 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
6765 which the articles arrived.
6767 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
6771 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
6773 (not (gnus-thread-sort-by-number t1 t2)))
6774 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
6777 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
6778 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
6779 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
6780 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
6783 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
6784 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
6785 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
6786 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
6787 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
6788 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-random
6789 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
6790 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or
6791 other, you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions}
6792 variable. It is very similar to the
6793 @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that it uses slightly
6794 different functions for article comparison. Available sorting
6795 predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
6796 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author},
6797 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date},
6798 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-random}, and
6799 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
6801 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
6805 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
6806 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
6807 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
6812 @node Asynchronous Fetching
6813 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
6814 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
6815 @cindex article pre-fetch
6818 If you read your news from an @sc{nntp} server that's far away, the
6819 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
6820 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
6821 article appears. Why can't Gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
6822 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
6824 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
6825 article fetching, especially the way Gnus does it.
6827 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
6828 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
6829 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
6830 article 3, but since Gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
6831 connection is blocked.
6833 To avoid these situations, Gnus will open two (count 'em two)
6834 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
6835 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
6836 extra connection takes some time, so Gnus startup will be slower.
6838 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
6839 the link between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server will become more
6840 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
6841 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
6844 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing... unless
6847 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
6848 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
6849 happen automatically.
6851 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
6852 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
6853 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
6854 that when you read an article in the group, the back end will pre-fetch
6855 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the back end will
6856 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
6857 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
6859 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
6860 @findex gnus-async-read-p
6861 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
6862 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p} variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This function should
6863 return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is to be
6864 pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-read-p}, which returns
6865 @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an article
6866 data structure as the only parameter.
6868 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter than 100 lines, you could say something like:
6871 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
6872 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
6873 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
6874 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
6877 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
6880 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
6881 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down Gnus too much.
6882 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
6884 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
6885 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
6886 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
6887 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
6891 Remove articles when they are read.
6894 Remove articles when exiting the group.
6897 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
6899 @c @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
6900 @c If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
6901 @c from the next group.
6904 @node Article Caching
6905 @section Article Caching
6906 @cindex article caching
6909 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @sc{nntp} connection, you may
6910 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
6911 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
6912 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
6913 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
6915 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
6917 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
6918 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
6919 @vindex gnus-use-cache
6920 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
6921 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
6922 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
6923 cache is flat or hierarchical is controlled by the
6924 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
6926 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
6927 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
6928 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
6929 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
6930 as dormant, and don't worry.
6932 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
6934 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
6935 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
6936 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
6937 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
6938 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
6939 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
6940 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
6941 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
6942 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
6943 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
6945 @findex gnus-jog-cache
6946 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
6947 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
6948 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
6949 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
6950 command if 1) your connection to the @sc{nntp} server is really, really,
6951 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
6952 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
6953 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
6954 not then be downloaded by this command.
6956 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
6957 @vindex gnus-cacheable-groups
6958 It is likely that you do not want caching on all groups. For instance,
6959 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
6960 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
6961 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.
6963 To limit the caching, you could set @code{gnus-cacheable-groups} to a
6964 regexp of groups to cache, @samp{^nntp} for instance, or set the
6965 @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to @samp{^nnml}, for instance.
6966 Both variables are @code{nil} by default. If a group matches both
6967 variables, the group is not cached.
6969 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
6970 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
6971 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
6972 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
6973 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
6974 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, Gnus
6975 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
6976 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @sc{nov}
6977 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
6980 @findex gnus-cache-move-cache
6981 @code{gnus-cache-move-cache} will move your whole
6982 @code{gnus-cache-directory} to some other location. You get asked to
6983 where, isn't that cool?
6985 @node Persistent Articles
6986 @section Persistent Articles
6987 @cindex persistent articles
6989 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
6990 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
6991 useful in my opinion.
6993 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
6994 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
6995 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
6996 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
6997 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
6998 the expiry going on at the news server.
7000 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
7001 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
7002 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
7008 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
7009 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
7012 @kindex M-* (Summary)
7013 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
7014 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
7015 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
7019 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
7021 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
7022 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
7023 interested in persistent articles:
7026 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
7030 @node Article Backlog
7031 @section Article Backlog
7033 @cindex article backlog
7035 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
7036 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
7037 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where Gnus will buffer
7038 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
7039 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
7040 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
7041 that, turning the backlog on will slow Gnus down a little bit, and
7042 increase memory usage some.
7044 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
7045 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, Gnus will store
7046 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
7047 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, Gnus will store
7048 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
7049 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
7050 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
7052 This variable is @code{nil} by default.
7055 @node Saving Articles
7056 @section Saving Articles
7057 @cindex saving articles
7059 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
7060 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
7061 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
7062 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
7063 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
7065 For the commands listed here, the target is a file. If you want to
7066 save to a group, see the @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article})
7067 command (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
7069 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
7070 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will not delete
7071 unwanted headers before saving the article.
7073 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
7074 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
7075 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
7076 deleted before saving.
7082 @kindex O o (Summary)
7084 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
7085 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
7086 Save the current article using the default article saver
7087 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
7090 @kindex O m (Summary)
7091 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
7092 Save the current article in mail format
7093 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
7096 @kindex O r (Summary)
7097 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
7098 Save the current article in rmail format
7099 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}).
7102 @kindex O f (Summary)
7103 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
7104 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
7105 Save the current article in plain file format
7106 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
7109 @kindex O F (Summary)
7110 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
7111 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
7112 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
7115 @kindex O b (Summary)
7116 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
7117 Save the current article body in plain file format
7118 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
7121 @kindex O h (Summary)
7122 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
7123 Save the current article in mh folder format
7124 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
7127 @kindex O v (Summary)
7128 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
7129 Save the current article in a VM folder
7130 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
7134 @kindex O p (Summary)
7136 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
7137 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
7138 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
7141 @kindex O P (Summary)
7142 @findex gnus-summary-muttprint
7143 @vindex gnus-summary-muttprint-program
7144 Save the current article into muttprint. That is, print it using the
7145 external program Muttprint (see
7146 @uref{http://muttprint.sourceforge.net/}). The program name and
7147 options to use is controlled by the variable
7148 @code{gnus-summary-muttprint-program}. (@code{gnus-summary-muttprint}).
7152 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
7153 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
7154 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
7155 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
7156 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
7157 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
7158 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
7159 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
7160 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
7161 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
7162 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
7163 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
7167 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
7168 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
7169 Gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the six ready-made
7170 functions below, or you can create your own.
7174 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
7175 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
7176 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
7177 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
7178 This is the default format, @dfn{babyl}. Uses the function in the
7179 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7180 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
7182 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
7183 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
7184 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
7185 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
7186 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7187 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
7189 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
7190 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
7191 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
7192 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
7193 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
7194 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7195 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7197 @item gnus-summary-write-to-file
7198 @findex gnus-summary-write-to-file
7199 Write the article straight to an ordinary file. The file is
7200 overwritten if it exists. Uses the function in the
7201 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7202 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7204 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
7205 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
7206 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
7207 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7208 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7210 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
7211 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
7212 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
7213 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
7214 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
7217 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
7218 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
7219 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
7220 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
7221 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
7223 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
7224 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
7225 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
7226 reader to use this setting.
7229 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
7230 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
7231 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
7232 @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
7235 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
7236 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
7237 available functions that generate names:
7241 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
7242 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
7243 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
7245 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
7246 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
7247 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
7249 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
7250 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
7251 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
7253 @item gnus-plain-save-name
7254 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
7255 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
7257 @item gnus-sender-save-name
7258 @findex gnus-sender-save-name
7259 File names like @file{~/News/larsi}.
7262 @vindex gnus-split-methods
7263 You can have Gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
7264 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
7265 save articles related to Gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
7266 related to VM in @code{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
7270 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
7271 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
7272 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
7273 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
7276 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
7277 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
7278 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
7279 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
7280 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
7281 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
7282 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
7283 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
7284 called returns a string or a list of strings.
7286 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
7287 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
7288 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
7289 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
7291 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
7292 means that Gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
7293 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
7296 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
7297 lots of mail groups called things like
7298 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
7299 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
7300 following will do just that:
7303 (defun my-save-name (group)
7304 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
7305 (substring group (match-end 0))))
7307 (setq gnus-split-methods
7308 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
7313 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
7314 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
7315 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
7316 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
7317 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
7318 all the files in the top level directory
7319 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
7320 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
7321 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
7322 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
7324 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
7325 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
7326 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
7327 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
7328 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
7331 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
7335 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; to get a hierarchy
7336 (setq gnus-default-article-saver
7337 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; no encoding
7340 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
7341 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
7342 the top level directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
7343 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
7346 @node Decoding Articles
7347 @section Decoding Articles
7348 @cindex decoding articles
7350 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
7351 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
7354 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
7355 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
7356 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
7357 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
7358 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
7359 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
7363 @cindex article series
7364 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
7365 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
7366 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
7367 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
7368 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
7370 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
7371 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
7372 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
7374 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, Gnus
7375 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
7376 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
7378 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
7379 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
7380 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
7383 @node Uuencoded Articles
7384 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
7386 @cindex uuencoded articles
7391 @kindex X u (Summary)
7392 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
7393 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
7394 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
7397 @kindex X U (Summary)
7398 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
7399 Uudecodes and saves the current series
7400 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
7403 @kindex X v u (Summary)
7404 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
7405 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
7408 @kindex X v U (Summary)
7409 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
7410 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
7411 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
7415 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
7416 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
7417 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
7418 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
7419 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
7421 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
7422 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
7423 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
7424 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
7427 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
7428 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
7429 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
7430 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
7431 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
7432 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
7436 @node Shell Archives
7437 @subsection Shell Archives
7439 @cindex shell archives
7440 @cindex shared articles
7442 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
7443 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
7444 some commands to deal with these:
7449 @kindex X s (Summary)
7450 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
7451 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
7454 @kindex X S (Summary)
7455 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
7456 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
7459 @kindex X v s (Summary)
7460 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
7461 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
7464 @kindex X v S (Summary)
7465 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
7466 Unshars, views and saves the current series
7467 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
7471 @node PostScript Files
7472 @subsection PostScript Files
7478 @kindex X p (Summary)
7479 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
7480 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
7483 @kindex X P (Summary)
7484 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
7485 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
7486 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
7489 @kindex X v p (Summary)
7490 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
7491 View the current PostScript series
7492 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
7495 @kindex X v P (Summary)
7496 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
7497 View and save the current PostScript series
7498 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
7503 @subsection Other Files
7507 @kindex X o (Summary)
7508 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
7509 Save the current series
7510 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
7513 @kindex X b (Summary)
7514 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
7515 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
7516 doesn't really work yet.
7520 @node Decoding Variables
7521 @subsection Decoding Variables
7523 Adjective, not verb.
7526 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
7527 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
7528 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
7532 @node Rule Variables
7533 @subsubsection Rule Variables
7534 @cindex rule variables
7536 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
7537 variables are of the form
7540 (list '(regexp1 command2)
7547 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7548 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7550 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
7551 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @samp{.au} sound file, you could
7554 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7555 (list '("\\\\.au$" "sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio")))
7558 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
7559 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
7560 This variable is consulted if Gnus couldn't make any matches from the
7561 user and default view rules.
7563 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
7564 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
7565 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
7570 @node Other Decode Variables
7571 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
7574 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
7576 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
7577 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
7578 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
7579 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
7580 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
7584 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
7585 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
7588 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
7589 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
7590 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
7593 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
7594 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
7595 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
7596 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
7597 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
7600 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
7601 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
7602 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
7604 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
7605 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
7606 Files with a @sc{mime} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
7607 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
7608 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @sc{mime} package (yet), so this is slightly
7611 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
7612 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
7613 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
7615 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
7616 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
7617 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
7618 looking for files to display.
7620 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
7621 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
7622 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
7625 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
7626 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
7627 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
7630 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
7631 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
7632 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
7635 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
7636 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
7637 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
7640 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
7641 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
7642 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
7643 decoded articles as unread.
7645 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
7646 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
7647 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
7648 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
7650 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
7651 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
7652 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
7654 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
7655 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
7657 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
7658 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @sc{mime}
7659 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
7660 @code{metamail} for viewing.
7662 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
7663 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
7664 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
7665 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
7666 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
7667 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC 1153---no easy way
7668 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
7669 simply dropped them.
7674 @node Uuencoding and Posting
7675 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
7679 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
7680 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
7681 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
7682 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
7683 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
7684 for you when you post the article.
7686 @item gnus-uu-post-length
7687 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
7688 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
7689 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
7691 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
7692 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
7693 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
7694 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
7695 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
7696 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
7697 think that counts...) Default is @code{nil}.
7699 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
7700 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
7701 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
7702 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
7703 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
7704 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
7705 Default is @code{t}.
7711 @subsection Viewing Files
7712 @cindex viewing files
7713 @cindex pseudo-articles
7715 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, Gnus will attempt
7716 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
7717 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
7718 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, Gnus will
7719 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
7720 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
7721 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
7723 Finally, Gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
7724 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
7725 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
7726 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
7728 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
7729 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
7730 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
7732 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
7733 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
7734 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
7735 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
7736 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
7738 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
7739 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
7740 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
7741 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
7742 a list of parameters to that command.
7744 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
7745 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
7746 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
7748 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
7749 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
7750 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
7753 @node Article Treatment
7754 @section Article Treatment
7756 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
7757 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
7758 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
7759 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
7760 these articles easier.
7763 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
7764 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
7765 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
7766 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
7767 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
7768 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
7769 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
7770 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
7771 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
7772 * Article Miscellania:: Various other stuff.
7776 @node Article Highlighting
7777 @subsection Article Highlighting
7778 @cindex highlighting
7780 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
7781 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
7786 @kindex W H a (Summary)
7787 @findex gnus-article-highlight
7788 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
7789 Do much highlighting of the current article
7790 (@code{gnus-article-highlight}). This function highlights header, cited
7791 text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.
7794 @kindex W H h (Summary)
7795 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
7796 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
7797 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
7798 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
7799 variable, which is a list where each element has the form
7800 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{name} @var{content})}.
7801 @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
7802 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
7803 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
7804 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
7805 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
7808 @kindex W H c (Summary)
7809 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
7810 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
7812 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
7815 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
7817 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
7818 If the article size if bigger than this variable (which is 25000 by
7819 default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
7821 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
7822 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
7823 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
7825 @item gnus-cite-face-list
7826 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
7827 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
7828 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
7829 Gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
7830 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
7832 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
7833 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
7834 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
7836 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
7837 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
7838 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
7840 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
7841 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
7842 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
7843 that it's a citation.
7845 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
7846 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
7847 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
7849 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
7850 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
7851 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
7853 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
7854 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
7855 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
7856 cited text belonging to the attribution.
7862 @kindex W H s (Summary)
7863 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
7864 @vindex gnus-signature-face
7865 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
7866 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
7867 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
7868 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
7869 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
7874 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to highlight articles automatically.
7877 @node Article Fontisizing
7878 @subsection Article Fontisizing
7880 @cindex article emphasis
7882 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
7883 @kindex W e (Summary)
7884 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
7885 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*} or @samp{/this/}. Gnus can make
7886 this look nicer by running the article through the @kbd{W e}
7887 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
7889 @vindex gnus-emphasis-alist
7890 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
7891 @code{gnus-emphasis-alist} variable. This is an alist where the first
7892 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
7893 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
7894 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
7895 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
7896 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
7900 (setq gnus-emphasis-alist
7901 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
7902 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
7911 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
7912 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
7913 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
7914 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
7915 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
7916 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
7917 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
7918 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
7919 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
7920 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
7921 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
7922 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
7923 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
7925 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
7926 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
7927 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
7931 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
7934 @vindex gnus-group-highlight-words-alist
7936 If you want to highlight arbitrary words, you can use the
7937 @code{gnus-group-highlight-words-alist} variable, which uses the same
7938 syntax as @code{gnus-emphasis-alist}. The @code{highlight-words} group
7939 parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) can also be used.
7941 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to fontize articles automatically.
7944 @node Article Hiding
7945 @subsection Article Hiding
7946 @cindex article hiding
7948 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
7949 too much cruft in most articles.
7954 @kindex W W a (Summary)
7955 @findex gnus-article-hide
7956 Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
7957 (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}). In particular, this function will hide
7958 headers, PGP, cited text and the signature.
7961 @kindex W W h (Summary)
7962 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
7963 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}). @xref{Hiding
7967 @kindex W W b (Summary)
7968 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
7969 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
7970 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
7973 @kindex W W s (Summary)
7974 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
7975 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
7979 @kindex W W l (Summary)
7980 @findex gnus-article-hide-list-identifiers
7981 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
7982 Strip list identifiers specified in @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. These
7983 are strings some mailing list servers add to the beginning of all
7984 @code{Subject} headers---for example, @samp{[zebra 4711]}. Any leading
7985 @samp{Re: } is skipped before stripping. @code{gnus-list-identifiers}
7986 may not contain @code{\\(..\\)}.
7990 @item gnus-list-identifiers
7991 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
7992 A regular expression that matches list identifiers to be removed from
7993 subject. This can also be a list of regular expressions.
7998 @kindex W W p (Summary)
7999 @findex gnus-article-hide-pgp
8000 @vindex gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook
8001 Hide @sc{pgp} signatures (@code{gnus-article-hide-pgp}). The
8002 @code{gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook} hook will be run after a @sc{pgp}
8003 signature has been hidden. For example, to automatically verify
8004 articles that have signatures in them do:
8006 ;;; Hide pgp cruft if any.
8008 (setq gnus-treat-strip-pgp t)
8010 ;;; After hiding pgp, verify the message;
8011 ;;; only happens if pgp signature is found.
8013 (add-hook 'gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook
8016 (set-buffer gnus-original-article-buffer)
8021 @kindex W W P (Summary)
8022 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
8023 Hide @sc{pem} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
8024 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
8027 @kindex W W B (Summary)
8028 @findex gnus-article-strip-banner
8029 @vindex gnus-article-banner-alist
8030 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8033 @cindex stripping advertisements
8034 @cindex advertisements
8035 Strip the banner specified by the @code{banner} group parameter
8036 (@code{gnus-article-strip-banner}). This is mainly used to hide those
8037 annoying banners and/or signatures that some mailing lists and moderated
8038 groups adds to all the messages. The way to use this function is to add
8039 the @code{banner} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to the
8040 group you want banners stripped from. The parameter either be a string,
8041 which will be interpreted as a regular expression matching text to be
8042 removed, or the symbol @code{signature}, meaning that the (last)
8043 signature should be removed, or other symbol, meaning that the
8044 corresponding regular expression in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist} is
8047 Regardless of a group, you can hide things like advertisements only when
8048 the sender of an article has a certain mail address specified in
8049 @code{gnus-article-address-banner-alist}.
8053 @item gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8054 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8055 Alist of mail addresses and banners. Each element has the form
8056 @code{(ADDRESS . BANNER)}, where ADDRESS is a regexp matching a mail
8057 address in the From header, BANNER is one of a symbol @code{signature},
8058 an item in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}, a regexp and @code{nil}.
8059 If ADDRESS matches author's mail address, it will remove things like
8060 advertisements. For example, if a sender has the mail address
8061 @samp{hail@@yoo-hoo.co.jp} and there is a banner something like
8062 @samp{Do You Yoo-hoo!?} in all articles he sends, you can use the
8063 following element to remove them:
8066 ("@@yoo-hoo\\.co\\.jp\\'" . "\n_+\nDo You Yoo-hoo!\\?\n.*\n.*\n")
8072 @kindex W W c (Summary)
8073 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
8074 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
8075 customizing the hiding:
8079 @item gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
8080 @itemx gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
8081 @vindex gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
8082 @vindex gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
8083 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
8084 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
8085 by these format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
8090 Starting point of the hidden text.
8092 Ending point of the hidden text.
8094 Number of characters in the hidden region.
8096 Number of lines of hidden text.
8099 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
8100 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
8101 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave
8102 shown. This can also be a cons cell with the number of lines at the top
8103 and bottom of the text, respectively, to remain visible.
8108 @kindex W W C-c (Summary)
8109 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe
8111 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe}) depending on the
8112 following two variables:
8115 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
8116 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
8117 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
8118 50), hide the cited text.
8120 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
8121 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
8122 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
8127 @kindex W W C (Summary)
8128 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
8129 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
8130 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
8131 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
8132 have happen automatically (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
8136 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
8137 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
8138 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
8140 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
8141 citation customization.
8143 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to hide article elements
8147 @node Article Washing
8148 @subsection Article Washing
8150 @cindex article washing
8152 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
8153 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
8155 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
8156 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
8159 @xref{Customizing Articles}, if you want to change how Gnus displays
8160 articles by default.
8165 This is not really washing, it's sort of the opposite of washing. If
8166 you type this, you see the article exactly as it exists on disk or on
8170 @kindex W l (Summary)
8171 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
8172 Remove page breaks from the current article
8173 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}). @xref{Misc Article}, for page
8177 @kindex W r (Summary)
8178 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
8179 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
8180 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
8181 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
8182 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
8183 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
8185 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
8186 positions in the alphabet, e. g. @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
8187 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
8188 is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
8192 @kindex W t (Summary)
8194 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
8195 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
8196 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
8199 @kindex W v (Summary)
8200 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-headers
8201 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
8202 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-headers}).
8205 @kindex W o (Summary)
8206 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
8207 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
8210 @kindex W d (Summary)
8211 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
8212 @vindex gnus-article-dumbquotes-map
8214 @cindex M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s
8216 Treat M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s according to
8217 @code{gnus-article-dumbquotes-map}
8218 (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}). Note that this function guesses
8219 whether a character is a sm*rtq**t* or not, so it should only be used
8222 Sm*rtq**t*s are M****s***'s unilateral extension to the character map in
8223 an attempt to provide more quoting characters. If you see something
8224 like @code{\222} or @code{\264} where you're expecting some kind of
8225 apostrophe or quotation mark, then try this wash.
8228 @kindex W k (Summary)
8229 @findex gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article
8230 @cindex Outlook Express
8231 Deuglify broken Outlook (Express) articles and redisplay
8232 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article}).
8235 @kindex W w (Summary)
8236 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
8237 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}).
8239 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
8243 @kindex W Q (Summary)
8244 @findex gnus-article-fill-long-lines
8245 Fill long lines (@code{gnus-article-fill-long-lines}).
8248 @kindex W C (Summary)
8249 @findex gnus-article-capitalize-sentences
8250 Capitalize the first word in each sentence
8251 (@code{gnus-article-capitalize-sentences}).
8254 @kindex W c (Summary)
8255 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
8256 Translate CRLF pairs (i. e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines) into LF
8257 (this takes care of DOS line endings), and then translate any remaining
8258 CRs into LF (this takes care of Mac line endings)
8259 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
8262 @kindex W q (Summary)
8263 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
8264 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
8265 Quoted-Printable is one common @sc{mime} encoding employed when sending
8266 non-ASCII (i. e., 8-bit) articles. It typically makes strings like
8267 @samp{déjà vu} look like @samp{d=E9j=E0 vu}, which doesn't look very
8268 readable to me. Note that this is usually done automatically by
8269 Gnus if the message in question has a @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding}
8270 header that says that this encoding has been done.
8271 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8274 @kindex W 6 (Summary)
8275 @findex gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable
8276 Treat base64 (@code{gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable}).
8277 Base64 is one common @sc{mime} encoding employed when sending non-ASCII
8278 (i. e., 8-bit) articles. Note that this is usually done
8279 automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
8280 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding has
8282 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8285 @kindex W Z (Summary)
8286 @findex gnus-article-decode-HZ
8287 Treat HZ or HZP (@code{gnus-article-decode-HZ}). HZ (or HZP) is one
8288 common encoding employed when sending Chinese articles. It typically
8289 makes strings look like @samp{~@{<:Ky2;S@{#,NpJ)l6HK!#~@}}.
8292 @kindex W u (Summary)
8293 @findex gnus-article-unsplit-urls
8294 Remove newlines from within URLs. Some mailers insert newlines into
8295 outgoing email messages to keep lines short. This reformatting can
8296 split long URLs onto multiple lines. Repair those URLs by removing
8297 the newlines (@code{gnus-article-unsplit-urls}).
8300 @kindex W h (Summary)
8301 @findex gnus-article-wash-html
8302 Treat @sc{html} (@code{gnus-article-wash-html}). Note that this is
8303 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
8304 @code{Content-Type} header that says that the message is @sc{html}.
8306 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8308 @vindex gnus-article-wash-function
8309 The default is to use the function specified by
8310 @code{mm-inline-text-html-renderer} (@pxref{Customization, , , emacs-mime})
8311 to convert the @sc{html}, but this is controlled by the
8312 @code{gnus-article-wash-function} variable. Pre-defined functions you
8320 Use emacs-w3m (see @uref{http://emacs-w3m.namazu.org/} for more
8324 Use Links (see @uref{http://artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~mikulas/links/}).
8327 Use Lynx (see @uref{http://lynx.browser.org/}).
8330 Use html2text -- a simple @sc{html} converter included with Gnus.
8335 @kindex W b (Summary)
8336 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
8337 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
8338 @xref{Article Buttons}.
8341 @kindex W B (Summary)
8342 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
8343 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
8344 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
8347 @kindex W p (Summary)
8348 @findex gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig
8349 Verify a signed control message (@code{gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig}).
8350 Control messages such as @code{newgroup} and @code{checkgroups} are
8351 usually signed by the hierarchy maintainer. You need to add the PGP
8352 public key of the maintainer to your keyring to verify the
8353 message.@footnote{PGP keys for many hierarchies are available at
8354 @uref{ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README.html}}
8357 @kindex W s (Summary)
8358 @findex gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt
8359 Verify a signed (PGP, @sc{pgp/mime} or @sc{s/mime}) message
8360 (@code{gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt}). @xref{Security}.
8363 @kindex W a (Summary)
8364 @findex gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body
8365 Strip headers like the @code{X-No-Archive} header from the beginning of
8366 article bodies (@code{gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body}).
8369 @kindex W E l (Summary)
8370 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
8371 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
8372 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
8375 @kindex W E m (Summary)
8376 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
8377 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
8378 lines with a single empty line.
8379 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
8382 @kindex W E t (Summary)
8383 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
8384 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
8385 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
8388 @kindex W E a (Summary)
8389 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
8390 Do all the three commands above
8391 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
8394 @kindex W E A (Summary)
8395 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
8396 Remove all blank lines
8397 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
8400 @kindex W E s (Summary)
8401 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
8402 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
8403 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
8406 @kindex W E e (Summary)
8407 @findex gnus-article-strip-trailing-space
8408 Remove all white space from the end of all lines of the article
8409 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-trailing-space}).
8413 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to wash articles automatically.
8416 @node Article Header
8417 @subsection Article Header
8419 These commands perform various transformations of article header.
8424 @kindex W G u (Summary)
8425 @findex gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers
8426 Unfold folded header lines (@code{gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers}).
8429 @kindex W G n (Summary)
8430 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups
8431 Fold the @code{Newsgroups} and @code{Followup-To} headers
8432 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups}).
8435 @kindex W G f (Summary)
8436 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-headers
8437 Fold all the message headers
8438 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-headers}).
8442 @findex gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace
8443 Remove excessive whitespace from all headers
8444 (@code{gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace}).
8449 @node Article Buttons
8450 @subsection Article Buttons
8453 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
8454 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
8455 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
8456 button on these references.
8458 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
8459 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
8460 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links and man pages.
8461 This is controlled by two variables, one that handles article bodies and
8462 one that handles article heads:
8466 @item gnus-button-alist
8467 @vindex gnus-button-alist
8468 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
8471 (REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
8477 All text that match this regular expression will be considered an
8478 external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches embedded URLs:
8479 @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}. This can also be a variable containing a
8480 regexp, useful variables to use include @code{gnus-button-url-regexp}.
8483 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
8484 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
8485 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
8488 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
8489 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
8490 avoid false matches.
8493 This function will be called when you click on this button.
8496 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
8497 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
8501 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
8504 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
8507 @item gnus-header-button-alist
8508 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
8509 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
8510 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
8511 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
8514 (HEADER REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
8517 @var{header} is a regular expression.
8519 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
8520 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
8521 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
8522 default values of the variables above.
8524 @item gnus-article-button-face
8525 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
8526 Face used on buttons.
8528 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
8529 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
8530 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
8534 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to buttonize articles automatically.
8538 @subsection Article Date
8540 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
8541 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
8542 when the article was sent.
8547 @kindex W T u (Summary)
8548 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
8549 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
8550 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
8553 @kindex W T i (Summary)
8554 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
8556 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
8557 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
8560 @kindex W T l (Summary)
8561 @findex gnus-article-date-local
8562 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
8565 @kindex W T p (Summary)
8566 @findex gnus-article-date-english
8567 Display the date in a format that's easily pronounceable in English
8568 (@code{gnus-article-date-english}).
8571 @kindex W T s (Summary)
8572 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
8573 @findex gnus-article-date-user
8574 @findex format-time-string
8575 Display the date using a user-defined format
8576 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
8577 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
8578 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
8579 for a list of possible format specs.
8582 @kindex W T e (Summary)
8583 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
8584 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
8585 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
8586 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
8587 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). It looks something like:
8590 X-Sent: 6 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes, 8 seconds ago
8593 The value of @code{gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header} determines
8594 whether this header will just be added below the old Date one, or will
8597 An advantage of using Gnus to read mail is that it converts simple bugs
8598 into wonderful absurdities.
8600 If you want to have this line updated continually, you can put
8603 (gnus-start-date-timer)
8606 in your @file{.gnus.el} file, or you can run it off of some hook. If
8607 you want to stop the timer, you can use the @code{gnus-stop-date-timer}
8611 @kindex W T o (Summary)
8612 @findex gnus-article-date-original
8613 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
8614 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
8615 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
8616 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
8617 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
8621 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to display the date in your
8622 preferred format automatically.
8625 @node Article Display
8626 @subsection Article Display
8631 These commands add various frivolous display gimmics to the article
8632 buffer in Emacs versions that support them.
8634 @code{X-Face} headers are small black-and-white images supplied by the
8635 message headers (@pxref{X-Face}).
8637 Picons, on the other hand, reside on your own system, and Gnus will
8638 try to match the headers to what you have (@pxref{Picons}).
8640 Smileys are those little @samp{:-)} symbols that people like to litter
8641 their messages with (@pxref{Smileys}).
8643 All these functions are toggles--if the elements already exist,
8648 @kindex W D x (Summary)
8649 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
8650 Display an @code{X-Face} in the @code{From} header.
8651 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}).
8654 @kindex W D s (Summary)
8655 @findex gnus-treat-smiley
8656 Display smileys (@code{gnus-treat-smiley}).
8659 @kindex W D f (Summary)
8660 @findex gnus-treat-from-picon
8661 Piconify the @code{From} header (@code{gnus-treat-from-picon}).
8664 @kindex W D m (Summary)
8665 @findex gnus-treat-mail-picon
8666 Piconify all mail headers (i. e., @code{Cc}, @code{To})
8667 (@code{gnus-treat-mail-picon}).
8670 @kindex W D n (Summary)
8671 @findex gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon
8672 Piconify all news headers (i. e., @code{Newsgroups} and
8673 @code{Followup-To}) (@code{gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon}).
8676 @kindex W D D (Summary)
8677 @findex gnus-article-remove-images
8678 Remove all images from the article buffer
8679 (@code{gnus-article-remove-images}).
8685 @node Article Signature
8686 @subsection Article Signature
8688 @cindex article signature
8690 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
8691 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
8692 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
8693 that says what is to be considered a signature is
8694 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
8695 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
8696 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
8697 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
8698 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
8701 (setq gnus-signature-separator
8702 '("^-- $" ; The standard
8703 "^-- *$" ; A common mangling
8704 "^-------*$" ; Many people just use a looong
8705 ; line of dashes. Shame!
8706 "^ *--------*$" ; Double-shame!
8707 "^________*$" ; Underscores are also popular
8708 "^========*$")) ; Pervert!
8711 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
8714 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
8715 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
8716 signature when displaying articles.
8720 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
8723 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
8726 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
8727 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
8729 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
8730 in question is not a signature.
8733 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
8734 listed above. Here's an example:
8737 (setq gnus-signature-limit
8738 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
8741 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
8742 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
8743 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
8744 signature after all.
8747 @node Article Miscellania
8748 @subsection Article Miscellania
8752 @kindex A t (Summary)
8753 @findex gnus-article-babel
8754 Translate the article from one language to another
8755 (@code{gnus-article-babel}).
8761 @section MIME Commands
8762 @cindex MIME decoding
8764 @cindex viewing attachments
8766 The following commands all understand the numerical prefix. For
8767 instance, @kbd{3 b} means ``view the third @sc{mime} part''.
8773 @kindex K v (Summary)
8774 View the @sc{mime} part.
8777 @kindex K o (Summary)
8778 Save the @sc{mime} part.
8781 @kindex K c (Summary)
8782 Copy the @sc{mime} part.
8785 @kindex K e (Summary)
8786 View the @sc{mime} part externally.
8789 @kindex K i (Summary)
8790 View the @sc{mime} part internally.
8793 @kindex K | (Summary)
8794 Pipe the @sc{mime} part to an external command.
8797 The rest of these @sc{mime} commands do not use the numerical prefix in
8802 @kindex K b (Summary)
8803 Make all the @sc{mime} parts have buttons in front of them. This is
8804 mostly useful if you wish to save (or perform other actions) on inlined
8808 @kindex K m (Summary)
8809 @findex gnus-summary-repair-multipart
8810 Some multipart messages are transmitted with missing or faulty headers.
8811 This command will attempt to ``repair'' these messages so that they can
8812 be viewed in a more pleasant manner
8813 (@code{gnus-summary-repair-multipart}).
8816 @kindex X m (Summary)
8817 @findex gnus-summary-save-parts
8818 Save all parts matching a @sc{mime} type to a directory
8819 (@code{gnus-summary-save-parts}). Understands the process/prefix
8820 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
8823 @kindex M-t (Summary)
8824 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized
8825 Toggle the buttonized display of the article buffer
8826 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized}).
8829 @kindex W M w (Summary)
8830 @findex gnus-article-decode-mime-words
8831 Decode RFC 2047-encoded words in the article headers
8832 (@code{gnus-article-decode-mime-words}).
8835 @kindex W M c (Summary)
8836 @findex gnus-article-decode-charset
8837 Decode encoded article bodies as well as charsets
8838 (@code{gnus-article-decode-charset}).
8840 This command looks in the @code{Content-Type} header to determine the
8841 charset. If there is no such header in the article, you can give it a
8842 prefix, which will prompt for the charset to decode as. In regional
8843 groups where people post using some common encoding (but do not
8844 include @sc{mime} headers), you can set the @code{charset} group/topic
8845 parameter to the required charset (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
8848 @kindex W M v (Summary)
8849 @findex gnus-mime-view-all-parts
8850 View all the @sc{mime} parts in the current article
8851 (@code{gnus-mime-view-all-parts}).
8858 @item gnus-ignored-mime-types
8859 @vindex gnus-ignored-mime-types
8860 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
8861 this list will be completely ignored by Gnus. The default value is
8864 To have all Vcards be ignored, you'd say something like this:
8867 (setq gnus-ignored-mime-types
8871 @item gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
8872 @vindex gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
8873 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
8874 this list won't have @sc{mime} buttons inserted unless they aren't
8875 displayed or this variable is overriden by
8876 @code{gnus-buttonized-mime-types}. The default value is
8879 @item gnus-buttonized-mime-types
8880 @vindex gnus-buttonized-mime-types
8881 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
8882 this list will have @sc{mime} buttons inserted unless they aren't
8883 displayed. This variable overrides
8884 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types}. The default value is @code{nil}.
8886 To see e.g. security buttons but no other buttons, you could set this
8887 variable to @code{("multipart/signed")} and leave
8888 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types} to the default value.
8890 @item gnus-article-mime-part-function
8891 @vindex gnus-article-mime-part-function
8892 For each @sc{mime} part, this function will be called with the @sc{mime}
8893 handle as the parameter. The function is meant to be used to allow
8894 users to gather information from the article (e. g., add Vcard info to
8895 the bbdb database) or to do actions based on parts (e. g., automatically
8896 save all jpegs into some directory).
8898 Here's an example function the does the latter:
8901 (defun my-save-all-jpeg-parts (handle)
8902 (when (equal (car (mm-handle-type handle)) "image/jpeg")
8904 (insert (mm-get-part handle))
8905 (write-region (point-min) (point-max)
8906 (read-file-name "Save jpeg to: ")))))
8907 (setq gnus-article-mime-part-function
8908 'my-save-all-jpeg-parts)
8911 @vindex gnus-mime-multipart-functions
8912 @item gnus-mime-multipart-functions
8913 Alist of @sc{mime} multipart types and functions to handle them.
8915 @vindex mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
8916 @item mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
8917 List of functions used for rewriting file names of @sc{mime} parts.
8918 Each function takes a file name as input and returns a file name.
8920 Ready-made functions include@*
8921 @code{mm-file-name-delete-whitespace},
8922 @code{mm-file-name-trim-whitespace},
8923 @code{mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace}, and
8924 @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace}. The later uses the value of
8925 the variable @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace} to replace each
8926 whitespace character in a file name with that string; default value
8927 is @code{"_"} (a single underscore).
8928 @findex mm-file-name-delete-whitespace
8929 @findex mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
8930 @findex mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
8931 @findex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
8932 @vindex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
8934 The standard functions @code{capitalize}, @code{downcase},
8935 @code{upcase}, and @code{upcase-initials} may be useful, too.
8937 Everybody knows that whitespace characters in file names are evil,
8938 except those who don't know. If you receive lots of attachments from
8939 such unenlightened users, you can make live easier by adding
8942 (setq mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
8943 '(mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
8944 mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
8945 mm-file-name-replace-whitespace))
8949 to your @file{.gnus} file.
8958 People use different charsets, and we have @sc{mime} to let us know what
8959 charsets they use. Or rather, we wish we had. Many people use
8960 newsreaders and mailers that do not understand or use @sc{mime}, and
8961 just send out messages without saying what character sets they use. To
8962 help a bit with this, some local news hierarchies have policies that say
8963 what character set is the default. For instance, the @samp{fj}
8964 hierarchy uses @code{iso-2022-jp-2}.
8966 @vindex gnus-group-charset-alist
8967 This knowledge is encoded in the @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}
8968 variable, which is an alist of regexps (use the first item to match full
8969 group names) and default charsets to be used when reading these groups.
8971 In addition, some people do use soi-disant @sc{mime}-aware agents that
8972 aren't. These blithely mark messages as being in @code{iso-8859-1}
8973 even if they really are in @code{koi-8}. To help here, the
8974 @code{gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets} variable can be used. The
8975 charsets that are listed here will be ignored. The variable can be
8976 set on a group-by-group basis using the group parameters (@pxref{Group
8977 Parameters}). The default value is @code{(unknown-8bit x-unknown)},
8978 which includes values some agents insist on having in there.
8980 @vindex gnus-group-posting-charset-alist
8981 When posting, @code{gnus-group-posting-charset-alist} is used to
8982 determine which charsets should not be encoded using the @sc{mime}
8983 encodings. For instance, some hierarchies discourage using
8984 quoted-printable header encoding.
8986 This variable is an alist of regexps and permitted unencoded charsets
8987 for posting. Each element of the alist has the form @code{(}@var{test
8988 header body-list}@code{)}, where:
8992 is either a regular expression matching the newsgroup header or a
8995 is the charset which may be left unencoded in the header (@code{nil}
8996 means encode all charsets),
8998 is a list of charsets which may be encoded using 8bit content-transfer
8999 encoding in the body, or one of the special values @code{nil} (always
9000 encode using quoted-printable) or @code{t} (always use 8bit).
9007 @cindex coding system aliases
9008 @cindex preferred charset
9010 Other charset tricks that may be useful, although not Gnus-specific:
9012 If there are several @sc{mime} charsets that encode the same Emacs
9013 charset, you can choose what charset to use by saying the following:
9016 (put-charset-property 'cyrillic-iso8859-5
9017 'preferred-coding-system 'koi8-r)
9020 This means that Russian will be encoded using @code{koi8-r} instead of
9021 the default @code{iso-8859-5} @sc{mime} charset.
9023 If you want to read messages in @code{koi8-u}, you can cheat and say
9026 (define-coding-system-alias 'koi8-u 'koi8-r)
9029 This will almost do the right thing.
9031 And finally, to read charsets like @code{windows-1251}, you can say
9035 (codepage-setup 1251)
9036 (define-coding-system-alias 'windows-1251 'cp1251)
9040 @node Article Commands
9041 @section Article Commands
9048 @kindex A P (Summary)
9049 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
9050 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
9051 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
9052 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will
9053 be run just before printing the buffer. An alternative way to print
9054 article is to use Muttprint (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
9059 @node Summary Sorting
9060 @section Summary Sorting
9061 @cindex summary sorting
9063 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
9064 can't really see why you'd want that.
9069 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
9070 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
9071 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
9074 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
9075 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
9076 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
9079 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
9080 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
9081 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
9084 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
9085 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
9086 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
9089 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
9090 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
9091 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
9094 @kindex C-c C-s C-c (Summary)
9095 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-chars
9096 Sort by article length (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-chars}).
9099 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
9100 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
9101 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
9104 @kindex C-c C-s C-r (Summary)
9105 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-random
9106 Randomize (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-random}).
9109 @kindex C-c C-s C-o (Summary)
9110 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-original
9111 Sort using the default sorting method
9112 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-original}).
9115 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
9116 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
9117 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
9118 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
9119 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
9123 @node Finding the Parent
9124 @section Finding the Parent
9125 @cindex parent articles
9126 @cindex referring articles
9131 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
9132 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
9133 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
9134 if the current group is fetched by @sc{nntp}, the parent hasn't expired
9135 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
9136 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
9137 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
9138 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
9139 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
9141 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
9142 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
9143 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, Gnus will fetch the parent, the
9144 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
9145 @kbd{-3 ^}, Gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
9149 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
9150 @kindex A R (Summary)
9151 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
9152 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
9155 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
9156 @kindex A T (Summary)
9157 Display the full thread where the current article appears
9158 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
9159 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
9160 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
9161 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
9162 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
9163 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
9165 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
9166 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i. e.,
9167 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
9168 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
9169 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
9170 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
9173 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
9174 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
9176 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
9177 You can also ask the @sc{nntp} server for an arbitrary article, no
9178 matter what group it belongs to. @kbd{M-^}
9179 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you for a
9180 @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read thingies
9181 that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}. You
9182 have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
9185 The current select method will be used when fetching by
9186 @code{Message-ID} from non-news select method, but you can override this
9187 by giving this command a prefix.
9189 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
9190 If the group you are reading is located on a back end that does not
9191 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
9192 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @sc{nntp} method. It
9193 would, perhaps, be best if the @sc{nntp} server you consult is the one
9194 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
9197 It can also be a list of select methods, as well as the special symbol
9198 @code{current}, which means to use the current select method. If it
9199 is a list, Gnus will try all the methods in the list until it finds a
9202 Here's an example setting that will first try the current method, and
9203 then ask Google if that fails:
9206 (setq gnus-refer-article-method
9208 (nnweb "refer" (nnweb-type google))))
9211 Most of the mail back ends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but
9212 do not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox},
9213 @code{nnbabyl}, and @code{nnmaildir} are able to locate articles from
9214 any groups, while @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, and @code{nnimap} are
9215 only able to locate articles that have been posted to the current group.
9216 (Anything else would be too time consuming.) @code{nnmh} does not
9217 support this at all.
9220 @node Alternative Approaches
9221 @section Alternative Approaches
9223 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
9224 Gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
9227 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
9228 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
9233 @subsection Pick and Read
9234 @cindex pick and read
9236 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
9237 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
9238 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
9239 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
9241 @findex gnus-pick-mode
9242 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
9243 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
9244 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
9245 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
9246 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
9248 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
9253 @findex gnus-pick-article-or-thread
9254 Pick the article or thread on the current line
9255 (@code{gnus-pick-article-or-thread}). If the variable
9256 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key selects the
9257 entire thread when used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise,
9258 it selects just the article. If given a numerical prefix, go to that
9259 thread or article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
9260 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
9263 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
9264 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
9265 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
9266 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
9270 @findex gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread.
9271 Unpick the thread or article
9272 (@code{gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread}). If the variable
9273 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key unpicks the
9274 thread if used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise it unpicks
9275 just the article. You can give this key a numerical prefix to unpick
9276 the thread or article at that line.
9280 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
9281 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
9282 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
9283 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
9284 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
9285 will still be visible when you are reading.
9289 All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
9290 pick-mode, with the exception of @kbd{u}. However @kbd{!} is available
9291 which is mapped to the same function
9292 @code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}.
9294 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
9297 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
9300 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
9301 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
9303 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
9304 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
9305 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
9307 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
9308 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
9309 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
9310 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
9311 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
9312 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
9313 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
9317 @subsection Binary Groups
9318 @cindex binary groups
9320 @findex gnus-binary-mode
9321 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
9322 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
9323 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
9324 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
9325 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
9326 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
9329 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
9330 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
9331 command, when you have turned on this mode
9332 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
9334 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
9335 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
9339 @section Tree Display
9342 @vindex gnus-use-trees
9343 If you don't like the normal Gnus summary display, you might try setting
9344 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
9345 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
9348 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
9351 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
9352 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
9353 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
9355 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
9356 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
9357 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers (@pxref{Mode
9358 Line Formatting}). The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list
9359 of valid specs, @pxref{Summary Buffer Mode Line}.
9361 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
9362 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
9363 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
9364 default is @code{modeline}.
9366 @item gnus-tree-line-format
9367 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
9368 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
9369 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
9370 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
9371 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
9372 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
9378 The name of the poster.
9380 The @code{From} header.
9382 The number of the article.
9384 The opening bracket.
9386 The closing bracket.
9391 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
9393 Variables related to the display are:
9396 @item gnus-tree-brackets
9397 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
9398 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
9399 ``sparse'' articles. The format is @code{((@var{real-open} . @var{real-close})
9400 (@var{sparse-open} . @var{sparse-close}) (@var{dummy-open} . @var{dummy-close}))}, and the
9401 default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
9403 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
9404 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
9405 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
9406 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
9410 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
9411 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
9412 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will try to keep the tree
9413 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other Gnus
9414 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
9415 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
9416 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
9417 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
9418 other windows displayed next to it.
9420 You may also wish to add the following hook to keep the window minimized
9424 (add-hook 'gnus-configure-windows-hook
9425 'gnus-tree-perhaps-minimize)
9428 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
9429 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
9430 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
9431 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
9432 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
9433 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
9434 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
9438 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
9441 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
9451 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
9455 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
9456 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
9458 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
9460 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
9465 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
9466 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
9467 following to your @file{.gnus.el} file:
9470 (setq gnus-use-trees t
9471 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
9472 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
9473 (gnus-add-configuration
9477 (summary 0.75 point)
9482 @xref{Window Layout}.
9485 @node Mail Group Commands
9486 @section Mail Group Commands
9487 @cindex mail group commands
9489 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
9490 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
9492 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
9493 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
9498 @kindex B e (Summary)
9499 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
9500 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
9501 process (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}). That is, delete all
9502 expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
9503 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
9506 @kindex B C-M-e (Summary)
9507 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
9508 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
9509 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
9510 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
9511 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
9514 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
9515 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
9516 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
9517 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
9518 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
9519 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
9522 @kindex B m (Summary)
9524 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
9525 @vindex gnus-preserve-marks
9526 Move the article from one mail group to another
9527 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}). Marks will be preserved if
9528 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
9531 @kindex B c (Summary)
9533 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
9534 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
9535 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
9536 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}). Marks will be preserved if
9537 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
9540 @kindex B B (Summary)
9541 @cindex crosspost mail
9542 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
9543 Crosspost the current article to some other group
9544 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
9545 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
9546 be properly updated.
9549 @kindex B i (Summary)
9550 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
9551 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
9552 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
9553 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
9556 @kindex B I (Summary)
9557 @findex gnus-summary-create-article
9558 Create an empty article in the current mail newsgroups
9559 (@code{gnus-summary-create-article}). You will be prompted for a
9560 @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
9563 @kindex B r (Summary)
9564 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
9565 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-respool-article}).
9566 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
9567 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
9568 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
9569 Marks will be preserved if @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil}
9570 (which is the default).
9574 @kindex B w (Summary)
9576 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
9577 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
9578 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article-done
9579 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
9580 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
9581 (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
9582 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, Gnus won't re-highlight the article.
9585 @kindex B q (Summary)
9586 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
9587 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
9588 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
9589 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
9592 @kindex B t (Summary)
9593 @findex gnus-summary-respool-trace
9594 Similarly, this command will display all fancy splitting patterns used
9595 when repooling, if any (@code{gnus-summary-respool-trace}).
9598 @kindex B p (Summary)
9599 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
9600 Some people have a tendency to send you "courtesy" copies when they
9601 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
9602 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
9603 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
9604 article from your news server (or rather, from
9605 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
9606 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
9607 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
9608 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
9609 just not have arrived yet.
9612 @kindex K E (Summary)
9613 @findex gnus-article-encrypt-body
9614 @vindex gnus-article-encrypt-protocol
9615 Encrypt the body of an article (@code{gnus-article-encrypt-body}).
9616 The body is encrypted with the encryption protocol specified by the
9617 variable @code{gnus-article-encrypt-protocol}.
9621 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
9622 @cindex moving articles
9623 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have Gnus
9624 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
9625 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
9626 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
9627 suggestions you find reasonable. (Note that
9628 @code{gnus-move-split-methods} uses group names where
9629 @code{gnus-split-methods} uses file names.)
9632 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
9633 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
9634 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
9635 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
9639 @node Various Summary Stuff
9640 @section Various Summary Stuff
9643 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
9644 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
9645 * Summary Generation Commands::
9646 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
9650 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
9651 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
9652 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
9654 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
9655 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
9656 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
9657 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
9658 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
9659 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
9662 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
9663 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
9664 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
9665 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
9666 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
9668 @vindex gnus-summary-prepared-hook
9669 @item gnus-summary-prepared-hook
9670 A hook called as the very last thing after the summary buffer has been
9673 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
9674 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
9675 When Gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
9676 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
9677 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
9678 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
9679 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), Gnus will rename the
9680 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
9681 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
9682 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
9684 @vindex gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
9685 @item gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
9686 This function, which takes two parameters (the group name and the list
9687 of articles to be selected), is called to allow the user to alter the
9688 list of articles to be selected.
9690 For instance, the following function adds the list of cached articles to
9691 the list in one particular group:
9694 (defun my-add-cached-articles (group articles)
9695 (if (string= group "some.group")
9696 (append gnus-newsgroup-cached articles)
9700 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-variables
9701 @item gnus-newsgroup-variables
9702 A list of newsgroup (summary buffer) local variables, or cons of
9703 variables and their default values (when the default values are not
9704 nil), that should be made global while the summary buffer is active.
9705 These variables can be used to set variables in the group parameters
9706 while still allowing them to affect operations done in other
9707 buffers. For example:
9710 (setq gnus-newsgroup-variables
9711 '(message-use-followup-to
9712 (gnus-visible-headers .
9713 "^From:\\|^Newsgroups:\\|^Subject:\\|^Date:\\|^To:")))
9719 @node Summary Group Information
9720 @subsection Summary Group Information
9725 @kindex H f (Summary)
9726 @findex gnus-summary-fetch-faq
9727 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
9728 Try to fetch the FAQ (list of frequently asked questions) for the
9729 current group (@code{gnus-summary-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the
9730 FAQ from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory
9731 on a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
9732 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
9733 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will probably
9734 be used for fetching the file.
9737 @kindex H d (Summary)
9738 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
9739 Give a brief description of the current group
9740 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
9741 rereading the description from the server.
9744 @kindex H h (Summary)
9745 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
9746 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
9747 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
9750 @kindex H i (Summary)
9751 @findex gnus-info-find-node
9752 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
9756 @node Searching for Articles
9757 @subsection Searching for Articles
9762 @kindex M-s (Summary)
9763 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
9764 Search through all subsequent (raw) articles for a regexp
9765 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
9768 @kindex M-r (Summary)
9769 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
9770 Search through all previous (raw) articles for a regexp
9771 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
9775 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
9776 This command will prompt you for a header, a regular expression to match
9777 on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
9778 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If the header is an empty
9779 string, the match is done on the entire article. If given a prefix,
9780 search backward instead.
9782 For instance, @kbd{& RET some.*string #} will put the process mark on
9783 all articles that have heads or bodies that match @samp{some.*string}.
9786 @kindex M-& (Summary)
9787 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
9788 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
9789 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
9792 @node Summary Generation Commands
9793 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
9798 @kindex Y g (Summary)
9799 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
9800 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
9803 @kindex Y c (Summary)
9804 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
9805 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
9806 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
9811 @node Really Various Summary Commands
9812 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
9818 @kindex C-d (Summary)
9819 @kindex A D (Summary)
9820 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
9821 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
9822 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
9823 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
9824 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
9825 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
9826 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
9827 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
9831 @kindex C-M-d (Summary)
9832 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
9833 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
9834 several documents into one biiig group
9835 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
9836 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
9837 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
9838 command understands the process/prefix convention
9839 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
9842 @kindex C-t (Summary)
9843 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
9844 Toggle truncation of summary lines
9845 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
9846 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
9847 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
9851 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
9852 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
9853 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
9856 @kindex C-M-e (Summary)
9857 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
9858 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
9859 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
9862 @kindex C-M-a (Summary)
9863 @findex gnus-summary-customize-parameters
9864 Customize the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
9865 group (@code{gnus-summary-customize-parameters}).
9870 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
9871 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
9872 @cindex summary exit
9873 @cindex exiting groups
9875 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
9876 group and return you to the group buffer.
9882 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
9884 @findex gnus-summary-exit
9885 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
9886 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
9887 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
9888 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
9889 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
9890 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
9891 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
9892 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
9893 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
9894 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
9898 @kindex Z E (Summary)
9900 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
9901 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
9902 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
9906 @kindex Z c (Summary)
9908 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
9909 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
9910 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
9911 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
9914 @kindex Z C (Summary)
9915 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
9916 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
9917 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
9920 @kindex Z n (Summary)
9921 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
9922 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
9923 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
9926 @kindex Z R (Summary)
9927 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
9928 Exit this group, and then enter it again
9929 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
9930 all articles, both read and unread.
9934 @kindex Z G (Summary)
9935 @kindex M-g (Summary)
9936 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
9937 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
9938 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
9939 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
9940 articles, both read and unread.
9943 @kindex Z N (Summary)
9944 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
9945 Exit the group and go to the next group
9946 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
9949 @kindex Z P (Summary)
9950 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
9951 Exit the group and go to the previous group
9952 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
9955 @kindex Z s (Summary)
9956 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
9957 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
9958 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
9959 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
9960 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
9963 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
9964 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current group
9965 with an ``updating'' exit. For instance @kbd{Q}
9966 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}) does not call this hook.
9968 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
9969 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
9970 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
9971 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
9972 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
9973 If you do that, Gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
9974 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
9975 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
9976 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
9977 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
9978 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
9979 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
9981 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
9983 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
9984 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
9985 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
9986 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
9987 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
9988 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
9989 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
9990 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
9991 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
9994 @node Crosspost Handling
9995 @section Crosspost Handling
9999 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
10000 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
10001 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
10002 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
10003 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
10004 heinous crime. You may want to try NoCeM handling to filter out spam
10007 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
10008 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
10009 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
10010 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
10011 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
10013 @cindex cross-posting
10016 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
10017 correctly is if you use an @sc{nntp} server that supports @sc{xover}
10018 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
10019 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @sc{nov} lines. This is
10020 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
10021 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
10022 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
10023 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
10024 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
10025 the cross reference mechanism.
10027 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
10028 @cindex overview.fmt
10029 To check whether your @sc{nntp} server includes the @code{Xref} header
10030 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
10031 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
10032 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
10033 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
10034 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
10037 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
10038 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
10039 set @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
10044 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
10047 @node Duplicate Suppression
10048 @section Duplicate Suppression
10050 By default, Gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
10051 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
10052 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
10053 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
10058 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
10059 is evil and not very common.
10062 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
10063 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
10066 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
10067 different @sc{nntp} servers.
10070 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
10073 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
10074 well, but these four are the most common situations.
10076 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
10077 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
10078 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
10079 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
10080 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
10081 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
10082 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
10085 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
10086 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
10087 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
10088 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
10089 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
10090 saw the article in.
10093 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
10094 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
10095 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
10097 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
10098 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
10099 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
10100 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
10101 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single Gnus
10102 session are suppressed.
10104 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
10105 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
10106 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
10107 suppression list. The default is 10000.
10109 @item gnus-duplicate-file
10110 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
10111 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
10112 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
10115 If you have a tendency to stop and start Gnus often, setting
10116 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
10117 you leave Gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
10118 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
10119 so that means that if you stop and start Gnus often, you should set
10120 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
10121 to you to figure out, I think.
10126 Gnus is able to verify signed messages or decrypt encrypted messages.
10127 The formats that are supported are PGP, @sc{pgp/mime} and @sc{s/mime},
10128 however you need some external programs to get things to work:
10132 To handle PGP messages, you have to install mailcrypt or gpg.el as
10133 well as a OpenPGP implementation (such as GnuPG).
10136 To handle @sc{s/mime} message, you need to install OpenSSL. OpenSSL 0.9.6
10137 or newer is recommended.
10141 More information on how to set things up can be found in the message
10142 manual (@pxref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}).
10145 @item mm-verify-option
10146 @vindex mm-verify-option
10147 Option of verifying signed parts. @code{never}, not verify;
10148 @code{always}, always verify; @code{known}, only verify known
10149 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
10151 @item mm-decrypt-option
10152 @vindex mm-decrypt-option
10153 Option of decrypting encrypted parts. @code{never}, no decryption;
10154 @code{always}, always decrypt; @code{known}, only decrypt known
10155 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
10160 @section Mailing List
10162 @kindex A M (summary)
10163 @findex gnus-mailing-list-insinuate
10164 Gnus understands some mailing list fields of RFC 2369. To enable it,
10165 either add a `to-list' group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}),
10166 possibly using @kbd{A M} (@code{gnus-mailing-list-insinuate}) in the
10167 summary buffer, or say:
10170 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'turn-on-gnus-mailing-list-mode)
10173 That enables the following commands to the summary buffer:
10178 @kindex C-c C-n h (Summary)
10179 @findex gnus-mailing-list-help
10180 Send a message to fetch mailing list help, if List-Help field exists.
10183 @kindex C-c C-n s (Summary)
10184 @findex gnus-mailing-list-subscribe
10185 Send a message to subscribe the mailing list, if List-Subscribe field exists.
10188 @kindex C-c C-n u (Summary)
10189 @findex gnus-mailing-list-unsubscribe
10190 Send a message to unsubscribe the mailing list, if List-Unsubscribe
10194 @kindex C-c C-n p (Summary)
10195 @findex gnus-mailing-list-post
10196 Post to the mailing list, if List-Post field exists.
10199 @kindex C-c C-n o (Summary)
10200 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
10201 Send a message to the mailing list owner, if List-Owner field exists.
10204 @kindex C-c C-n a (Summary)
10205 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
10206 Browse the mailing list archive, if List-Archive field exists.
10210 @node Article Buffer
10211 @chapter Article Buffer
10212 @cindex article buffer
10214 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
10215 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
10216 tell Gnus otherwise.
10219 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
10220 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
10221 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
10222 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
10223 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
10227 @node Hiding Headers
10228 @section Hiding Headers
10229 @cindex hiding headers
10230 @cindex deleting headers
10232 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
10233 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
10235 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
10236 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
10237 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
10238 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
10239 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
10240 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
10241 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseum---and you'll probably want to get rid
10242 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
10243 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
10245 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
10249 @item gnus-visible-headers
10250 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
10251 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
10252 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
10253 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
10255 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
10256 the article and the subject, you'd say:
10259 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
10262 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
10265 @item gnus-ignored-headers
10266 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
10267 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
10268 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
10269 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
10270 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
10272 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} line
10273 and the @code{Xref} line, you might say:
10276 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
10279 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
10282 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
10283 variable will have no effect.
10287 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
10288 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
10289 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
10290 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
10291 the headers are to be displayed.
10293 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
10294 and then the subject, you might say something like:
10297 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
10300 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
10301 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
10303 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
10304 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
10305 You can hide further boring headers by setting
10306 @code{gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers} to @code{head}. What this function
10307 does depends on the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a
10308 list, but this list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead is
10309 lists various @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove
10312 These conditions are:
10315 Remove all empty headers.
10317 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
10318 @code{Newsgroups} header.
10320 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same address as the
10321 @code{From} header.
10323 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
10326 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
10327 the current groups's @code{to-address} parameter.
10329 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
10332 Remove the @code{To} header if it is very long.
10334 Remove all @code{To} headers if there are more than one.
10337 To include these three elements, you could say something like:
10340 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
10341 '(empty followup-to reply-to))
10344 This is also the default value for this variable.
10348 @section Using MIME
10351 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
10352 while people stand around yawning.
10354 @sc{mime}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
10355 while all newsreaders die of fear.
10357 @sc{mime} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
10358 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
10359 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
10361 @vindex gnus-display-mime-function
10362 @findex gnus-display-mime
10363 Gnus pushes @sc{mime} articles through @code{gnus-display-mime-function}
10364 to display the @sc{mime} parts. This is @code{gnus-display-mime} by
10365 default, which creates a bundle of clickable buttons that can be used to
10366 display, save and manipulate the @sc{mime} objects.
10368 The following commands are available when you have placed point over a
10372 @findex gnus-article-press-button
10373 @item RET (Article)
10374 @kindex RET (Article)
10375 @itemx BUTTON-2 (Article)
10376 Toggle displaying of the @sc{mime} object
10377 (@code{gnus-article-press-button}). If builtin viewers can not display
10378 the object, Gnus resorts to external viewers in the @file{mailcap}
10379 files. If a viewer has the @samp{copiousoutput} specification, the
10380 object is displayed inline.
10382 @findex gnus-mime-view-part
10383 @item M-RET (Article)
10384 @kindex M-RET (Article)
10386 Prompt for a method, and then view the @sc{mime} object using this
10387 method (@code{gnus-mime-view-part}).
10389 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-type
10391 @kindex t (Article)
10392 View the @sc{mime} object as if it were a different @sc{mime} media type
10393 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-type}).
10395 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset
10397 @kindex C (Article)
10398 Prompt for a charset, and then view the @sc{mime} object using this
10399 charset (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset}).
10401 @findex gnus-mime-save-part
10403 @kindex o (Article)
10404 Prompt for a file name, and then save the @sc{mime} object
10405 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part}).
10407 @findex gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip
10408 @item C-o (Article)
10409 @kindex C-o (Article)
10410 Prompt for a file name, then save the @sc{mime} object and strip it from
10411 the article. Then proceed to article editing, where a reasonable
10412 suggestion is being made on how the altered article should look
10413 like. The stripped @sc{mime} object will be referred via the
10414 message/external-body @sc{mime} type.
10415 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip}).
10417 @findex gnus-mime-copy-part
10419 @kindex c (Article)
10420 Copy the @sc{mime} object to a fresh buffer and display this buffer
10421 (@code{gnus-mime-copy-part}).
10423 @findex gnus-mime-print-part
10425 @kindex p (Article)
10426 Print the @sc{mime} object (@code{gnus-mime-print-part}). This
10427 command respects the @samp{print=} specifications in the
10428 @file{.mailcap} file.
10430 @findex gnus-mime-inline-part
10432 @kindex i (Article)
10433 Insert the contents of the @sc{mime} object into the buffer
10434 (@code{gnus-mime-inline-part}) as text/plain. If given a prefix, insert
10435 the raw contents without decoding. If given a numerical prefix, you can
10436 do semi-manual charset stuff (see
10437 @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist} in @pxref{Paging the
10440 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-internally
10442 @kindex E (Article)
10443 View the @sc{mime} object with an internal viewer. If no internal
10444 viewer is available, use an external viewer
10445 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-internally}).
10447 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-externally
10449 @kindex e (Article)
10450 View the @sc{mime} object with an external viewer.
10451 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-externally}).
10453 @findex gnus-mime-pipe-part
10455 @kindex | (Article)
10456 Output the @sc{mime} object to a process (@code{gnus-mime-pipe-part}).
10458 @findex gnus-mime-action-on-part
10460 @kindex . (Article)
10461 Interactively run an action on the @sc{mime} object
10462 (@code{gnus-mime-action-on-part}).
10466 Gnus will display some @sc{mime} objects automatically. The way Gnus
10467 determines which parts to do this with is described in the Emacs
10470 It might be best to just use the toggling functions from the article
10471 buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance, you enter the
10472 group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it, @sc{mime} has
10473 decoded the sound file in the article and some horrible sing-a-long song
10474 comes screaming out your speakers, and you can't find the volume button,
10475 because there isn't one, and people are starting to look at you, and you
10476 try to stop the program, but you can't, and you can't find the program
10477 to control the volume, and everybody else in the room suddenly decides
10478 to look at you disdainfully, and you'll feel rather stupid.)
10480 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
10482 Also see @pxref{MIME Commands}.
10485 @node Customizing Articles
10486 @section Customizing Articles
10487 @cindex article customization
10489 A slew of functions for customizing how the articles are to look like
10490 exist. You can call these functions interactively, or you can have them
10491 called automatically when you select the articles.
10493 To have them called automatically, you should set the corresponding
10494 ``treatment'' variable. For instance, to have headers hidden, you'd set
10495 @code{gnus-treat-hide-headers}. Below is a list of variables that can
10496 be set, but first we discuss the values these variables can have.
10498 Note: Some values, while valid, make little sense. Check the list below
10499 for sensible values.
10503 @code{nil}: Don't do this treatment.
10506 @code{t}: Do this treatment on all body parts.
10509 @code{head}: Do the treatment on the headers.
10512 @code{last}: Do this treatment on the last part.
10515 An integer: Do this treatment on all body parts that have a length less
10519 A list of strings: Do this treatment on all body parts that are in
10520 articles that are read in groups that have names that match one of the
10521 regexps in the list.
10524 A list where the first element is not a string:
10526 The list is evaluated recursively. The first element of the list is a
10527 predicate. The following predicates are recognized: @code{or},
10528 @code{and}, @code{not} and @code{typep}. Here's an example:
10532 (typep "text/x-vcard"))
10537 You may have noticed that the word @dfn{part} is used here. This refers
10538 to the fact that some messages are @sc{mime} multipart articles that may
10539 be divided into several parts. Articles that are not multiparts are
10540 considered to contain just a single part.
10542 @vindex gnus-article-treat-types
10543 Are the treatments applied to all sorts of multipart parts? Yes, if you
10544 want to, but by default, only @samp{text/plain} parts are given the
10545 treatment. This is controlled by the @code{gnus-article-treat-types}
10546 variable, which is a list of regular expressions that are matched to the
10547 type of the part. This variable is ignored if the value of the
10548 controlling variable is a predicate list, as described above.
10550 The following treatment options are available. The easiest way to
10551 customize this is to examine the @code{gnus-article-treat} customization
10552 group. Values in parenthesis are suggested sensible values. Others are
10553 possible but those listed are probably sufficient for most people.
10556 @item gnus-treat-buttonize (t, integer)
10557 @item gnus-treat-buttonize-head (head)
10559 @xref{Article Buttons}.
10561 @item gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences (t, integer)
10562 @item gnus-treat-overstrike (t, integer)
10563 @item gnus-treat-strip-cr (t, integer)
10564 @item gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body (t, integer)
10565 @item gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines (t, integer)
10566 @item gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines (t, integer)
10567 @item gnus-treat-strip-pem (t, last, integer)
10568 @item gnus-treat-strip-pgp (t, last, integer)
10569 @item gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines (t, last, integer)
10570 @item gnus-treat-unsplit-urls (t, integer)
10572 @xref{Article Washing}.
10574 @item gnus-treat-date-english (head)
10575 @item gnus-treat-date-iso8601 (head)
10576 @item gnus-treat-date-lapsed (head)
10577 @item gnus-treat-date-local (head)
10578 @item gnus-treat-date-original (head)
10579 @item gnus-treat-date-user-defined (head)
10580 @item gnus-treat-date-ut (head)
10582 @xref{Article Date}.
10584 @item gnus-treat-from-picon (head)
10585 @item gnus-treat-mail-picon (head)
10586 @item gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon (head)
10590 @item gnus-treat-display-smileys (t, integer)
10592 @item gnus-treat-body-boundary (head)
10594 @vindex gnus-body-boundary-delimiter
10595 Adds a delimiter between header and body, the string used as delimiter
10596 is controlled by @code{gnus-body-boundary-delimiter}.
10600 @item gnus-treat-display-xface (head)
10604 @item gnus-treat-emphasize (t, head, integer)
10605 @item gnus-treat-fill-article (t, integer)
10606 @item gnus-treat-fill-long-lines (t, integer)
10607 @item gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers (head)
10608 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation (t, integer)
10609 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe (t, integer)
10610 @item gnus-treat-hide-headers (head)
10611 @item gnus-treat-hide-signature (t, last)
10613 @xref{Article Hiding}.
10615 @item gnus-treat-highlight-citation (t, integer)
10616 @item gnus-treat-highlight-headers (head)
10617 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last, integer)
10619 @xref{Article Highlighting}.
10621 @item gnus-treat-play-sounds
10622 @item gnus-treat-translate
10623 @item gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig (head)
10625 @item gnus-treat-unfold-headers (head)
10626 @item gnus-treat-fold-headers (head)
10627 @item gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups (head)
10628 @item gnus-treat-leading-whitespace (head)
10630 @xref{Article Header}.
10635 @vindex gnus-part-display-hook
10636 You can, of course, write your own functions to be called from
10637 @code{gnus-part-display-hook}. The functions are called narrowed to the
10638 part, and you can do anything you like, pretty much. There is no
10639 information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can change
10643 @node Article Keymap
10644 @section Article Keymap
10646 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
10647 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
10648 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
10649 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
10652 A few additional keystrokes are available:
10657 @kindex SPACE (Article)
10658 @findex gnus-article-next-page
10659 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
10662 @kindex DEL (Article)
10663 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
10664 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
10667 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
10668 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
10669 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
10670 @kbd{C-c ^}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
10671 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
10674 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
10675 @findex gnus-article-mail
10676 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
10677 given a prefix, include the mail.
10680 @kindex s (Article)
10681 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
10682 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
10683 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
10686 @kindex ? (Article)
10687 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
10688 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
10689 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
10692 @kindex TAB (Article)
10693 @findex gnus-article-next-button
10694 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
10695 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
10698 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
10699 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
10700 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
10703 @kindex R (Article)
10704 @findex gnus-article-reply-with-original
10705 Send a reply to the current article and yank the current article
10706 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}). If given a prefix, make a
10707 wide reply. If the region is active, only yank the text in the
10711 @kindex F (Article)
10712 @findex gnus-article-followup-with-original
10713 Send a followup to the current article and yank the current article
10714 (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}). If given a prefix, make
10715 a wide reply. If the region is active, only yank the text in the
10723 @section Misc Article
10727 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
10728 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
10729 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
10730 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
10733 @vindex gnus-article-decode-hook
10734 @item gnus-article-decode-hook
10736 Hook used to decode @sc{mime} articles. The default value is
10737 @code{(article-decode-charset article-decode-encoded-words)}
10739 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
10740 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
10741 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
10742 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
10743 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
10744 the contents of the article buffer.
10746 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
10747 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
10748 Hook called in article mode buffers.
10750 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
10751 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
10752 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
10753 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
10755 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
10756 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
10757 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
10758 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
10759 accepts the same format specifications as that variable, with two
10765 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
10766 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
10767 performed. The characters and their meaning:
10772 Displayed when cited text may be hidden in the article buffer.
10775 Displayed when headers are hidden in the article buffer.
10778 Displayed when article is digitally signed or encrypted, and Gnus has
10779 hidden the security headers. (N.B. does not tell anything about
10780 security status, i.e. good or bad signature.)
10783 Displayed when the signature has been hidden in the Article buffer.
10786 Displayed when Gnus has treated overstrike characters in the article buffer.
10789 Displayed when Gnus has treated emphasised strings in the article buffer.
10794 The number of @sc{mime} parts in the article.
10798 @vindex gnus-break-pages
10800 @item gnus-break-pages
10801 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
10802 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
10803 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
10804 paging will not be done.
10806 @item gnus-page-delimiter
10807 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
10808 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
10813 @node Composing Messages
10814 @chapter Composing Messages
10815 @cindex composing messages
10818 @cindex sending mail
10823 @cindex using s/mime
10824 @cindex using smime
10826 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
10827 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
10828 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the
10829 article by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Overview, message,
10830 Message Manual}. Where the message will be posted/mailed to depends
10831 on your setup (@pxref{Posting Server}).
10834 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
10835 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
10836 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
10837 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
10838 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
10839 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
10840 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
10841 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
10844 Also see @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
10845 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
10851 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
10854 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
10855 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
10856 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
10857 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched.
10859 @item gnus-add-to-list
10860 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
10861 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
10862 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
10864 @item gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
10865 @vindex gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
10866 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus requests confirmation when replying to news.
10867 If you find yourself never wanting to reply to mail, but occasionally
10868 press R anyway, this variable might be for you.
10873 @node Posting Server
10874 @section Posting Server
10876 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
10877 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
10879 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
10881 It can be quite complicated.
10883 @vindex gnus-post-method
10884 When posting news, Message usually invokes @code{message-send-news}
10885 (@pxref{News Variables, , News Variables, message, Message Manual}).
10886 Normally, Gnus will post using the same select method as you're
10887 reading from (which might be convenient if you're reading lots of
10888 groups from different private servers). However. If the server
10889 you're reading from doesn't allow posting, just reading, you probably
10890 want to use some other server to post your (extremely intelligent and
10891 fabulously interesting) articles. You can then set the
10892 @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
10895 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
10898 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
10899 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
10900 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
10901 the ``current'' server, to get back the default behavior, for posting.
10903 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
10904 Gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
10906 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
10907 If that's the case, Gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
10910 Finally, if you want to always post using the native select method,
10911 you can set this variable to @code{native}.
10913 When sending mail, Message invokes @code{message-send-mail-function}.
10914 The default function, @code{message-send-mail-with-sendmail}, pipes
10915 your article to the @code{sendmail} binary for further queuing and
10916 sending. When your local system is not configured for sending mail
10917 using @code{sendmail}, and you have access to a remote @sc{smtp}
10918 server, you can set @code{message-send-mail-function} to
10919 @code{smtpmail-send-it} and make sure to setup the @code{smtpmail}
10920 package correctly. An example:
10923 (setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it
10924 smtpmail-default-smtp-server "YOUR SMTP HOST")
10927 To the thing similar to this, there is @code{message-smtpmail-send-it}.
10928 It is useful if your ISP requires the POP-before-SMTP authentication.
10929 See the documentation for the function @code{mail-source-touch-pop}.
10931 Other possible choises for @code{message-send-mail-function} includes
10932 @code{message-send-mail-with-mh}, @code{message-send-mail-with-qmail},
10933 and @code{feedmail-send-it}.
10935 @node Mail and Post
10936 @section Mail and Post
10938 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
10942 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
10943 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
10944 @cindex mailing lists
10946 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
10947 gatewayed to the @sc{nntp} server, you can read those groups without
10948 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
10949 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
10950 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
10951 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
10952 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
10953 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
10954 still a pain, though.
10958 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
10959 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
10960 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
10963 @findex ispell-message
10965 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
10968 If you want to change the @code{ispell} dictionary based on what group
10969 you're in, you could say something like the following:
10972 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
10976 "^de\\." (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
10977 (ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch"))
10979 (ispell-change-dictionary "english")))))
10982 Modify to suit your needs.
10985 @node Archived Messages
10986 @section Archived Messages
10987 @cindex archived messages
10988 @cindex sent messages
10990 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
10991 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
10992 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
10993 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}, which
10996 For archiving interesting messages in a group you read, see the
10997 @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}) command (@pxref{Mail
11000 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
11001 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server Gnus is to
11002 use to store sent messages. The default is:
11005 (nnfolder "archive"
11006 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
11007 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
11008 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
11009 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
11012 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
11013 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likable select method
11014 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
11015 directory chosen, you could say something like:
11018 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
11019 '(nnfolder "archive"
11020 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
11021 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
11022 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
11025 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
11027 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
11028 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
11029 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
11031 This variable can be used to do the following:
11036 Messages will be saved in that group.
11038 Note that you can include a select method in the group name, then the
11039 message will not be stored in the select method given by
11040 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, but in the select method specified
11041 by the group name, instead. Suppose @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
11042 has the default value shown above. Then setting
11043 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{"foo"} means that outgoing
11044 messages are stored in @samp{nnfolder+archive:foo}, but if you use the
11045 value @code{"nnml:foo"}, then outgoing messages will be stored in
11049 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
11051 an alist of regexps, functions and forms
11052 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
11055 No message archiving will take place. This is the default.
11060 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
11062 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
11065 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
11067 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
11070 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
11072 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
11073 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
11074 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
11075 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
11078 More complex stuff:
11080 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
11081 '((if (message-news-p)
11086 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
11087 messages in one file per month:
11090 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
11091 '((if (message-news-p)
11093 (concat "mail." (format-time-string "%Y-%m")))))
11096 @c (XEmacs 19.13 doesn't have @code{format-time-string}, so you'll have to
11097 @c use a different value for @code{gnus-message-archive-group} there.)
11099 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
11100 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
11101 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
11102 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
11103 Gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
11104 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
11105 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
11106 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
11107 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
11108 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
11110 That's the default method of archiving sent messages. Gnus offers a
11111 different way for the people who don't like the default method. In that
11112 case you should set @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{nil};
11113 this will disable archiving.
11116 @item gnus-outgoing-message-group
11117 @vindex gnus-outgoing-message-group
11118 All outgoing messages will be put in this group. If you want to store
11119 all your outgoing mail and articles in the group @samp{nnml:archive},
11120 you set this variable to that value. This variable can also be a list of
11123 If you want to have greater control over what group to put each
11124 message in, you can set this variable to a function that checks the
11125 current newsgroup name and then returns a suitable group name (or list
11128 This variable can be used instead of @code{gnus-message-archive-group},
11129 but the latter is the preferred method.
11131 @item gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
11132 @vindex gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
11133 If non-@code{nil}, automatically mark @code{Gcc} articles as read.
11135 @item gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
11136 @vindex gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
11137 If @code{nil}, attach files as normal parts in Gcc copies; if a regexp
11138 and matches the Gcc group name, attach files as external parts; if it is
11139 @code{all}, attach local files as external parts; if it is other
11140 non-@code{nil}, the behavior is the same as @code{all}, but it may be
11141 changed in the future.
11146 @node Posting Styles
11147 @section Posting Styles
11148 @cindex posting styles
11151 All them variables, they make my head swim.
11153 So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
11154 on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
11155 and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
11158 @vindex gnus-posting-styles
11159 One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
11160 variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
11161 came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
11162 a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
11167 (signature "Peace and happiness")
11168 (organization "What me?"))
11170 (signature "Death to everybody"))
11171 ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
11172 (organization "Emacs is it")))
11175 As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
11176 @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
11177 ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
11178 over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
11179 applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
11180 the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
11181 @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
11182 signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
11184 The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
11185 string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
11186 If it is the form @code{(header MATCH REGEXP)}, then Gnus will look in
11187 the original article for a header whose name is MATCH and compare that
11188 REGEXP. MATCH and REGEXP are strings. If it's a function symbol, that
11189 function will be called with no arguments. If it's a variable symbol,
11190 then the variable will be referenced. If it's a list, then that list
11191 will be @code{eval}ed. In any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil}
11192 value, then the style is said to @dfn{match}.
11194 Each style may contain an arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
11195 attribute consists of a @code{(@var{name} @var{value})} pair. The
11196 attribute name can be one of @code{signature}, @code{signature-file},
11197 @code{x-face-file}, @code{address} (overriding
11198 @code{user-mail-address}), @code{name} (overriding
11199 @code{(user-full-name)}) or @code{body}. The attribute name can also
11200 be a string or a symbol. In that case, this will be used as a header
11201 name, and the value will be inserted in the headers of the article; if
11202 the value is @code{nil}, the header name will be removed. If the
11203 attribute name is @code{eval}, the form is evaluated, and the result
11206 The attribute value can be a string (used verbatim), a function with
11207 zero arguments (the return value will be used), a variable (its value
11208 will be used) or a list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value
11209 will be used). The functions and sexps are called/@code{eval}ed in the
11210 message buffer that is being set up. The headers of the current article
11211 are available through the @code{message-reply-headers} variable, which
11212 is a vector of the following headers: number subject from date id
11213 references chars lines xref extra.
11215 @vindex message-reply-headers
11217 If you wish to check whether the message you are about to compose is
11218 meant to be a news article or a mail message, you can check the values
11219 of the @code{message-news-p} and @code{message-mail-p} functions.
11221 @findex message-mail-p
11222 @findex message-news-p
11224 So here's a new example:
11227 (setq gnus-posting-styles
11229 (signature-file "~/.signature")
11231 ("X-Home-Page" (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
11232 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
11234 (signature my-funny-signature-randomizer))
11235 ((equal (system-name) "gnarly") ;; A form
11236 (signature my-quote-randomizer))
11237 (message-news-p ;; A function symbol
11238 (signature my-news-signature))
11239 (window-system ;; A value symbol
11240 ("X-Window-System" (format "%s" window-system)))
11241 ;; If I'm replying to Larsi, set the Organization header.
11242 ((header "from" "larsi.*org")
11243 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
11244 ((posting-from-work-p) ;; A user defined function
11245 (signature-file "~/.work-signature")
11246 (address "user@@bar.foo")
11247 (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
11248 (organization "Important Work, Inc"))
11250 (From (save-excursion
11251 (set-buffer gnus-article-buffer)
11252 (message-fetch-field "to"))))
11254 (signature-file "~/.mail-signature"))))
11257 The @samp{nnml:.*} rule means that you use the @code{To} address as the
11258 @code{From} address in all your outgoing replies, which might be handy
11259 if you fill many roles.
11266 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
11267 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
11268 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
11269 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
11270 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
11272 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
11273 some sort using the Gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
11274 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
11275 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
11276 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
11280 @vindex nndraft-directory
11281 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
11282 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
11283 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
11284 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
11285 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
11286 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
11288 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
11289 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
11292 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
11293 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
11294 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
11295 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
11296 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
11297 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
11298 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
11299 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
11300 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
11301 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
11302 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
11303 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
11304 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
11305 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
11307 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
11308 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
11309 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
11311 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
11312 @kindex D e (Draft)
11313 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
11314 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
11315 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
11317 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
11320 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
11321 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
11322 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
11323 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
11324 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
11325 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
11326 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
11329 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
11330 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
11331 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
11334 @node Rejected Articles
11335 @section Rejected Articles
11336 @cindex rejected articles
11338 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
11339 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
11340 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
11341 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
11343 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of Gnus.
11344 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
11345 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
11346 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So Gnus saves these
11347 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
11349 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
11350 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
11351 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
11353 @node Signing and encrypting
11354 @section Signing and encrypting
11356 @cindex using s/mime
11357 @cindex using smime
11359 Gnus can digitally sign and encrypt your messages, using vanilla PGP
11360 format or @sc{pgp/mime} or @sc{s/mime}. For decoding such messages,
11361 see the @code{mm-verify-option} and @code{mm-decrypt-option} options
11362 (@pxref{Security}).
11364 For PGP, Gnus supports two external libraries, @sc{gpg.el} and
11365 @sc{Mailcrypt}, you need to install at least one of them. The
11366 @sc{s/mime} support in Gnus requires the external program OpenSSL.
11368 Often, you would like to sign replies to people who send you signed
11369 messages. Even more often, you might want to encrypt messages which
11370 are in reply to encrypted messages. Gnus offers
11371 @code{gnus-message-replysign} to enable the former, and
11372 @code{gnus-message-replyencrypt} for the latter. In addition, setting
11373 @code{gnus-message-replysignencrypted} (on by default) will sign
11374 automatically encrypted messages.
11376 Instructing MML to perform security operations on a @sc{mime} part is
11377 done using the @kbd{C-c C-m s} key map for signing and the @kbd{C-c
11378 C-m c} key map for encryption, as follows.
11383 @kindex C-c C-m s s
11384 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-smime
11386 Digitally sign current message using @sc{s/mime}.
11389 @kindex C-c C-m s o
11390 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
11392 Digitally sign current message using PGP.
11395 @kindex C-c C-m s p
11396 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
11398 Digitally sign current message using @sc{pgp/mime}.
11401 @kindex C-c C-m c s
11402 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-smime
11404 Digitally encrypt current message using @sc{s/mime}.
11407 @kindex C-c C-m c o
11408 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgp
11410 Digitally encrypt current message using PGP.
11413 @kindex C-c C-m c p
11414 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgpmime
11416 Digitally encrypt current message using @sc{pgp/mime}.
11419 @kindex C-c C-m C-n
11420 @findex mml-unsecure-message
11421 Remove security related MML tags from message.
11425 Also @xref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}.
11427 @node Select Methods
11428 @chapter Select Methods
11429 @cindex foreign groups
11430 @cindex select methods
11432 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
11433 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
11434 @sc{nntp} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
11435 personal mail group.
11437 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
11438 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
11439 list where the first element says what back end to use (e.g. @code{nntp},
11440 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
11441 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
11442 value may have special meaning for the back end in question.
11444 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
11445 we do just that (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
11447 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the back end will recognize the
11450 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @sc{nntp} server
11451 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
11452 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
11453 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
11454 back end just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
11456 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
11459 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
11460 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
11461 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
11462 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
11463 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @sc{imap} client.
11464 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
11465 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
11466 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
11470 @node Server Buffer
11471 @section Server Buffer
11473 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
11474 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
11475 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
11476 one back end or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
11477 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
11478 back end represents a virtual server.
11480 For instance, the @code{nntp} back end may be used to connect to several
11481 different actual @sc{nntp} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
11482 on the same actual @sc{nntp} server. You tell Gnus which back end to
11483 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
11485 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
11486 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
11487 @sc{nntp} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
11488 hangs if queried for @sc{nov} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
11489 Anyway, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
11490 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
11491 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
11493 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
11494 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
11497 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
11498 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
11499 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
11500 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
11501 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
11502 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
11503 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
11506 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
11507 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
11510 @node Server Buffer Format
11511 @subsection Server Buffer Format
11512 @cindex server buffer format
11514 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
11515 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
11516 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
11517 variable, with some simple extensions:
11522 How the news is fetched---the back end name.
11525 The name of this server.
11528 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
11531 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
11534 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
11535 The mode line can also be customized by using the
11536 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable (@pxref{Mode Line
11537 Formatting}). The following specs are understood:
11547 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
11550 @node Server Commands
11551 @subsection Server Commands
11552 @cindex server commands
11558 @findex gnus-server-add-server
11559 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
11563 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
11564 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
11567 @kindex SPACE (Server)
11568 @findex gnus-server-read-server
11569 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
11573 @findex gnus-server-exit
11574 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
11578 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
11579 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
11583 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
11584 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
11588 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
11589 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
11593 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
11594 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
11598 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
11599 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
11600 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
11605 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
11606 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
11607 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
11608 a mail back end that has gotten out of sync.
11613 @node Example Methods
11614 @subsection Example Methods
11616 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
11619 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
11622 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
11628 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
11629 back end, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
11632 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
11633 @code{(@var{variable} @var{form})} pairs.
11635 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
11636 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
11640 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
11643 You should read the documentation to each back end to find out what
11644 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
11646 @code{nnmh} is a mail back end that reads a spool-like structure. Say
11647 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
11648 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
11652 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
11655 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
11658 Here's the method for a public spool:
11662 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
11663 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
11669 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @sc{nntp}
11670 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
11671 on the firewall machine and telnet from there to the @sc{nntp} server.
11672 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
11673 should probably look something like this:
11677 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet)
11678 (nntp-via-address "the.firewall.machine")
11679 (nntp-address "the.real.nntp.host")
11680 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
11683 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
11684 compressed connection over the modem line, you could add the following
11685 configuration to the example above:
11688 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
11691 See also @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches}.
11693 If you're behind a firewall, but have direct access to the outside world
11694 through a wrapper command like "runsocks", you could open a socksified
11695 telnet connection to the news server as follows:
11699 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
11700 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-telnet)
11701 (nntp-address "the.news.server")
11702 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
11705 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
11706 provide automatic authorization, of course. And to get a compressed
11707 connection, you have to have the @samp{Compression} option in the
11708 @code{ssh} @file{config} file.
11711 @node Creating a Virtual Server
11712 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
11714 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
11715 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
11717 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
11718 would probably be best to use @code{nnspool} to read the cache. You
11719 could also use @code{nnml} or @code{nnmh}, though.
11721 Type @kbd{a nnspool RET cache RET}.
11723 You should now have a brand new @code{nnspool} virtual server called
11724 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
11725 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
11726 will contain the following:
11736 (nnspool-spool-directory "~/News/cache/")
11737 (nnspool-nov-directory "~/News/cache/")
11738 (nnspool-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
11741 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
11742 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
11743 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
11746 @node Server Variables
11747 @subsection Server Variables
11749 One sticky point when defining variables (both on back ends and in Emacs
11750 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
11751 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
11752 change the "base" variable after the variables have been loaded, you
11753 won't change the "derived" variables.
11755 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
11756 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
11757 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
11758 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
11759 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
11760 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
11761 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
11762 variables for each back end, see each back end's section later in this
11763 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
11767 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
11768 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
11769 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
11773 @node Servers and Methods
11774 @subsection Servers and Methods
11776 Wherever you would normally use a select method
11777 (e.g. @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
11778 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
11779 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
11783 @node Unavailable Servers
11784 @subsection Unavailable Servers
11786 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
11787 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
11788 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
11789 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
11790 actually the case or not.
11792 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
11793 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
11794 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
11795 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
11796 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
11797 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
11798 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
11799 it will regard that server as ``down''.
11801 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
11802 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
11804 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{Server Buffer}) and poke it
11805 with the following commands:
11811 @findex gnus-server-open-server
11812 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
11813 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
11817 @findex gnus-server-close-server
11818 Close the connection (if any) to the server
11819 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
11823 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
11824 Mark the current server as unreachable
11825 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
11828 @kindex M-o (Server)
11829 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
11830 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
11831 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
11834 @kindex M-c (Server)
11835 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
11836 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
11837 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
11841 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
11842 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
11843 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
11847 @findex gnus-server-offline-server
11848 Set server status to offline (@code{gnus-server-offline-server}).
11854 @section Getting News
11855 @cindex reading news
11856 @cindex news back ends
11858 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
11859 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @sc{nntp} server,
11860 or it can read from a local spool.
11863 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
11864 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
11872 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @sc{nntp} server is rather easy.
11873 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @sc{nntp}
11874 server as the, uhm, address.
11876 If the @sc{nntp} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
11877 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
11878 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
11879 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
11881 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
11882 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
11883 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
11885 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
11890 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
11891 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
11892 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
11894 @cindex authentification
11895 @cindex nntp authentification
11896 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
11897 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
11898 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
11899 commands to the @sc{nntp} server after it has been contacted. By
11900 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
11901 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
11902 present in this hook.
11904 @item nntp-authinfo-function
11905 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
11906 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
11907 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
11908 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @sc{nntp}
11909 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
11910 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
11911 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
11912 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
11913 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
11914 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
11915 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
11919 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
11922 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs.
11924 The valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password},
11925 @samp{default}. In addition Gnus introduces two new tokens, not present
11926 in the original @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp} syntax, namely @samp{port} and
11927 @samp{force}. (This is the only way the @file{.authinfo} file format
11928 deviates from the @file{.netrc} file format.) @samp{port} is used to
11929 indicate what port on the server the credentials apply to and
11930 @samp{force} is explained below.
11934 Here's an example file:
11937 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
11938 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
11941 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
11942 have to be first, for instance.
11944 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
11945 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
11946 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
11947 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
11948 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
11949 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
11950 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
11952 You can also add @samp{default} lines that will apply to all servers
11953 that don't have matching @samp{machine} lines.
11959 This will force sending @samp{AUTHINFO} commands to all servers not
11960 previously mentioned.
11962 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
11964 @item nntp-server-action-alist
11965 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
11966 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
11967 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
11968 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
11971 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
11972 '(("innd" (ding))))
11975 You probably don't want to do that, though.
11977 The default value is
11980 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
11981 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook
11982 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
11985 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
11986 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
11988 @item nntp-maximum-request
11989 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
11990 If the @sc{nntp} server doesn't support @sc{nov} headers, this back end
11991 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
11992 speed things up, the back end sends lots of these commands without
11993 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
11994 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
11995 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
11997 @item nntp-connection-timeout
11998 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
11999 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
12000 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @sc{nntp} servers not
12001 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
12002 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
12003 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
12004 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} back end should wait for a
12005 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
12006 no timeouts are done.
12008 @c @item nntp-command-timeout
12009 @c @vindex nntp-command-timeout
12010 @c @cindex PPP connections
12011 @c @cindex dynamic IP addresses
12012 @c If you're running Gnus on a machine that has a dynamically assigned
12013 @c address, Gnus may become confused. If the address of your machine
12014 @c changes after connecting to the @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will simply sit
12015 @c waiting forever for replies from the server. To help with this
12016 @c unfortunate problem, you can set this command to a number. Gnus will
12017 @c then, if it sits waiting for a reply from the server longer than that
12018 @c number of seconds, shut down the connection, start a new one, and resend
12019 @c the command. This should hopefully be transparent to the user. A
12020 @c likely number is 30 seconds.
12022 @c @item nntp-retry-on-break
12023 @c @vindex nntp-retry-on-break
12024 @c If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you can also @kbd{C-g} if Gnus
12025 @c hangs. This will have much the same effect as the command timeout
12026 @c described above.
12028 @item nntp-server-hook
12029 @vindex nntp-server-hook
12030 This hook is run as the last step when connecting to an @sc{nntp}
12033 @item nntp-buggy-select
12034 @vindex nntp-buggy-select
12035 Set this to non-@code{nil} if your select routine is buggy.
12037 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
12038 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
12039 If the @sc{nntp} server does not support @sc{nov}, you could set this
12040 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @sc{nov}
12043 @item nntp-xover-commands
12044 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
12047 List of strings used as commands to fetch @sc{nov} lines from a
12048 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
12052 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
12053 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @sc{nov} lines to
12054 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
12055 if you have read articles 2-5000 in the group, and only want to read
12056 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @sc{nov}
12057 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
12058 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
12059 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
12060 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
12061 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
12062 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
12064 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
12065 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
12066 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @sc{nntp} server.
12068 @item nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
12069 @vindex nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
12070 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, some noise will be made when a
12071 server closes connection.
12073 @item nntp-record-commands
12074 @vindex nntp-record-commands
12075 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
12076 @sc{nntp} server (along with a timestamp) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
12077 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@sc{nntp} connection
12078 that doesn't seem to work.
12080 @item nntp-open-connection-function
12081 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
12082 It is possible to customize how the connection to the nntp server will
12083 be opened. If you specify an @code{nntp-open-connection-function}
12084 parameter, Gnus will use that function to establish the connection.
12085 Five pre-made functions are supplied. These functions can be grouped in
12086 two categories: direct connection functions (three pre-made), and
12087 indirect ones (two pre-made).
12089 @item nntp-prepare-post-hook
12090 @vindex nntp-prepare-post-hook
12091 A hook run just before posting an article. If there is no
12092 @code{Message-ID} header in the article and the news server provides the
12093 recommended ID, it will be added to the article before running this
12094 hook. It is useful to make @code{Cancel-Lock} headers even if you
12095 inhibit Gnus to add a @code{Message-ID} header, you could say:
12098 (add-hook 'nntp-prepare-post-hook 'canlock-insert-header)
12101 Note that not all servers support the recommended ID. This works for
12102 INN versions 2.3.0 and later, for instance.
12106 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
12107 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
12108 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
12112 @node Direct Functions
12113 @subsubsection Direct Functions
12114 @cindex direct connection functions
12116 These functions are called direct because they open a direct connection
12117 between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server. The behavior of these
12118 functions is also affected by commonly understood variables
12119 (@pxref{Common Variables}).
12122 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
12123 @item nntp-open-network-stream
12124 This is the default, and simply connects to some port or other on the
12127 @findex nntp-open-ssl-stream
12128 @item nntp-open-ssl-stream
12129 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
12130 this you must have OpenSSL (@uref{http://www.openssl.org}) or SSLeay
12131 installed (@uref{ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL}, and you also
12132 need @file{ssl.el} (from the W3 distribution, for instance). You then
12133 define a server as follows:
12136 ;; Type `C-c C-c' after you've finished editing.
12138 ;; "snews" is port 563 and is predefined in our /etc/services
12139 ;; however, openssl s_client -port doesn't like named ports
12141 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
12142 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-ssl-stream)
12143 (nntp-port-number 563)
12144 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
12147 @findex nntp-open-telnet-stream
12148 @item nntp-open-telnet-stream
12149 Opens a connection to an @sc{nntp} server by simply @samp{telnet}'ing
12150 it. You might wonder why this function exists, since we have the
12151 default @code{nntp-open-network-stream} which would do the job. (One
12152 of) the reason(s) is that if you are behind a firewall but have direct
12153 connections to the outside world thanks to a command wrapper like
12154 @code{runsocks}, you can use it like this:
12158 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
12159 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-telnet-stream)
12160 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
12163 With the default method, you would need to wrap your whole Emacs
12164 session, which is not a good idea.
12168 @node Indirect Functions
12169 @subsubsection Indirect Functions
12170 @cindex indirect connection functions
12172 These functions are called indirect because they connect to an
12173 intermediate host before actually connecting to the @sc{nntp} server.
12174 All of these functions and related variables are also said to belong to
12175 the "via" family of connection: they're all prefixed with "via" to make
12176 things cleaner. The behavior of these functions is also affected by
12177 commonly understood variables (@pxref{Common Variables}).
12180 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
12181 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
12182 Does an @samp{rlogin} on a remote system, and then does a @samp{telnet}
12183 to the real @sc{nntp} server from there. This is useful for instance if
12184 you need to connect to a firewall machine first.
12186 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet}-specific variables:
12189 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
12190 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
12191 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
12192 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
12194 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
12195 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
12196 List of strings to be used as the switches to
12197 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. The default is @code{nil}. If you use
12198 @samp{ssh} for `nntp-via-rlogin-command', you may set this to
12199 @samp{("-C")} in order to compress all data connections, otherwise set
12200 this to @samp{("-t")} or @samp{("-C" "-t")} if the telnet command
12201 requires a pseudo-tty allocation on an intermediate host.
12204 @item nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
12205 @findex nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
12206 Does essentially the same, but uses @samp{telnet} instead of
12207 @samp{rlogin} to connect to the intermediate host.
12209 @code{nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet}-specific variables:
12212 @item nntp-via-telnet-command
12213 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-command
12214 Command used to @code{telnet} the intermediate host. The default is
12217 @item nntp-via-telnet-switches
12218 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-switches
12219 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
12220 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @samp{("-8")}.
12222 @item nntp-via-user-password
12223 @vindex nntp-via-user-password
12224 Password to use when logging in on the intermediate host.
12226 @item nntp-via-envuser
12227 @vindex nntp-via-envuser
12228 If non-@code{nil}, the intermediate @code{telnet} session (client and
12229 server both) will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for
12230 login name. This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
12232 @item nntp-via-shell-prompt
12233 @vindex nntp-via-shell-prompt
12234 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the intermediate host. The default
12235 is @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
12242 Here are some additional variables that are understood by all the above
12247 @item nntp-via-user-name
12248 @vindex nntp-via-user-name
12249 User name to use when connecting to the intermediate host.
12251 @item nntp-via-address
12252 @vindex nntp-via-address
12253 Address of the intermediate host to connect to.
12258 @node Common Variables
12259 @subsubsection Common Variables
12261 The following variables affect the behavior of all, or several of the
12262 pre-made connection functions. When not specified, all functions are
12267 @item nntp-pre-command
12268 @vindex nntp-pre-command
12269 A command wrapper to use when connecting through a non native connection
12270 function (all except @code{nntp-open-network-stream} and
12271 @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream}. This is where you would put a @samp{SOCKS}
12272 wrapper for instance.
12275 @vindex nntp-address
12276 The address of the @sc{nntp} server.
12278 @item nntp-port-number
12279 @vindex nntp-port-number
12280 Port number to connect to the @sc{nntp} server. The default is @samp{nntp}.
12281 If you use @sc{nntp} over @sc{ssl}, you may want to use integer ports rather
12282 than named ports (i.e, use @samp{563} instead of @samp{snews}), because
12283 external SSL tools may not work with named ports.
12285 @item nntp-end-of-line
12286 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
12287 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @sc{nntp}
12288 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
12289 using a non native connection function.
12291 @item nntp-telnet-command
12292 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
12293 Command to use when connecting to the @sc{nntp} server through
12294 @samp{telnet}. This is NOT for an intermediate host. This is just for
12295 the real @sc{nntp} server. The default is @samp{telnet}.
12297 @item nntp-telnet-switches
12298 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
12299 A list of switches to pass to @code{nntp-telnet-command}. The default
12306 @subsection News Spool
12310 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
12311 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
12312 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
12315 Anyway, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
12316 anything else) as the address.
12318 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
12319 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
12320 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
12321 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
12325 @item nnspool-inews-program
12326 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
12327 Program used to post an article.
12329 @item nnspool-inews-switches
12330 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
12331 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
12333 @item nnspool-spool-directory
12334 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
12335 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
12336 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
12338 @item nnspool-nov-directory
12339 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
12340 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @sc{nov} files. This is normally
12341 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
12343 @item nnspool-lib-dir
12344 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
12345 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
12347 @item nnspool-active-file
12348 @vindex nnspool-active-file
12349 The path to the active file.
12351 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
12352 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
12353 The path to the group descriptions file.
12355 @item nnspool-history-file
12356 @vindex nnspool-history-file
12357 The path to the news history file.
12359 @item nnspool-active-times-file
12360 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
12361 The path to the active date file.
12363 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
12364 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
12365 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @sc{nov} files
12368 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
12369 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
12371 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
12372 relevant portion from the overview file. If nil, @code{nnspool} will
12373 load the entire file into a buffer and process it there.
12379 @section Getting Mail
12380 @cindex reading mail
12383 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
12387 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
12388 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
12389 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
12390 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
12391 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
12392 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
12393 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
12394 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
12395 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
12396 * Washing Mail:: Removing gruft from the mail you get.
12397 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
12398 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
12399 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
12403 @node Mail in a Newsreader
12404 @subsection Mail in a Newsreader
12406 If you are used to traditional mail readers, but have decided to switch
12407 to reading mail with Gnus, you may find yourself experiencing something
12408 of a culture shock.
12410 Gnus does not behave like traditional mail readers. If you want to make
12411 it behave that way, you can, but it's an uphill battle.
12413 Gnus, by default, handles all its groups using the same approach. This
12414 approach is very newsreaderly---you enter a group, see the new/unread
12415 messages, and when you read the messages, they get marked as read, and
12416 you don't see them any more. (Unless you explicitly ask for them.)
12418 In particular, you do not do anything explicitly to delete messages.
12420 Does this mean that all the messages that have been marked as read are
12421 deleted? How awful!
12423 But, no, it means that old messages are @dfn{expired} according to some
12424 scheme or other. For news messages, the expire process is controlled by
12425 the news administrator; for mail, the expire process is controlled by
12426 you. The expire process for mail is covered in depth in @pxref{Expiring
12429 What many Gnus users find, after using it a while for both news and
12430 mail, is that the transport mechanism has very little to do with how
12431 they want to treat a message.
12433 Many people subscribe to several mailing lists. These are transported
12434 via @sc{smtp}, and are therefore mail. But we might go for weeks without
12435 answering, or even reading these messages very carefully. We may not
12436 need to save them because if we should need to read one again, they are
12437 archived somewhere else.
12439 Some people have local news groups which have only a handful of readers.
12440 These are transported via @sc{nntp}, and are therefore news. But we may need
12441 to read and answer a large fraction of the messages very carefully in
12442 order to do our work. And there may not be an archive, so we may need
12443 to save the interesting messages the same way we would personal mail.
12445 The important distinction turns out to be not the transport mechanism,
12446 but other factors such as how interested we are in the subject matter,
12447 or how easy it is to retrieve the message if we need to read it again.
12449 Gnus provides many options for sorting mail into ``groups'' which behave
12450 like newsgroups, and for treating each group (whether mail or news)
12453 Some users never get comfortable using the Gnus (ahem) paradigm and wish
12454 that Gnus should grow up and be a male, er, mail reader. It is possible
12455 to whip Gnus into a more mailreaderly being, but, as said before, it's
12456 not easy. People who prefer proper mail readers should try @sc{vm}
12457 instead, which is an excellent, and proper, mail reader.
12459 I don't mean to scare anybody off, but I want to make it clear that you
12460 may be required to learn a new way of thinking about messages. After
12461 you've been subjected to The Gnus Way, you will come to love it. I can
12462 guarantee it. (At least the guy who sold me the Emacs Subliminal
12463 Brain-Washing Functions that I've put into Gnus did guarantee it. You
12464 Will Be Assimilated. You Love Gnus. You Love The Gnus Mail Way.
12468 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
12469 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
12471 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
12472 mail back end of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
12473 and things will happen automatically.
12475 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a "one file per
12476 mail" back end), you could put the following in your @file{.gnus} file:
12479 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
12482 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this back end will be queried for new
12483 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
12484 directory, which is @code{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
12485 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
12486 like any other group.
12488 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
12491 (setq nnmail-split-methods
12492 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
12493 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
12497 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
12498 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
12499 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
12502 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
12503 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
12504 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Back End} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
12507 @node Splitting Mail
12508 @subsection Splitting Mail
12509 @cindex splitting mail
12510 @cindex mail splitting
12512 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
12513 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
12514 to be split into groups.
12517 (setq nnmail-split-methods
12518 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
12519 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
12520 ("mail.other" "")))
12523 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
12524 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
12525 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
12526 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
12527 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
12528 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
12529 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
12532 ("list.\\1" "From:.* \\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
12535 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
12536 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
12537 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
12538 mail belongs in that group.
12540 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
12541 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{} so that it matches any mails
12542 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
12543 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first
12544 rule to make a match will "win", unless you have crossposting enabled.
12545 In that case, all matching rules will "win".)
12547 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
12548 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
12549 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
12550 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
12551 thinks should carry this mail message.
12553 Note that the mail back ends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
12554 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
12555 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
12556 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
12558 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
12559 The mail back ends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
12560 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
12561 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
12562 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{}) group.
12564 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
12567 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
12568 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
12569 links. If that's the case for you, set
12570 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
12571 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
12573 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
12574 @kindex nnmail-split-history
12575 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
12576 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command. If you wish to see
12577 where re-spooling messages would put the messages, you can use
12578 @code{gnus-summary-respool-trace} and related commands (@pxref{Mail
12581 @vindex nnmail-split-header-length-limit
12582 Header lines longer than the value of
12583 @code{nnmail-split-header-length-limit} are excluded from the split
12586 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-charset
12587 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes
12588 By default the splitting codes MIME decodes headers so you can match
12589 on non-ASCII strings. The @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-charset}
12590 variable specifies the default charset for decoding. The behaviour
12591 can be turned off completely by binding
12592 @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes} to nil, which is useful if you
12593 want to match articles based on the raw header data.
12595 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
12596 By default, splitting is performed on all incoming messages. If
12597 you specify a @code{directory} entry for the variable
12598 @code{mail-sources} @pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}, however, then
12599 splitting does @emph{not} happen by default. You can set the variable
12600 @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming} to a non-nil value to make splitting
12601 happen even in this case. (This variable has no effect on other kinds
12604 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
12605 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
12606 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
12607 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
12608 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
12609 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
12610 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
12611 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
12612 month's rent money.
12616 @subsection Mail Sources
12618 Mail can be gotten from many different sources---the mail spool, from a
12619 POP mail server, from a procmail directory, or from a maildir, for
12623 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
12624 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
12625 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
12629 @node Mail Source Specifiers
12630 @subsubsection Mail Source Specifiers
12632 @cindex mail server
12635 @cindex mail source
12637 You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by setting @code{mail-sources}
12638 (@pxref{Fetching Mail}) to a @dfn{mail source specifier}.
12643 (pop :server "pop3.mailserver.com" :user "myname")
12646 As can be observed, a mail source specifier is a list where the first
12647 element is a @dfn{mail source type}, followed by an arbitrary number of
12648 @dfn{keywords}. Keywords that are not explicitly specified are given
12651 The following mail source types are available:
12655 Get mail from a single file; typically from the mail spool.
12661 The path of the file. Defaults to the value of the @code{MAIL}
12662 environment variable or the value of @code{rmail-spool-directory}
12663 (usually something like @file{/usr/mail/spool/user-name}).
12666 An example file mail source:
12669 (file :path "/usr/spool/mail/user-name")
12672 Or using the default path:
12678 If the mail spool file is not located on the local machine, it's best to
12679 use POP or @sc{imap} or the like to fetch the mail. You can not use ange-ftp
12680 file names here---it has no way to lock the mail spool while moving the
12683 If it's impossible to set up a proper server, you can use ssh instead.
12687 '((file :prescript "ssh host bin/getmail >%t")))
12690 The @samp{getmail} script would look something like the following:
12694 # getmail - move mail from spool to stdout
12697 MOVEMAIL=/usr/lib/emacs/20.3/i386-redhat-linux/movemail
12699 rm -f $TMP; $MOVEMAIL $MAIL $TMP >/dev/null && cat $TMP
12702 Alter this script to fit find the @samp{movemail} you want to use.
12706 @vindex nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once
12707 Get mail from several files in a directory. This is typically used when
12708 you have procmail split the incoming mail into several files. That is,
12709 there is a one-to-one correspondence between files in that directory and
12710 groups, so that mail from the file @file{foo.bar.spool} will be put in
12711 the group @code{foo.bar}. (You can change the suffix to be used instead
12712 of @code{.spool}.) Setting
12713 @code{nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once} to non-nil forces Gnus to
12714 scan the mail source only once. This is particularly useful if you want
12715 to scan mail groups at a specified level.
12717 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
12718 There is also the variable @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming}, if you set
12719 that to a non-nil value, then the normal splitting process is applied
12720 to all the files from the directory, @ref{Splitting Mail}.
12726 The path of the directory where the files are. There is no default
12730 Only files ending with this suffix are used. The default is
12734 Only files that have this predicate return non-@code{nil} are returned.
12735 The default is @code{identity}. This is used as an additional
12736 filter---only files that have the right suffix @emph{and} satisfy this
12737 predicate are considered.
12741 Script run before/after fetching mail.
12745 An example directory mail source:
12748 (directory :path "/home/user-name/procmail-dir/"
12753 Get mail from a POP server.
12759 The name of the POP server. The default is taken from the
12760 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable.
12763 The port number of the POP server. This can be a number (eg,
12764 @samp{:port 1234}) or a string (eg, @samp{:port "pop3"}). If it is a
12765 string, it should be a service name as listed in @file{/etc/services} on
12766 Unix systems. The default is @samp{"pop3"}. On some systems you might
12767 need to specify it as @samp{"pop-3"} instead.
12770 The user name to give to the POP server. The default is the login
12774 The password to give to the POP server. If not specified, the user is
12778 The program to use to fetch mail from the POP server. This should be
12779 a @code{format}-like string. Here's an example:
12782 fetchmail %u@@%s -P %p %t
12785 The valid format specifier characters are:
12789 The name of the file the mail is to be moved to. This must always be
12790 included in this string.
12793 The name of the server.
12796 The port number of the server.
12799 The user name to use.
12802 The password to use.
12805 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
12806 corresponding keywords.
12809 A script to be run before fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
12810 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
12813 A script to be run after fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
12814 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
12817 The function to use to fetch mail from the POP server. The function is
12818 called with one parameter---the name of the file where the mail should
12821 @item :authentication
12822 This can be either the symbol @code{password} or the symbol @code{apop}
12823 and says what authentication scheme to use. The default is
12828 If the @code{:program} and @code{:function} keywords aren't specified,
12829 @code{pop3-movemail} will be used.
12831 Here are some examples. Fetch from the default POP server, using the
12832 default user name, and default fetcher:
12838 Fetch from a named server with a named user and password:
12841 (pop :server "my.pop.server"
12842 :user "user-name" :password "secret")
12845 Use @samp{movemail} to move the mail:
12848 (pop :program "movemail po:%u %t %p")
12852 Get mail from a maildir. This is a type of mailbox that is supported by
12853 at least qmail and postfix, where each file in a special directory
12854 contains exactly one mail.
12860 The path of the directory where the mails are stored. The default is
12861 taken from the @code{MAILDIR} environment variable or
12864 The subdirectories of the Maildir. The default is
12865 @samp{("new" "cur")}.
12867 @c If you sometimes look at your mail through a pop3 daemon before fetching
12868 @c them with Gnus, you may also have to fetch your mails from the
12869 @c @code{cur} directory inside the maildir, like in the first example
12872 You can also get mails from remote hosts (because maildirs don't suffer
12873 from locking problems).
12877 Two example maildir mail sources:
12880 (maildir :path "/home/user-name/Maildir/"
12881 :subdirs ("cur" "new"))
12885 (maildir :path "/user@@remotehost.org:~/Maildir/"
12890 Get mail from a @sc{imap} server. If you don't want to use @sc{imap}
12891 as intended, as a network mail reading protocol (ie with nnimap), for
12892 some reason or other, Gnus let you treat it similar to a POP server
12893 and fetches articles from a given @sc{imap} mailbox. @xref{IMAP}, for
12896 Note that for the Kerberos, GSSAPI, SSL/TLS and STARTTLS support you
12897 may need external programs and libraries, @xref{IMAP}.
12903 The name of the @sc{imap} server. The default is taken from the
12904 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable.
12907 The port number of the @sc{imap} server. The default is @samp{143}, or
12908 @samp{993} for SSL/TLS connections.
12911 The user name to give to the @sc{imap} server. The default is the login
12915 The password to give to the @sc{imap} server. If not specified, the user is
12919 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this is one of the
12920 symbols in @code{imap-stream-alist}. Right now, this means
12921 @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{starttls}, @samp{ssl},
12922 @samp{shell} or the default @samp{network}.
12924 @item :authentication
12925 Which authenticator to use for authenticating to the server, this is
12926 one of the symbols in @code{imap-authenticator-alist}. Right now,
12927 this means @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{digest-md5},
12928 @samp{cram-md5}, @samp{anonymous} or the default @samp{login}.
12931 When using the `shell' :stream, the contents of this variable is
12932 mapped into the `imap-shell-program' variable. This should be a
12933 @code{format}-like string (or list of strings). Here's an example:
12939 The valid format specifier characters are:
12943 The name of the server.
12946 User name from `imap-default-user'.
12949 The port number of the server.
12952 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
12953 corresponding keywords.
12956 The name of the mailbox to get mail from. The default is @samp{INBOX}
12957 which normally is the mailbox which receive incoming mail.
12960 The predicate used to find articles to fetch. The default, @samp{UNSEEN
12961 UNDELETED}, is probably the best choice for most people, but if you
12962 sometimes peek in your mailbox with a @sc{imap} client and mark some
12963 articles as read (or; SEEN) you might want to set this to @samp{1:*}.
12964 Then all articles in the mailbox is fetched, no matter what. For a
12965 complete list of predicates, see RFC 2060 section 6.4.4.
12968 How to flag fetched articles on the server, the default @samp{\Deleted}
12969 will mark them as deleted, an alternative would be @samp{\Seen} which
12970 would simply mark them as read. These are the two most likely choices,
12971 but more flags are defined in RFC 2060 section 2.3.2.
12974 If non-nil, don't remove all articles marked as deleted in the mailbox
12975 after finishing the fetch.
12979 An example @sc{imap} mail source:
12982 (imap :server "mail.mycorp.com"
12984 :fetchflag "\\Seen")
12988 Get mail from a webmail server, such as @uref{www.hotmail.com},
12989 @uref{webmail.netscape.com}, @uref{www.netaddress.com},
12990 @uref{mail.yahoo..com}.
12992 NOTE: Webmail largely depends cookies. A "one-line-cookie" patch is
12993 required for url "4.0pre.46".
12995 WARNING: Mails may be lost. NO WARRANTY.
13001 The type of the webmail server. The default is @code{hotmail}. The
13002 alternatives are @code{netscape}, @code{netaddress}, @code{my-deja}.
13005 The user name to give to the webmail server. The default is the login
13009 The password to give to the webmail server. If not specified, the user is
13013 If non-nil, only fetch unread articles and don't move them to trash
13014 folder after finishing the fetch.
13018 An example webmail source:
13021 (webmail :subtype 'hotmail
13023 :password "secret")
13028 @item Common Keywords
13029 Common keywords can be used in any type of mail source.
13035 If non-nil, fetch the mail even when Gnus is unplugged. If you use
13036 directory source to get mail, you can specify it as in this example:
13040 '((directory :path "/home/pavel/.Spool/"
13045 Gnus will then fetch your mail even when you are unplugged. This is
13046 useful when you use local mail and news.
13051 @subsubsection Function Interface
13053 Some of the above keywords specify a Lisp function to be executed.
13054 For each keyword @code{:foo}, the Lisp variable @code{foo} is bound to
13055 the value of the keyword while the function is executing. For example,
13056 consider the following mail-source setting:
13059 (setq mail-sources '((pop :user "jrl"
13060 :server "pophost" :function fetchfunc)))
13063 While the function @code{fetchfunc} is executing, the symbol @code{user}
13064 is bound to @code{"jrl"}, and the symbol @code{server} is bound to
13065 @code{"pophost"}. The symbols @code{port}, @code{password},
13066 @code{program}, @code{prescript}, @code{postscript}, @code{function},
13067 and @code{authentication} are also bound (to their default values).
13069 See above for a list of keywords for each type of mail source.
13072 @node Mail Source Customization
13073 @subsubsection Mail Source Customization
13075 The following is a list of variables that influence how the mail is
13076 fetched. You would normally not need to set or change any of these
13080 @item mail-source-crash-box
13081 @vindex mail-source-crash-box
13082 File where mail will be stored while processing it. The default is
13083 @file{~/.emacs-mail-crash-box}.
13085 @item mail-source-delete-incoming
13086 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
13087 If non-@code{nil}, delete incoming files after handling them.
13089 @item mail-source-directory
13090 @vindex mail-source-directory
13091 Directory where files (if any) will be stored. The default is
13092 @file{~/Mail/}. At present, the only thing this is used for is to say
13093 where the incoming files will be stored if the previous variable is
13096 @item mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
13097 @vindex mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
13098 Prefix for file name for storing incoming mail. The default is
13099 @file{Incoming}, in which case files will end up with names like
13100 @file{Incoming30630D_} or @file{Incoming298602ZD}. This is really only
13101 relevant if @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil}.
13103 @item mail-source-default-file-modes
13104 @vindex mail-source-default-file-modes
13105 All new mail files will get this file mode. The default is 384.
13107 @item mail-source-movemail-program
13108 @vindex mail-source-movemail-program
13109 If non-nil, name of program for fetching new mail. If nil,
13110 @code{movemail} in @var{exec-directory}.
13115 @node Fetching Mail
13116 @subsubsection Fetching Mail
13118 @vindex mail-sources
13119 @vindex nnmail-spool-file
13120 The way to actually tell Gnus where to get new mail from is to set
13121 @code{mail-sources} to a list of mail source specifiers
13122 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}).
13124 If this variable (and the obsolescent @code{nnmail-spool-file}) is
13125 @code{nil}, the mail back ends will never attempt to fetch mail by
13128 If you want to fetch mail both from your local spool as well as a POP
13129 mail server, you'd say something like:
13134 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
13135 :password "secret")))
13138 Or, if you don't want to use any of the keyword defaults:
13142 '((file :path "/var/spool/mail/user-name")
13143 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
13146 :password "secret")))
13150 When you use a mail back end, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
13151 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
13152 mail if you're not using a mail back end---you have to do a lot of magic
13153 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
13154 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
13155 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
13159 @node Mail Back End Variables
13160 @subsection Mail Back End Variables
13162 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
13166 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
13167 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
13168 The mail back ends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
13169 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
13171 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
13172 @item nnmail-split-hook
13173 @findex article-decode-encoded-words
13174 @findex RFC 1522 decoding
13175 @findex RFC 2047 decoding
13176 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
13177 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
13178 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
13179 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
13180 in the buffer will show up in any files.
13181 @code{gnus-article-decode-encoded-words} is one likely function to add
13184 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
13185 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
13186 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
13187 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
13188 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
13189 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
13190 starting to handle the new mail) and
13191 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
13192 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
13193 default file modes the new mail files get:
13196 (add-hook 'nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
13197 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 511)))
13199 (add-hook 'nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
13200 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 551)))
13203 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
13204 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
13205 If non-@code{nil}, the mail back ends will use long file and directory
13206 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
13207 (assuming use of @code{nnml} back end) or files (assuming use of
13208 @code{nnfolder} back end) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
13209 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
13211 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
13212 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
13213 @findex delete-file
13214 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
13216 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
13217 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
13218 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
13219 the back end (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
13220 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
13222 @item nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
13223 @vindex nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
13224 This can be a regular expression or a list of regular expressions.
13225 Group names that match any of the regular expressions will never be
13226 recorded in the @code{Message-ID} cache.
13228 This can be useful, for example, when using Fancy Splitting
13229 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}) together with the function
13230 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}.
13235 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
13236 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
13237 @cindex mail splitting
13238 @cindex fancy mail splitting
13240 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
13241 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
13242 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
13243 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
13244 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
13245 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
13247 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
13250 ;; Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of
13251 ;; the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group
13252 ;; from real errors.
13253 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
13255 ;; Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant
13256 ;; groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the
13257 ;; (ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.
13258 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
13259 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
13260 ;; Other mailing lists...
13261 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
13262 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
13263 ;; Both lists below have the same suffix, so prevent
13264 ;; cross-posting to mkpkg.list of messages posted only to
13265 ;; the bugs- list, but allow cross-posting when the
13266 ;; message was really cross-posted.
13267 (any "bugs-mypackage@@somewhere" "mypkg.bugs")
13268 (any "mypackage@@somewhere\" - "bugs-mypackage" "mypkg.list")
13270 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
13271 ;; Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.
13275 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a (possibly)
13276 recursive structure where each split may contain other splits. Here are
13277 the five possible split syntaxes:
13282 @samp{group}: If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group
13283 name. Normal regexp match expansion will be done. See below for
13287 @code{(@var{field} @var{value} @code{[-} @var{restrict}
13288 @code{[@dots{}]}@code{]} @var{split})}: If the split is a list, the
13289 first element of which is a string, then store the message as
13290 specified by @var{split}, if header @var{field} (a regexp) contains
13291 @var{value} (also a regexp). If @var{restrict} (yet another regexp)
13292 matches some string after @var{field} and before the end of the
13293 matched @var{value}, the @var{split} is ignored. If none of the
13294 @var{restrict} clauses match, @var{split} is processed.
13297 @code{(| @var{split}@dots{})}: If the split is a list, and the first
13298 element is @code{|} (vertical bar), then process each @var{split} until
13299 one of them matches. A @var{split} is said to match if it will cause
13300 the mail message to be stored in one or more groups.
13303 @code{(& @var{split}@dots{})}: If the split is a list, and the first
13304 element is @code{&}, then process all @var{split}s in the list.
13307 @code{junk}: If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save
13308 (i.e., delete) this message. Use with extreme caution.
13311 @code{(: @var{function} @var{arg1} @var{arg2} @dots{})}: If the split is
13312 a list, and the first element is @code{:}, then the second element will
13313 be called as a function with @var{args} given as arguments. The
13314 function should return a @var{split}.
13317 For instance, the following function could be used to split based on the
13318 body of the messages:
13321 (defun split-on-body ()
13323 (set-buffer " *nnmail incoming*")
13324 (goto-char (point-min))
13325 (when (re-search-forward "Some.*string" nil t)
13329 The @samp{" *nnmail incoming*"} is narrowed to the message in question
13330 when the @code{:} function is run.
13333 @code{(! @var{func} @var{split})}: If the split is a list, and the first
13334 element is @code{!}, then SPLIT will be processed, and FUNC will be
13335 called as a function with the result of SPLIT as argument. FUNC should
13339 @code{nil}: If the split is @code{nil}, it is ignored.
13343 In these splits, @var{field} must match a complete field name.
13344 @var{value} must match a complete word according to the fundamental mode
13345 syntax table. You can use @code{.*} in the regexps to match partial
13346 field names or words. In other words, all @var{value}'s are wrapped in
13347 @samp{\<} and @samp{\>} pairs.
13349 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
13350 @var{field} and @var{value} can also be lisp symbols, in that case they
13351 are expanded as specified by the variable
13352 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells, where
13353 the @code{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @code{cdr} contains the associated
13356 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
13357 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
13358 when all this splitting is performed.
13360 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
13361 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
13362 substitutions in the group names), you can say things like:
13365 (any "debian-\\b\\(\\w+\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
13368 In this example, messages sent to @samp{debian-foo@@lists.debian.org}
13369 will be filed in @samp{mail.debian.foo}.
13371 If the string contains the element @samp{\&}, then the previously
13372 matched string will be substituted. Similarly, the elements @samp{\\1}
13373 up to @samp{\\9} will be substituted with the text matched by the
13374 groupings 1 through 9.
13376 @findex nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent
13377 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} is a function which allows you to
13378 split followups into the same groups their parents are in. Sometimes
13379 you can't make splitting rules for all your mail. For example, your
13380 boss might send you personal mail regarding different projects you are
13381 working on, and as you can't tell your boss to put a distinguishing
13382 string into the subject line, you have to resort to manually moving the
13383 messages into the right group. With this function, you only have to do
13384 it once per thread.
13386 To use this feature, you have to set @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} and
13387 @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} to a non-nil value. And then
13388 you can include @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} using the colon
13391 (setq nnmail-treat-duplicates 'warn ; or 'delete
13392 nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids t
13394 '(| (: nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent)
13395 ;; other splits go here
13399 This feature works as follows: when @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} is
13400 non-nil, Gnus records the message id of every message it sees in the
13401 file specified by the variable @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file},
13402 together with the group it is in (the group is omitted for non-mail
13403 messages). When mail splitting is invoked, the function
13404 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} then looks at the References (and
13405 In-Reply-To) header of each message to split and searches the file
13406 specified by @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file} for the message ids.
13407 When it has found a parent, it returns the corresponding group name
13408 unless the group name matches the regexp
13409 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent-ignore-groups}. It is recommended
13410 that you set @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length} to a somewhat higher
13411 number than the default so that the message ids are still in the cache.
13412 (A value of 5000 appears to create a file some 300 kBytes in size.)
13413 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
13414 When @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus
13415 also records the message ids of moved articles, so that the followup
13416 messages goes into the new group.
13418 Also see the variable @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} if you don't
13419 want certain groups to be recorded in the cache. For example, if all
13420 outgoing messages are written to an `outgoing' group, you could set
13421 @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} to match that group name.
13422 Otherwise, answers to all your messages would end up in the
13426 @node Group Mail Splitting
13427 @subsection Group Mail Splitting
13428 @cindex mail splitting
13429 @cindex group mail splitting
13431 @findex gnus-group-split
13432 If you subscribe to dozens of mailing lists but you don't want to
13433 maintain mail splitting rules manually, group mail splitting is for you.
13434 You just have to set @var{to-list} and/or @var{to-address} in group
13435 parameters or group customization and set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to
13436 @code{gnus-group-split}. This splitting function will scan all groups
13437 for those parameters and split mail accordingly, i.e., messages posted
13438 from or to the addresses specified in the parameters @var{to-list} or
13439 @var{to-address} of a mail group will be stored in that group.
13441 Sometimes, mailing lists have multiple addresses, and you may want mail
13442 splitting to recognize them all: just set the @var{extra-aliases} group
13443 parameter to the list of additional addresses and it's done. If you'd
13444 rather use a regular expression, set @var{split-regexp}.
13446 All these parameters in a group will be used to create an
13447 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split, in which the @var{field} is @samp{any},
13448 the @var{value} is a single regular expression that matches
13449 @var{to-list}, @var{to-address}, all of @var{extra-aliases} and all
13450 matches of @var{split-regexp}, and the @var{split} is the name of the
13451 group. @var{restrict}s are also supported: just set the
13452 @var{split-exclude} parameter to a list of regular expressions.
13454 If you can't get the right split to be generated using all these
13455 parameters, or you just need something fancier, you can set the
13456 parameter @var{split-spec} to an @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split. In
13457 this case, all other aforementioned parameters will be ignored by
13458 @code{gnus-group-split}. In particular, @var{split-spec} may be set to
13459 @code{nil}, in which case the group will be ignored by
13460 @code{gnus-group-split}.
13462 @vindex gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group
13463 @code{gnus-group-split} will do cross-posting on all groups that match,
13464 by defining a single @code{&} fancy split containing one split for each
13465 group. If a message doesn't match any split, it will be stored in the
13466 group named in @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}, unless
13467 some group has @var{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all}, in which case
13468 that group is used as the catch-all group. Even though this variable is
13469 often used just to name a group, it may also be set to an arbitrarily
13470 complex fancy split (after all, a group name is a fancy split), and this
13471 may be useful to split mail that doesn't go to any mailing list to
13472 personal mail folders. Note that this fancy split is added as the last
13473 element of a @code{|} split list that also contains a @code{&} split
13474 with the rules extracted from group parameters.
13476 It's time for an example. Assume the following group parameters have
13481 ((to-address . "bar@@femail.com")
13482 (split-regexp . ".*@@femail\\.com"))
13484 ((to-list . "foo@@nowhere.gov")
13485 (extra-aliases "foo@@localhost" "foo-redist@@home")
13486 (split-exclude "bugs-foo" "rambling-foo")
13487 (admin-address . "foo-request@@nowhere.gov"))
13489 ((split-spec . catch-all))
13492 Setting @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{gnus-group-split} will
13493 behave as if @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been selected and variable
13494 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been set as follows:
13497 (| (& (any "\\(bar@@femail\\.com\\|.*@@femail\\.com\\)" "mail.bar")
13498 (any "\\(foo@@nowhere\\.gov\\|foo@@localhost\\|foo-redist@@home\\)"
13499 - "bugs-foo" - "rambling-foo" "mail.foo"))
13503 @findex gnus-group-split-fancy
13504 If you'd rather not use group splitting for all your mail groups, you
13505 may use it for only some of them, by using @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
13509 (: gnus-group-split-fancy GROUPS NO-CROSSPOST CATCH-ALL)
13512 @var{groups} may be a regular expression or a list of group names whose
13513 parameters will be scanned to generate the output split.
13514 @var{no-crosspost} can be used to disable cross-posting; in this case, a
13515 single @code{|} split will be output. @var{catch-all} is the fallback
13516 fancy split, used like @var{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}.
13517 If @var{catch-all} is @code{nil}, or if @var{split-regexp} matches the
13518 empty string in any selected group, no catch-all split will be issued.
13519 Otherwise, if some group has @var{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all},
13520 this group will override the value of the @var{catch-all} argument.
13522 @findex gnus-group-split-setup
13523 Unfortunately, scanning all groups and their parameters can be quite
13524 slow, especially considering that it has to be done for every message.
13525 But don't despair! The function @code{gnus-group-split-setup} can be
13526 used to enable @code{gnus-group-split} in a much more efficient way. It
13527 sets @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy} and sets
13528 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} to the split produced by
13529 @code{gnus-group-split-fancy}. Thus, the group parameters are only
13530 scanned once, no matter how many messages are split.
13532 @findex gnus-group-split-update
13533 However, if you change group parameters, you'd have to update
13534 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} manually. You can do it by running
13535 @code{gnus-group-split-update}. If you'd rather have it updated
13536 automatically, just tell @code{gnus-group-split-setup} to do it for
13537 you. For example, add to your @file{.gnus}:
13540 (gnus-group-split-setup AUTO-UPDATE CATCH-ALL)
13543 If @var{auto-update} is non-@code{nil}, @code{gnus-group-split-update}
13544 will be added to @code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook}, so you won't ever
13545 have to worry about updating @code{nnmail-split-fancy} again. If you
13546 don't omit @var{catch-all} (it's optional, equivalent to @code{nil}),
13547 @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group} will be set to its
13550 @vindex gnus-group-split-updated-hook
13551 Because you may want to change @code{nnmail-split-fancy} after it is set
13552 by @code{gnus-group-split-update}, this function will run
13553 @code{gnus-group-split-updated-hook} just before finishing.
13555 @node Incorporating Old Mail
13556 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
13557 @cindex incorporating old mail
13558 @cindex import old mail
13560 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
13561 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
13562 back ends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
13565 Doing so can be quite easy.
13567 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
13568 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
13569 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
13570 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
13571 your @code{nnml} groups.
13577 Go to the group buffer.
13580 Type `G f' and give the path to the mbox file when prompted to create an
13581 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
13584 Type `SPACE' to enter the newly created group.
13587 Type `M P b' to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
13588 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
13591 Type `B r' to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
13592 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
13595 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
13596 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
13597 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
13598 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
13599 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
13601 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
13602 back end to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
13603 using the new mail back end.
13606 @node Expiring Mail
13607 @subsection Expiring Mail
13608 @cindex article expiry
13610 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
13611 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
13612 different approach to mail reading.
13614 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
13615 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
13616 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
13617 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
13618 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
13619 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
13622 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
13623 articles as @dfn{expirable}. This does not mean that the articles will
13624 disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
13625 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
13626 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
13627 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
13628 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
13629 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
13631 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
13632 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Groups that
13633 match the regular expression @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will
13634 have all articles that you read marked as expirable automatically. All
13635 articles marked as expirable have an @samp{E} in the first
13636 column in the summary buffer.
13638 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
13639 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
13640 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
13641 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
13644 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
13646 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
13647 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
13648 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
13651 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
13652 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
13653 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
13654 articles expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
13655 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
13657 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
13658 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
13661 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
13662 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
13665 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
13666 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
13668 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
13669 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
13670 don't really mix very well.
13672 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
13673 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
13674 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
13675 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
13678 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
13679 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
13680 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
13681 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
13684 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
13686 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
13688 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
13690 ((string= group "mail.junk")
13692 ((string= group "important")
13698 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
13699 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
13701 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
13702 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
13703 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
13706 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
13707 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
13709 @vindex nnmail-expiry-target
13710 The normal action taken when expiring articles is to delete them.
13711 However, in some circumstances it might make more sense to move them
13712 to other groups instead of deleting them. The variable
13713 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} (and the @code{expiry-target} group
13714 parameter) controls this. The variable supplies a default value for
13715 all groups, which can be overridden for specific groups by the group
13716 parameter. default value is @code{delete}, but this can also be a
13717 string (which should be the name of the group the message should be
13718 moved to), or a function (which will be called in a buffer narrowed to
13719 the message in question, and with the name of the group being moved
13720 from as its parameter) which should return a target -- either a group
13721 name or @code{delete}.
13723 Here's an example for specifying a group name:
13725 (setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
13728 @findex nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
13729 @vindex nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
13730 Gnus provides a function @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-target} which will
13731 expire mail to groups according to the variable
13732 @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets}. Here's an example:
13735 (setq nnmail-expiry-target 'nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
13736 nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
13737 '((to-from "boss" "nnfolder:Work")
13738 ("subject" "IMPORTANT" "nnfolder:IMPORTANT.%Y.%b")
13739 ("from" ".*" "nnfolder:Archive-%Y")))
13742 With this setup, any mail that has @code{IMPORTANT} in its Subject
13743 header and was sent in the year @code{YYYY} and month @code{MMM}, will
13744 get expired to the group @code{nnfolder:IMPORTANT.YYYY.MMM}. If its
13745 From or To header contains the string @code{boss}, it will get expired
13746 to @code{nnfolder:Work}. All other mail will get expired to
13747 @code{nnfolder:Archive-YYYY}.
13749 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
13750 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
13751 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
13752 easier for procmail users.
13754 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
13755 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
13756 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
13757 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
13758 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
13759 caution. Even more dangerous is the
13760 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
13761 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
13762 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
13763 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
13764 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
13765 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
13766 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
13769 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
13771 @vindex gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire
13772 If @code{gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire} is non-@code{nil}, user marking
13773 commands will not mark an article as expirable, even if the group has
13774 auto-expire turned on.
13778 @subsection Washing Mail
13779 @cindex mail washing
13780 @cindex list server brain damage
13781 @cindex incoming mail treatment
13783 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
13784 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC 822 doesn't explicitly
13785 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
13786 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
13787 Yes, but RFC 822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
13788 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
13790 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
13791 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
13792 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
13795 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
13796 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
13797 storing the mail to disc. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
13798 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
13801 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
13802 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
13803 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
13804 grand, sweeping gestures. It is called in a buffer that contains all
13805 the new, incoming mail. Functions to be used include:
13808 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
13809 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
13810 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
13811 Emacs running on MS machines.
13815 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
13816 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
13817 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
13818 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
13821 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
13822 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
13823 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
13824 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
13826 (Note that this function works on both the header on the body of all
13827 messages, so it is a potentially dangerous function to use (if a body
13828 of a message contains something that looks like a header line). So
13829 rather than fix the bug, it is of course the right solution to make it
13830 into a feature by documenting it.)
13832 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
13833 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
13834 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
13835 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
13836 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
13837 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
13838 also be a list of regexp. @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} may not contain
13841 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
13842 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
13845 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
13846 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
13849 This can also be done non-destructively with
13850 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}, @xref{Article Hiding}.
13852 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
13853 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
13854 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
13856 @item nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
13857 @findex nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
13859 Eudora produces broken @code{References} headers, but OK
13860 @code{In-Reply-To} headers. This function will get rid of the
13861 @code{References} headers.
13865 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
13866 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
13867 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
13871 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
13872 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
13873 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
13880 @subsection Duplicates
13882 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
13883 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
13884 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
13885 @cindex duplicate mails
13886 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
13887 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
13888 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
13889 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s---
13890 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
13891 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
13892 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
13893 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
13894 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
13895 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
13896 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
13897 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
13898 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
13900 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
13901 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
13902 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
13903 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
13905 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
13908 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
13909 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
13913 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
13914 '(| ;; Messages duplicates go to a separate group.
13915 ("gnus-warning" "duplicat\\(e\\|ion\\) of message" "duplicate")
13916 ;; Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.
13917 (any mail "mail.misc")
13924 (setq nnmail-split-methods
13925 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:.*duplicate")
13930 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
13931 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
13932 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
13933 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
13934 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
13937 @node Not Reading Mail
13938 @subsection Not Reading Mail
13940 If you start using any of the mail back ends, they have the annoying
13941 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
13942 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
13944 If you set @code{mail-sources} and @code{nnmail-spool-file} to
13945 @code{nil}, none of the back ends will ever attempt to read incoming
13946 mail, which should help.
13948 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
13949 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
13950 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
13951 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
13952 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
13953 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
13954 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old @sc{rmail}
13955 file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All back ends have
13956 variables called back-end-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
13957 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
13958 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
13960 All the mail back ends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
13961 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
13965 @node Choosing a Mail Back End
13966 @subsection Choosing a Mail Back End
13968 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
13969 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
13970 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
13972 There are six different mail back ends in the standard Gnus, and more
13973 back ends are available separately. The mail back end most people use
13974 (because it is possibly the fastest) is @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail
13975 Spool}). You might notice that only five back ends are listed below;
13976 @code{nnmaildir}'s documentation has not yet been completely
13977 incorporated into this manual. Until it is, you can find it at
13978 @uref{http://multivac.cwru.edu./nnmaildir/}.
13981 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
13982 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
13983 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
13984 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
13985 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
13986 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
13990 @node Unix Mail Box
13991 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
13993 @cindex unix mail box
13995 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
13996 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
13997 The @dfn{nnmbox} back end will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
13998 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
13999 which group it belongs in.
14001 Virtual server settings:
14004 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
14005 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
14006 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory. Default is
14009 @item nnmbox-active-file
14010 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
14011 The name of the active file for the mail box. Default is
14012 @file{~/.mbox-active}.
14014 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
14015 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
14016 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
14017 into groups. Default is @code{t}.
14022 @subsubsection Rmail Babyl
14026 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
14027 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
14028 The @dfn{nnbabyl} back end will use a babyl mail box (aka. @dfn{rmail
14029 mbox}) to store mail. @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each
14030 mail article to say which group it belongs in.
14032 Virtual server settings:
14035 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
14036 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
14037 The name of the rmail mbox file. The default is @file{~/RMAIL}
14039 @item nnbabyl-active-file
14040 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
14041 The name of the active file for the rmail box. The default is
14042 @file{~/.rmail-active}
14044 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
14045 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
14046 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail. Default is
14052 @subsubsection Mail Spool
14054 @cindex mail @sc{nov} spool
14056 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
14057 format. It should be used with some caution.
14059 @vindex nnml-directory
14060 If you use this back end, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
14061 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
14062 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
14063 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
14065 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
14068 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
14069 in your account, you should not use this back end. As each mail gets its
14070 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
14071 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
14072 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
14073 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
14074 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
14075 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
14077 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest back end when it comes to article
14078 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
14079 @sc{nov} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it possibly the
14080 fastest back end when it comes to reading mail.
14082 @cindex self contained nnml servers
14084 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnml}
14085 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
14086 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
14087 proper @code{nnml} server) and have all your marks be preserved. Marks
14088 for a group is usually stored in the @code{.marks} file (but see
14089 @code{nnml-marks-file-name}) within each @code{nnml} group's directory.
14090 Individual @code{nnml} groups are also possible to backup, use @kbd{G m}
14091 to restore the group (after restoring the backup into the nnml
14094 If for some reason you believe your @file{.marks} files are screwed
14095 up, you can just delete them all. Gnus will then correctly regenerate
14096 them next time it starts.
14098 Virtual server settings:
14101 @item nnml-directory
14102 @vindex nnml-directory
14103 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory.
14104 The default is the value of `message-directory' (whose default value is
14107 @item nnml-active-file
14108 @vindex nnml-active-file
14109 The active file for the @code{nnml} server. The default is
14110 @file{~/Mail/active"}.
14112 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
14113 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
14114 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
14115 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups"}.
14117 @item nnml-get-new-mail
14118 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
14119 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail. The default is
14122 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
14123 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
14124 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{nov} files. The
14125 default is @code{nil}.
14127 @item nnml-nov-file-name
14128 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
14129 The name of the @sc{nov} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
14131 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
14132 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
14133 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
14135 @item nnml-marks-is-evil
14136 @vindex nnml-marks-is-evil
14137 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
14138 default is @code{nil}.
14140 @item nnml-marks-file-name
14141 @vindex nnml-marks-file-name
14142 The name of the @dfn{marks} files. The default is @file{.marks}.
14144 @item nnml-use-compressed-files
14145 @vindex nnml-use-compressed-files
14146 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will allow using compressed message
14151 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
14152 If your @code{nnml} groups and @sc{nov} files get totally out of whack,
14153 you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
14154 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
14155 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
14156 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
14157 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
14162 @subsubsection MH Spool
14164 @cindex mh-e mail spool
14166 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
14167 @sc{nov} databases and it doesn't keep an active file or marks file.
14168 This makes @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower back end than @code{nnml},
14169 but it also makes it easier to write procmail scripts for.
14171 Virtual server settings:
14174 @item nnmh-directory
14175 @vindex nnmh-directory
14176 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory. The
14177 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
14180 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
14181 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
14182 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail. The default is
14186 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
14187 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
14188 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks they
14189 are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
14190 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
14191 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not have
14192 to set this variable to @code{t}. The default is @code{nil}.
14197 @subsubsection Mail Folders
14199 @cindex mbox folders
14200 @cindex mail folders
14202 @code{nnfolder} is a back end for storing each mail group in a separate
14203 file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format. @code{nnfolder}
14204 will add extra headers to keep track of article numbers and arrival
14207 @cindex self contained nnfolder servers
14209 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnfolder}
14210 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
14211 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
14212 proper @code{nnfolder} server) and have all your marks be preserved.
14213 Marks for a group is usually stored in a file named as the mbox file
14214 with @code{.mrk} concatenated to it (but see
14215 @code{nnfolder-marks-file-suffix}) within the @code{nnfolder} directory.
14216 Individual @code{nnfolder} groups are also possible to backup, use
14217 @kbd{G m} to restore the group (after restoring the backup into the
14218 @code{nnfolder} directory).
14220 Virtual server settings:
14223 @item nnfolder-directory
14224 @vindex nnfolder-directory
14225 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this directory.
14226 The default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
14229 @item nnfolder-active-file
14230 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
14231 The name of the active file. The default is @file{~/Mail/active}.
14233 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
14234 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
14235 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
14236 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups"}
14238 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
14239 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
14240 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail. The default
14243 @item nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
14244 @vindex nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
14245 @cindex backup files
14246 Hook run before saving the folders. Note that Emacs does the normal
14247 backup renaming of files even with the @code{nnfolder} buffers. If you
14248 wish to switch this off, you could say something like the following in
14249 your @file{.emacs} file:
14252 (defun turn-off-backup ()
14253 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
14255 (add-hook 'nnfolder-save-buffer-hook 'turn-off-backup)
14258 @item nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
14259 @vindex nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
14260 Hook run in a buffer narrowed to the message that is to be deleted.
14261 This function can be used to copy the message to somewhere else, or to
14262 extract some information from it before removing it.
14264 @item nnfolder-nov-is-evil
14265 @vindex nnfolder-nov-is-evil
14266 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{nov} files. The
14267 default is @code{nil}.
14269 @item nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
14270 @vindex nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
14271 The extension for @sc{nov} files. The default is @file{.nov}.
14273 @item nnfolder-nov-directory
14274 @vindex nnfolder-nov-directory
14275 The directory where the @sc{nov} files should be stored. If nil,
14276 @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
14278 @item nnfolder-marks-is-evil
14279 @vindex nnfolder-marks-is-evil
14280 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
14281 default is @code{nil}.
14283 @item nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
14284 @vindex nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
14285 The extension for @sc{marks} files. The default is @file{.mrk}.
14287 @item nnfolder-marks-directory
14288 @vindex nnfolder-marks-directory
14289 The directory where the @sc{marks} files should be stored. If nil,
14290 @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
14295 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
14296 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
14297 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
14298 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
14299 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
14300 @code{nnfolder-directory}. This only works if you use long file names,
14303 @node Comparing Mail Back Ends
14304 @subsubsection Comparing Mail Back Ends
14306 First, just for terminology, the @dfn{back end} is the common word for a
14307 low-level access method---a transport, if you will, by which something
14308 is acquired. The sense is that one's mail has to come from somewhere,
14309 and so selection of a suitable back end is required in order to get that
14310 mail within spitting distance of Gnus.
14312 The same concept exists for Usenet itself: Though access to articles is
14313 typically done by @sc{nntp} these days, once upon a midnight dreary, everyone
14314 in the world got at Usenet by running a reader on the machine where the
14315 articles lay (the machine which today we call an @sc{nntp} server), and
14316 access was by the reader stepping into the articles' directory spool
14317 area directly. One can still select between either the @code{nntp} or
14318 @code{nnspool} back ends, to select between these methods, if one happens
14319 actually to live on the server (or can see its spool directly, anyway,
14322 The goal in selecting a mail back end is to pick one which
14323 simultaneously represents a suitable way of dealing with the original
14324 format plus leaving mail in a form that is convenient to use in the
14325 future. Here are some high and low points on each:
14330 UNIX systems have historically had a single, very common, and well-
14331 defined format. All messages arrive in a single @dfn{spool file}, and
14332 they are delineated by a line whose regular expression matches
14333 @samp{^From_}. (My notational use of @samp{_} is to indicate a space,
14334 to make it clear in this instance that this is not the RFC-specified
14335 @samp{From:} header.) Because Emacs and therefore Gnus emanate
14336 historically from the Unix environment, it is simplest if one does not
14337 mess a great deal with the original mailbox format, so if one chooses
14338 this back end, Gnus' primary activity in getting mail from the real spool
14339 area to Gnus' preferred directory is simply to copy it, with no
14340 (appreciable) format change in the process. It is the ``dumbest'' way
14341 to move mail into availability in the Gnus environment. This makes it
14342 fast to move into place, but slow to parse, when Gnus has to look at
14347 Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and DEC-20, running operating
14348 systems called TOPS and related things, and the usual (only?) mail
14349 reading environment was a thing called Babyl. I don't know what format
14350 was used for mail landing on the system, but Babyl had its own internal
14351 format to which mail was converted, primarily involving creating a
14352 spool-file-like entity with a scheme for inserting Babyl-specific
14353 headers and status bits above the top of each message in the file.
14354 RMAIL was Emacs' first mail reader, it was written by Richard Stallman,
14355 and Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl environment, so he wrote RMAIL
14356 to understand the mail files folks already had in existence. Gnus (and
14357 VM, for that matter) continue to support this format because it's
14358 perceived as having some good qualities in those mailer-specific
14359 headers/status bits stuff. RMAIL itself still exists as well, of
14360 course, and is still maintained by Stallman.
14362 Both of the above forms leave your mail in a single file on your
14363 filesystem, and they must parse that entire file each time you take a
14368 @code{nnml} is the back end which smells the most as though you were
14369 actually operating with an @code{nnspool}-accessed Usenet system. (In
14370 fact, I believe @code{nnml} actually derived from @code{nnspool} code,
14371 lo these years ago.) One's mail is taken from the original spool file,
14372 and is then cut up into individual message files, 1:1. It maintains a
14373 Usenet-style active file (analogous to what one finds in an INN- or
14374 CNews-based news system in (for instance) @file{/var/lib/news/active},
14375 or what is returned via the @samp{NNTP LIST} verb) and also creates
14376 @dfn{overview} files for efficient group entry, as has been defined for
14377 @sc{nntp} servers for some years now. It is slower in mail-splitting,
14378 due to the creation of lots of files, updates to the @code{nnml} active
14379 file, and additions to overview files on a per-message basis, but it is
14380 extremely fast on access because of what amounts to the indexing support
14381 provided by the active file and overviews.
14383 @code{nnml} costs @dfn{inodes} in a big way; that is, it soaks up the
14384 resource which defines available places in the filesystem to put new
14385 files. Sysadmins take a dim view of heavy inode occupation within
14386 tight, shared filesystems. But if you live on a personal machine where
14387 the filesystem is your own and space is not at a premium, @code{nnml}
14390 It is also problematic using this back end if you are living in a
14391 FAT16-based Windows world, since much space will be wasted on all these
14396 The Rand MH mail-reading system has been around UNIX systems for a very
14397 long time; it operates by splitting one's spool file of messages into
14398 individual files, but with little or no indexing support -- @code{nnmh}
14399 is considered to be semantically equivalent to ``@code{nnml} without
14400 active file or overviews''. This is arguably the worst choice, because
14401 one gets the slowness of individual file creation married to the
14402 slowness of access parsing when learning what's new in one's groups.
14406 Basically the effect of @code{nnfolder} is @code{nnmbox} (the first
14407 method described above) on a per-group basis. That is, @code{nnmbox}
14408 itself puts *all* one's mail in one file; @code{nnfolder} provides a
14409 little bit of optimization to this so that each of one's mail groups has
14410 a Unix mail box file. It's faster than @code{nnmbox} because each group
14411 can be parsed separately, and still provides the simple Unix mail box
14412 format requiring minimal effort in moving the mail around. In addition,
14413 it maintains an ``active'' file making it much faster for Gnus to figure
14414 out how many messages there are in each separate group.
14416 If you have groups that are expected to have a massive amount of
14417 messages, @code{nnfolder} is not the best choice, but if you receive
14418 only a moderate amount of mail, @code{nnfolder} is probably the most
14419 friendly mail back end all over.
14423 @code{nnmaildir} is largely similar to @code{nnml}, with some notable
14424 differences. Each message is stored in a separate file, but the
14425 filename is unrelated to the article number in Gnus. @code{nnmaildir}
14426 also stores the equivalent of @code{nnml}'s overview files in one file
14427 per article, so it uses about twice as many inodes as @code{nnml}. (Use
14428 @code{df -i} to see how plentiful your inode supply is.) If this slows
14429 you down or takes up very much space, consider switching to ReiserFS
14430 (@uref{http://www.namesys.com/}) or another non-block-structured
14433 Since maildirs don't require locking for delivery, the maildirs you use
14434 as groups can also be the maildirs your mail is directly delivered to.
14435 This means you can skip Gnus's mail splitting if your mail is already
14436 organized into different mailboxes during delivery. A @code{directory}
14437 entry in @code{mail-sources} would have a similar effect, but would
14438 require one set of mailboxes for spooling deliveries (in mbox format,
14439 thus damaging message bodies), and another set to be used as groups (in
14440 whatever format you like). A maildir has a built-in spool, in the
14441 @code{new/} subdirectory. Beware that currently, mail moved from
14442 @code{new/} to @code{cur/} instead of via mail splitting will undergo
14443 treatment such as duplicate checking.
14445 An article will not necessarily keep the same number across Gnus
14446 sessions; articles are renumbered starting from 1 for each Gnus session
14447 (more precisely, each time you open the @code{nnmaildir} server). This
14448 way, you don't get gaps in your article number ranges, and when entering
14449 large groups, Gnus is likely to give a more accurate article count. The
14450 price is that @code{nnmaildir} doesn't work with the cache or agent.
14451 This will probably be changed in the future.
14453 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks for a given group in the
14454 corresponding maildir, in a way designed so that it's easy to manipulate
14455 them from outside Gnus. You can tar up a maildir, unpack it somewhere
14456 else, and still have your marks. @code{nnml} also stores marks, but
14457 it's not as easy to work with them from outside Gnus as with
14460 For configuring expiry and other things, @code{nnmaildir} uses group
14461 parameters slightly different from those of other mail back ends.
14463 @code{nnmaildir} uses a significant amount of memory to speed things up.
14464 (It keeps in memory some of the things that @code{nnml} stores in files
14465 and that @code{nnmh} repeatedly parses out of message files.) If this
14466 is a problem for you, you can set the @code{nov-cache-size} group
14467 parameter to somthing small (0 would probably not work, but 1 probably
14468 would) to make it use less memory.
14470 Startup and shutdown are likely to be slower with @code{nnmaildir} than
14471 with other back ends. Everything in between is likely to be faster,
14472 depending in part on your filesystem.
14474 @code{nnmaildir} does not use @code{nnoo}, so you cannot use @code{nnoo}
14475 to write an @code{nnmaildir}-derived back end.
14480 @node Browsing the Web
14481 @section Browsing the Web
14483 @cindex browsing the web
14487 Web-based discussion forums are getting more and more popular. On many
14488 subjects, the web-based forums have become the most important forums,
14489 eclipsing the importance of mailing lists and news groups. The reason
14490 is easy to understand---they are friendly to new users; you just point
14491 and click, and there's the discussion. With mailing lists, you have to
14492 go through a cumbersome subscription procedure, and most people don't
14493 even know what a news group is.
14495 The problem with this scenario is that web browsers are not very good at
14496 being newsreaders. They do not keep track of what articles you've read;
14497 they do not allow you to score on subjects you're interested in; they do
14498 not allow off-line browsing; they require you to click around and drive
14499 you mad in the end.
14501 So---if web browsers suck at reading discussion forums, why not use Gnus
14504 Gnus has been getting a bit of a collection of back ends for providing
14505 interfaces to these sources.
14509 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
14510 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
14511 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
14512 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
14513 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
14514 * Customizing w3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.
14517 All the web sources require Emacs/w3 and the url library to work.
14519 The main caveat with all these web sources is that they probably won't
14520 work for a very long time. Gleaning information from the @sc{html} data
14521 is guesswork at best, and when the layout is altered, the Gnus back end
14522 will fail. If you have reasonably new versions of these back ends,
14523 though, you should be ok.
14525 One thing all these Web methods have in common is that the Web sources
14526 are often down, unavailable or just plain too slow to be fun. In those
14527 cases, it makes a lot of sense to let the Gnus Agent (@pxref{Gnus
14528 Unplugged}) handle downloading articles, and then you can read them at
14529 leisure from your local disk. No more World Wide Wait for you.
14531 @node Archiving Mail
14532 @subsection Archiving Mail
14533 @cindex archiving mail
14534 @cindex backup of mail
14536 Some of the back ends, notably @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, and
14537 @code{nnmaildir}, now actually store the article marks with each group.
14538 For these servers, archiving and restoring a group while preserving
14539 marks is fairly simple.
14541 (Preserving the group level and group parameters as well still
14542 requires ritual dancing and sacrifices to the @file{.newsrc.eld} deity
14545 To archive an entire @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir}
14546 server, take a recursive copy of the server directory. There is no need
14547 to shut down Gnus, so archiving may be invoked by @code{cron} or
14548 similar. You restore the data by restoring the directory tree, and
14549 adding a server definition pointing to that directory in Gnus. The
14550 @ref{Article Backlog}, @ref{Asynchronous Fetching} and other things
14551 might interfer with overwriting data, so you may want to shut down Gnus
14552 before you restore the data.
14554 It is also possible to archive individual @code{nnml},
14555 @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir} groups, while preserving marks.
14556 For @code{nnml} or @code{nnmaildir}, you copy all files in the group's
14557 directory. For @code{nnfolder} you need to copy both the base folder
14558 file itself (@file{FOO}, say), and the marks file (@file{FOO.mrk} in
14559 this example). Restoring the group is done with @kbd{G m} from the Group
14560 buffer. The last step makes Gnus notice the new directory.
14561 @code{nnmaildir} notices the new directory automatically, so @kbd{G m}
14562 is unnecessary in that case.
14565 @subsection Web Searches
14570 @cindex Usenet searches
14571 @cindex searching the Usenet
14573 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
14574 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
14575 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
14576 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
14577 searches without having to use a browser.
14579 The @code{nnweb} back end allows an easy interface to the mighty search
14580 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
14581 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
14582 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
14583 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
14585 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
14586 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
14587 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
14588 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
14589 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
14590 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
14591 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
14592 engines (Google, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
14593 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
14594 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
14597 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
14598 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
14599 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'être} is to
14600 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
14601 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
14602 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
14604 You must have the @code{url} and @code{w3} package installed to be able
14605 to use @code{nnweb}.
14607 Virtual server variables:
14612 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
14613 are @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}. Note that
14614 @code{dejanews} is an alias to @code{google}.
14617 @vindex nnweb-search
14618 The search string to feed to the search engine.
14620 @item nnweb-max-hits
14621 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
14622 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
14625 @item nnweb-type-definition
14626 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
14627 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
14628 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
14633 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
14637 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
14640 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
14643 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
14647 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
14654 @subsection Slashdot
14658 Slashdot (@uref{http://slashdot.org/}) is a popular news site, with
14659 lively discussion following the news articles. @code{nnslashdot} will
14660 let you read this forum in a convenient manner.
14662 The easiest way to read this source is to put something like the
14663 following in your @file{.gnus.el} file:
14666 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
14667 '((nnslashdot "")))
14670 This will make Gnus query the @code{nnslashdot} back end for new comments
14671 and groups. The @kbd{F} command will subscribe each new news article as
14672 a new Gnus group, and you can read the comments by entering these
14673 groups. (Note that the default subscription method is to subscribe new
14674 groups as zombies. Other methods are available (@pxref{Subscription
14677 If you want to remove an old @code{nnslashdot} group, the @kbd{G DEL}
14678 command is the most handy tool (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
14680 When following up to @code{nnslashdot} comments (or posting new
14681 comments), some light @sc{html}izations will be performed. In
14682 particular, text quoted with @samp{> } will be quoted with
14683 @code{blockquote} instead, and signatures will have @code{br} added to
14684 the end of each line. Other than that, you can just write @sc{html}
14685 directly into the message buffer. Note that Slashdot filters out some
14688 The following variables can be altered to change its behavior:
14691 @item nnslashdot-threaded
14692 Whether @code{nnslashdot} should display threaded groups or not. The
14693 default is @code{t}. To be able to display threads, @code{nnslashdot}
14694 has to retrieve absolutely all comments in a group upon entry. If a
14695 threaded display is not required, @code{nnslashdot} will only retrieve
14696 the comments that are actually wanted by the user. Threading is nicer,
14697 but much, much slower than untreaded.
14699 @item nnslashdot-login-name
14700 @vindex nnslashdot-login-name
14701 The login name to use when posting.
14703 @item nnslashdot-password
14704 @vindex nnslashdot-password
14705 The password to use when posting.
14707 @item nnslashdot-directory
14708 @vindex nnslashdot-directory
14709 Where @code{nnslashdot} will store its files. The default is
14710 @samp{~/News/slashdot/}.
14712 @item nnslashdot-active-url
14713 @vindex nnslashdot-active-url
14714 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch the information on
14715 news articles and comments. The default is
14716 @samp{http://slashdot.org/search.pl?section=&min=%d}.
14718 @item nnslashdot-comments-url
14719 @vindex nnslashdot-comments-url
14720 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch comments. The
14722 @samp{http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=%s&threshold=%d&commentsort=%d&mode=flat&startat=%d}.
14724 @item nnslashdot-article-url
14725 @vindex nnslashdot-article-url
14726 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch the news article. The
14728 @samp{http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=%s&mode=nocomment}.
14730 @item nnslashdot-threshold
14731 @vindex nnslashdot-threshold
14732 The score threshold. The default is -1.
14734 @item nnslashdot-group-number
14735 @vindex nnslashdot-group-number
14736 The number of old groups, in addition to the ten latest, to keep
14737 updated. The default is 0.
14744 @subsection Ultimate
14746 @cindex Ultimate Bulletin Board
14748 The Ultimate Bulletin Board (@uref{http://www.ultimatebb.com/}) is
14749 probably the most popular Web bulletin board system used. It has a
14750 quite regular and nice interface, and it's possible to get the
14751 information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
14753 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnultimate} is to say
14754 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnultimate RET
14755 http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubbcgi/ RET}. (Substitute the @sc{url}
14756 (not including @samp{Ultimate.cgi} or the like at the end) for a forum
14757 you're interested in; there's quite a list of them on the Ultimate web
14758 site.) Then subscribe to the groups you're interested in from the
14759 server buffer, and read them from the group buffer.
14761 The following @code{nnultimate} variables can be altered:
14764 @item nnultimate-directory
14765 @vindex nnultimate-directory
14766 The directory where @code{nnultimate} stores its files. The default is
14767 @samp{~/News/ultimate/}.
14772 @subsection Web Archive
14774 @cindex Web Archive
14776 Some mailing lists only have archives on Web servers, such as
14777 @uref{http://www.egroups.com/} and
14778 @uref{http://www.mail-archive.com/}. It has a quite regular and nice
14779 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
14782 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnwarchive} is to say
14783 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{M-x
14784 gnus-group-make-warchive-group RET an_egroup RET egroups RET
14785 www.egroups.com RET your@@email.address RET}. (Substitute the
14786 @sc{an_egroup} with the mailing list you subscribed, the
14787 @sc{your@@email.address} with your email address.), or to browse the
14788 back end by @kbd{B nnwarchive RET mail-archive RET}.
14790 The following @code{nnwarchive} variables can be altered:
14793 @item nnwarchive-directory
14794 @vindex nnwarchive-directory
14795 The directory where @code{nnwarchive} stores its files. The default is
14796 @samp{~/News/warchive/}.
14798 @item nnwarchive-login
14799 @vindex nnwarchive-login
14800 The account name on the web server.
14802 @item nnwarchive-passwd
14803 @vindex nnwarchive-passwd
14804 The password for your account on the web server.
14812 Some sites have RDF site summary (RSS)
14813 @uref{http://purl.org/rss/1.0/spec}. It has a quite regular and nice
14814 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
14817 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnrss} is to say something
14818 like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnrss RET RET}, then
14821 The following @code{nnrss} variables can be altered:
14824 @item nnrss-directory
14825 @vindex nnrss-directory
14826 The directory where @code{nnrss} stores its files. The default is
14827 @samp{~/News/rss/}.
14831 The following code may be helpful, if you want to show the description in
14832 the summary buffer.
14835 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-description-field)
14836 (setq gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-15,15f%]%) %s%uX\n")
14838 (defun gnus-user-format-function-X (header)
14840 (assq nnrss-description-field (mail-header-extra header))))
14841 (if descr (concat "\n\t" (cdr descr)) "")))
14844 The following code may be useful to open an nnrss url directly from the
14847 (require 'browse-url)
14849 (defun browse-nnrss-url( arg )
14851 (let ((url (assq nnrss-url-field
14854 (assq (gnus-summary-article-number)
14855 gnus-newsgroup-data))))))
14857 (browse-url (cdr url))
14858 (gnus-summary-scroll-up arg))))
14860 (eval-after-load "gnus"
14861 #'(define-key gnus-summary-mode-map
14862 (kbd "<RET>") 'browse-nnrss-url))
14863 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-url-field)
14866 @node Customizing w3
14867 @subsection Customizing w3
14873 Gnus uses the url library to fetch web pages and Emacs/w3 to display web
14874 pages. Emacs/w3 is documented in its own manual, but there are some
14875 things that may be more relevant for Gnus users.
14877 For instance, a common question is how to make Emacs/w3 follow links
14878 using the @code{browse-url} functions (which will call some external web
14879 browser like Netscape). Here's one way:
14882 (eval-after-load "w3"
14884 (fset 'w3-fetch-orig (symbol-function 'w3-fetch))
14885 (defun w3-fetch (&optional url target)
14886 (interactive (list (w3-read-url-with-default)))
14887 (if (eq major-mode 'gnus-article-mode)
14889 (w3-fetch-orig url target)))))
14892 Put that in your @file{.emacs} file, and hitting links in w3-rendered
14893 @sc{html} in the Gnus article buffers will use @code{browse-url} to
14902 @sc{imap} is a network protocol for reading mail (or news, or ...),
14903 think of it as a modernized @sc{nntp}. Connecting to a @sc{imap}
14904 server is much similar to connecting to a news server, you just
14905 specify the network address of the server.
14907 @sc{imap} has two properties. First, @sc{imap} can do everything that
14908 POP can, it can hence be viewed as a POP++. Secondly, @sc{imap} is a
14909 mail storage protocol, similar to @sc{nntp} being a news storage
14910 protocol -- however, @sc{imap} offers more features than @sc{nntp}
14911 because news is more or less read-only whereas mail is read-write.
14913 If you want to use @sc{imap} as a POP++, use an imap entry in
14914 @code{mail-sources}. With this, Gnus will fetch mails from the
14915 @sc{imap} server and store them on the local disk. This is not the
14916 usage described in this section--@xref{Mail Sources}.
14918 If you want to use @sc{imap} as a mail storage protocol, use an nnimap
14919 entry in @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods}. With this, Gnus will
14920 manipulate mails stored on the @sc{imap} server. This is the kind of
14921 usage explained in this section.
14923 A server configuration in @code{~/.gnus} with a few @sc{imap} servers
14924 might look something like the following. (Note that for SSL/TLS, you
14925 need external programs and libraries, see below.)
14928 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
14929 '((nnimap "simpleserver") ; no special configuration
14930 ; perhaps a ssh port forwarded server:
14932 (nnimap-address "localhost")
14933 (nnimap-server-port 1430))
14934 ; a UW server running on localhost
14936 (nnimap-server-port 143)
14937 (nnimap-address "localhost")
14938 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "mail/*")))
14939 ; anonymous public cyrus server:
14940 (nnimap "cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu"
14941 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous)
14942 (nnimap-list-pattern "archive.*")
14943 (nnimap-stream network))
14944 ; a ssl server on a non-standard port:
14946 (nnimap-address "vic20.somewhere.com")
14947 (nnimap-server-port 9930)
14948 (nnimap-stream ssl))))
14951 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nnimap}
14956 @item nnimap-address
14957 @vindex nnimap-address
14959 The address of the remote @sc{imap} server. Defaults to the virtual
14960 server name if not specified.
14962 @item nnimap-server-port
14963 @vindex nnimap-server-port
14964 Port on server to contact. Defaults to port 143, or 993 for SSL.
14966 Note that this should be an integer, example server specification:
14969 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14970 (nnimap-server-port 4711))
14973 @item nnimap-list-pattern
14974 @vindex nnimap-list-pattern
14975 String or list of strings of mailboxes to limit available groups to.
14976 This is used when the server has very many mailboxes and you're only
14977 interested in a few -- some servers export your home directory via
14978 @sc{imap}, you'll probably want to limit the mailboxes to those in
14979 @file{~/Mail/*} then.
14981 The string can also be a cons of REFERENCE and the string as above, what
14982 REFERENCE is used for is server specific, but on the University of
14983 Washington server it's a directory that will be concatenated with the
14986 Example server specification:
14989 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14990 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "Mail/*" "alt.sex.*"
14991 ("~friend/Mail/" . "list/*"))))
14994 @item nnimap-stream
14995 @vindex nnimap-stream
14996 The type of stream used to connect to your server. By default, nnimap
14997 will detect and automatically use all of the below, with the exception
14998 of SSL/TLS. (@sc{imap} over SSL/TLS is being replaced by STARTTLS, which
14999 can be automatically detected, but it's not widely deployed yet.)
15001 Example server specification:
15004 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
15005 (nnimap-stream ssl))
15008 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-stream} is a symbol!
15012 @dfn{gssapi:} Connect with GSSAPI (usually Kerberos 5). Requires the
15013 @samp{imtest} program.
15015 @dfn{kerberos4:} Connect with Kerberos 4. Requires the @samp{imtest} program.
15017 @dfn{starttls:} Connect via the STARTTLS extension (similar to
15018 SSL). Requires the external library @samp{starttls.el} and program
15021 @dfn{ssl:} Connect through SSL. Requires OpenSSL (the program
15022 @samp{openssl}) or SSLeay (@samp{s_client}) as well as the external
15023 library @samp{ssl.el}.
15025 @dfn{shell:} Use a shell command to start @sc{imap} connection.
15027 @dfn{network:} Plain, TCP/IP network connection.
15030 @vindex imap-kerberos4-program
15031 The @samp{imtest} program is shipped with Cyrus IMAPD. If you're
15032 using @samp{imtest} from Cyrus IMAPD < 2.0.14 (which includes version
15033 1.5.x and 1.6.x) you need to frob @code{imap-process-connection-type}
15034 to make @code{imap.el} use a pty instead of a pipe when communicating
15035 with @samp{imtest}. You will then suffer from a line length
15036 restrictions on @sc{imap} commands, which might make Gnus seem to hang
15037 indefinitely if you have many articles in a mailbox. The variable
15038 @code{imap-kerberos4-program} contain parameters to pass to the imtest
15041 @vindex imap-ssl-program
15042 For SSL connections, the OpenSSL program is available from
15043 @uref{http://www.openssl.org/}. OpenSSL was formerly known as SSLeay,
15044 and nnimap support it too - altough the most recent versions of
15045 SSLeay, 0.9.x, are known to have serious bugs making it
15046 useless. Earlier versions, especially 0.8.x, of SSLeay are known to
15047 work. The variable @code{imap-ssl-program} contain parameters to pass
15048 to OpenSSL/SSLeay. You also need @samp{ssl.el} (from the W3
15049 distribution, for instance).
15051 @vindex imap-shell-program
15052 @vindex imap-shell-host
15053 For @sc{imap} connections using the @code{shell} stream, the variable
15054 @code{imap-shell-program} specify what program to call.
15056 @item nnimap-authenticator
15057 @vindex nnimap-authenticator
15059 The authenticator used to connect to the server. By default, nnimap
15060 will use the most secure authenticator your server is capable of.
15062 Example server specification:
15065 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
15066 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous))
15069 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-authenticator} is a symbol!
15073 @dfn{gssapi:} GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5) authentication. Requires
15074 external program @code{imtest}.
15076 @dfn{kerberos4:} Kerberos 4 authentication. Requires external program
15079 @dfn{digest-md5:} Encrypted username/password via DIGEST-MD5. Requires
15080 external library @code{digest-md5.el}.
15082 @dfn{cram-md5:} Encrypted username/password via CRAM-MD5.
15084 @dfn{login:} Plain-text username/password via LOGIN.
15086 @dfn{anonymous:} Login as `anonymous', supplying your emailadress as password.
15089 @item nnimap-expunge-on-close
15091 @vindex nnimap-expunge-on-close
15092 Unlike Parmenides the @sc{imap} designers has decided that things that
15093 doesn't exist actually does exist. More specifically, @sc{imap} has
15094 this concept of marking articles @code{Deleted} which doesn't actually
15095 delete them, and this (marking them @code{Deleted}, that is) is what
15096 nnimap does when you delete a article in Gnus (with @kbd{B DEL} or
15099 Since the articles aren't really removed when we mark them with the
15100 @code{Deleted} flag we'll need a way to actually delete them. Feel like
15101 running in circles yet?
15103 Traditionally, nnimap has removed all articles marked as @code{Deleted}
15104 when closing a mailbox but this is now configurable by this server
15107 The possible options are:
15112 The default behavior, delete all articles marked as "Deleted" when
15115 Never actually delete articles. Currently there is no way of showing
15116 the articles marked for deletion in nnimap, but other @sc{imap} clients
15117 may allow you to do this. If you ever want to run the EXPUNGE command
15118 manually, @xref{Expunging mailboxes}.
15120 When closing mailboxes, nnimap will ask if you wish to expunge deleted
15125 @item nnimap-importantize-dormant
15126 @vindex nnimap-importantize-dormant
15128 If non-nil (the default), marks dormant articles as ticked (as well),
15129 for other @sc{imap} clients. Within Gnus, dormant articles will
15130 naturally still (only) be marked as dormant. This is to make dormant
15131 articles stand out, just like ticked articles, in other @sc{imap}
15132 clients. (In other words, Gnus has two ``Tick'' marks and @sc{imap}
15135 Probably the only reason for frobing this would be if you're trying
15136 enable per-user persistant dormant flags, using something like:
15139 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-flag-alist)
15140 (format "gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
15141 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-predicate-alist)
15142 (format "KEYWORD gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
15145 In this case, you would not want the per-user dormant flag showing up
15146 as ticked for other users.
15148 @item nnimap-expunge-search-string
15150 @vindex nnimap-expunge-search-string
15152 This variable contain the @sc{imap} search command sent to server when
15153 searching for articles eligible for expiring. The default is
15154 @code{"UID %s NOT SINCE %s"}, where the first @code{%s} is replaced by
15155 UID set and the second @code{%s} is replaced by a date.
15157 Probably the only useful value to change this to is
15158 @code{"UID %s NOT SENTSINCE %s"}, which makes nnimap use the Date: in
15159 messages instead of the internal article date. See section 6.4.4 of
15160 RFC 2060 for more information on valid strings.
15162 @item nnimap-authinfo-file
15163 @vindex nnimap-authinfo-file
15165 A file containing credentials used to log in on servers. The format is
15166 (almost) the same as the @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file. See the
15167 variable @code{nntp-authinfo-file} for exact syntax; also see
15173 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
15174 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
15175 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a "compress mailbox" button.
15176 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use IMAP namespace in Gnus.
15181 @node Splitting in IMAP
15182 @subsection Splitting in IMAP
15183 @cindex splitting imap mail
15185 Splitting is something Gnus users has loved and used for years, and now
15186 the rest of the world is catching up. Yeah, dream on, not many
15187 @sc{imap} server has server side splitting and those that have splitting
15188 seem to use some non-standard protocol. This means that @sc{imap}
15189 support for Gnus has to do it's own splitting.
15193 Here are the variables of interest:
15197 @item nnimap-split-crosspost
15198 @cindex splitting, crosspost
15200 @vindex nnimap-split-crosspost
15202 If non-nil, do crossposting if several split methods match the mail. If
15203 nil, the first match in @code{nnimap-split-rule} found will be used.
15205 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-crosspost}.
15207 @item nnimap-split-inbox
15208 @cindex splitting, inbox
15210 @vindex nnimap-split-inbox
15212 A string or a list of strings that gives the name(s) of @sc{imap}
15213 mailboxes to split from. Defaults to nil, which means that splitting is
15217 (setq nnimap-split-inbox
15218 '("INBOX" ("~/friend/Mail" . "lists/*") "lists.imap"))
15221 No nnmail equivalent.
15223 @item nnimap-split-rule
15224 @cindex Splitting, rules
15225 @vindex nnimap-split-rule
15227 New mail found in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be split according to
15230 This variable contains a list of lists, where the first element in the
15231 sublist gives the name of the @sc{imap} mailbox to move articles
15232 matching the regexp in the second element in the sublist. Got that?
15233 Neither did I, we need examples.
15236 (setq nnimap-split-rule
15238 "^Sender: owner-nnimap@@vic20.globalcom.se")
15239 ("INBOX.junk" "^Subject:.*MAKE MONEY")
15240 ("INBOX.private" "")))
15243 This will put all articles from the nnimap mailing list into mailbox
15244 INBOX.nnimap, all articles containing MAKE MONEY in the Subject: line
15245 into INBOX.junk and everything else in INBOX.private.
15247 The first string may contain `\\1' forms, like the ones used by
15248 replace-match to insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For
15252 ("INBOX.lists.\\1" "^Sender: owner-\\([a-z-]+\\)@@")
15255 The first element can also be the symbol @code{junk} to indicate that
15256 matching messages should simply be deleted. Use with care.
15258 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
15259 called with the first element of the rule as the argument, in a buffer
15260 containing the headers of the article. It should return a non-nil value
15261 if it thinks that the mail belongs in that group.
15263 Nnmail users might recollect that the last regexp had to be empty to
15264 match all articles (like in the example above). This is not required in
15265 nnimap. Articles not matching any of the regexps will not be moved out
15266 of your inbox. (This might affect performance if you keep lots of
15267 unread articles in your inbox, since the splitting code would go over
15268 them every time you fetch new mail.)
15270 These rules are processed from the beginning of the alist toward the
15271 end. The first rule to make a match will "win", unless you have
15272 crossposting enabled. In that case, all matching rules will "win".
15274 This variable can also have a function as its value, the function will
15275 be called with the headers narrowed and should return a group where it
15276 thinks the article should be split to. See @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
15278 The splitting code tries to create mailboxes if it needs to.
15280 To allow for different split rules on different virtual servers, and
15281 even different split rules in different inboxes on the same server,
15282 the syntax of this variable have been extended along the lines of:
15285 (setq nnimap-split-rule
15286 '(("my1server" (".*" (("ding" "ding@@gnus.org")
15287 ("junk" "From:.*Simon")))
15288 ("my2server" ("INBOX" nnimap-split-fancy))
15289 ("my[34]server" (".*" (("private" "To:.*Simon")
15290 ("junk" my-junk-func)))))
15293 The virtual server name is in fact a regexp, so that the same rules
15294 may apply to several servers. In the example, the servers
15295 @code{my3server} and @code{my4server} both use the same rules.
15296 Similarly, the inbox string is also a regexp. The actual splitting
15297 rules are as before, either a function, or a list with group/regexp or
15298 group/function elements.
15300 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
15302 @item nnimap-split-predicate
15304 @vindex nnimap-split-predicate
15306 Mail matching this predicate in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be
15307 split, it is a string and the default is @samp{UNSEEN UNDELETED}.
15309 This might be useful if you use another @sc{imap} client to read mail in
15310 your inbox but would like Gnus to split all articles in the inbox
15311 regardless of readedness. Then you might change this to
15314 @item nnimap-split-fancy
15315 @cindex splitting, fancy
15316 @findex nnimap-split-fancy
15317 @vindex nnimap-split-fancy
15319 It's possible to set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
15320 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} if you want to use fancy
15321 splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
15323 However, to be able to have different fancy split rules for nnmail and
15324 nnimap back ends you can set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
15325 @code{nnimap-split-fancy} and define the nnimap specific fancy split
15326 rule in @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
15331 (setq nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
15332 nnimap-split-fancy ...)
15335 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
15339 @node Editing IMAP ACLs
15340 @subsection Editing IMAP ACLs
15341 @cindex editing imap acls
15342 @cindex Access Control Lists
15343 @cindex Editing @sc{imap} ACLs
15345 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-edit-acl
15347 ACL stands for Access Control List. ACLs are used in @sc{imap} for
15348 limiting (or enabling) other users access to your mail boxes. Not all
15349 @sc{imap} servers support this, this function will give an error if it
15352 To edit a ACL for a mailbox, type @kbd{G l}
15353 (@code{gnus-group-edit-nnimap-acl}) and you'll be presented with a ACL
15354 editing window with detailed instructions.
15356 Some possible uses:
15360 Giving "anyone" the "lrs" rights (lookup, read, keep seen/unseen flags)
15361 on your mailing list mailboxes enables other users on the same server to
15362 follow the list without subscribing to it.
15364 At least with the Cyrus server, you are required to give the user
15365 "anyone" posting ("p") capabilities to have "plussing" work (that is,
15366 mail sent to user+mailbox@@domain ending up in the @sc{imap} mailbox
15370 @node Expunging mailboxes
15371 @subsection Expunging mailboxes
15375 @cindex Manual expunging
15377 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-expunge
15379 If you're using the @code{never} setting of @code{nnimap-expunge-on-close},
15380 you may want the option of expunging all deleted articles in a mailbox
15381 manually. This is exactly what @kbd{G x} does.
15383 Currently there is no way of showing deleted articles, you can just
15386 @node A note on namespaces
15387 @subsection A note on namespaces
15388 @cindex IMAP namespace
15391 The IMAP protocol has a concept called namespaces, described by the
15392 following text in the RFC:
15395 5.1.2. Mailbox Namespace Naming Convention
15397 By convention, the first hierarchical element of any mailbox name
15398 which begins with "#" identifies the "namespace" of the remainder of
15399 the name. This makes it possible to disambiguate between different
15400 types of mailbox stores, each of which have their own namespaces.
15402 For example, implementations which offer access to USENET
15403 newsgroups MAY use the "#news" namespace to partition the USENET
15404 newsgroup namespace from that of other mailboxes. Thus, the
15405 comp.mail.misc newsgroup would have an mailbox name of
15406 "#news.comp.mail.misc", and the name "comp.mail.misc" could refer
15407 to a different object (e.g. a user's private mailbox).
15410 While there is nothing in this text that warrants concern for the IMAP
15411 implementation in Gnus, some servers use namespace prefixes in a way
15412 that does not work with how Gnus uses mailbox names.
15414 Specifically, University of Washington's IMAP server uses mailbox
15415 names like @code{#driver.mbx/read-mail} which are valid only in the
15416 @sc{create} and @sc{append} commands. After the mailbox is created
15417 (or a messages is appended to a mailbox), it must be accessed without
15418 the namespace prefix, i.e @code{read-mail}. Since Gnus do not make it
15419 possible for the user to guarantee that user entered mailbox names
15420 will only be used with the CREATE and APPEND commands, you should
15421 simply not use the namespace prefixed mailbox names in Gnus.
15423 See the UoW @sc{imapd} documentation for the @code{#driver.*/} prefix
15424 for more information on how to use the prefixes. They are a power
15425 tool and should be used only if you are sure what the effects are.
15427 @node Other Sources
15428 @section Other Sources
15430 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
15431 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
15435 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
15436 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
15437 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
15438 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
15439 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
15443 @node Directory Groups
15444 @subsection Directory Groups
15446 @cindex directory groups
15448 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
15449 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
15452 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
15453 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
15454 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
15455 back end to read directories. Big deal.
15457 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
15458 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
15459 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
15460 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
15461 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
15463 @code{nndir} will use @sc{nov} files if they are present.
15465 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' back end---you can't delete or expire
15466 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
15467 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
15468 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
15471 @node Anything Groups
15472 @subsection Anything Groups
15475 From the @code{nndir} back end (which reads a single spool-like
15476 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
15477 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
15480 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
15481 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
15482 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
15483 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're forgetting.
15484 @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it snoops each
15485 file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e., the first
15486 few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head. If this is
15487 just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g. a C source file),
15488 @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It will use
15489 file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
15492 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
15493 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
15494 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
15495 in the article buffer, just as usual.
15497 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
15498 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
15499 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
15500 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
15502 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
15503 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
15504 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
15505 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
15506 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
15507 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
15508 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
15509 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
15514 @item nneething-map-file-directory
15515 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
15516 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
15517 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
15519 @item nneething-exclude-files
15520 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
15521 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
15522 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
15524 @item nneething-include-files
15525 @vindex nneething-include-files
15526 Regexp saying what files to include in the group. If this variable is
15527 non-@code{nil}, only files matching this regexp will be included.
15529 @item nneething-map-file
15530 @vindex nneething-map-file
15531 Name of the map files.
15535 @node Document Groups
15536 @subsection Document Groups
15538 @cindex documentation group
15541 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
15542 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
15549 The babyl (rmail) mail box.
15554 The standard Unix mbox file.
15556 @cindex MMDF mail box
15558 The MMDF mail box format.
15561 Several news articles appended into a file.
15564 @cindex rnews batch files
15565 The rnews batch transport format.
15566 @cindex forwarded messages
15569 Forwarded articles.
15572 Netscape mail boxes.
15575 @sc{mime} multipart messages.
15577 @item standard-digest
15578 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
15581 A @sc{mime} digest of messages.
15583 @item lanl-gov-announce
15584 Announcement messages from LANL Gov Announce.
15586 @item rfc822-forward
15587 A message forwarded according to RFC822.
15590 The Outlook mail box.
15593 The Outlook Express dbx mail box.
15596 A bounce message from the Exim MTA.
15599 A message forwarded according to informal rules.
15602 An RFC934-forwarded message.
15608 A digest of Clarinet brief news items.
15611 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
15617 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
15618 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
15619 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
15622 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
15623 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
15624 group. And that's it.
15626 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
15627 new & spiffy Gnus mail back end, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
15628 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
15629 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
15630 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
15631 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
15632 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
15633 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
15634 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
15635 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
15637 Virtual server variables:
15640 @item nndoc-article-type
15641 @vindex nndoc-article-type
15642 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
15643 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
15644 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts}, @code{standard-digest},
15645 @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs}, @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook},
15646 @code{oe-dbx}, @code{mailman}, and @code{mail-in-mail} or @code{guess}.
15648 @item nndoc-post-type
15649 @vindex nndoc-post-type
15650 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
15651 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
15656 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
15660 @node Document Server Internals
15661 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
15663 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
15664 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
15665 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
15666 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
15668 First, here's an example document type definition:
15672 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
15673 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
15676 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
15677 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
15678 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
15679 types can be defined with very few settings:
15682 @item first-article
15683 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
15684 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
15687 @item article-begin
15688 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
15689 says what the beginning of each article looks like.
15691 @item head-begin-function
15692 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
15695 @item nndoc-head-begin
15696 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
15699 @item nndoc-head-end
15700 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
15701 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
15703 @item body-begin-function
15704 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
15708 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
15711 @item body-end-function
15712 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
15716 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article.
15719 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
15720 regexp will be totally ignored.
15724 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
15725 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
15726 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
15727 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
15728 something that's palatable for Gnus:
15731 @item prepare-body-function
15732 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
15733 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
15734 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
15736 @item article-transform-function
15737 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
15738 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
15739 body of the article.
15741 @item generate-head-function
15742 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
15743 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
15744 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
15745 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
15749 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
15754 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
15755 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
15756 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
15757 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
15758 (head-end . "^ ?$")
15759 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
15760 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
15761 (subtype digest guess))
15764 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
15765 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
15766 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
15767 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
15768 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
15770 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
15771 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first is
15772 the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says where in
15773 the document type definition alist to put this definition. The alist is
15774 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
15775 is of @code{mmdf} type, and so on. These type predicates should return
15776 @code{nil} if the document is not of the correct type; @code{t} if it is
15777 of the correct type; and a number if the document might be of the
15778 correct type. A high number means high probability; a low number means
15779 low probability with @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
15787 In the PC world people often talk about ``offline'' newsreaders. These
15788 are thingies that are combined reader/news transport monstrosities.
15789 With built-in modem programs. Yecchh!
15791 Of course, us Unix Weenie types of human beans use things like
15792 @code{uucp} and, like, @code{nntpd} and set up proper news and mail
15793 transport things like Ghod intended. And then we just use normal
15796 However, it can sometimes be convenient to do something that's a bit
15797 easier on the brain if you have a very slow modem, and you're not really
15798 that interested in doing things properly.
15800 A file format called @sc{soup} has been developed for transporting news
15801 and mail from servers to home machines and back again. It can be a bit
15804 First some terminology:
15809 This is the machine that is connected to the outside world and where you
15810 get news and/or mail from.
15813 This is the machine that you want to do the actual reading and responding
15814 on. It is typically not connected to the rest of the world in any way.
15817 Something that contains messages and/or commands. There are two kinds
15821 @item message packets
15822 These are packets made at the server, and typically contain lots of
15823 messages for you to read. These are called @file{SoupoutX.tgz} by
15824 default, where @var{x} is a number.
15826 @item response packets
15827 These are packets made at the home machine, and typically contains
15828 replies that you've written. These are called @file{SoupinX.tgz} by
15829 default, where @var{x} is a number.
15839 You log in on the server and create a @sc{soup} packet. You can either
15840 use a dedicated @sc{soup} thingie (like the @code{awk} program), or you
15841 can use Gnus to create the packet with its @sc{soup} commands (@kbd{O
15842 s} and/or @kbd{G s b}; and then @kbd{G s p}) (@pxref{SOUP Commands}).
15845 You transfer the packet home. Rail, boat, car or modem will do fine.
15848 You put the packet in your home directory.
15851 You fire up Gnus on your home machine using the @code{nnsoup} back end as
15852 the native or secondary server.
15855 You read articles and mail and answer and followup to the things you
15856 want (@pxref{SOUP Replies}).
15859 You do the @kbd{G s r} command to pack these replies into a @sc{soup}
15863 You transfer this packet to the server.
15866 You use Gnus to mail this packet out with the @kbd{G s s} command.
15869 You then repeat until you die.
15873 So you basically have a bipartite system---you use @code{nnsoup} for
15874 reading and Gnus for packing/sending these @sc{soup} packets.
15877 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
15878 * SOUP Groups:: A back end for reading @sc{soup} packets.
15879 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
15883 @node SOUP Commands
15884 @subsubsection SOUP Commands
15886 These are commands for creating and manipulating @sc{soup} packets.
15890 @kindex G s b (Group)
15891 @findex gnus-group-brew-soup
15892 Pack all unread articles in the current group
15893 (@code{gnus-group-brew-soup}). This command understands the
15894 process/prefix convention.
15897 @kindex G s w (Group)
15898 @findex gnus-soup-save-areas
15899 Save all @sc{soup} data files (@code{gnus-soup-save-areas}).
15902 @kindex G s s (Group)
15903 @findex gnus-soup-send-replies
15904 Send all replies from the replies packet
15905 (@code{gnus-soup-send-replies}).
15908 @kindex G s p (Group)
15909 @findex gnus-soup-pack-packet
15910 Pack all files into a @sc{soup} packet (@code{gnus-soup-pack-packet}).
15913 @kindex G s r (Group)
15914 @findex nnsoup-pack-replies
15915 Pack all replies into a replies packet (@code{nnsoup-pack-replies}).
15918 @kindex O s (Summary)
15919 @findex gnus-soup-add-article
15920 This summary-mode command adds the current article to a @sc{soup} packet
15921 (@code{gnus-soup-add-article}). It understands the process/prefix
15922 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
15927 There are a few variables to customize where Gnus will put all these
15932 @item gnus-soup-directory
15933 @vindex gnus-soup-directory
15934 Directory where Gnus will save intermediate files while composing
15935 @sc{soup} packets. The default is @file{~/SoupBrew/}.
15937 @item gnus-soup-replies-directory
15938 @vindex gnus-soup-replies-directory
15939 This is what Gnus will use as a temporary directory while sending our
15940 reply packets. @file{~/SoupBrew/SoupReplies/} is the default.
15942 @item gnus-soup-prefix-file
15943 @vindex gnus-soup-prefix-file
15944 Name of the file where Gnus stores the last used prefix. The default is
15945 @samp{gnus-prefix}.
15947 @item gnus-soup-packer
15948 @vindex gnus-soup-packer
15949 A format string command for packing a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
15950 @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupout%d.tgz}.
15952 @item gnus-soup-unpacker
15953 @vindex gnus-soup-unpacker
15954 Format string command for unpacking a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
15955 @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
15957 @item gnus-soup-packet-directory
15958 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-directory
15959 Where Gnus will look for reply packets. The default is @file{~/}.
15961 @item gnus-soup-packet-regexp
15962 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-regexp
15963 Regular expression matching @sc{soup} reply packets in
15964 @code{gnus-soup-packet-directory}.
15970 @subsubsection SOUP Groups
15973 @code{nnsoup} is the back end for reading @sc{soup} packets. It will
15974 read incoming packets, unpack them, and put them in a directory where
15975 you can read them at leisure.
15977 These are the variables you can use to customize its behavior:
15981 @item nnsoup-tmp-directory
15982 @vindex nnsoup-tmp-directory
15983 When @code{nnsoup} unpacks a @sc{soup} packet, it does it in this
15984 directory. (@file{/tmp/} by default.)
15986 @item nnsoup-directory
15987 @vindex nnsoup-directory
15988 @code{nnsoup} then moves each message and index file to this directory.
15989 The default is @file{~/SOUP/}.
15991 @item nnsoup-replies-directory
15992 @vindex nnsoup-replies-directory
15993 All replies will be stored in this directory before being packed into a
15994 reply packet. The default is @file{~/SOUP/replies/"}.
15996 @item nnsoup-replies-format-type
15997 @vindex nnsoup-replies-format-type
15998 The @sc{soup} format of the replies packets. The default is @samp{?n}
15999 (rnews), and I don't think you should touch that variable. I probably
16000 shouldn't even have documented it. Drats! Too late!
16002 @item nnsoup-replies-index-type
16003 @vindex nnsoup-replies-index-type
16004 The index type of the replies packet. The default is @samp{?n}, which
16005 means ``none''. Don't fiddle with this one either!
16007 @item nnsoup-active-file
16008 @vindex nnsoup-active-file
16009 Where @code{nnsoup} stores lots of information. This is not an ``active
16010 file'' in the @code{nntp} sense; it's an Emacs Lisp file. If you lose
16011 this file or mess it up in any way, you're dead. The default is
16012 @file{~/SOUP/active}.
16014 @item nnsoup-packer
16015 @vindex nnsoup-packer
16016 Format string command for packing a reply @sc{soup} packet. The default
16017 is @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupin%d.tgz}.
16019 @item nnsoup-unpacker
16020 @vindex nnsoup-unpacker
16021 Format string command for unpacking incoming @sc{soup} packets. The
16022 default is @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
16024 @item nnsoup-packet-directory
16025 @vindex nnsoup-packet-directory
16026 Where @code{nnsoup} will look for incoming packets. The default is
16029 @item nnsoup-packet-regexp
16030 @vindex nnsoup-packet-regexp
16031 Regular expression matching incoming @sc{soup} packets. The default is
16034 @item nnsoup-always-save
16035 @vindex nnsoup-always-save
16036 If non-@code{nil}, save the replies buffer after each posted message.
16042 @subsubsection SOUP Replies
16044 Just using @code{nnsoup} won't mean that your postings and mailings end
16045 up in @sc{soup} reply packets automagically. You have to work a bit
16046 more for that to happen.
16048 @findex nnsoup-set-variables
16049 The @code{nnsoup-set-variables} command will set the appropriate
16050 variables to ensure that all your followups and replies end up in the
16053 In specific, this is what it does:
16056 (setq message-send-news-function 'nnsoup-request-post)
16057 (setq message-send-mail-function 'nnsoup-request-mail)
16060 And that's it, really. If you only want news to go into the @sc{soup}
16061 system you just use the first line. If you only want mail to be
16062 @sc{soup}ed you use the second.
16065 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
16066 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
16067 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
16070 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
16071 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
16072 The @code{nngateway} back end provides the interface.
16074 Note that you can't read anything from this back end---it can only be
16080 @item nngateway-address
16081 @vindex nngateway-address
16082 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
16084 @item nngateway-header-transformation
16085 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
16086 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
16087 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
16088 transformation should be called, and defaults to
16089 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
16090 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
16093 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
16094 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
16095 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
16098 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
16101 will get this @code{To} header inserted:
16104 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
16107 The following pre-defined functions exist:
16109 @findex nngateway-simple-header-transformation
16112 @item nngateway-simple-header-transformation
16113 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
16114 @var{newsgroup}@@@code{nngateway-address}.
16116 @findex nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
16118 @item nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
16119 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
16120 @code{nngateway-address}.
16125 (setq gnus-post-method
16127 "mail2news@@replay.com"
16128 (nngateway-header-transformation
16129 nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation)))
16137 So, to use this, simply say something like:
16140 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
16145 @node Combined Groups
16146 @section Combined Groups
16148 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
16152 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
16153 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
16157 @node Virtual Groups
16158 @subsection Virtual Groups
16160 @cindex virtual groups
16161 @cindex merging groups
16163 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
16166 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
16167 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
16168 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
16170 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
16171 regexp to match component groups.
16173 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
16174 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
16175 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it
16176 came. (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be
16177 shown in the virtual group.). To create an empty virtual group, run
16178 @kbd{G V} (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}) in the group buffer
16179 and edit the method regexp with @kbd{M-e}
16180 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method})
16182 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
16183 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
16186 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
16189 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
16190 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
16192 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
16193 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
16194 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
16195 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
16198 "^nntp\\+server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
16201 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
16202 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
16203 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
16205 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
16206 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
16207 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
16208 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
16209 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
16211 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
16212 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
16213 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
16215 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
16216 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} is non-@code{nil},
16217 @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread articles when
16218 entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
16219 default) and you read articles in a component group after the virtual
16220 group has been activated, the read articles from the component group
16221 will show up when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this
16222 effect if you have two virtual groups that have a component group in
16223 common. If that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}.
16224 Or you can just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before
16225 you enter it---it'll have much the same effect.
16227 @code{nnvirtual} can have both mail and news groups as component groups.
16228 When responding to articles in @code{nnvirtual} groups, @code{nnvirtual}
16229 has to ask the back end of the component group the article comes from
16230 whether it is a news or mail back end. However, when you do a @kbd{^},
16231 there is typically no sure way for the component back end to know this,
16232 and in that case @code{nnvirtual} tells Gnus that the article came from a
16233 not-news back end. (Just to be on the safe side.)
16235 @kbd{C-c C-n} in the message buffer will insert the @code{Newsgroups}
16236 line from the article you respond to in these cases.
16238 @code{nnvirtual} groups do not inherit anything but articles and marks
16239 from component groups---group parameters, for instance, are not
16243 @node Kibozed Groups
16244 @subsection Kibozed Groups
16248 @dfn{Kibozing} is defined by @sc{oed} as ``grepping through (parts of)
16249 the news feed''. @code{nnkiboze} is a back end that will do this for
16250 you. Oh joy! Now you can grind any @sc{nntp} server down to a halt
16251 with useless requests! Oh happiness!
16253 @kindex G k (Group)
16254 To create a kibozed group, use the @kbd{G k} command in the group
16257 The address field of the @code{nnkiboze} method is, as with
16258 @code{nnvirtual}, a regexp to match groups to be ``included'' in the
16259 @code{nnkiboze} group. That's where most similarities between @code{nnkiboze}
16260 and @code{nnvirtual} end.
16262 In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an @code{nnkiboze} group
16263 must have a score file to say what articles are to be included in
16264 the group (@pxref{Scoring}).
16266 @kindex M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups
16267 @findex nnkiboze-generate-groups
16268 You must run @kbd{M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups} after creating the
16269 @code{nnkiboze} groups you want to have. This command will take time. Lots of
16270 time. Oodles and oodles of time. Gnus has to fetch the headers from
16271 all the articles in all the component groups and run them through the
16272 scoring process to determine if there are any articles in the groups
16273 that are to be part of the @code{nnkiboze} groups.
16275 Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
16276 regexps. Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
16277 @sc{nntp} site may throw you off and never let you back in again.
16278 Stranger things have happened.
16280 @code{nnkiboze} component groups do not have to be alive---they can be dead,
16281 and they can be foreign. No restrictions.
16283 @vindex nnkiboze-directory
16284 The generation of an @code{nnkiboze} group means writing two files in
16285 @code{nnkiboze-directory}, which is @file{~/News/} by default. One
16286 contains the @sc{nov} header lines for all the articles in the group,
16287 and the other is an additional @file{.newsrc} file to store information
16288 on what groups have been searched through to find component articles.
16290 Articles marked as read in the @code{nnkiboze} group will have
16291 their @sc{nov} lines removed from the @sc{nov} file.
16294 @node Gnus Unplugged
16295 @section Gnus Unplugged
16300 @cindex Gnus Unplugged
16302 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
16303 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
16304 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
16305 read news. Believe it or not.
16307 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
16308 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
16309 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
16310 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
16311 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
16313 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
16314 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
16315 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
16316 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
16317 reading news on a machine.
16319 Setting up Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple. In
16320 fact, you don't even have to configure anything.
16322 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
16325 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
16326 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
16327 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
16328 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
16329 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
16330 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with IMAP.
16331 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
16332 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
16333 * Example Setup:: An example @file{.gnus.el} file for offline people.
16334 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
16335 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
16340 @subsection Agent Basics
16342 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
16344 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
16345 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
16346 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
16347 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
16349 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
16350 connected to the net continuously.
16352 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
16353 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
16355 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
16360 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
16361 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
16362 already fetched while in this mode.
16365 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
16366 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
16367 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged} and use @kbd{g} to check for new mail
16368 as usual. To check for new mail in unplugged mode, see (@pxref{Mail
16369 Source Specifiers}).
16372 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the news
16373 onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press @kbd{g}
16374 to check if there are any new news and then @kbd{J
16375 s} to fetch all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus
16376 know which articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}.)
16379 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
16380 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
16381 then you read the news offline.
16384 And then you go to step 2.
16387 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
16393 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
16394 back end, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
16395 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
16396 @kbd{J a} on the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
16397 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}), or @kbd{J r} on automatically
16398 added servers you do not wish to have covered by the Agent. By default,
16399 all @code{nntp} and @code{nnimap} groups in @code{gnus-select-method} and
16400 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} are agentized.
16403 Decide on download policy. @xref{Agent Categories}.
16410 @node Agent Categories
16411 @subsection Agent Categories
16413 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
16414 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
16415 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
16416 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
16417 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
16418 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
16419 you're interested in the articles anyway.
16421 The main way to control what is to be downloaded is to create a
16422 @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all) groups to this category.
16423 Groups that do not belong in any other category belong to the
16424 @code{default} category. Gnus has its own buffer for creating and
16425 managing categories.
16428 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
16429 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
16430 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
16434 @node Category Syntax
16435 @subsubsection Category Syntax
16437 A category consists of two things.
16441 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
16442 are eligible for downloading; and
16445 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
16446 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
16447 score} is not necessarily related to normal scores.)
16450 A predicate in its simplest form can be a single predicate such as
16451 @code{true} or @code{false}. These two will download every available
16452 article or nothing respectively. In the case of these two special
16453 predicates an additional score rule is superfluous.
16455 Predicates of @code{high} or @code{low} download articles in respect of
16456 their scores in relationship to @code{gnus-agent-high-score} and
16457 @code{gnus-agent-low-score} as described below.
16459 To gain even finer control of what is to be regarded eligible for
16460 download a predicate can consist of a number of predicates with logical
16461 operators sprinkled in between.
16463 Perhaps some examples are in order.
16465 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
16466 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
16472 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
16473 short (for some value of ``short'').
16475 Here's a more complex predicate:
16484 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
16485 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
16488 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
16489 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
16490 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
16492 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
16493 you want to do, you can write your own.
16497 True iff the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
16498 lines; default 100.
16501 True iff the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
16502 lines; default 200.
16505 True iff the article has a download score less than
16506 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
16509 True iff the article has a download score greater than
16510 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
16513 True iff the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
16514 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
16515 checksum and sees whether articles match.
16524 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
16525 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
16526 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
16529 For example, you could decide that you don't want to download articles
16530 that were posted more than a certain number of days ago (e.g. posted
16531 more than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} ago) you might write a function
16532 something along the lines of the following:
16535 (defun my-article-old-p ()
16536 "Say whether an article is old."
16537 (< (time-to-days (date-to-time (mail-header-date gnus-headers)))
16538 (- (time-to-days (current-time)) gnus-agent-expire-days)))
16541 with the predicate then defined as:
16544 (not my-article-old-p)
16547 or you could append your predicate to the predefined
16548 @code{gnus-category-predicate-alist} in your @file{~/.gnus.el} or
16552 (require 'gnus-agent)
16553 (setq gnus-category-predicate-alist
16554 (append gnus-category-predicate-alist
16555 '((old . my-article-old-p))))
16558 and simply specify your predicate as:
16564 If/when using something like the above, be aware that there are many
16565 misconfigured systems/mailers out there and so an article's date is not
16566 always a reliable indication of when it was posted. Hell, some people
16567 just don't give a damn.
16569 The above predicates apply to *all* the groups which belong to the
16570 category. However, if you wish to have a specific predicate for an
16571 individual group within a category, or you're just too lazy to set up a
16572 new category, you can enter a group's individual predicate in it's group
16573 parameters like so:
16576 (agent-predicate . short)
16579 This is the group parameter equivalent of the agent category default.
16580 Note that when specifying a single word predicate like this, the
16581 @code{agent-predicate} specification must be in dotted pair notation.
16583 The equivalent of the longer example from above would be:
16586 (agent-predicate or high (and (not low) (not long)))
16589 The outer parenthesis required in the category specification are not
16590 entered here as, not being in dotted pair notation, the value of the
16591 predicate is assumed to be a list.
16594 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
16595 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
16596 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
16597 following headers can be scored on: @code{Subject}, @code{From},
16598 @code{Date}, @code{Message-ID}, @code{References}, @code{Chars},
16599 @code{Lines}, and @code{Xref}.
16601 As with predicates, the specification of the @code{download score rule}
16602 to use in respect of a group can be in either the category definition if
16603 it's to be applicable to all groups in therein, or a group's parameters
16604 if it's to be specific to that group.
16606 In both of these places the @code{download score rule} can take one of
16613 This has the same syntax as a normal gnus score file except only a
16614 subset of scoring keywords are available as mentioned above.
16620 Category specification
16624 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
16630 Group Parameter specification
16633 (agent-score ("from"
16634 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
16639 Again, note the omission of the outermost parenthesis here.
16645 These score files must *only* contain the permitted scoring keywords
16652 Category specification
16655 ("~/News/agent.SCORE")
16661 ("~/News/agent.SCORE" "~/News/agent.group.SCORE")
16665 Group Parameter specification
16668 (agent-score "~/News/agent.SCORE")
16671 Additional score files can be specified as above. Need I say anything
16676 Use @code{normal} score files
16678 If you don't want to maintain two sets of scoring rules for a group, and
16679 your desired @code{downloading} criteria for a group are the same as your
16680 @code{reading} criteria then you can tell the agent to refer to your
16681 @code{normal} score files when deciding what to download.
16683 These directives in either the category definition or a group's
16684 parameters will cause the agent to read in all the applicable score
16685 files for a group, *filtering out* those sections that do not
16686 relate to one of the permitted subset of scoring keywords.
16690 Category Specification
16697 Group Parameter specification
16700 (agent-score . file)
16705 @node Category Buffer
16706 @subsubsection Category Buffer
16708 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
16709 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
16710 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
16712 The following commands are available in this buffer:
16716 @kindex q (Category)
16717 @findex gnus-category-exit
16718 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
16721 @kindex k (Category)
16722 @findex gnus-category-kill
16723 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
16726 @kindex c (Category)
16727 @findex gnus-category-copy
16728 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
16731 @kindex a (Category)
16732 @findex gnus-category-add
16733 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
16736 @kindex p (Category)
16737 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
16738 Edit the predicate of the current category
16739 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
16742 @kindex g (Category)
16743 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
16744 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
16745 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
16748 @kindex s (Category)
16749 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
16750 Edit the download score rule of the current category
16751 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
16754 @kindex l (Category)
16755 @findex gnus-category-list
16756 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
16760 @node Category Variables
16761 @subsubsection Category Variables
16764 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
16765 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
16766 Hook run in category buffers.
16768 @item gnus-category-line-format
16769 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
16770 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
16771 Variables}). Valid elements are:
16775 The name of the category.
16778 The number of groups in the category.
16781 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
16782 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
16783 Format of the category mode line (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}).
16785 @item gnus-agent-short-article
16786 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
16787 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
16789 @item gnus-agent-long-article
16790 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
16791 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
16793 @item gnus-agent-low-score
16794 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
16795 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
16798 @item gnus-agent-high-score
16799 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
16800 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
16806 @node Agent Commands
16807 @subsection Agent Commands
16809 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
16810 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged}) command works in all modes, and
16811 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
16815 * Group Agent Commands::
16816 * Summary Agent Commands::
16817 * Server Agent Commands::
16820 You can run a complete batch command from the command line with the
16821 following incantation:
16823 @cindex gnus-agent-batch
16825 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-agent-batch
16830 @node Group Agent Commands
16831 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
16835 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
16836 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
16837 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
16838 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
16841 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
16842 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
16843 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
16846 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
16847 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
16848 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
16849 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
16852 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
16853 @findex gnus-group-send-queue
16854 Send all sendable messages in the queue group
16855 (@code{gnus-group-send-queue}). @xref{Drafts}.
16858 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
16859 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
16860 Add the current group to an Agent category
16861 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}). This command understands the
16862 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
16865 @kindex J r (Agent Group)
16866 @findex gnus-agent-remove-group
16867 Remove the current group from its category, if any
16868 (@code{gnus-agent-remove-group}). This command understands the
16869 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
16872 @kindex J Y (Agent Group)
16873 @findex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
16874 Synchronize flags changed while unplugged with remote server, if any.
16880 @node Summary Agent Commands
16881 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
16885 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
16886 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
16887 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
16890 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
16891 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
16892 Remove the downloading mark from the article
16893 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
16896 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
16897 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
16898 Toggle whether to download the article (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}).
16901 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
16902 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
16903 Mark all undownloaded articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}).
16906 @kindex J u (Agent Summary)
16907 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group
16908 Download all downloadable articles in the current group
16909 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group}).
16914 @node Server Agent Commands
16915 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
16919 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
16920 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
16921 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
16922 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
16925 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
16926 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
16927 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
16928 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
16933 @node Agent as Cache
16934 @subsection Agent as Cache
16936 When Gnus is plugged, it is not efficient to download headers or
16937 articles from the server again, if they are already stored in the
16938 Agent. So, Gnus normally only downloads headers once, and stores them
16939 in the Agent. These headers are later used when generating the summary
16940 buffer, regardless of whether you are plugged or unplugged. Articles
16941 are not cached in the Agent by default though (that would potentially
16942 consume lots of disk space), but if you have already downloaded an
16943 article into the Agent, Gnus will not download the article from the
16944 server again but use the locally stored copy instead.
16946 This behaviour can be controlled by @code{gnus-agent-cache}
16947 (@pxref{Agent Variables}).
16950 @subsection Agent Expiry
16952 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
16953 @findex gnus-agent-expire
16954 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire
16955 @cindex Agent expiry
16956 @cindex Gnus Agent expiry
16959 @code{nnagent} doesn't handle expiry. Instead, there's a special
16960 @code{gnus-agent-expire} command that will expire all read articles that
16961 are older than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} days. It can be run
16962 whenever you feel that you're running out of space. It's not
16963 particularly fast or efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to
16964 interrupt it (with @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started it.
16966 @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} can also be a list of regexp/day pairs.
16967 The regexps will be matched against group names to allow differing
16968 expiry in different groups.
16971 (setq gnus-agent-expire-days
16977 If you use the list form, the last element must always be the default
16978 method---it must always match all groups.
16980 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
16981 If @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, this command will
16982 expire all articles---unread, read, ticked and dormant. If @code{nil}
16983 (which is the default), only read articles are eligible for expiry, and
16984 unread, ticked and dormant articles will be kept indefinitely.
16986 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate
16987 If you find that some articles eligible for expiry are never expired,
16988 perhaps some Gnus Agent files are corrupted. There's a special
16989 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} command to fix possible problems.
16991 @node Agent and IMAP
16992 @subsection Agent and IMAP
16994 The Agent work with any Gnus back end, including nnimap. However,
16995 since there are some conceptual differences between @sc{nntp} and
16996 @sc{imap}, this section (should) provide you with some information to
16997 make Gnus Agent work smoother as a @sc{imap} Disconnected Mode client.
16999 The first thing to keep in mind is that all flags (read, ticked, etc)
17000 are kept on the @sc{imap} server, rather than in @code{.newsrc} as is the
17001 case for nntp. Thus Gnus need to remember flag changes when
17002 disconnected, and synchronize these flags when you plug back in.
17004 Gnus keeps track of flag changes when reading nnimap groups under the
17005 Agent. When you plug back in, Gnus will check if you have any changed
17006 any flags and ask if you wish to synchronize these with the server.
17007 The behavior is customizable by @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags}.
17009 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
17010 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
17011 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, which is
17012 the default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so
17013 ask if you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has
17014 any other value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
17016 If you do not wish to synchronize flags automatically when you
17017 re-connect, you can do it manually with the
17018 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} command that is bound to @kbd{J Y}
17019 in the group buffer.
17021 Some things are currently not implemented in the Agent that you'd might
17022 expect from a disconnected @sc{imap} client, including:
17027 Copying/moving articles into nnimap groups when unplugged.
17030 Creating/deleting nnimap groups when unplugged.
17034 Technical note: the synchronization algorithm does not work by "pushing"
17035 all local flags to the server, but rather incrementally update the
17036 server view of flags by changing only those flags that were changed by
17037 the user. Thus, if you set one flag on a article, quit the group and
17038 re-select the group and remove the flag; the flag will be set and
17039 removed from the server when you "synchronize". The queued flag
17040 operations can be found in the per-server @code{flags} file in the Agent
17041 directory. It's emptied when you synchronize flags.
17044 @node Outgoing Messages
17045 @subsection Outgoing Messages
17047 When Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail and news) are
17048 stored in the draft group ``queue'' (@pxref{Drafts}). You can view
17049 them there after posting, and edit them at will.
17051 When Gnus is plugged again, you can send the messages either from the
17052 draft group with the special commands available there, or you can use
17053 the @kbd{J S} command in the group buffer to send all the sendable
17054 messages in the draft group.
17058 @node Agent Variables
17059 @subsection Agent Variables
17062 @item gnus-agent-directory
17063 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
17064 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
17065 @file{~/News/agent/}.
17067 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
17068 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
17069 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
17070 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
17071 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
17074 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
17075 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
17076 Hook run when connecting to the network.
17078 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
17079 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
17080 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
17082 @item gnus-agent-fetched-hook
17083 @vindex gnus-agent-fetched-hook
17084 Hook run when after finishing fetching articles.
17086 @item gnus-agent-cache
17087 @vindex gnus-agent-cache
17088 Variable to control whether use the locally stored @sc{nov} and
17089 articles when plugged, e.g. essentially using the Agent as a cache.
17090 The default is non-nil, which means to use the Agent as a cache.
17092 @item gnus-agent-go-online
17093 @vindex gnus-agent-go-online
17094 If @code{gnus-agent-go-online} is @code{nil}, the Agent will never
17095 automatically switch offline servers into online status. If it is
17096 @code{ask}, the default, the Agent will ask if you wish to switch
17097 offline servers into online status when you re-connect. If it has any
17098 other value, all offline servers will be automatically switched into
17101 @item gnus-server-unopen-status
17102 @vindex gnus-server-unopen-status
17103 Perhaps not a Agent variable, but closely related to the Agent, this
17104 variable says what will happen if Gnus cannot open a server. If the
17105 Agent is enabled, the default, @code{nil}, makes Gnus ask the user
17106 whether to deny the server or whether to unplug the agent. If the
17107 Agent is disabled, Gnus always simply deny the server. Other choices
17108 for this variable include @code{denied} and @code{offline} the latter
17109 is only valid if the Agent is used.
17114 @node Example Setup
17115 @subsection Example Setup
17117 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
17118 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
17119 @file{.gnus.el} file to get started.
17122 ;;; Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over @sc{nntp}
17123 ;;; from your ISP's server.
17124 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.your-isp.com"))
17126 ;;; Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from
17127 ;;; your ISP's POP server.
17128 (setq mail-sources '((pop :server "pop.your-isp.com")))
17130 ;;; Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.
17131 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
17133 ;;; Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.
17134 ;;; (gnus-agentize) ; The obsolete setting.
17135 ;;; (setq gnus-agent t) ; Now the default.
17138 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
17139 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
17142 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
17143 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
17144 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
17145 @sc{nntp} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
17146 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
17149 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
17150 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
17151 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
17152 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
17153 back all the killed groups.)
17155 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
17156 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
17157 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
17160 @node Batching Agents
17161 @subsection Batching Agents
17163 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
17164 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
17165 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
17169 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -f gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null
17173 @node Agent Caveats
17174 @subsection Agent Caveats
17176 The Gnus Agent doesn't seem to work like most other offline
17177 newsreaders. Here are some common questions that some imaginary people
17181 @item If I read an article while plugged, do they get entered into the Agent?
17185 @item If I read an article while plugged, and the article already exists in the Agent, will it get downloaded once more?
17187 @strong{No}, unless @code{gnus-agent-cache} is `nil'.
17191 In short, when Gnus is unplugged, it only looks into the locally stored
17192 articles; when it's plugged, it only talks to your ISP and also uses the
17193 locally stored articles.
17200 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
17201 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
17202 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
17205 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
17206 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
17207 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
17208 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
17209 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
17211 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
17212 before generating the summary buffer.
17214 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
17215 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
17216 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
17218 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
17219 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
17220 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
17221 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
17224 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
17225 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
17226 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
17227 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
17228 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
17229 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
17230 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
17231 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
17232 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
17233 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
17234 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
17235 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
17236 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
17237 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
17238 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
17239 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
17240 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
17244 @node Summary Score Commands
17245 @section Summary Score Commands
17246 @cindex score commands
17248 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
17249 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
17250 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
17251 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
17252 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
17254 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
17255 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
17256 some other score file (e.g. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
17257 score file the current one.
17259 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
17264 @kindex V s (Summary)
17265 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
17266 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
17269 @kindex V S (Summary)
17270 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
17271 Display the score of the current article
17272 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
17275 @kindex V t (Summary)
17276 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
17277 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
17278 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}).
17281 @kindex V w (Summary)
17282 @findex gnus-score-find-favourite-words
17283 List words used in scoring (@code{gnus-score-find-favourite-words}).
17286 @kindex V R (Summary)
17287 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
17288 Run the current summary through the scoring process
17289 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
17290 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
17291 effect you're having.
17294 @kindex V c (Summary)
17295 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
17296 Make a different score file the current
17297 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
17300 @kindex V e (Summary)
17301 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
17302 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
17303 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
17307 @kindex V f (Summary)
17308 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
17309 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
17310 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
17313 @kindex V F (Summary)
17314 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
17315 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
17316 after editing score files.
17319 @kindex V C (Summary)
17320 @findex gnus-score-customize
17321 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
17322 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
17326 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
17331 @kindex V m (Summary)
17332 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
17333 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
17334 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
17337 @kindex V x (Summary)
17338 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
17339 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
17340 expunge all articles below this score
17341 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
17344 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
17345 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
17348 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
17349 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
17353 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
17354 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
17356 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
17357 keys are available:
17361 Score on the author name.
17364 Score on the subject line.
17367 Score on the @code{Xref} line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
17370 Score on the @code{References} line.
17376 Score on the number of lines.
17379 Score on the @code{Message-ID} header.
17382 Score on an "extra" header, that is, one of those in gnus-extra-headers,
17383 if your @sc{nntp} server tracks additional header data in overviews.
17386 Score on followups---this matches the author name, and adds scores to
17387 the followups to this author. (Using this key leads to the creation of
17388 @file{ADAPT} files.)
17397 Score on thread. (Using this key leads to the creation of @file{ADAPT}
17403 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
17404 what headers you are scoring on.
17416 Substring matching.
17419 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
17448 Greater than number.
17453 The fourth and usually final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e.,
17454 expiring) score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry,
17455 or whether it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score
17460 Temporary score entry.
17463 Permanent score entry.
17466 Immediately scoring.
17470 If you are scoring on `e' (extra) headers, you will then be prompted for
17471 the header name on which you wish to score. This must be a header named
17472 in gnus-extra-headers, and @samp{TAB} completion is available.
17476 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
17477 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
17478 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
17479 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
17481 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
17482 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
17483 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
17484 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
17485 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
17487 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
17488 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
17489 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
17490 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
17491 current score file.
17493 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
17494 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
17495 pretend they are keymaps or not.
17498 @node Group Score Commands
17499 @section Group Score Commands
17500 @cindex group score commands
17502 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
17507 @kindex W f (Group)
17508 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
17509 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
17510 all the time. This command will flush the cache
17511 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
17515 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
17517 @findex gnus-batch-score
17518 @cindex batch scoring
17520 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-batch-score
17524 @node Score Variables
17525 @section Score Variables
17526 @cindex score variables
17530 @item gnus-use-scoring
17531 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
17532 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
17533 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
17535 @item gnus-kill-killed
17536 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
17537 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
17538 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
17539 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
17540 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
17541 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
17542 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
17544 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
17545 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
17546 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
17547 initialized from the @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
17548 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
17550 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
17551 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
17552 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
17553 (@samp{SCORE} by default.)
17555 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
17556 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
17557 @cindex score cache
17558 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
17559 score files. However, if this might make your Emacs grow big and
17560 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
17561 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
17562 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
17563 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
17566 @item gnus-save-score
17567 @vindex gnus-save-score
17568 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
17569 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
17570 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
17572 If you do not set this to @code{t}, then manual scores (like those set
17573 with @kbd{V s} (@code{gnus-summary-set-score})) will not be preserved
17574 across group visits.
17576 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
17577 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
17578 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
17579 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
17580 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
17581 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
17582 manually entered data.
17584 @item gnus-summary-default-score
17585 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
17586 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
17588 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
17589 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
17590 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
17591 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
17592 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
17593 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
17595 @item gnus-score-over-mark
17596 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
17597 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
17598 default. Default is @samp{+}.
17600 @item gnus-score-below-mark
17601 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
17602 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
17603 default. Default is @samp{-}.
17605 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
17606 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
17607 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
17608 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
17610 Predefined functions available are:
17613 @item gnus-score-find-single
17614 @findex gnus-score-find-single
17615 Only apply the group's own score file.
17617 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
17618 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
17619 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
17620 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
17621 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
17622 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
17623 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
17624 then a regexp match is done.
17626 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
17627 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
17629 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
17630 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
17631 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
17632 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
17634 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
17635 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
17636 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
17637 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
17638 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE} for each
17642 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all
17643 these functions will be called with the group name as argument, and
17644 all the returned lists of score files will be applied. These
17645 functions can also return lists of lists of score alists directly. In
17646 that case, the functions that return these non-file score alists
17647 should probably be placed before the ``real'' score file functions, to
17648 ensure that the last score file returned is the local score file.
17651 For example, to do hierarchical scoring but use a non-server-specific
17652 overall score file, you could use the value
17654 (list (lambda (group) ("all.SCORE"))
17655 'gnus-score-find-hierarchical)
17658 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
17659 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
17660 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
17661 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
17662 are expired. It's 7 by default.
17664 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
17665 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
17666 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, temporary score entries that have
17667 been triggered (matched) will have their dates updated. (This is how Gnus
17668 controls expiry---all non-matched-entries will become too old while
17669 matched entries will stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this
17670 variable to @code{nil}, even matched entries will grow old and will
17671 have to face that oh-so grim reaper.
17673 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
17674 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
17675 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
17677 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
17678 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
17679 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be simplified
17680 for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
17681 threading---according to the current value of
17682 gnus-simplify-subject-functions. If the scoring entry uses
17683 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
17684 simplified in this manner.
17689 @node Score File Format
17690 @section Score File Format
17691 @cindex score file format
17693 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
17694 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
17695 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
17697 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
17701 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
17703 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
17705 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
17707 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
17712 (mark-and-expunge -10)
17716 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
17717 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
17718 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
17719 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
17723 This example demonstrates most score file elements. For a different
17724 approach, see @pxref{Advanced Scoring}.
17726 Even though this looks much like lisp code, nothing here is actually
17727 @code{eval}ed. The lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
17728 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
17730 Six keys are supported by this alist:
17735 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
17736 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
17737 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
17738 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
17739 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
17740 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
17741 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
17742 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
17743 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
17744 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
17745 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
17746 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
17747 to articles that matches these score entries.
17749 Following this key is a arbitrary number of score entries, where each
17750 score entry has one to four elements.
17754 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
17755 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
17759 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
17760 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
17761 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
17762 is successful. If this element is not present, the
17763 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
17764 instead. This is 1000 by default.
17767 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
17768 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
17769 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
17770 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
17771 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
17774 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
17775 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
17776 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
17777 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
17780 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
17781 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
17782 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
17783 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
17784 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
17785 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
17786 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
17787 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
17788 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
17789 instead, if you feel like.
17792 Just as for the standard string overview headers, if you are using
17793 gnus-extra-headers, you can score on these headers' values. In this
17794 case, there is a 5th element in the score entry, being the name of the
17795 header to be scored. The following entry is useful in your
17796 @file{all.SCORE} file in case of spam attacks from a single origin host,
17797 if your @sc{nntp} server tracks NNTP-Posting-Host in overviews:
17800 ("111.222.333.444" -1000 nil s "NNTP-Posting-Host")
17804 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
17805 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
17807 These predicates are true if
17810 (PREDICATE HEADER MATCH)
17813 evaluates to non-@code{nil}. For instance, the advanced match
17814 @code{("lines" 4 <)} (@pxref{Advanced Scoring}) will result in the
17821 Or to put it another way: When using @code{<} on @code{Lines} with 4 as
17822 the match, we get the score added if the article has less than 4 lines.
17823 (It's easy to get confused and think it's the other way around. But
17824 it's not. I think.)
17826 When matching on @code{Lines}, be careful because some back ends (like
17827 @code{nndir}) do not generate @code{Lines} header, so every article ends
17828 up being marked as having 0 lines. This can lead to strange results if
17829 you happen to lower score of the articles with few lines.
17832 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
17833 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
17834 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
17835 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
17836 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
17837 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
17838 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
17842 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
17843 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
17844 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
17845 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
17846 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
17847 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
17848 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
17849 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
17852 @item Head, Body, All
17853 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
17857 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
17858 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
17859 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
17860 you e.g. increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
17861 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
17862 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
17863 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
17867 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
17868 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an
17869 article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{x}, then you add a @samp{thread}
17870 match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each article that
17871 has @var{x} in its @code{References} header. (These new @samp{thread}
17872 matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching articles.)
17873 This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an entire thread,
17874 even though some articles in the thread may not have complete
17875 @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
17876 undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
17877 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
17881 @cindex Score File Atoms
17883 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
17884 lower than this number will be marked as read.
17887 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
17888 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
17890 @item mark-and-expunge
17891 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
17892 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
17895 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
17896 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
17897 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
17898 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
17899 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
17902 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
17903 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
17906 @item exclude-files
17907 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
17908 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
17912 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}el. This element will be
17913 ignored when handling global score files.
17916 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
17917 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
17918 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
17919 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
17922 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
17923 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
17924 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
17925 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
17927 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
17931 (mark-and-expunge -100)
17934 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
17935 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
17936 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{C y}) the
17937 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
17938 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
17940 I.e.---the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where a few
17941 interesting threads which can't be found automatically by ordinary
17942 scoring rules exist.
17945 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
17946 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
17947 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
17948 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
17949 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
17950 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
17951 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
17952 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
17953 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
17954 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
17955 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
17959 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
17960 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
17961 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
17962 file for a number of groups.
17965 @cindex local variables
17966 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(VAR VALUE)} pairs.
17967 Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the current summary buffer,
17968 and set to the value specified. This is a convenient, if somewhat
17969 strange, way of setting variables in some groups if you don't like hooks
17970 much. Note that the @var{value} won't be evaluated.
17974 @node Score File Editing
17975 @section Score File Editing
17977 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
17978 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
17979 with a mode for that.
17981 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
17982 additional commands:
17987 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
17988 @findex gnus-score-edit-done
17989 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
17990 (@code{gnus-score-edit-done}).
17993 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
17994 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
17995 Insert the current date in numerical format
17996 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
17997 you were wondering.
18000 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
18001 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
18002 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
18003 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
18004 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
18009 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
18011 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
18012 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
18014 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f} and @kbd{V
18015 e} to begin editing score files.
18018 @node Adaptive Scoring
18019 @section Adaptive Scoring
18020 @cindex adaptive scoring
18022 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
18023 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
18024 stupidity, to be precise.
18026 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
18027 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
18028 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
18029 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
18030 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
18031 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
18032 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
18033 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
18034 variable to @code{(word line)}.
18036 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
18037 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
18038 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
18039 might look something like this:
18042 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
18043 '((gnus-unread-mark)
18044 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
18045 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
18046 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
18047 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
18048 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
18049 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
18050 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
18051 (gnus-ancient-mark)
18052 (gnus-low-score-mark)
18053 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
18056 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
18057 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
18058 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
18059 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
18060 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
18061 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
18064 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
18065 will be applied to each article.
18067 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
18068 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{D}) will have a
18069 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
18070 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
18072 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
18073 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
18074 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
18075 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
18077 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
18078 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
18079 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
18080 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
18082 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
18083 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
18084 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
18085 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
18086 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
18087 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
18089 You can also score on @code{thread}, which will try to score all
18090 articles that appear in a thread. @code{thread} matches uses a
18091 @code{Message-ID} to match on the @code{References} header of the
18092 article. If the match is made, the @code{Message-ID} of the article is
18093 added to the @code{thread} rule. (Think about it. I'd recommend two
18094 aspirins afterwards.)
18096 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
18097 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
18098 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
18100 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
18101 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
18102 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
18104 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
18105 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
18106 let you use different rules in different groups.
18108 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
18109 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
18110 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
18113 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
18114 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
18115 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
18116 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
18117 the length of the match is less than
18118 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
18119 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
18122 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
18123 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
18124 headers. If you adapt on words, the
18125 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
18126 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
18129 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
18130 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
18131 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
18132 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
18133 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
18136 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
18137 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
18138 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
18139 score with 30 points.
18141 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
18142 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
18143 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
18144 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
18145 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
18147 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit
18148 Some may feel that short words shouldn't count when doing adaptive
18149 scoring. If so, you may set @code{gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit} to
18150 an integer. Words shorter than this number will be ignored. This
18151 variable defaults til @code{nil}.
18153 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
18154 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
18155 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
18156 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
18158 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
18159 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
18160 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
18161 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
18163 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words
18164 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words} is set to @code{t}, gnus
18165 won't adaptively word score any of the words in the group name. Useful
18166 for groups like @samp{comp.editors.emacs}, where most of the subject
18167 lines contain the word @samp{emacs}.
18169 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
18170 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
18171 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
18173 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
18174 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
18175 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
18176 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
18179 @node Home Score File
18180 @section Home Score File
18182 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
18183 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
18184 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
18185 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
18187 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
18188 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
18189 could perhaps use the same home score file.
18191 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
18192 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
18197 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
18201 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
18202 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
18206 A list. The elements in this list can be:
18210 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{file-name})}. If the @var{regexp} matches the
18211 group name, the @var{file-name} will be used as the home score file.
18214 A function. If the function returns non-nil, the result will be used as
18215 the home score file.
18218 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
18221 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
18226 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
18229 (setq gnus-home-score-file
18230 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
18233 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
18234 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
18236 @findex gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file
18238 (setq gnus-home-score-file
18239 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
18242 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
18243 Other functions include
18246 @item gnus-current-home-score-file
18247 @findex gnus-current-home-score-file
18248 Return the ``current'' regular score file. This will make scoring
18249 commands add entry to the ``innermost'' matching score file.
18253 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
18254 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
18255 their own home score files:
18258 (setq gnus-home-score-file
18259 ;; All groups that match the regexp "\\.emacs"
18260 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
18261 ;; All the comp groups in one score file
18262 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
18265 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
18266 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
18267 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
18268 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
18269 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
18271 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
18272 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
18273 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
18274 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
18275 precedence over this variable.
18278 @node Followups To Yourself
18279 @section Followups To Yourself
18281 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
18282 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
18283 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
18284 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
18285 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
18286 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
18290 @item gnus-score-followup-article
18291 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
18292 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
18295 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
18296 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
18297 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
18301 @vindex message-sent-hook
18302 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
18303 @code{message-sent-hook}, like this:
18305 (add-hook 'message-sent-hook 'gnus-score-followup-thread)
18309 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
18310 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
18314 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
18315 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
18318 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
18319 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
18324 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore\\.no>"
18328 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
18329 is system-dependent.
18332 @node Scoring On Other Headers
18333 @section Scoring On Other Headers
18334 @cindex scoring on other headers
18336 Gnus is quite fast when scoring the ``traditional''
18337 headers---@samp{From}, @samp{Subject} and so on. However, scoring
18338 other headers requires writing a @code{head} scoring rule, which means
18339 that Gnus has to request every single article from the back end to find
18340 matches. This takes a long time in big groups.
18342 Now, there's not much you can do about this for news groups, but for
18343 mail groups, you have greater control. In the @pxref{To From
18344 Newsgroups} section of the manual, it's explained in greater detail what
18345 this mechanism does, but here's a cookbook example for @code{nnml} on
18346 how to allow scoring on the @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} headers.
18348 Put the following in your @file{.gnus.el} file.
18351 (setq gnus-extra-headers '(To Cc Newsgroups Keywords)
18352 nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
18355 Restart Gnus and rebuild your @code{nnml} overview files with the
18356 @kbd{M-x nnml-generate-nov-databases} command. This will take a long
18357 time if you have much mail.
18359 Now you can score on @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} as ``extra headers'' like
18360 so: @kbd{I e s p To RET <your name> RET}.
18366 @section Scoring Tips
18367 @cindex scoring tips
18373 @cindex scoring crossposts
18374 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
18375 the @code{Xref} header.
18377 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
18380 @item Multiple crossposts
18381 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
18382 more than, say, 3 groups:
18385 ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+"
18389 @item Matching on the body
18390 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
18391 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
18392 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
18393 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
18394 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
18395 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
18396 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
18399 @item Marking as read
18400 You will probably want to mark articles that have scores below a certain
18401 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
18402 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
18406 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
18408 @item Negated character classes
18409 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
18410 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
18411 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
18415 @node Reverse Scoring
18416 @section Reverse Scoring
18417 @cindex reverse scoring
18419 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
18420 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
18421 like this in your score file:
18425 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
18430 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
18431 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
18434 @node Global Score Files
18435 @section Global Score Files
18436 @cindex global score files
18438 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
18439 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
18440 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
18442 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
18443 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
18444 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
18446 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
18447 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
18448 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
18449 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
18450 files are applicable to which group.
18452 To use the score file
18453 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
18454 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory,
18458 (setq gnus-global-score-files
18459 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
18460 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
18463 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
18465 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
18466 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
18467 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
18468 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
18470 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
18471 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
18473 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
18474 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
18475 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
18476 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
18477 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
18478 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
18480 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
18486 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
18488 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
18490 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
18492 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
18493 lowered out of existence.
18495 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
18496 articles completely.
18499 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
18500 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
18501 old articles for a long time.
18504 ... I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
18505 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
18506 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
18507 holding our breath yet?
18511 @section Kill Files
18514 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
18515 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
18516 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
18518 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
18519 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
18520 files into score files.
18522 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
18523 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
18524 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
18525 that isn't a very good idea.
18527 Normal kill files look like this:
18530 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
18531 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
18535 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
18536 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
18538 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
18539 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
18542 Two summary functions for editing a GNUS kill file:
18547 @kindex M-k (Summary)
18548 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
18549 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
18552 @kindex M-K (Summary)
18553 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
18554 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
18557 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
18562 @kindex M-k (Group)
18563 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
18564 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
18567 @kindex M-K (Group)
18568 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
18569 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
18572 Kill file variables:
18575 @item gnus-kill-file-name
18576 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
18577 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
18578 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
18579 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
18580 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
18581 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
18583 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
18584 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
18585 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
18586 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
18589 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
18590 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
18591 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
18592 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
18593 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
18594 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
18595 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
18596 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
18597 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
18599 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
18600 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
18601 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
18606 @node Converting Kill Files
18607 @section Converting Kill Files
18609 @cindex converting kill files
18611 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
18612 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
18613 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
18616 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Gnus by default.
18617 You can fetch it from
18618 @uref{http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-various/gnus-kill-to-score.el}.
18620 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
18621 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
18622 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
18630 GroupLens (@uref{http://www.cs.umn.edu/Research/GroupLens/}) is a
18631 collaborative filtering system that helps you work together with other
18632 people to find the quality news articles out of the huge volume of
18633 news articles generated every day.
18635 To accomplish this the GroupLens system combines your opinions about
18636 articles you have already read with the opinions of others who have done
18637 likewise and gives you a personalized prediction for each unread news
18638 article. Think of GroupLens as a matchmaker. GroupLens watches how you
18639 rate articles, and finds other people that rate articles the same way.
18640 Once it has found some people you agree with it tells you, in the form
18641 of a prediction, what they thought of the article. You can use this
18642 prediction to help you decide whether or not you want to read the
18645 @sc{Note:} Unfortunately the GroupLens system seems to have shut down,
18646 so this section is mostly of historical interest.
18649 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
18650 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
18651 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
18652 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
18656 @node Using GroupLens
18657 @subsection Using GroupLens
18659 To use GroupLens you must register a pseudonym with your local Better
18661 @uref{http://www.cs.umn.edu/Research/GroupLens/bbb.html} is the only
18662 better bit in town at the moment.
18664 Once you have registered you'll need to set a couple of variables.
18668 @item gnus-use-grouplens
18669 @vindex gnus-use-grouplens
18670 Setting this variable to a non-@code{nil} value will make Gnus hook into
18671 all the relevant GroupLens functions.
18673 @item grouplens-pseudonym
18674 @vindex grouplens-pseudonym
18675 This variable should be set to the pseudonym you got when registering
18676 with the Better Bit Bureau.
18678 @item grouplens-newsgroups
18679 @vindex grouplens-newsgroups
18680 A list of groups that you want to get GroupLens predictions for.
18684 That's the minimum of what you need to get up and running with GroupLens.
18685 Once you've registered, GroupLens will start giving you scores for
18686 articles based on the average of what other people think. But, to get
18687 the real benefit of GroupLens you need to start rating articles
18688 yourself. Then the scores GroupLens gives you will be personalized for
18689 you, based on how the people you usually agree with have already rated.
18692 @node Rating Articles
18693 @subsection Rating Articles
18695 In GroupLens, an article is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, inclusive.
18696 Where 1 means something like this article is a waste of bandwidth and 5
18697 means that the article was really good. The basic question to ask
18698 yourself is, "on a scale from 1 to 5 would I like to see more articles
18701 There are four ways to enter a rating for an article in GroupLens.
18706 @kindex r (GroupLens)
18707 @findex bbb-summary-rate-article
18708 This function will prompt you for a rating on a scale of one to five.
18711 @kindex k (GroupLens)
18712 @findex grouplens-score-thread
18713 This function will prompt you for a rating, and rate all the articles in
18714 the thread. This is really useful for some of those long running giant
18715 threads in rec.humor.
18719 The next two commands, @kbd{n} and @kbd{,} take a numerical prefix to be
18720 the score of the article you're reading.
18725 @kindex n (GroupLens)
18726 @findex grouplens-next-unread-article
18727 Rate the article and go to the next unread article.
18730 @kindex , (GroupLens)
18731 @findex grouplens-best-unread-article
18732 Rate the article and go to the next unread article with the highest score.
18736 If you want to give the current article a score of 4 and then go to the
18737 next article, just type @kbd{4 n}.
18740 @node Displaying Predictions
18741 @subsection Displaying Predictions
18743 GroupLens makes a prediction for you about how much you will like a
18744 news article. The predictions from GroupLens are on a scale from 1 to
18745 5, where 1 is the worst and 5 is the best. You can use the predictions
18746 from GroupLens in one of three ways controlled by the variable
18747 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring}.
18749 @vindex gnus-grouplens-override-scoring
18750 There are three ways to display predictions in grouplens. You may
18751 choose to have the GroupLens scores contribute to, or override the
18752 regular gnus scoring mechanism. override is the default; however, some
18753 people prefer to see the Gnus scores plus the grouplens scores. To get
18754 the separate scoring behavior you need to set
18755 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'separate}. To have the
18756 GroupLens predictions combined with the grouplens scores set it to
18757 @code{'override} and to combine the scores set
18758 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'combine}. When you use
18759 the combine option you will also want to set the values for
18760 @code{grouplens-prediction-offset} and
18761 @code{grouplens-score-scale-factor}.
18763 @vindex grouplens-prediction-display
18764 In either case, GroupLens gives you a few choices for how you would like
18765 to see your predictions displayed. The display of predictions is
18766 controlled by the @code{grouplens-prediction-display} variable.
18768 The following are valid values for that variable.
18771 @item prediction-spot
18772 The higher the prediction, the further to the right an @samp{*} is
18775 @item confidence-interval
18776 A numeric confidence interval.
18778 @item prediction-bar
18779 The higher the prediction, the longer the bar.
18781 @item confidence-bar
18782 Numerical confidence.
18784 @item confidence-spot
18785 The spot gets bigger with more confidence.
18787 @item prediction-num
18788 Plain-old numeric value.
18790 @item confidence-plus-minus
18791 Prediction +/- confidence.
18796 @node GroupLens Variables
18797 @subsection GroupLens Variables
18801 @item gnus-summary-grouplens-line-format
18802 The summary line format used in GroupLens-enhanced summary buffers. It
18803 accepts the same specs as the normal summary line format (@pxref{Summary
18804 Buffer Lines}). The default is @samp{%U%R%z%l%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23n%]%)
18807 @item grouplens-bbb-host
18808 Host running the bbbd server. @samp{grouplens.cs.umn.edu} is the
18811 @item grouplens-bbb-port
18812 Port of the host running the bbbd server. The default is 9000.
18814 @item grouplens-score-offset
18815 Offset the prediction by this value. In other words, subtract the
18816 prediction value by this number to arrive at the effective score. The
18819 @item grouplens-score-scale-factor
18820 This variable allows the user to magnify the effect of GroupLens scores.
18821 The scale factor is applied after the offset. The default is 1.
18826 @node Advanced Scoring
18827 @section Advanced Scoring
18829 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
18830 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
18831 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
18832 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
18833 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
18835 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
18839 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
18840 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
18841 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
18845 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
18846 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
18848 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
18849 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
18850 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
18851 non-@code{nil} value.
18853 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
18854 operator, and various match operators.
18861 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
18862 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
18863 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
18868 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
18869 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
18870 then this operator will return @code{false}.
18875 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
18876 logical negation of the value of its argument.
18880 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
18881 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
18882 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
18883 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
18884 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
18885 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
18886 the ancestry you want to go.
18888 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
18889 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
18890 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
18891 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
18892 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
18895 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
18896 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
18898 Please note that the following examples are score file rules. To
18899 make a complete score file from them, surround them with another pair
18902 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
18903 when he's talking about Gnus:
18907 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
18908 ("subject" "Gnus"))
18914 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
18918 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
18925 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
18926 really don't want to read what he's written:
18930 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
18931 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigir Logge")))
18935 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
18936 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
18937 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
18944 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
18945 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
18946 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
18947 ("body" "white.*socks"))
18951 The possibilities are endless.
18954 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
18955 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
18957 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
18958 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
18959 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
18960 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
18961 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
18962 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
18963 @samp{subject}) first.
18965 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
18966 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
18977 Then that means "score on the from header of the grandparent of the
18978 current article". An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
18984 ("subject" "Gnus")))
18991 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
18992 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
18997 @section Score Decays
18998 @cindex score decays
19001 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
19002 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
19003 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
19004 use them in any sensible way.
19006 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
19007 @findex gnus-decay-score
19008 @vindex gnus-decay-score-function
19009 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
19010 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
19011 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
19012 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
19013 The decay itself if performed by the @code{gnus-decay-score-function}
19014 function, which is @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the
19015 definition of that function:
19018 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
19020 This is done according to `gnus-score-decay-constant'
19021 and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
19024 (* (if (< score 0) 1 -1)
19026 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
19028 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
19031 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
19032 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
19033 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
19034 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
19038 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
19041 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
19044 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
19048 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
19049 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
19050 the new score, which should be an integer.
19052 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
19053 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
19058 @include message.texi
19059 @chapter Emacs MIME
19060 @include emacs-mime.texi
19062 @include sieve.texi
19070 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
19071 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
19072 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
19073 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
19074 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
19075 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
19076 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
19077 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
19078 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
19079 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
19080 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
19081 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
19082 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
19083 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
19084 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
19085 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
19086 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
19087 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
19088 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
19092 @node Process/Prefix
19093 @section Process/Prefix
19094 @cindex process/prefix convention
19096 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
19097 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
19099 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
19100 command to be performed on.
19104 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
19105 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
19106 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
19107 with the current one.
19109 @vindex transient-mark-mode
19110 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
19111 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
19113 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
19114 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
19117 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
19118 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
19120 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
19123 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
19124 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
19125 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
19126 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
19128 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
19129 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
19130 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
19131 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
19132 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
19133 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
19134 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
19135 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
19137 Many commands do not use the process/prefix convention. All commands
19138 that do explicitly say so in this manual. To apply the process/prefix
19139 convention to commands that do not use it, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
19140 command. For instance, to mark all the articles in the group as
19141 expirable, you could say `M P b M-& E'.
19145 @section Interactive
19146 @cindex interaction
19150 @item gnus-novice-user
19151 @vindex gnus-novice-user
19152 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
19153 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
19154 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
19155 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
19158 @item gnus-expert-user
19159 @vindex gnus-expert-user
19160 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
19161 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing, no
19162 matter how strange.
19164 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
19165 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
19166 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
19167 is @code{t} by default.
19169 @item gnus-interactive-exit
19170 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
19171 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
19176 @node Symbolic Prefixes
19177 @section Symbolic Prefixes
19178 @cindex symbolic prefixes
19180 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
19181 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four characters forward, and
19182 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
19183 rule of 900 to the current article.
19185 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
19186 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
19187 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
19188 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
19189 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
19190 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
19191 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
19193 @kindex M-i (Summary)
19194 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
19195 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
19196 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
19197 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
19198 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a C-M-u} means ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u}
19199 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b C-M-u} means
19200 ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
19201 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
19203 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
19204 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
19205 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
19207 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
19211 @node Formatting Variables
19212 @section Formatting Variables
19213 @cindex formatting variables
19215 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called
19216 things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
19217 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
19218 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
19219 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
19222 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
19223 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
19224 lots of percentages everywhere.
19227 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
19228 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
19229 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
19230 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
19231 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
19232 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
19233 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
19234 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
19237 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
19238 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
19239 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
19240 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
19241 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
19242 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
19243 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
19244 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
19246 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
19247 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
19249 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
19250 @findex gnus-update-format
19251 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
19252 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
19253 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
19254 examine the resulting lisp code to be run to generate the line.
19258 @node Formatting Basics
19259 @subsection Formatting Basics
19261 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
19262 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
19263 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
19265 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
19266 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
19267 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
19268 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
19269 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
19272 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
19273 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
19274 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
19275 less than 4 characters wide.
19277 Also Gnus supports some extended format specifications, such as
19278 @samp{%&user-date;}.
19281 @node Mode Line Formatting
19282 @subsection Mode Line Formatting
19284 Mode line formatting variables (e.g.,
19285 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}) follow the same rules as other,
19286 buffer line oriented formatting variables (@pxref{Formatting Basics})
19287 with the following two differences:
19292 There must be no newline (@samp{\n}) at the end.
19295 The special @samp{%%b} spec can be used to display the buffer name.
19296 Well, it's no spec at all, really---@samp{%%} is just a way to quote
19297 @samp{%} to allow it to pass through the formatting machinery unmangled,
19298 so that Emacs receives @samp{%b}, which is something the Emacs mode line
19299 display interprets to mean ``show the buffer name''. For a full list of
19300 mode line specs Emacs understands, see the documentation of the
19301 @code{mode-line-format} variable.
19306 @node Advanced Formatting
19307 @subsection Advanced Formatting
19309 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
19310 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
19311 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
19312 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
19314 These are the valid modifiers:
19319 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
19323 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
19328 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
19331 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
19336 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
19339 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
19342 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
19345 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
19351 "~(form (current-time-string))@@"
19356 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
19357 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
19358 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
19359 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
19360 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
19361 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
19362 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
19364 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
19365 last operation, padding.
19367 If you use lots of these advanced thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets
19368 quite slow. This can be helped enormously by running @kbd{M-x
19369 gnus-compile} when you are satisfied with the look of your lines.
19370 @xref{Compilation}.
19373 @node User-Defined Specs
19374 @subsection User-Defined Specs
19376 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
19377 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
19378 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
19379 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
19380 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
19381 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
19382 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
19383 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
19384 should protect against that.
19386 Also Gnus supports extended user-defined specs, such as @samp{%u&foo;}.
19387 Gnus will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{foo}.
19389 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
19390 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
19391 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
19392 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
19396 @node Formatting Fonts
19397 @subsection Formatting Fonts
19399 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
19400 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
19401 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
19402 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
19405 Text inside the @samp{%@{} and @samp{%@}} specifiers will have their
19406 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
19407 default. If you say @samp{%1@{}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
19408 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
19409 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
19410 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
19412 Text inside the @samp{%<} and @samp{%>} specifiers will get the special
19413 @code{balloon-help} property set to @code{gnus-balloon-face-0}. If you
19414 say @samp{%1<}, you'll get @code{gnus-balloon-face-1} and so on. The
19415 @code{gnus-balloon-face-*} variables should be either strings or symbols
19416 naming functions that return a string. Under @code{balloon-help-mode},
19417 when the mouse passes over text with this property set, a balloon window
19418 will appear and display the string. Please refer to the doc string of
19419 @code{balloon-help-mode} for more information on this.
19421 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
19424 ;; Create three face types.
19425 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
19426 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
19428 ;; We want the article count to be in
19429 ;; a bold and green face. So we create
19430 ;; a new face called `my-green-bold'.
19431 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
19433 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
19434 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
19436 ;; Set the new & fancy format.
19437 (setq gnus-group-line-format
19438 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
19441 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
19442 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
19444 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
19445 mode-line variables.
19447 @node Positioning Point
19448 @subsection Positioning Point
19450 Gnus usually moves point to a pre-defined place on each line in most
19451 buffers. By default, point move to the first colon character on the
19452 line. You can customize this behaviour in three different ways.
19454 You can move the colon character to somewhere else on the line.
19456 @findex gnus-goto-colon
19457 You can redefine the function that moves the point to the colon. The
19458 function is called @code{gnus-goto-colon}.
19460 But perhaps the most convenient way to deal with this, if you don't want
19461 to have a colon in your line, is to use the @samp{%C} specifier. If you
19462 put a @samp{%C} somewhere in your format line definition, Gnus will
19467 @subsection Tabulation
19469 You can usually line up your displays by padding and cutting your
19470 strings. However, when combining various strings of different size, it
19471 can often be more convenient to just output the strings, and then worry
19472 about lining up the following text afterwards.
19474 To do that, Gnus supplies tabulator specs--@samp{%=}. There are two
19475 different types---@dfn{hard tabulators} and @dfn{soft tabulators}.
19477 @samp{%50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
19478 50. If the text is already past column 50, nothing will be inserted.
19479 This is the soft tabulator.
19481 @samp{%-50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
19482 50. If the text is already past column 50, the excess text past column
19483 50 will be removed. This is the hard tabulator.
19486 @node Wide Characters
19487 @subsection Wide Characters
19489 Proportional fonts in most countries have characters of the same width.
19490 Some countries, however, use Latin characters mixed with wider
19491 characters---most notable East Asian countries.
19493 The problem is that when formatting, Gnus assumes that if a string is 10
19494 characters wide, it'll be 10 Latin characters wide on the screen. In
19495 these coutries, that's not true.
19497 @vindex gnus-use-correct-string-widths
19498 To help fix this, you can set @code{gnus-use-correct-string-widths} to
19499 @code{t}. This makes buffer generation slower, but the results will be
19500 prettieer. The default value is @code{t}.
19504 @node Window Layout
19505 @section Window Layout
19506 @cindex window layout
19508 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
19510 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
19511 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
19512 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
19513 @code{t} by default.
19515 Setting this variable to @code{nil} kinda works, but there are
19516 glitches. Use at your own peril.
19518 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
19519 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
19520 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
19523 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)
19524 (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4))))
19525 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
19529 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
19530 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
19531 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
19532 possible names is listed below.
19534 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
19535 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example -
19538 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
19542 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
19543 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
19544 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
19545 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
19546 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
19547 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
19548 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
19549 size spec per split.
19551 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
19552 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
19553 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e. is the third or
19554 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
19555 present) gets focus.
19557 Here's a more complicated example:
19560 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
19561 (summary 0.25 point)
19562 (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4))
19566 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
19567 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
19568 occupy, not a percentage.
19570 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
19571 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
19572 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
19573 be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if
19574 @code{gnus-carpal} is @code{nil}, and four buffers if @code{gnus-carpal}
19577 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
19580 (article (horizontal 1.0
19585 (summary 0.25 point)
19590 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
19591 @code{horizontal} thingie?
19593 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
19594 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
19595 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
19596 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
19597 the screen is to be given to this strip.
19599 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
19600 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
19601 lines from the splits.
19603 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
19607 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
19608 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
19609 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
19610 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
19611 buffer = "(" buf-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
19612 size = number | frame-params
19613 buf-name = group | article | summary ...
19616 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
19617 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
19618 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
19619 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
19621 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
19622 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
19623 @cindex window height
19624 @cindex window width
19625 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
19626 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
19627 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
19628 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
19629 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
19630 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
19632 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
19633 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
19634 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
19635 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
19637 @findex gnus-configure-frame
19638 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
19639 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
19640 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
19641 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
19642 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
19643 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
19644 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
19645 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
19646 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
19647 configuration list.
19650 (gnus-configure-frame
19654 (article 0.3 point))
19662 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
19663 @code{frame} split:
19666 (gnus-configure-frame
19669 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
19671 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
19672 (user-position . t)
19673 (left . -1) (top . 1))
19678 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
19679 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
19680 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
19681 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
19682 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
19683 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
19684 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
19685 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
19687 The list of all possible keys for @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} can
19688 be found in its default value.
19690 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
19691 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
19692 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
19696 (message (horizontal 1.0
19697 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
19699 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
19704 One common desire for a multiple frame split is to have a separate frame
19705 for composing mail and news while leaving the original frame intact. To
19706 accomplish that, something like the following can be done:
19711 (if (not (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer))
19712 (car (cdr (assoc 'group gnus-buffer-configuration)))
19713 (car (cdr (assoc 'summary gnus-buffer-configuration))))
19714 (vertical ((user-position . t) (top . 1) (left . 1)
19715 (name . "Message"))
19716 (message 1.0 point))))
19719 @findex gnus-add-configuration
19720 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
19721 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
19722 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
19723 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
19726 (gnus-add-configuration
19727 '(article (vertical 1.0
19729 (summary .25 point)
19733 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
19734 @file{.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
19735 Gnus has been loaded.
19737 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
19738 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
19739 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
19740 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
19741 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
19743 If you're using tree displays (@pxref{Tree Display}), and the tree
19744 window is displayed vertically next to another window, you may also want
19745 to fiddle with @code{gnus-tree-minimize-window} to avoid having the
19748 @subsection Example Window Configurations
19752 Narrow left hand side occupied by group buffer. Right hand side split
19753 between summary buffer (top one-sixth) and article buffer (bottom).
19768 (gnus-add-configuration
19771 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
19773 (summary 0.16 point)
19776 (gnus-add-configuration
19779 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
19780 (vertical 1.0 (summary 1.0 point)))))
19786 @node Faces and Fonts
19787 @section Faces and Fonts
19792 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
19793 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
19794 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
19799 @section Compilation
19800 @cindex compilation
19801 @cindex byte-compilation
19803 @findex gnus-compile
19805 Remember all those line format specification variables?
19806 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}, @code{gnus-group-line-format}, and so
19807 on. Now, Gnus will of course heed whatever these variables are, but,
19808 unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down.
19809 (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions
19810 associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of
19813 To help with this, you can run @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} after you've
19814 fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of)
19815 satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and
19816 you'll get top speed again. Gnus will save these compiled specs in the
19817 @file{.newsrc.eld} file. (User-defined functions aren't compiled by
19818 this function, though---you should compile them yourself by sticking
19819 them into the @code{.gnus.el} file and byte-compiling that file.)
19823 @section Mode Lines
19826 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
19827 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
19828 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
19829 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
19830 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
19831 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
19832 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
19835 @cindex display-time
19837 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
19838 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
19839 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
19840 to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
19841 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
19842 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
19843 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
19844 additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify
19847 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
19849 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
19850 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
19852 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
19853 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
19854 (length display-time-string)))))
19857 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
19858 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
19859 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
19860 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
19861 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
19864 @node Highlighting and Menus
19865 @section Highlighting and Menus
19867 @cindex highlighting
19870 @vindex gnus-visual
19871 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
19872 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
19873 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
19876 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
19877 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
19880 @item group-highlight
19881 Do highlights in the group buffer.
19882 @item summary-highlight
19883 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
19884 @item article-highlight
19885 Do highlights in the article buffer.
19887 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
19889 Create menus in the group buffer.
19891 Create menus in the summary buffers.
19893 Create menus in the article buffer.
19895 Create menus in the browse buffer.
19897 Create menus in the server buffer.
19899 Create menus in the score buffers.
19901 Create menus in all buffers.
19904 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
19905 buffers, you could say something like:
19908 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
19911 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
19914 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
19917 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
19918 in all Gnus buffers.
19920 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
19923 @item gnus-mouse-face
19924 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
19925 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
19926 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
19930 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
19934 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
19935 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
19936 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
19938 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
19939 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
19940 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
19942 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
19943 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
19944 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
19946 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
19947 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
19948 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
19950 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
19951 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
19952 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
19954 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
19955 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
19956 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
19967 Those new-fangled @dfn{mouse} contraptions is very popular with the
19968 young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things
19969 these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was
19970 using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single
19971 machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah!
19975 @vindex gnus-carpal
19976 Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to
19977 do anything by setting @code{gnus-carpal} to @code{t}. Pretty simple,
19978 really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you.
19983 @item gnus-carpal-mode-hook
19984 @vindex gnus-carpal-mode-hook
19985 Hook run in all carpal mode buffers.
19987 @item gnus-carpal-button-face
19988 @vindex gnus-carpal-button-face
19989 Face used on buttons.
19991 @item gnus-carpal-header-face
19992 @vindex gnus-carpal-header-face
19993 Face used on carpal buffer headers.
19995 @item gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
19996 @vindex gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
19997 Buttons in the group buffer.
19999 @item gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
20000 @vindex gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
20001 Buttons in the summary buffer.
20003 @item gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
20004 @vindex gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
20005 Buttons in the server buffer.
20007 @item gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
20008 @vindex gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
20009 Buttons in the browse buffer.
20012 All the @code{buttons} variables are lists. The elements in these list
20013 are either cons cells where the @code{car} contains a text to be displayed and
20014 the @code{cdr} contains a function symbol, or a simple string.
20022 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
20023 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
20024 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
20025 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
20026 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
20028 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
20029 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
20030 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
20032 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
20033 been idle for thirty minutes:
20036 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
20039 Here's a handler that scans for PGP headers every hour when Emacs is
20043 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
20046 This @var{time} parameter and than @var{idle} parameter work together
20047 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
20048 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
20050 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
20051 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
20052 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
20053 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
20055 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
20056 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
20057 @var{idle} minutes.
20059 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
20060 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
20063 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
20064 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
20065 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
20067 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
20068 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
20069 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
20070 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
20072 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
20073 your @file{.gnus} file:
20075 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
20077 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
20080 @findex gnus-demon-add-nocem
20081 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
20082 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
20083 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
20084 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
20085 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
20086 @code{gnus-demon-add-nocem}, @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
20087 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
20088 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
20089 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
20090 @file{.gnus} if you want those abilities.
20092 @findex gnus-demon-init
20093 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
20094 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
20095 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
20096 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
20097 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
20099 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it. Adding
20100 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
20101 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
20110 @dfn{Spamming} is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
20111 Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
20113 Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various anti-spamming
20114 agencies. These agencies usually also send out @dfn{NoCeM} messages.
20115 NoCeM is pronounced ``no see-'em'', and means what the name
20116 implies---these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
20119 What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled anyway?
20120 Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just honor cancels
20121 from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use of the NoCeM
20122 messages, which are distributed in the @samp{alt.nocem.misc} newsgroup.
20124 Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
20125 this will make spam disappear.
20127 There are some variables to customize, of course:
20130 @item gnus-use-nocem
20131 @vindex gnus-use-nocem
20132 Set this variable to @code{t} to set the ball rolling. It is @code{nil}
20135 @item gnus-nocem-groups
20136 @vindex gnus-nocem-groups
20137 Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
20138 default is @code{("news.lists.filters" "news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins"
20139 "alt.nocem.misc" "news.admin.net-abuse.announce")}.
20141 @item gnus-nocem-issuers
20142 @vindex gnus-nocem-issuers
20143 There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
20144 people you want to listen to. The default is @code{("Automoose-1"
20145 "clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" "cosmo.roadkill" "SpamHippo"
20146 "hweede@@snafu.de")}; fine, upstanding citizens all of them.
20148 Known despammers that you can put in this list are listed at
20149 @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~rosalind/nocemreg/nocemreg.html}.
20151 You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people---just the
20152 ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all NoCeM
20153 messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a @dfn{type}
20154 header that gives the message a (more or less, usually less) rigorous
20155 definition. Common types are @samp{spam}, @samp{spew}, @samp{mmf},
20156 @samp{binary}, and @samp{troll}. To specify this, you have to use
20157 @code{(@var{issuer} @var{conditions} @dots{})} elements in the list.
20158 Each condition is either a string (which is a regexp that matches types
20159 you want to use) or a list on the form @code{(not @var{string})}, where
20160 @var{string} is a regexp that matches types you don't want to use.
20162 For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis except his
20163 @samp{troll} messages, you'd say:
20166 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
20169 On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his @samp{spam} and
20170 @samp{spew} messages, you'd say:
20173 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
20176 The specs are applied left-to-right.
20179 @item gnus-nocem-verifyer
20180 @vindex gnus-nocem-verifyer
20182 This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is who she
20183 says she is. The default is @code{mc-verify}, which is a Mailcrypt
20184 function. If this is too slow and you don't care for verification
20185 (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
20187 If you want signed NoCeM messages to be verified and unsigned messages
20188 not to be verified (but used anyway), you could do something like:
20191 (setq gnus-nocem-verifyer 'my-gnus-mc-verify)
20193 (defun my-gnus-mc-verify ()
20201 This might be dangerous, though.
20203 @item gnus-nocem-directory
20204 @vindex gnus-nocem-directory
20205 This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default is
20206 @file{~/News/NoCeM/}.
20208 @item gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
20209 @vindex gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
20210 The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the cache.
20211 The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be faster, but you
20212 might then see old spam.
20214 @item gnus-nocem-check-from
20215 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-from
20216 Non-@code{nil} means check for valid issuers in message bodies.
20217 Otherwise don't bother fetching articles unless their author matches a
20218 valid issuer; that is much faster if you are selective about the
20221 @item gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
20222 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
20223 If non-@code{nil}, the maximum number of articles to check in any NoCeM
20224 group. NoCeM groups can be huge and very slow to process.
20228 Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many living
20229 (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process will grow
20230 big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most) of your
20231 unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Subscription Commands}).
20238 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
20239 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
20240 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
20242 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
20243 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
20244 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
20245 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
20246 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
20247 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
20248 @code{undo} function.
20250 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
20251 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
20252 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
20253 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
20254 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
20255 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
20256 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
20257 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
20258 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
20259 never be totally undoable.
20261 @findex gnus-undo-mode
20262 @vindex gnus-use-undo
20264 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
20265 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
20266 default. The @kbd{C-M-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo}
20267 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
20271 @node Predicate Specifiers
20272 @section Predicate Specifiers
20273 @cindex predicate specifiers
20275 Some Gnus variables are @dfn{predicate specifiers}. This is a special
20276 form that allows flexible specification of predicates without having
20277 to type all that much.
20279 These specifiers are lists consisting of functions, symbols and lists.
20284 (or gnus-article-unseen-p
20285 gnus-article-unread-p)
20288 The available symbols are @code{or}, @code{and} and @code{not}. The
20289 functions all take one parameter.
20291 @findex gnus-make-predicate
20292 Internally, Gnus calls @code{gnus-make-predicate} on these specifiers
20293 to create a function that can be called. This input parameter to this
20294 function will be passed along to all the functions in the predicate
20299 @section Moderation
20302 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
20303 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
20304 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
20307 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
20311 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
20314 in your @file{.gnus.el} file.
20316 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
20321 You split your incoming mail by matching on
20322 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
20323 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
20326 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
20327 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
20330 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
20331 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
20335 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
20338 (setq gnus-moderated-list
20339 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
20343 @node Image Enhancements
20344 @section Image Enhancements
20346 XEmacs, as well as Emacs 21, is able to display pictures and stuff, so
20347 Gnus has taken advantage of that.
20350 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
20351 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
20352 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
20353 * Toolbar:: Click'n'drool.
20354 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
20367 So@dots{} You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
20368 good way to do so. Its also a great way to impress people staring
20369 over your shoulder as you read news.
20372 * Picon Basics:: What are picons and How do I get them.
20373 * Picon Requirements:: Don't go further if you aren't using XEmacs.
20374 * Easy Picons:: Displaying Picons---the easy way.
20375 * Hard Picons:: The way you should do it. You'll learn something.
20376 * Picon Useless Configuration:: Other variables you can trash/tweak/munge/play with.
20381 @subsubsection Picon Basics
20383 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
20392 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
20393 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
20394 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
20395 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
20396 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
20397 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
20398 @code{GIF} formats.
20401 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
20402 If you have a permanent connection to the Internet you can use Steve
20403 Kinzler's Picons Search engine by setting
20404 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} to the string @*
20405 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/search.html}.
20407 @vindex gnus-picons-database
20408 Otherwise you need a local copy of his database. For instructions on
20409 obtaining and installing the picons databases, point your Web browser at @*
20410 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}. Gnus expects
20411 picons to be installed into a location pointed to by
20412 @code{gnus-picons-database}.
20414 If you are using Debian GNU/Linux, saying @samp{apt-get install
20415 picons.*} will install the picons where Gnus can find them.
20418 @node Picon Requirements
20419 @subsubsection Picon Requirements
20421 To have Gnus display Picons for you, you must have @code{x} support
20422 compiled into XEmacs. To display color picons which are much nicer
20423 than the black & white one, you also need one of @code{xpm} or
20424 @code{gif} compiled into XEmacs.
20426 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
20427 If you want to display faces from @code{X-Face} headers, you should have
20428 the @code{xface} support compiled into XEmacs. Otherwise you must have
20429 the @code{netpbm} utilities installed, or munge the
20430 @code{gnus-picons-convert-x-face} variable to use something else.
20431 (NOTE: @code{x-face} is used in the variable name, not @code{xface})
20434 @subsubsection Easy Picons
20436 To enable displaying picons, simply put the following line in your
20437 @file{~/.gnus} file and start Gnus.
20440 (setq gnus-use-picons t)
20441 (setq gnus-treat-display-picons t)
20444 and make sure @code{gnus-picons-database} points to the directory
20445 containing the Picons databases.
20447 Alternatively if you want to use the web piconsearch engine add this:
20450 (setq gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
20451 "http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch")
20456 @subsubsection Hard Picons
20464 Gnus can display picons for you as you enter and leave groups and
20465 articles. It knows how to interact with three sections of the picons
20466 database. Namely, it can display the picons newsgroup pictures,
20467 author's face picture(s), and the authors domain. To enable this
20468 feature, you need to select where to get the picons from, and where to
20473 @item gnus-picons-database
20474 @vindex gnus-picons-database
20475 The location of the picons database. Should point to a directory
20476 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
20477 subdirectories. This is only useful if
20478 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} is @code{nil}. Defaults to
20479 @file{/usr/local/faces/}.
20481 @item gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
20482 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
20483 The URL for the web picons search engine. The only currently known
20484 engine is @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch}. To
20485 workaround network delays, icons will be fetched in the background. If
20486 this is @code{nil} 'the default), then picons are fetched from local
20487 database indicated by @code{gnus-picons-database}.
20489 @item gnus-picons-display-where
20490 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
20491 Where the picon images should be displayed. It is @code{picons} by
20492 default (which by default maps to the buffer @samp{*Picons*}). Other
20493 valid places could be @code{article}, @code{summary}, or
20494 @samp{*scratch*} for all I care. Just make sure that you've made the
20495 buffer visible using the standard Gnus window configuration
20496 routines---@pxref{Window Layout}.
20498 @item gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
20499 @vindex gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
20500 Groups that are matched by this regexp won't have their group icons
20505 Note: If you set @code{gnus-use-picons} to @code{t}, it will set up your
20506 window configuration for you to include the @code{picons} buffer.
20508 Now that you've made those decision, you need to add the following
20509 functions to the appropriate hooks so these pictures will get displayed
20512 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
20514 @item gnus-article-display-picons
20515 @findex gnus-article-display-picons
20516 Looks up and displays the picons for the author and the author's domain
20517 in the @code{gnus-picons-display-where} buffer.
20519 @item gnus-picons-article-display-x-face
20520 @findex gnus-picons-article-display-x-face
20521 Decodes and displays the X-Face header if present.
20522 (NOTE: @code{x-face} is used in the function name, not @code{xface})
20528 @node Picon Useless Configuration
20529 @subsubsection Picon Useless Configuration
20537 The following variables offer further control over how things are
20538 done, where things are located, and other useless stuff you really
20539 don't need to worry about.
20543 @item gnus-picons-news-directories
20544 @vindex gnus-picons-news-directories
20545 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
20546 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
20548 @item gnus-picons-user-directories
20549 @vindex gnus-picons-user-directories
20550 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for user
20551 faces. @code{("local" "users" "usenix" "misc")} is the default.
20553 @item gnus-picons-domain-directories
20554 @vindex gnus-picons-domain-directories
20555 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
20556 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
20557 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
20559 @item gnus-picons-convert-x-face
20560 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
20561 If you don't have @code{xface} support builtin XEmacs, this is the
20562 command to use to convert the @code{X-Face} header to an X bitmap
20563 (@code{xbm}). Defaults to @code{(format "@{ echo '/* Width=48,
20564 Height=48 */'; uncompface; @} | icontopbm | pbmtoxbm > %s"
20565 gnus-picons-x-face-file-name)}
20566 (NOTE: @code{x-face} is used in the variable name, not @code{xface})
20568 @item gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
20569 @vindex gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
20570 Names a temporary file to store the @code{X-Face} bitmap in. Defaults
20571 to @code{(format "/tmp/picon-xface.%s.xbm" (user-login-name))}.
20572 (NOTE: @code{x-face} is used in the variable name, not @code{xface})
20574 @item gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
20575 @vindex gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
20576 If you have set @code{gnus-picons-display-where} to @code{picons}, your
20577 XEmacs frame will become really cluttered. To alleviate this a bit you
20578 can set @code{gnus-picons-has-modeline-p} to @code{nil}; this will
20579 remove the mode line from the Picons buffer. This is only useful if
20580 @code{gnus-picons-display-where} is @code{picons}.
20582 @item gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
20583 @vindex gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
20584 If non-nil, display the article buffer before computing the picons.
20585 Defaults to @code{nil}.
20587 @item gnus-picons-display-as-address
20588 @vindex gnus-picons-display-as-address
20589 If @code{t} display textual email addresses along with pictures.
20590 Defaults to @code{t}.
20592 @item gnus-picons-file-suffixes
20593 @vindex gnus-picons-file-suffixes
20594 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
20595 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not builtin your XEmacs.
20597 @item gnus-picons-setup-hook
20598 @vindex gnus-picons-setup-hook
20599 Hook run in the picon buffer, if that is displayed.
20601 @item gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
20602 @vindex gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
20603 Whether to move point to first empty line when displaying picons. This
20604 has only an effect if `gnus-picons-display-where' has value `article'.
20606 If @code{nil}, display the picons in the @code{From} and
20607 @code{Newsgroups} lines. This is the default.
20609 @item gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
20610 @vindex gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
20611 Whether to clear the picons cache when exiting gnus. Gnus caches every
20612 picons it finds while it is running. This saves some time in the search
20613 process but eats some memory. If this variable is set to @code{nil},
20614 Gnus will never clear the cache itself; you will have to manually call
20615 @code{gnus-picons-clear-cache} to clear it. Otherwise the cache will be
20616 cleared every time you exit Gnus. Defaults to @code{t}.
20627 @subsection Smileys
20632 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/BigFace,height=20cm}}
20637 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
20638 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
20640 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
20641 @file{.gnus.el} file:
20644 (setq gnus-treat-display-smileys t)
20647 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{:-=}, @samp{:-(} and
20648 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
20649 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
20650 text and maps that to file names.
20652 @vindex smiley-nosey-regexp-alist
20653 @vindex smiley-deformed-regexp-alist
20654 Smiley supplies two example conversion alists by default:
20655 @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist} (which matches @samp{:)}, @samp{:(}
20656 and so on), and @code{smiley-nosey-regexp-alist} (which matches
20657 @samp{:-)}, @samp{:-(} and so on).
20659 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist} variable,
20660 which defaults to the value of @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist}.
20662 The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched; the second
20663 element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by the picture;
20664 and the third element is the name of the file to be displayed.
20666 The following variables customize where Smiley will look for these
20667 files, as well as the color to be used and stuff:
20671 @item smiley-data-directory
20672 @vindex smiley-data-directory
20673 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files.
20675 @item smiley-flesh-color
20676 @vindex smiley-flesh-color
20677 Skin color. The default is @samp{yellow}, which is really racist.
20679 @item smiley-features-color
20680 @vindex smiley-features-color
20681 Color of the features of the face. The default is @samp{black}.
20683 @item smiley-tongue-color
20684 @vindex smiley-tongue-color
20685 Color of the tongue. The default is @samp{red}.
20687 @item smiley-circle-color
20688 @vindex smiley-circle-color
20689 Color of the circle around the face. The default is @samp{black}.
20691 @item smiley-mouse-face
20692 @vindex smiley-mouse-face
20693 Face used for mouse highlighting over the smiley face.
20702 @code{X-Face} headers describe a 48x48 pixel black-and-white (1 bit
20703 depth) image that's supposed to represent the author of the message.
20704 It seems to be supported by an ever-growing number of mail and news
20708 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
20709 @findex gnus-article-x-face-command
20710 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
20711 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
20719 Decoding an @code{X-Face} header either requires an Emacs that has
20720 @samp{compface} support (which most XEmacs versions has), or that you
20721 have @samp{compface} installed on your system. If either is true,
20722 Gnus will default to displaying @code{X-Face} headers.
20724 The variable that controls this is the
20725 @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} variable. If this variable is a
20726 string, this string will be executed in a sub-shell. If it is a
20727 function, this function will be called with the face as the argument.
20728 If the @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which is a regexp) matches
20729 the @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
20731 The default action under Emacs 20 is to fork off the @code{display}
20732 program@footnote{@code{display} is from the ImageMagick package. For
20733 the @code{uncompface} and @code{icontopbm} programs look for a package
20734 like @code{compface} or @code{faces-xface} on a GNU/Linux system.} to
20737 Under XEmacs or Emacs 21+ with suitable image support, the default
20738 action is to display the face before the @code{From} header. (It's
20739 nicer if XEmacs has been compiled with @code{X-Face} support---that
20740 will make display somewhat faster. If there's no native @code{X-Face}
20741 support, Gnus will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using
20742 external programs from the @code{pbmplus} package and
20743 friends.@footnote{On a GNU/Linux system look for packages with names
20744 like @code{netpbm}, @code{libgr-progs} and @code{compface}.})
20746 (NOTE: @code{x-face} is used in the variable/function names, not
20749 Gnus provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow
20750 easier insertion of X-Face headers in outgoing messages.
20752 @findex gnus-random-x-face
20753 @code{gnus-random-x-face} goes through all the @samp{pbm} files
20754 in @code{gnus-x-face-directory} and picks one at random, and then
20755 converts it to the X-Face format by using the
20756 @code{gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command} shell command. The
20757 @samp{pbm} files should be 48x48 pixels big.
20759 @code{gnus-x-face-from-file} takes a GIF file as the parameter, and then
20760 converts the file to X-Face format by using the
20761 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command} shell command.
20763 Here's how you would typically use the former function. Put something
20764 like the folllowing in your @file{.gnus.el} file:
20767 (setq message-required-news-headers
20768 (nconc message-required-news-headers
20769 (list '(X-Face . gnus-random-x-face))))
20772 Using the latter function would be something like this:
20775 (setq message-required-news-headers
20776 (nconc message-required-news-headers
20777 (list '(X-Face . (lambda ()
20778 (gnus-x-face-from-file
20779 "~/My-face.gif"))))))
20784 @subsection Toolbar
20794 @item gnus-use-toolbar
20795 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
20796 If @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If non-@code{nil}, it should be
20797 one of @code{default-toolbar}, @code{top-toolbar}, @code{bottom-toolbar},
20798 @code{right-toolbar}, or @code{left-toolbar}.
20800 @item gnus-group-toolbar
20801 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
20802 The toolbar in the group buffer.
20804 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
20805 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
20806 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
20808 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
20809 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
20810 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
20816 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
20819 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
20820 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
20821 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
20822 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
20823 unusual directory structure.
20825 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
20826 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
20827 This is an alist where the key is a type symbol and the values are the
20828 foreground and background color of the splash page glyph.
20830 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
20831 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
20832 This is the key used to look up the color in the alist described above.
20833 Valid values include @code{flame}, @code{pine}, @code{moss},
20834 @code{irish}, @code{sky}, @code{tin}, @code{velvet}, @code{grape},
20835 @code{labia}, @code{berry}, @code{neutral}, and @code{september}.
20837 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
20838 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
20839 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
20853 @node Fuzzy Matching
20854 @section Fuzzy Matching
20855 @cindex fuzzy matching
20857 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
20858 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
20860 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
20861 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
20862 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
20864 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
20865 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
20866 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
20867 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
20868 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
20871 @node Thwarting Email Spam
20872 @section Thwarting Email Spam
20876 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
20878 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
20879 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
20880 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
20881 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
20882 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
20883 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
20884 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
20885 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
20888 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
20889 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
20890 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
20891 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
20892 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!'')
20893 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
20898 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
20899 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
20900 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
20903 @node Anti-Spam Basics
20904 @subsection Anti-Spam Basics
20908 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
20910 One way of dealing with spam is having Gnus split out all spam into a
20911 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
20913 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
20914 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
20915 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
20916 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
20917 sysadmin whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
20918 part of the mail address.)
20921 (setq message-default-news-headers
20922 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
20925 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
20926 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
20931 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
20932 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
20933 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
20939 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
20940 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
20941 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
20942 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
20944 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @sc{smtp} server
20945 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
20946 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
20947 thwarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
20948 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
20949 your fancy split rule in this way:
20954 (to "larsi" "misc")
20958 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
20959 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
20960 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
20961 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
20962 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
20964 If you are also a lazy net citizen, you will probably prefer complaining
20965 automatically with the @file{gnus-junk.el} package, available FOR FREE
20966 at @* @uref{http://stud2.tuwien.ac.at/~e9426626/gnus-junk.html}.
20967 Since most e-mail spam is sent automatically, this may reconcile the
20968 cosmic balance somewhat.
20970 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
20971 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
20972 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
20973 to non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
20978 @subsection SpamAssassin, Vipul's Razor, DCC, etc
20979 @cindex SpamAssassin
20980 @cindex Vipul's Razor
20983 The days where the hints in the previous section was sufficient in
20984 avoiding spam is coming to an end. There are many tools out there
20985 that claim to reduce the amount of spam you get. This section could
20986 easily become outdated fast, as new products replace old, but
20987 fortunately most of these tools seem to have similar interfaces. Even
20988 though this section will use SpamAssassin as an example, it should be
20989 easy to adapt it to most other tools.
20991 If the tool you are using is not installed on the mail server, you
20992 need to invoke it yourself. Ideas on how to use the
20993 @code{:postscript} mail source parameter (@pxref{Mail Source
20994 Specifiers}) follows.
20998 '((file :prescript "formail -bs spamassassin < /var/mail/%u")
21001 :postscript "mv %t /tmp/foo; formail -bs spamc < /tmp/foo > %t")))
21004 Once you managed to process your incoming spool somehow, thus making
21005 the mail contain e.g. a header indicating it is spam, you are ready to
21006 filter it out. Using normal split methods (@pxref{Splitting Mail}):
21009 (setq nnmail-split-methods '(("spam" "^X-Spam-Flag: YES")
21013 Or using fancy split methods (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
21016 (setq nnmail-split-methods 'nnmail-split-fancy
21017 nnmail-split-fancy '(| ("X-Spam-Flag" "YES" "spam")
21021 Some people might not like the idea of piping the mail through various
21022 programs using a @code{:prescript} (if some program is buggy, you
21023 might lose all mail). If you are one of them, another solution is to
21024 call the external tools during splitting. Example fancy split method:
21027 (setq nnmail-split-fancy '(| (: kevin-spamassassin)
21029 (defun kevin-spamassassin ()
21031 (let ((buf (or (get-buffer " *nnmail incoming*")
21032 (get-buffer " *nnml move*"))))
21034 (progn (message "Oops, cannot find message buffer") nil)
21036 (if (eq 1 (call-process-region (point-min) (point-max)
21037 "spamc" nil nil nil "-c"))
21041 That is about it. As some spam is likely to get through anyway, you
21042 might want to have a nifty function to call when you happen to read
21043 spam. And here is the nifty function:
21046 (defun my-gnus-raze-spam ()
21047 "Submit SPAM to Vipul's Razor, then mark it as expirable."
21049 (gnus-summary-show-raw-article)
21050 (gnus-summary-save-in-pipe "razor-report -f -d")
21051 (gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable 1))
21055 @subsection Hashcash
21058 A novel technique to fight spam is to require senders to do something
21059 costly for each message they send. This has the obvious drawback that
21060 you cannot rely on that everyone in the world uses this technique,
21061 since it is not part of the internet standards, but it may be useful
21062 in smaller communities.
21064 While the tools in the previous section work well in practice, they
21065 work only because the tools are constantly maintained and updated as
21066 new form of spam appears. This means that a small percentage of spam
21067 will always get through. It also means that somewhere, someone needs
21068 to read lots of spam to update these tools. Hashcash avoids that, but
21069 instead requires that everyone you communicate with supports the
21070 scheme. You can view the two approaches as pragmatic vs dogmatic.
21071 The approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages, but as
21072 often in the real world, a combination of them is stronger than either
21073 one of them separately.
21076 The ``something costly'' is to burn CPU time, more specifically to
21077 compute a hash collision up to a certain number of bits. The
21078 resulting hashcash cookie is inserted in a @samp{X-Hashcash:}
21079 header. For more details, and for the external application
21080 @code{hashcash} you need to install to use this feature, see
21081 @uref{http://www.cypherspace.org/~adam/hashcash/}. Even more
21082 information can be found at @uref{http://www.camram.org/}.
21084 If you wish to call hashcash for each message you send, say something
21088 (require 'hashcash)
21089 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'mail-add-payment)
21092 The @code{hashcash.el} library can be found at
21093 @uref{http://users.actrix.gen.nz/mycroft/hashcash.el}, or in the Gnus
21094 development contrib directory.
21096 You will need to set up some additional variables as well:
21100 @item hashcash-default-payment
21101 @vindex hashcash-default-payment
21102 This variable indicates the default number of bits the hash collision
21103 should consist of. By default this is 0, meaning nothing will be
21104 done. Suggested useful values include 17 to 29.
21106 @item hashcash-payment-alist
21107 @vindex hashcash-payment-alist
21108 Some receivers may require you to spend burn more CPU time than the
21109 default. This variable contains a list of @samp{(ADDR AMOUNT)} cells,
21110 where ADDR is the receiver (email address or newsgroup) and AMOUNT is
21111 the number of bits in the collision that is needed. It can also
21112 contain @samp{(ADDR STRING AMOUNT)} cells, where the STRING is the
21113 string to use (normally the email address or newsgroup name is used).
21117 Where the @code{hashcash} binary is installed.
21121 Currently there is no built in functionality in Gnus to verify
21122 hashcash cookies, it is expected that this is performed by your hand
21123 customized mail filtering scripts. Improvements in this area would be
21124 a useful contribution, however.
21126 @node Various Various
21127 @section Various Various
21133 @item gnus-home-directory
21134 All Gnus path variables will be initialized from this variable, which
21135 defaults to @file{~/}.
21137 @item gnus-directory
21138 @vindex gnus-directory
21139 Most Gnus storage path variables will be initialized from this variable,
21140 which defaults to the @samp{SAVEDIR} environment variable, or
21141 @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
21143 Note that Gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{.gnus.el} file is read.
21144 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
21145 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
21146 @file{.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
21148 @item gnus-default-directory
21149 @vindex gnus-default-directory
21150 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
21151 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
21152 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
21153 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
21154 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
21155 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
21158 @vindex gnus-verbose
21159 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
21160 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
21161 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
21162 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
21163 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
21165 @item gnus-verbose-backends
21166 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
21167 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
21168 to the Gnus back ends instead of Gnus proper.
21170 @item nnheader-max-head-length
21171 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
21172 When the back ends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
21173 as little as possible. This variable (default 4096) specifies
21174 the absolute max length the back ends will try to read before giving up
21175 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
21176 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
21177 @code{t}, the back ends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
21178 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
21179 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
21181 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
21182 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
21183 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
21184 read when doing the operation described above.
21186 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
21187 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
21189 @cindex invalid characters in file names
21190 @cindex characters in file names
21191 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
21192 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
21193 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
21196 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
21200 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
21201 Windows (phooey) systems.
21203 @item gnus-hidden-properties
21204 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
21205 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
21206 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
21207 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
21209 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
21210 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
21211 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
21212 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
21213 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
21215 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
21216 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
21217 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
21219 @item gnus-invalid-group-regexp
21220 @vindex gnus-invalid-group-regexp
21222 Regexp to match ``invalid'' group names when querying user for a group
21223 name. The default value catches some @strong{really} invalid group
21224 names who could possibly mess up Gnus internally (like allowing
21225 @samp{:} in a group name, which is normally used to delimit method and
21228 @sc{imap} users might want to allow @samp{/} in group names though.
21236 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
21237 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
21239 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
21241 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
21247 Not because of victories @*
21250 but for the common sunshine,@*
21252 the largess of the spring.
21256 but for the day's work done@*
21257 as well as I was able;@*
21258 not for a seat upon the dais@*
21259 but at the common table.@*
21264 @chapter Appendices
21267 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
21268 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
21269 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
21270 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
21271 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
21272 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
21273 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
21274 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
21275 * Frequently Asked Questions::
21282 @cindex Installing under XEmacs
21284 XEmacs is distributed as a collection of packages. You should install
21285 whatever packages the Gnus XEmacs package requires. The current
21286 requirements are @samp{gnus}, @samp{w3}, @samp{mh-e},
21287 @samp{mailcrypt}, @samp{rmail}, @samp{eterm}, @samp{mail-lib},
21288 @samp{xemacs-base}, and @samp{fsf-compat}.
21295 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
21296 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
21298 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage,
21299 you can point your (feh!) web browser to
21300 @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/}. This is also the primary
21301 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is
21302 known as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
21304 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
21305 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
21306 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
21307 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
21308 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
21309 appropriate name, don't you think?)
21311 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
21312 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
21313 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
21314 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
21317 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
21318 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
21319 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
21320 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
21321 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
21322 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
21323 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
21324 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
21325 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
21329 @node Gnus Versions
21330 @subsection Gnus Versions
21332 @cindex September Gnus
21334 @cindex Quassia Gnus
21335 @cindex Pterodactyl Gnus
21339 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
21340 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
21341 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
21343 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
21344 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
21346 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
21347 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4'' (67 releases).
21349 On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37 releases.
21350 If was released as ``Gnus 5.6'' on March 8th 1998 (46 releases).
21352 Gnus 5.6 begat Pterodactyl Gnus on August 29th 1998 and was released as
21353 ``Gnus 5.8'' (after 99 releases and a CVS repository) on December 3rd
21356 On the 26th of October 2000, Oort Gnus was begun.
21358 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name --
21359 ``(ding) Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'',
21360 ``Pterodactyl Gnus'', ``Oort Gnus'' -- don't panic. Don't let it know
21361 that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly. Whatever you do, don't
21362 run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its reach. Find a proper
21363 released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that instead.
21366 @node Other Gnus Versions
21367 @subsection Other Gnus Versions
21370 In addition to the versions of Gnus which have had their releases
21371 coordinated by Lars, one major development has been Semi-gnus from
21372 Japan. It's based on a library called @sc{semi}, which provides
21373 @sc{mime} capabilities.
21375 These Gnusae are based mainly on Gnus 5.6 and Pterodactyl Gnus.
21376 Collectively, they are called ``Semi-gnus'', and different strains are
21377 called T-gnus, ET-gnus, Nana-gnus and Chaos. These provide powerful
21378 @sc{mime} and multilingualization things, especially important for
21385 What's the point of Gnus?
21387 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
21388 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
21389 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
21390 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
21391 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
21392 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
21393 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
21394 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
21395 keep track of millions of people who post?
21397 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
21398 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
21399 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
21400 to separate the newsreader from the back ends, Gnus now offers a simple
21401 interface for anybody who wants to write new back ends for fetching mail
21402 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
21403 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
21404 every one of you to explore and invent.
21406 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
21407 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
21410 @node Compatibility
21411 @subsection Compatibility
21413 @cindex compatibility
21414 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
21415 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
21416 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
21421 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
21425 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
21428 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
21431 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
21432 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
21433 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
21434 important variables have their values copied into their global
21435 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
21436 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
21438 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
21439 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
21440 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
21441 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
21442 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
21446 @cindex highlighting
21447 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
21448 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
21449 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
21450 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
21451 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
21452 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
21455 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
21456 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
21457 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
21458 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
21460 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
21461 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
21462 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
21463 to stop doing it the old way.
21465 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
21467 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
21469 @cindex reporting bugs
21471 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
21472 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
21473 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
21475 @vindex gnus-bug-create-help-buffer
21476 If you are in the habit of sending bug reports @emph{very} often, you
21477 may find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
21478 @code{gnus-bug-create-help-buffer} to @code{nil} to avoid having it pop
21483 @subsection Conformity
21485 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
21486 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
21494 There are no known breaches of this standard.
21498 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
21500 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
21501 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
21502 We do have some breaches to this one.
21508 These are considered to be ``vanity headers'', while I consider them
21509 to be consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted
21510 articles coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use
21511 either of those for posting articles. I would not have known that if
21512 it wasn't for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
21517 USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036, based
21518 on Son-of-RFC 1036. They have produced a number of drafts proposing
21519 various changes to the format of news articles. The Gnus towers will
21520 look into implementing the changes when the draft is accepted as an RFC.
21522 @item MIME - RFC 2045-2049 etc
21524 All the various @sc{mime} RFCs are supported.
21526 @item Disposition Notifications - RFC 2298
21527 Message Mode is able to request notifications from the receiver.
21529 @item PGP - RFC 1991 and RFC 2440
21532 RFC 1991 is the original PGP message specification, published as a
21533 Information RFC. RFC 2440 was the follow-up, now called Open PGP, and
21534 put on the Standards Track. Both document a non-@sc{mime} aware PGP
21535 format. Gnus supports both encoding (signing and encryption) and
21536 decoding (verification and decryption).
21538 @item PGP/MIME - RFC 2015/3156
21539 RFC 2015 (superceded by 3156 which references RFC 2440 instead of RFC
21540 1991) describes the @sc{mime}-wrapping around the RF 1991/2440 format.
21541 Gnus supports both encoding and decoding.
21543 @item S/MIME - RFC 2633
21544 RFC 2633 describes the @sc{s/mime} format.
21546 @item IMAP - RFC 1730/2060, RFC 2195, RFC 2086, RFC 2359, RFC 2595, RFC 1731
21547 RFC 1730 is @sc{imap} version 4, updated somewhat by RFC 2060 (@sc{imap} 4
21548 revision 1). RFC 2195 describes CRAM-MD5 authentication for @sc{imap}. RFC
21549 2086 describes access control lists (ACLs) for @sc{imap}. RFC 2359
21550 describes a @sc{imap} protocol enhancement. RFC 2595 describes the proper
21551 TLS integration (STARTTLS) with @sc{imap}. RFC 1731 describes the
21552 GSSAPI/Kerberos4 mechanisms for @sc{imap}.
21556 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
21557 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
21562 @subsection Emacsen
21568 Gnus should work on :
21576 XEmacs 20.4 and up.
21580 This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
21581 that. Not reliably, at least. Older versions of Gnus may work on older
21584 There are some vague differences between Gnus on the various
21585 platforms---XEmacs features more graphics (a logo and a toolbar)---but
21586 other than that, things should look pretty much the same under all
21590 @node Gnus Development
21591 @subsection Gnus Development
21593 Gnus is developed in a two-phased cycle. The first phase involves much
21594 discussion on the @samp{ding@@gnus.org} mailing list, where people
21595 propose changes and new features, post patches and new back ends. This
21596 phase is called the @dfn{alpha} phase, since the Gnusae released in this
21597 phase are @dfn{alpha releases}, or (perhaps more commonly in other
21598 circles) @dfn{snapshots}. During this phase, Gnus is assumed to be
21599 unstable and should not be used by casual users. Gnus alpha releases
21600 have names like ``Red Gnus'' and ``Quassia Gnus''.
21602 After futzing around for 50-100 alpha releases, Gnus is declared
21603 @dfn{frozen}, and only bug fixes are applied. Gnus loses the prefix,
21604 and is called things like ``Gnus 5.6.32'' instead. Normal people are
21605 supposed to be able to use these, and these are mostly discussed on the
21606 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} newsgroup.
21609 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
21610 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae.
21611 In particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} defaults to @code{nil} in
21612 alpha Gnusae and @code{t} in released Gnusae. This is to prevent
21613 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
21615 The division of discussion between the ding mailing list and the Gnus
21616 newsgroup is not purely based on publicity concerns. It's true that
21617 having people write about the horrible things that an alpha Gnus release
21618 can do (sometimes) in a public forum may scare people off, but more
21619 importantly, talking about new experimental features that have been
21620 introduced may confuse casual users. New features are frequently
21621 introduced, fiddled with, and judged to be found wanting, and then
21622 either discarded or totally rewritten. People reading the mailing list
21623 usually keep up with these rapid changes, while people on the newsgroup
21624 can't be assumed to do so.
21629 @subsection Contributors
21630 @cindex contributors
21632 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
21633 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
21634 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
21635 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
21636 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
21637 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
21638 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
21639 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
21640 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
21641 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
21643 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for... oops,
21649 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
21652 Shenghuo Zhu---uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el, webmail.el,
21653 nnwarchive and many, many other things connected with @sc{mime} and
21654 other types of en/decoding, as well as general bug fixing, new
21655 functionality and stuff.
21658 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
21659 well as numerous other things).
21662 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
21665 Joe Reiss---creator of the smiley faces.
21668 Justin Sheehy--the FAQ maintainer.
21671 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
21674 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
21675 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
21678 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
21681 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section
21682 (@pxref{GroupLens}).
21685 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
21688 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
21691 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and fixes.
21694 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
21697 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
21698 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
21701 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
21704 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
21707 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
21710 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
21714 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
21717 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
21720 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
21723 François Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
21724 well as autoconf support.
21728 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
21729 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
21731 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
21740 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
21744 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
21754 Alexei V. Barantsev,
21769 Massimo Campostrini,
21774 Jae-you Chung, @c ?
21775 James H. Cloos, Jr.,
21779 Andrew J. Cosgriff,
21782 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
21788 Michael Welsh Duggan,
21793 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
21797 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
21805 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
21807 Michelangelo Grigni,
21811 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
21813 Yoshiki Hayashi, @c ?
21815 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
21822 François Felix Ingrand,
21823 Tatsuya Ichikawa, @c ?
21824 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
21826 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
21837 Peter Skov Knudsen,
21838 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
21840 Koseki Yoshinori, @c Koseki
21841 Thor Kristoffersen,
21844 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
21862 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
21863 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
21870 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
21875 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
21879 John McClary Prevost,
21885 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
21890 Christian von Roques,
21893 Wolfgang Rupprecht,
21900 Philippe Schnoebelen,
21902 Randal L. Schwartz,
21916 Kiyokazu Suto, @c Suto
21921 Tozawa Akihiko, @c Tozawa
21937 Katsumi Yamaoka @c Yamaoka
21942 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
21943 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
21944 (550kB and counting).
21946 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
21949 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
21950 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
21954 @subsection New Features
21955 @cindex new features
21958 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
21959 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
21960 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
21961 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
21962 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
21965 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
21966 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
21967 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
21970 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
21972 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
21977 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
21978 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
21981 Local spool and several @sc{nntp} servers can be used at once
21982 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
21985 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
21988 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
21989 All the mail back ends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
21990 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
21993 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
21994 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
21995 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
21996 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
21999 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
22000 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
22003 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
22004 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
22005 (@pxref{The Active File}).
22008 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
22009 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
22012 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
22013 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
22014 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
22017 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
22018 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
22019 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
22022 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{.gnus}) to avoid cluttering up
22023 the @file{.emacs} file.
22026 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
22027 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
22030 You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
22031 results (@pxref{Kibozed Groups}).
22034 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
22035 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
22038 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
22039 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
22042 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
22043 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
22046 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
22049 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
22050 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
22053 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
22054 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
22057 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
22058 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
22061 Gnus can fetch FAQs and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
22064 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
22065 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
22068 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
22072 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
22076 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
22077 configuration (@pxref{Window Layout}).
22080 You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard
22086 @node September Gnus
22087 @subsubsection September Gnus
22091 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/september,height=20cm}}
22095 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
22100 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
22101 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
22105 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
22106 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
22110 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
22114 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
22115 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
22118 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
22122 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions (@pxref{GroupLens}).
22125 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
22128 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
22131 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
22135 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
22136 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
22139 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
22143 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
22147 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
22151 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
22155 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
22158 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
22159 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
22162 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
22166 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
22167 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
22170 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
22173 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
22174 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
22175 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
22178 Gnus has a new back end (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets
22182 The Gnus cache is much faster.
22185 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
22189 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
22190 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
22193 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
22194 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
22197 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
22198 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
22201 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
22202 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
22203 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
22206 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
22207 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
22210 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
22213 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
22216 All mail back ends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
22219 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
22222 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
22223 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
22226 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Window
22230 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
22233 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}}
22238 Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (@pxref{NoCeM}).
22241 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
22245 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
22248 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
22252 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
22255 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
22258 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
22259 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
22262 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
22263 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
22267 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
22268 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
22271 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
22275 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
22276 buffer to allow easier treatment.
22279 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
22282 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
22286 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
22290 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
22291 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
22294 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
22298 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
22299 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
22302 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
22303 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
22306 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
22310 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
22313 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
22316 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
22322 @subsubsection Red Gnus
22324 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
22328 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/red,height=20cm}}
22335 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
22338 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
22339 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
22342 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
22343 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
22347 Article washing status can be displayed in the
22348 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
22351 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
22354 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
22355 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
22358 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
22362 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
22363 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
22367 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extendable (@pxref{Document
22368 Server Internals}).
22371 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
22375 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
22378 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
22379 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
22382 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
22383 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
22384 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
22387 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
22388 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
22391 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
22392 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
22395 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{C-M-_}
22399 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
22400 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
22403 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
22404 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
22407 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
22411 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
22414 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
22418 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
22419 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
22422 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
22423 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
22426 A new command for reading collections of documents
22427 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{C-M-d}
22428 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
22431 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
22435 A new mail-to-news back end makes it possible to post even when the @sc{nntp}
22436 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
22439 A new back end for reading searches from Web search engines
22440 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
22441 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
22444 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
22445 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
22449 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
22453 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
22457 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}}
22462 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
22466 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
22470 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
22471 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
22474 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
22480 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
22482 New features in Gnus 5.6:
22487 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
22488 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See
22489 @pxref{Gnus Unplugged} for the full story.
22492 The @code{nndraft} back end has returned, but works differently than
22493 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
22494 group, which is created automatically.
22497 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
22501 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-ID's.
22504 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
22505 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
22508 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
22512 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
22515 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
22516 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
22519 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
22522 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
22523 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
22526 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
22527 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
22530 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
22531 control over simplification.
22534 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
22537 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
22541 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
22544 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
22547 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
22548 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
22549 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
22552 Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
22553 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
22556 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
22560 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
22561 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
22564 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
22565 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @sc{nntp} servers.
22568 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
22572 A history of where mails have been split is available.
22575 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
22578 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
22579 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
22582 A new function for citing in Message has been
22583 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
22586 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
22589 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
22593 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
22594 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
22597 The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
22598 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
22601 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} back end.
22604 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
22608 @node Pterodactyl Gnus
22609 @subsubsection Pterodactyl Gnus
22611 New features in Gnus 5.8:
22616 The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
22617 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
22619 If you used procmail like in
22622 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
22623 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
22624 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
22625 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
22628 this now has changed to
22632 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
22636 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
22637 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
22640 Gnus is now a @sc{mime}-capable reader. This affects many parts of
22641 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
22644 Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too
22645 many parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
22648 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} can now be a function to be
22649 called to position point.
22652 The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
22653 summary buffers and @sc{nov} files.
22656 @code{gnus-article-display-hook} has been removed. Instead, a number
22657 of variables starting with @code{gnus-treat-} have been added.
22660 The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now works in a
22661 subtly different manner.
22664 New web-based back ends have been added: @code{nnslashdot},
22665 @code{nnwarchive} and @code{nnultimate}. nnweb has been revamped,
22666 again, to keep up with ever-changing layouts.
22669 Gnus can now read @sc{imap} mail via @code{nnimap}.
22677 @section The Manual
22681 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
22682 either @code{texi2dvi}
22684 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
22685 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
22687 to get what you hold in your hands now.
22689 The following conventions have been used:
22694 This is a @samp{string}
22697 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
22700 This is a @file{file}
22703 This is a @code{symbol}
22707 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
22711 (setq flargnoze "yes")
22714 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
22717 (setq flumphel 'yes)
22720 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
22721 ever get them confused.
22725 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
22726 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
22727 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
22728 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
22729 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
22730 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
22731 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
22737 @node On Writing Manuals
22738 @section On Writing Manuals
22740 I guess most manuals are written after-the-fact; documenting a program
22741 that's already there. This is not how this manual is written. When
22742 implementing something, I write the manual entry for that something
22743 straight away. I then see that it's difficult to explain the
22744 functionality, so I write how it's supposed to be, and then I change the
22745 implementation. Writing the documentation and writing the code goes
22748 This, of course, means that this manual has no, or little, flow. It
22749 documents absolutely everything in Gnus, but often not where you're
22750 looking for it. It is a reference manual, and not a guide to how to get
22753 That would be a totally different book, that should be written using the
22754 reference manual as source material. It would look quite differently.
22759 @section Terminology
22761 @cindex terminology
22766 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
22767 News is generally fetched from a nearby @sc{nntp} server, and is
22768 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
22769 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
22770 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
22774 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
22775 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
22776 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
22777 not posting, and replying is not following up.
22781 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
22785 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
22790 Gnus considers mail and news to be mostly the same, really. The only
22791 difference is how to access the actual articles. News articles are
22792 commonly fetched via the protocol NNTP, whereas mail messages could be
22793 read from a file on the local disk. The internal architecture of Gnus
22794 thus comprises a `front end' and a number of `back ends'. Internally,
22795 when you enter a group (by hitting @key{RET}, say), you thereby invoke
22796 a function in the front end in Gnus. The front end then `talks' to a
22797 back end and says things like ``Give me the list of articles in the foo
22798 group'' or ``Show me article number 4711''.
22800 So a back end mainly defines either a protocol (the @code{nntp} back end
22801 accesses news via NNTP, the @code{nnimap} back end accesses mail via
22802 IMAP) or a file format and directory layout (the @code{nnspool} back end
22803 accesses news via the common `spool directory' format, the @code{nnml}
22804 back end access mail via a file format and directory layout that's
22807 Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this is all
22808 done by the back ends. A back end is a collection of functions to
22809 access the articles.
22811 However, sometimes the term `back end' is also used where `server'
22812 would have been more appropriate. And then there is the term `select
22813 method' which can mean either. The Gnus terminology can be quite
22818 Gnus will always use one method (and back end) as the @dfn{native}, or
22819 default, way of getting news.
22823 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same time.
22824 These are groups that use non-native non-secondary back ends for getting
22829 Secondary back ends are somewhere half-way between being native and being
22830 foreign, but they mostly act like they are native.
22834 A message that has been posted as news.
22837 @cindex mail message
22838 A message that has been mailed.
22842 A mail message or news article
22846 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.) is
22851 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
22856 A line from the head of an article.
22860 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
22861 collection of @sc{nov} lines.
22865 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the back end for the headers of all
22866 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
22867 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
22868 normal @sc{head} format.
22872 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
22873 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
22874 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
22875 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
22876 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
22877 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
22879 @item killed groups
22880 @cindex killed groups
22881 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
22882 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
22884 @item zombie groups
22885 @cindex zombie groups
22886 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
22889 @cindex active file
22890 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
22891 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
22892 is rather large, as you might surmise.
22895 @cindex bogus groups
22896 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
22897 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
22898 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
22901 @cindex activating groups
22902 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
22903 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
22904 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
22908 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
22910 @item select method
22911 @cindex select method
22912 A structure that specifies the back end, the server and the virtual
22915 @item virtual server
22916 @cindex virtual server
22917 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
22918 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
22919 whole is a virtual server.
22923 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
22924 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
22927 @item ephemeral groups
22928 @cindex ephemeral groups
22929 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
22930 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
22931 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
22934 @cindex solid groups
22935 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
22936 group buffer are solid groups.
22938 @item sparse articles
22939 @cindex sparse articles
22940 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
22941 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
22945 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
22946 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
22950 @cindex thread root
22951 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
22952 articles in the thread.
22956 An article that has responses.
22960 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
22964 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
22965 specified by RFC 1153.
22971 @node Customization
22972 @section Customization
22973 @cindex general customization
22975 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
22976 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
22977 for some quite common situations.
22980 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
22981 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
22982 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
22983 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
22987 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
22988 @subsection Slow/Expensive NNTP Connection
22990 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
22991 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
22992 Gnus has to get from the @sc{nntp} server.
22996 @item gnus-read-active-file
22997 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
22998 entire active file from the server. This file is often v. large. You
22999 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
23000 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
23001 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
23003 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
23004 This one has to be @code{nil}. If not, grabbing article headers from
23005 the @sc{nntp} server will not be very fast. Not all @sc{nntp} servers
23006 support @sc{xover}; Gnus will detect this by itself.
23010 @node Slow Terminal Connection
23011 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
23013 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
23014 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
23015 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
23019 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
23020 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
23021 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
23022 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
23023 horizontal and vertical recentering.
23025 @item gnus-visible-headers
23026 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
23027 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
23028 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
23029 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
23031 Set this hook to all the available hiding commands:
23033 (setq gnus-treat-hide-headers 'head
23034 gnus-treat-hide-signature t
23035 gnus-treat-hide-citation t)
23038 @item gnus-use-full-window
23039 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
23040 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
23041 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
23042 want to read them anyway.
23044 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
23045 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
23049 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
23050 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
23051 lines, which might save some time.
23055 @node Little Disk Space
23056 @subsection Little Disk Space
23059 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
23060 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
23064 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
23065 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
23066 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
23067 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
23070 @item gnus-read-newsrc-file
23071 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never read @file{.newsrc}---it will
23072 only read @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
23073 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
23076 @item gnus-save-killed-list
23077 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
23078 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
23079 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
23080 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
23086 @subsection Slow Machine
23087 @cindex slow machine
23089 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
23090 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
23092 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
23093 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
23095 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
23096 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
23097 summary buffer faster.
23101 @node Troubleshooting
23102 @section Troubleshooting
23103 @cindex troubleshooting
23105 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
23113 Make sure your computer is switched on.
23116 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
23117 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
23121 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
23122 like @samp{Gnus v5.46; nntp 4.0} you have the right files loaded. If,
23123 on the other hand, you get something like @samp{NNTP 3.x} or @samp{nntp
23124 flee}, you have some old @file{.el} files lying around. Delete these.
23127 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a FAQ and a
23131 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
23132 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
23133 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
23134 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
23135 something like that.
23138 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
23141 @cindex reporting bugs
23143 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
23145 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
23146 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
23147 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
23148 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
23150 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
23151 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
23152 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
23153 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
23156 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
23157 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
23158 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
23159 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
23160 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
23161 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
23163 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
23164 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
23165 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
23169 If you would like to contribute a patch to fix bugs or make
23170 improvements, please produce the patch using @samp{diff -u}.
23173 If you want to debug your problem further before reporting, possibly
23174 in order to solve the problem yourself and send a patch, you can use
23175 edebug. Debugging lisp code is documented in the Elisp manual
23176 (@pxref{Debugging, , Debugging Lisp Programs, elisp, The GNU Emacs
23177 Lisp Reference Manual}). To get you started with edebug, consider if
23178 you discover some weird behaviour when pressing @kbd{c}, the first
23179 step is to do @kbd{C-h k c} and click on the hyperlink (Emacs only) in
23180 the documentation buffer that leads you to the function definition,
23181 then press @kbd{M-x edebug-defun RET} with point inside that function,
23182 return to Gnus and press @kbd{c} to invoke the code. You will be
23183 placed in the lisp buffer and can single step using @kbd{SPC} and
23184 evaluate expressions using @kbd{M-:} or inspect variables using
23185 @kbd{C-h v}, abort execution with @kbd{q}, and resume execution with
23186 @kbd{c} or @kbd{g}.
23188 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
23189 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful.
23191 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
23192 @cindex ding mailing list
23193 You can also ask on the ding mailing list---@samp{ding@@gnus.org}.
23194 Write to @samp{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
23198 @node Gnus Reference Guide
23199 @section Gnus Reference Guide
23201 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
23202 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
23203 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
23204 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
23207 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
23208 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
23209 back ends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
23210 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
23211 and general methods of operation.
23214 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
23215 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
23216 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
23217 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
23218 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
23219 * Group Info:: The group info format.
23220 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
23221 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
23222 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
23226 @node Gnus Utility Functions
23227 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
23228 @cindex Gnus utility functions
23229 @cindex utility functions
23231 @cindex internal variables
23233 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
23234 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
23235 Below is a list of the most common ones.
23239 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
23240 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
23241 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
23243 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
23244 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
23245 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
23247 @item gnus-group-real-name
23248 @findex gnus-group-real-name
23249 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
23252 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
23253 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
23254 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
23255 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
23257 @item gnus-get-info
23258 @findex gnus-get-info
23259 Returns the group info list for @var{group}.
23261 @item gnus-group-unread
23262 @findex gnus-group-unread
23263 The number of unread articles in @var{group}, or @code{t} if that is
23267 @findex gnus-active
23268 The active entry for @var{group}.
23270 @item gnus-set-active
23271 @findex gnus-set-active
23272 Set the active entry for @var{group}.
23274 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
23275 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
23276 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
23279 @item gnus-continuum-version
23280 @findex gnus-continuum-version
23281 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
23282 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
23285 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
23286 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
23287 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
23289 @item gnus-news-group-p
23290 @findex gnus-news-group-p
23291 Says whether @var{group} came from a news back end.
23293 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
23294 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
23295 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
23297 @item gnus-server-to-method
23298 @findex gnus-server-to-method
23299 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
23301 @item gnus-server-equal
23302 @findex gnus-server-equal
23303 Says whether two virtual servers are equal.
23305 @item gnus-group-native-p
23306 @findex gnus-group-native-p
23307 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
23309 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
23310 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
23311 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
23313 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
23314 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
23315 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
23317 @item group-group-find-parameter
23318 @findex group-group-find-parameter
23319 Returns the parameter list of @var{group}. If given a second parameter,
23320 returns the value of that parameter for @var{group}.
23322 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
23323 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
23324 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
23326 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
23327 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
23328 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
23330 @item gnus-check-backend-function
23331 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
23332 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the back end
23333 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
23336 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
23340 @item gnus-read-method
23341 @findex gnus-read-method
23342 Prompts the user for a select method.
23347 @node Back End Interface
23348 @subsection Back End Interface
23350 Gnus doesn't know anything about @sc{nntp}, spools, mail or virtual
23351 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
23352 server is a @dfn{back end} and some @dfn{back end variables}. As examples
23353 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
23354 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
23355 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
23357 When Gnus asks for information from a back end---say @code{nntp}---on
23358 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
23359 function parameters. (If not, the back end should use the ``current''
23360 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
23361 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
23362 been opened, the function should fail.
23364 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
23365 name. Take this example:
23369 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
23370 (nntp-port-number 4324))
23373 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
23374 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
23376 The back ends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
23377 The standard back ends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
23378 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
23380 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
23381 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
23382 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
23384 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
23385 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
23386 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
23387 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
23388 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
23389 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
23392 Some back ends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} back ends, and
23393 some might be said not to be. The latter are back ends that generally
23394 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server''
23395 -- they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
23398 Gnus identifies each message by way of group name and article number. A
23399 few remarks about these article numbers might be useful. First of all,
23400 the numbers are positive integers. Secondly, it is normally not
23401 possible for later articles to `re-use' older article numbers without
23402 confusing Gnus. That is, if a group has ever contained a message
23403 numbered 42, then no other message may get that number, or Gnus will get
23404 mightily confused.@footnote{See the function
23405 @code{nnchoke-request-update-info}, @ref{Optional Back End Functions}.}
23406 Third, article numbers must be assigned in order of arrival in the
23407 group; this is not necessarily the same as the date of the message.
23409 The previous paragraph already mentions all the `hard' restrictions that
23410 article numbers must fulfill. But it seems that it might be useful to
23411 assign @emph{consecutive} article numbers, for Gnus gets quite confused
23412 if there are holes in the article numbering sequence. However, due to
23413 the `no-reuse' restriction, holes cannot be avoided altogether. It's
23414 also useful for the article numbers to start at 1 to avoid running out
23415 of numbers as long as possible.
23417 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary back end
23420 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
23423 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
23424 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
23425 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
23426 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
23427 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
23428 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
23432 @node Required Back End Functions
23433 @subsubsection Required Back End Functions
23437 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
23439 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
23440 @code{Message-ID}s. Current back ends do not fully support either---only
23441 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most back ends do not support
23442 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
23444 The result data should either be HEADs or @sc{nov} lines, and the result
23445 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
23446 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
23447 of HEADs and @sc{nov} lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
23449 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching "extra
23450 headers", in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
23451 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
23452 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
23453 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the back end finds it
23454 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
23455 number, do maximum fetches.
23457 Here's an example HEAD:
23460 221 1056 Article retrieved.
23461 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
23462 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
23463 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
23464 Subject: Re: Something very droll
23465 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
23466 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
23468 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
23469 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
23470 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
23474 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
23475 these in the data buffer.
23477 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
23481 head = error / valid-head
23482 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
23483 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
23484 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
23485 header = <text> eol
23488 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
23489 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
23493 nov-buffer = *nov-line
23494 nov-line = 8*9 [ field <TAB> ] eol
23495 field = <text except TAB>
23498 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
23502 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
23504 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
23505 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
23507 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The back end
23508 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
23509 server. In fact, it should do so.
23511 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
23512 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
23515 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
23517 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
23518 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
23521 There should be no data returned.
23524 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
23526 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the back end
23527 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that back end
23528 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
23529 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
23531 There should be no data returned.
23534 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
23536 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
23537 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
23538 non-@code{nil} vlue. This function should under no circumstances
23539 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
23541 There should be no data returned.
23544 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
23546 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
23548 There should be no data returned.
23551 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
23553 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
23554 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
23555 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
23556 it would be nice if that were possible.
23558 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
23559 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
23560 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
23561 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
23562 into its article buffer.
23564 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
23565 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
23566 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
23567 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
23568 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
23569 on successful article retrieval.
23572 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST)
23574 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
23575 making @var{group} the current group.
23577 If @var{fast}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
23580 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
23583 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
23586 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
23587 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
23588 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
23589 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
23590 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
23591 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
23592 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
23593 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader. If the group contains no
23594 articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1 and the
23598 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
23599 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
23600 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
23604 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
23606 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
23607 a no-op on most back ends.
23609 There should be no data returned.
23612 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
23614 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
23617 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
23620 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
23621 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
23624 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
23625 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag. If the group
23626 contains no articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1
23627 and the highest as 0.
23630 active-file = *active-line
23631 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
23633 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
23636 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
23637 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
23638 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
23641 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
23643 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
23644 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
23645 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
23646 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
23647 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
23648 clear if the posting could not be completed.
23650 There should be no result data from this function.
23655 @node Optional Back End Functions
23656 @subsubsection Optional Back End Functions
23660 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
23662 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
23663 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
23664 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
23666 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
23667 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
23668 former is in the same format as the data from
23669 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
23670 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
23673 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
23677 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
23679 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the back end for
23680 alterations. This comes in handy if the back end really carries all the
23681 information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
23682 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
23683 should return the (altered) group info.
23685 There should be no result data from this function.
23688 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
23690 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
23691 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
23692 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
23693 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
23694 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
23695 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
23696 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
23697 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
23699 There should be no result data from this function.
23702 @item (nnchoke-request-set-mark GROUP ACTION &optional SERVER)
23704 Set/remove/add marks on articles. Normally Gnus handles the article
23705 marks (such as read, ticked, expired etc) internally, and store them in
23706 @code{~/.newsrc.eld}. Some back ends (such as @sc{imap}) however carry
23707 all information about the articles on the server, so Gnus need to
23708 propagate the mark information to the server.
23710 ACTION is a list of mark setting requests, having this format:
23713 (RANGE ACTION MARK)
23716 RANGE is a range of articles you wish to update marks on. ACTION is
23717 @code{add} or @code{del}, used to add marks or remove marks
23718 (preserving all marks not mentioned). MARK is a list of marks; where
23719 each mark is a symbol. Currently used marks are @code{read},
23720 @code{tick}, @code{reply}, @code{expire}, @code{killed},
23721 @code{dormant}, @code{save}, @code{download}, @code{unsend},
23722 @code{forward} and @code{recent}, but your back end should, if
23723 possible, not limit itself to these.
23725 Given contradictory actions, the last action in the list should be the
23726 effective one. That is, if your action contains a request to add the
23727 @code{tick} mark on article 1 and, later in the list, a request to
23728 remove the mark on the same article, the mark should in fact be removed.
23730 An example action list:
23733 (((5 12 30) 'del '(tick))
23734 ((10 . 90) 'add '(read expire))
23735 ((92 94) 'del '(read)))
23738 The function should return a range of articles it wasn't able to set the
23739 mark on (currently not used for anything).
23741 There should be no result data from this function.
23743 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
23745 If the user tries to set a mark that the back end doesn't like, this
23746 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
23747 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
23748 @var{mark}. If the back end doesn't care, it must return the original
23749 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
23751 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
23752 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
23753 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
23756 There should be no result data from this function.
23759 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
23761 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
23762 request that the back end check for incoming articles, in one way or
23763 another. A mail back end will typically read the spool file or query the
23764 POP server when this function is invoked. The @var{group} doesn't have
23765 to be heeded---if the back end decides that it is too much work just
23766 scanning for a single group, it may do a total scan of all groups. It
23767 would be nice, however, to keep things local if that's practical.
23769 There should be no result data from this function.
23772 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
23774 The result data from this function should be a description of
23778 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
23780 description = <text>
23783 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
23785 The result data from this function should be the description of all
23786 groups available on the server.
23789 description-buffer = *description-line
23793 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
23795 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
23796 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date format
23797 (i.e., the date format used in mail and news headers, and returned by
23798 the function @code{message-make-date} by default). The data should be
23799 in the active buffer format.
23801 It is okay for this function to return `too many' groups; some back ends
23802 might find it cheaper to return the full list of groups, rather than
23803 just the new groups. But don't do this for back ends with many groups.
23804 Normally, if the user creates the groups herself, there won't be too
23805 many groups, so @code{nnml} and the like are probably safe. But for
23806 back ends like @code{nntp}, where the groups have been created by the
23807 server, it is quite likely that there can be many groups.
23810 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
23812 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
23814 There should be no return data.
23817 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
23819 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
23820 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
23821 numbers.) It is left up to the back end to decide how old articles
23822 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
23823 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
23826 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
23829 There should be no result data returned.
23832 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM
23835 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
23836 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
23838 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
23839 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
23840 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
23841 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
23842 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
23843 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
23845 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
23846 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
23849 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
23850 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
23852 There should be no data returned.
23855 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
23857 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
23858 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
23859 this function in short order.
23861 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
23862 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
23864 There should be no data returned.
23867 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
23869 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
23870 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
23872 There should be no data returned.
23875 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
23877 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
23878 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
23879 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
23881 There should be no data returned.
23884 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
23886 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
23887 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
23889 There should be no data returned.
23894 @node Error Messaging
23895 @subsubsection Error Messaging
23897 @findex nnheader-report
23898 @findex nnheader-get-report
23899 The back ends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
23900 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
23901 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the back end
23902 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
23903 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
23904 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
23907 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
23909 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
23912 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
23913 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
23914 recently reported message for the back end in question. This function
23915 takes one argument---the server symbol.
23917 Internally, these functions access @var{back-end}@code{-status-string},
23918 so the @code{nnchoke} back end will have its error message stored in
23919 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
23922 @node Writing New Back Ends
23923 @subsubsection Writing New Back Ends
23925 Many back ends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
23926 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
23927 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
23928 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
23929 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
23932 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
23933 back ends when writing new back ends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
23934 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
23936 All the back ends declare their public variables and functions by using a
23937 package called @code{nnoo}.
23939 To inherit functions from other back ends (and allow other back ends to
23940 inherit functions from the current back end), you should use the
23946 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
23947 parameters. For instance:
23950 (nnoo-declare nndir
23954 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
23955 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
23958 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
23959 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
23960 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
23962 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
23963 variables in the parent back ends to map the variable to when executing
23964 a function in those back ends.
23967 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
23968 "Where nndir will look for groups."
23969 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
23972 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
23973 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
23974 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
23976 @item nnoo-define-basics
23977 This macro defines some common functions that almost all back ends should
23981 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
23985 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
23986 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
23987 function as being public so that other back ends can inherit it.
23989 @item nnoo-map-functions
23990 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current back end to
23991 functions from the parent back ends.
23994 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
23995 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
23996 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
23999 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
24000 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
24001 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
24002 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
24005 This macro allows importing functions from back ends. It should be the
24006 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
24007 haven't already been defined.
24013 nnmh-request-newgroups)
24017 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
24018 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
24019 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
24024 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} back end.
24027 ;;; nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus
24028 ;; Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
24032 (require 'nnheader)
24036 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
24038 (nnoo-declare nndir
24041 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
24042 "Where nndir will look for groups."
24043 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
24045 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
24046 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
24049 (defvoo nndir-current-group ""
24051 nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
24052 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
24053 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
24055 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
24056 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
24058 ;;; Interface functions.
24060 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
24062 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
24063 (setq nndir-directory
24064 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
24066 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
24067 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
24068 (push `(nndir-current-group
24069 ,(file-name-nondirectory
24070 (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
24072 (push `(nndir-top-directory
24073 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
24075 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
24077 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
24078 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
24079 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
24080 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
24081 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
24085 nnmh-status-message
24087 nnmh-request-newgroups))
24093 @node Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
24094 @subsubsection Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
24096 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
24097 @findex gnus-declare-backend
24098 Having Gnus start using your new back end is rather easy---you just
24099 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
24100 enter the back end into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
24102 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the back end name and
24103 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
24108 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
24111 The above line would then go in the @file{nnchoke.el} file.
24113 The abilities can be:
24117 This is a mailish back end---followups should (probably) go via mail.
24119 This is a newsish back end---followups should (probably) go via news.
24121 This back end supports both mail and news.
24123 This is neither a post nor mail back end---it's something completely
24126 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
24127 articles and groups.
24129 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
24130 true for almost all back ends.
24131 @item prompt-address
24132 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
24133 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for back ends like
24134 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
24138 @node Mail-like Back Ends
24139 @subsubsection Mail-like Back Ends
24141 One of the things that separate the mail back ends from the rest of the
24142 back ends is the heavy dependence by most of the mail back ends on
24143 common functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the
24144 definition of @code{nnml-request-scan}:
24147 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
24148 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
24149 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
24152 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
24153 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
24156 This function takes four parameters.
24160 This should be a symbol to designate which back end is responsible for
24163 @item exit-function
24164 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
24166 @item temp-directory
24167 Where the temporary files should be stored.
24170 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
24171 performed for one group only.
24174 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{back-end}@code{-save-mail} to
24175 save each article. @var{back-end}@code{-active-number} will be called to
24176 find the article number assigned to this article.
24178 The function also uses the following variables:
24179 @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
24180 this back end); and @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} and
24181 @var{back-end}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
24182 @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
24186 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
24187 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
24191 @node Score File Syntax
24192 @subsection Score File Syntax
24194 Score files are meant to be easily parseable, but yet extremely
24195 mallable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
24196 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
24198 Here's a typical score file:
24202 ("win95" -10000 nil s)
24209 BNF definition of a score file:
24212 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
24213 element = rule / atom
24214 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
24215 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
24216 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
24217 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
24219 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
24220 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
24221 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
24222 date-header = "date"
24223 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
24224 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
24225 score = "nil" / <integer>
24226 date = "nil" / <natural number>
24227 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
24228 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
24229 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
24230 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
24231 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
24232 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
24233 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
24234 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
24235 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
24236 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
24237 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
24238 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
24239 exclude-files / read-only / touched
24240 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
24241 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
24242 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
24243 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
24244 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
24245 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
24246 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
24247 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
24248 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
24249 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
24250 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
24251 eval = "eval" space <form>
24252 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
24255 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
24258 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
24259 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
24260 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
24261 one looong line, then that's ok.
24263 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
24264 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
24268 @subsection Headers
24270 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
24271 corresponds to the @sc{nov} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
24272 almost suspect that the author looked at the @sc{nov} specification and
24273 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
24275 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
24276 RFC 1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
24277 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
24278 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
24279 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
24280 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
24281 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
24283 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
24284 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
24285 @code{xref}, and @code{extra}. There are macros for accessing and
24286 setting these slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
24287 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
24289 All these slots contain strings, except the @code{extra} slot, which
24290 contains an alist of header/value pairs (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
24296 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
24297 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
24299 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
24300 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
24301 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
24302 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
24304 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
24308 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
24311 is transformed into
24314 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
24317 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
24318 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
24321 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
24324 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
24325 is slightly tricky:
24328 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
24334 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
24337 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
24343 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
24350 and is equal to the previous range.
24352 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
24353 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
24354 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
24358 range = simple-range / normal-range
24359 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
24360 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
24361 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
24362 number *[ " " contents ]
24365 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
24366 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
24367 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
24368 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
24369 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
24374 @subsection Group Info
24376 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
24377 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
24378 describes the group.
24380 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
24381 second is a more complex one:
24384 ("no.group" 5 ((1 . 54324)))
24386 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
24387 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
24389 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
24392 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
24393 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
24394 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
24395 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
24396 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
24397 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
24398 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
24399 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
24400 this section is about.
24402 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
24403 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
24404 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
24406 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
24409 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
24410 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
24411 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
24412 group = quote <string> quote
24413 ralevel = rank / level
24414 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
24415 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
24416 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
24418 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
24419 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
24420 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
24421 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
24424 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
24425 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
24428 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
24429 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
24432 @item gnus-info-group
24433 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
24434 @findex gnus-info-group
24435 @findex gnus-info-set-group
24436 Get/set the group name.
24438 @item gnus-info-rank
24439 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
24440 @findex gnus-info-rank
24441 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
24442 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
24444 @item gnus-info-level
24445 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
24446 @findex gnus-info-level
24447 @findex gnus-info-set-level
24448 Get/set the group level.
24450 @item gnus-info-score
24451 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
24452 @findex gnus-info-score
24453 @findex gnus-info-set-score
24454 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
24456 @item gnus-info-read
24457 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
24458 @findex gnus-info-read
24459 @findex gnus-info-set-read
24460 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
24462 @item gnus-info-marks
24463 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
24464 @findex gnus-info-marks
24465 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
24466 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
24468 @item gnus-info-method
24469 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
24470 @findex gnus-info-method
24471 @findex gnus-info-set-method
24472 Get/set the group select method.
24474 @item gnus-info-params
24475 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
24476 @findex gnus-info-params
24477 @findex gnus-info-set-params
24478 Get/set the group parameters.
24481 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
24482 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
24484 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
24485 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
24486 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
24487 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
24490 @node Extended Interactive
24491 @subsection Extended Interactive
24492 @cindex interactive
24493 @findex gnus-interactive
24495 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
24496 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
24497 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
24500 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
24501 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
24506 The best thing to do would have been to implement
24507 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
24508 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
24509 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
24510 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
24511 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
24512 @code{interactive}.
24514 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
24519 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
24520 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
24524 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
24525 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
24526 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
24529 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
24533 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
24537 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
24543 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
24544 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
24548 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
24549 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
24550 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
24552 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
24553 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
24554 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
24555 Gnus, that's very useful.
24557 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
24558 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
24559 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
24560 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
24561 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
24562 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
24563 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
24564 following function:
24567 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
24571 (,function ,@@args))
24575 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
24576 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
24577 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
24580 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
24581 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
24582 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
24584 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
24585 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
24586 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
24589 @node Various File Formats
24590 @subsection Various File Formats
24593 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
24594 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
24598 @node Active File Format
24599 @subsubsection Active File Format
24601 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
24602 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
24605 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
24608 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
24609 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
24610 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
24611 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
24612 no.general 1000 900 y
24615 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
24618 active = *group-line
24619 group-line = group spc high-number spc low-number spc flag <NEWLINE>
24620 group = <non-white-space string>
24622 high-number = <non-negative integer>
24623 low-number = <positive integer>
24624 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
24627 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
24628 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
24631 @node Newsgroups File Format
24632 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
24634 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
24635 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
24636 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
24639 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
24640 Here's the definition:
24644 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
24645 group = <non-white-space string>
24647 description = <string>
24652 @node Emacs for Heathens
24653 @section Emacs for Heathens
24655 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
24656 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
24657 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{C-M-a}'', ``kill the
24658 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
24659 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
24660 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
24661 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
24665 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
24666 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
24671 @subsection Keystrokes
24675 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
24678 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
24681 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
24682 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
24683 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
24684 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
24685 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
24686 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
24688 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
24689 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
24690 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
24691 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
24692 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
24693 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
24694 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
24696 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
24697 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{C-M-m}
24698 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
24699 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
24700 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
24701 ``Press @kbd{C-M-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
24702 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
24704 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
24705 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
24706 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
24707 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
24708 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
24714 @subsection Emacs Lisp
24716 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
24717 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
24718 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
24719 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
24721 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
24722 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
24723 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
24724 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
24725 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
24726 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
24727 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{.emacs} file
24730 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
24731 write the following:
24734 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
24737 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
24738 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
24739 you can go and fill your @code{.emacs} file with lots of these to change
24742 If you have put that thing in your @code{.emacs} file, it will be read
24743 and @code{eval}ed (which is lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
24744 start Emacs. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
24745 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
24746 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
24748 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
24749 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
24750 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
24754 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
24758 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
24761 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server} to
24762 @samp{nntp.ifi.uio.no}'', that means:
24765 (setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
24768 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
24769 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
24772 @include gnus-faq.texi
24792 @c Local Variables:
24794 @c coding: iso-8859-1
24796 % LocalWords: BNF mucho detailmenu cindex kindex kbd
24797 % LocalWords: findex Gnusae vindex dfn dfn samp nntp setq nnspool nntpserver
24798 % LocalWords: nnmbox newusers Blllrph NEWGROUPS dingnusdingnusdingnus
24799 % LocalWords: pre fab rec comp nnslashdot regex ga ga sci nnml nnbabyl nnmh
24800 % LocalWords: nnfolder emph looong eld newsreaders defun init elc pxref