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335 * Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
340 @setchapternewpage odd
347 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
349 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
355 @top The Gnus Newsreader
359 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using Gnus. The news
360 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@acronym{NNTP}, local
361 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
364 @c Adjust ../Makefile.in if you change the following line:
365 This manual corresponds to No Gnus v0.7.
376 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
377 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
379 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
380 being accused of plagiarism:
382 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
383 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
384 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you
385 can even read news with it!
387 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
388 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
389 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend Gnus to make it behave
390 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
391 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
397 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
398 * Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
399 * Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
400 * Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
401 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
402 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
403 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
404 * Various:: General purpose settings.
405 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
406 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, @acronym{FAQ}, History, Internals.
407 * GNU Free Documentation License:: The license for this documentation.
408 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
409 * Key Index:: Key Index.
411 Other related manuals
413 * Message:(message). Composing messages.
414 * Emacs-MIME:(emacs-mime). Composing messages; @acronym{MIME}-specific parts.
415 * Sieve:(sieve). Managing Sieve scripts in Emacs.
416 * PGG:(pgg). @acronym{PGP/MIME} with Gnus.
417 * SASL:(sasl). @acronym{SASL} authentication in Emacs.
420 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
424 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
425 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
426 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
427 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
428 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
429 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
430 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
431 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
432 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
433 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
434 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
438 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
439 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
440 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
444 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
445 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
446 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
447 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
448 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
449 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
450 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
451 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
452 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
453 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
454 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
455 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
456 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
457 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
458 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
459 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
460 * Non-ASCII Group Names:: Accessing groups of non-English names.
461 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
465 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
466 * Group Mode Line Specification:: The group buffer mode line.
467 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
471 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
472 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
473 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
474 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
475 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
479 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
480 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
481 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
482 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
483 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
487 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
488 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
489 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
490 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
491 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
492 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
493 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
494 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
495 * Threading:: How threads are made.
496 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
497 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
498 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
499 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
500 * Sticky Articles:: Article buffers that are not reused.
501 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
502 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
503 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
504 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
505 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
506 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
507 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
508 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
509 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
510 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
511 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
512 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
513 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
514 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
515 or reselecting the current group.
516 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
517 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
518 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
519 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
521 Summary Buffer Format
523 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
524 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
525 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
526 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
530 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
531 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
533 Reply, Followup and Post
535 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
536 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
537 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
538 * Canceling and Superseding::
542 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
543 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
544 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
545 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
546 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
547 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
551 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
552 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
554 Customizing Threading
556 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
557 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
558 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
559 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
563 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
564 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
565 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
566 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
567 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
568 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
572 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
573 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
574 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
578 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
579 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
580 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
581 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
582 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
583 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
584 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
585 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
586 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
587 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
588 * Article Miscellanea:: Various other stuff.
590 Alternative Approaches
592 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
593 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
595 Various Summary Stuff
597 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
598 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
599 * Summary Generation Commands::
600 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
604 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
605 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @acronym{MIME} before reading them.
606 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
607 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
608 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
612 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
613 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
614 * POP before SMTP:: You cannot send a mail unless you read a mail.
615 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
616 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
617 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
618 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
619 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
620 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
624 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
625 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
626 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
627 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
628 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @acronym{IMAP} client.
629 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
630 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
631 * Email Based Diary:: Using mails to manage diary events in Gnus.
632 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
636 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
637 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
638 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
639 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
640 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
641 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
642 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
646 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @acronym{NNTP} server.
647 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
651 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
652 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
653 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
654 * NNTP marks:: Storing marks for @acronym{NNTP} servers.
658 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
659 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
660 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
661 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
662 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
663 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
664 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
665 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
666 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
667 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
668 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
669 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
670 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
674 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
675 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
676 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
678 Choosing a Mail Back End
680 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
681 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the Rmail Babyl format.
682 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
683 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
684 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
685 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
686 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
691 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
692 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
693 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
694 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
695 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
696 * Customizing W3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/W3 from Gnus.
700 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
701 * Expiring in IMAP:: Expiring mail with nnimap.
702 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
703 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a ``compress mailbox'' button.
704 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use @acronym{IMAP} namespace in Gnus.
705 * Debugging IMAP:: What to do when things don't work.
709 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
710 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
711 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
712 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
713 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
717 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
721 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
722 * SOUP Groups:: A back end for reading @sc{soup} packets.
723 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
727 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
728 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
732 * The NNDiary Back End:: Basic setup and usage.
733 * The Gnus Diary Library:: Utility toolkit on top of nndiary.
734 * Sending or Not Sending:: A final note on sending diary messages.
738 * Diary Messages:: What makes a message valid for nndiary.
739 * Running NNDiary:: NNDiary has two modes of operation.
740 * Customizing NNDiary:: Bells and whistles.
742 The Gnus Diary Library
744 * Diary Summary Line Format:: A nicer summary buffer line format.
745 * Diary Articles Sorting:: A nicer way to sort messages.
746 * Diary Headers Generation:: Not doing it manually.
747 * Diary Group Parameters:: Not handling them manually.
751 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
752 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
753 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
754 * Agent Visuals:: Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
755 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
756 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
757 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
758 * Agent and flags:: How the Agent maintains flags.
759 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with @acronym{IMAP}.
760 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
761 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
762 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
763 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
764 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
768 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
769 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
770 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
774 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
775 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
776 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
780 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
781 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
782 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
783 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
784 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
785 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
786 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
787 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
788 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
789 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
790 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
791 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
792 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
793 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
794 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
795 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
799 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
800 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
801 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
805 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
806 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
807 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
808 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
809 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
810 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
811 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
812 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
813 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
814 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
815 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
816 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
817 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
818 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
819 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
820 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
821 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
822 * Thwarting Email Spam:: Simple ways to avoid unsolicited commercial email.
823 * Spam Package:: A package for filtering and processing spam.
824 * Other modes:: Interaction with other modes.
825 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
829 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
830 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
831 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
832 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
833 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
834 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
835 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
836 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
840 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
841 * Face:: Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
842 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were
844 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
845 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
849 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
850 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
851 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
852 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
856 * Spam Package Introduction::
857 * Filtering Incoming Mail::
858 * Detecting Spam in Groups::
859 * Spam and Ham Processors::
860 * Spam Package Configuration Examples::
862 * Extending the Spam package::
863 * Spam Statistics Package::
865 Spam Statistics Package
867 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
868 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
869 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
873 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
874 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
875 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
876 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
877 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
878 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
879 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
880 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
881 * Frequently Asked Questions:: The Gnus FAQ
885 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
886 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
887 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
888 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
889 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
890 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
891 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
892 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
893 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
897 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
898 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
899 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
900 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
901 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
902 * Oort Gnus:: It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10/5.11.
903 * No Gnus:: Very punny.
907 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
908 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
909 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
910 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
914 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
915 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
916 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
917 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
918 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
919 * Group Info:: The group info format.
920 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
921 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
922 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
926 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
927 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
928 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
929 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
930 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
931 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
935 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
936 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
940 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
941 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
947 @chapter Starting Gnus
950 If you haven't used Emacs much before using Gnus, read @ref{Emacs for
955 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus
956 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
957 your Emacs. If not, you should customize the variable
958 @code{gnus-select-method} as described in @ref{Finding the News}. For a
959 minimal setup for posting should also customize the variables
960 @code{user-full-name} and @code{user-mail-address}.
962 @findex gnus-other-frame
963 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
964 If you want to start Gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
965 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
967 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
968 variables in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file. This file is similar to
969 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when Gnus starts.
971 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
972 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
975 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
976 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
977 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
978 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
979 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
980 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
981 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
982 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
983 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
984 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
988 @node Finding the News
989 @section Finding the News
992 @vindex gnus-select-method
994 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where Gnus should look for
995 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
996 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
997 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
1000 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @acronym{NNTP} server is where
1001 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
1004 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
1007 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
1010 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
1013 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
1014 certainly be much faster. But do not use the local spool if your
1015 server is running Leafnode (which is a simple, standalone private news
1016 server); in this case, use @code{(nntp "localhost")}.
1018 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
1020 @cindex @acronym{NNTP} server
1021 If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
1022 @env{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
1023 Gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
1024 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter.
1025 If that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs
1026 as an @acronym{NNTP} server. That's a long shot, though.
1028 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1029 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
1030 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
1031 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
1033 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
1034 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1035 You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
1036 @acronym{NNTP} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
1037 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), Gnus will let you choose between the servers
1038 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
1039 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this
1040 will set @code{gnus-nntp-server}, which means that if you then @kbd{M-x
1041 gnus} later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same
1044 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
1046 However, if you use one @acronym{NNTP} server regularly and are just
1047 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
1048 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
1049 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
1050 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
1051 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
1053 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
1055 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
1056 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
1057 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
1058 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
1059 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
1060 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
1063 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} back end to read your mail,
1064 you would typically set this variable to
1067 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
1070 Note: the @acronym{NNTP} back end stores marks in marks files
1071 (@pxref{NNTP marks}). This feature makes it easy to share marks between
1072 several Gnus installations, but may slow down things a bit when fetching
1073 new articles. @xref{NNTP marks}, for more information.
1076 @node The First Time
1077 @section The First Time
1078 @cindex first time usage
1080 If no startup files exist (@pxref{Startup Files}), Gnus will try to
1081 determine what groups should be subscribed by default.
1083 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
1084 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, Gnus
1085 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
1086 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
1089 Since she hasn't, Gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
1090 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
1091 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
1093 You'll also be subscribed to the Gnus documentation group, which should
1094 help you with most common problems.
1096 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, Gnus will just
1097 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
1101 @node The Server is Down
1102 @section The Server is Down
1103 @cindex server errors
1105 If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some
1106 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
1107 the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.
1109 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
1110 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
1111 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
1112 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
1113 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
1114 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
1115 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
1117 @findex gnus-no-server
1118 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
1120 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
1121 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
1122 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start Gnus. That might come in handy
1123 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
1124 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
1125 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
1126 levels.) Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1130 @section Slave Gnusae
1133 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the
1134 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
1135 are using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers),
1136 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
1138 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
1139 @file{.newsrc} file.
1141 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the Gnus
1142 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
1143 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
1144 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
1145 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
1146 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
1147 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
1150 Anyway, you start one Gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
1151 however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with
1152 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
1153 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
1154 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus
1155 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
1156 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
1157 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
1159 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
1160 information in the normal (i.e., master) @file{.newsrc} file.
1162 If the @file{.newsrc*} files have not been saved in the master when the
1163 slave starts, you may be prompted as to whether to read an auto-save
1164 file. If you answer ``yes'', the unsaved changes to the master will be
1165 incorporated into the slave. If you answer ``no'', the slave may see some
1166 messages as unread that have been read in the master.
1173 @cindex subscription
1175 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
1176 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
1177 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
1178 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
1179 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
1180 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
1181 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
1182 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the back ends for new groups even
1183 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1186 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
1187 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
1188 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
1192 @node Checking New Groups
1193 @subsection Checking New Groups
1195 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
1196 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
1197 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
1198 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, Gnus will ask the
1199 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
1200 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
1201 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
1202 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
1203 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
1204 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
1206 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
1207 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
1208 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
1209 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
1210 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
1211 work. I could write a function to make Gnus guess whether the server
1212 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
1213 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
1214 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
1215 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
1216 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
1218 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will
1219 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
1220 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
1221 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
1222 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
1223 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
1226 @node Subscription Methods
1227 @subsection Subscription Methods
1229 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
1230 What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
1231 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
1233 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
1234 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
1236 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
1240 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
1241 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
1242 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
1243 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
1244 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
1246 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
1247 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
1248 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
1249 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
1251 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1252 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1253 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
1255 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1256 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1257 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
1258 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
1259 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
1260 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its
1261 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
1262 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
1263 up. Or something like that.
1265 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
1266 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
1267 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask
1268 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
1269 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
1271 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
1272 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
1273 Kill all new groups.
1275 @item gnus-subscribe-topics
1276 @vindex gnus-subscribe-topics
1277 Put the groups into the topic that has a matching @code{subscribe} topic
1278 parameter (@pxref{Topic Parameters}). For instance, a @code{subscribe}
1279 topic parameter that looks like
1285 will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under
1288 If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the
1293 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
1294 A closely related variable is
1295 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
1296 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you in a
1297 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
1298 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
1301 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
1302 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
1303 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
1304 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
1307 @node Filtering New Groups
1308 @subsection Filtering New Groups
1310 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
1311 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
1312 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
1315 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
1318 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
1319 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
1320 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
1321 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
1322 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
1323 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
1324 subscribing these groups.
1325 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
1326 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
1328 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
1329 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
1330 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
1331 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
1332 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
1333 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
1334 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
1335 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
1337 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
1338 Yet another variable that meddles here is
1339 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
1340 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous,
1341 but I thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is
1342 more meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is
1343 used more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new
1344 groups that come from mail back ends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
1345 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, @code{nnmh}, and @code{nnmaildir})
1346 subscribed. If you don't like that, just set this variable to
1349 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
1350 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
1353 @node Changing Servers
1354 @section Changing Servers
1355 @cindex changing servers
1357 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another.
1358 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
1359 very flaky and you want to use another.
1361 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
1362 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
1366 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
1367 @acronym{NNTP} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
1368 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
1369 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
1372 Gnus provides a few functions to attempt to translate a @file{.newsrc}
1373 file from one server to another. They all have one thing in
1374 common---they take a looong time to run. You don't want to use these
1375 functions more than absolutely necessary.
1377 @kindex M-x gnus-change-server
1378 @findex gnus-change-server
1379 If you have access to both servers, Gnus can request the headers for all
1380 the articles you have read and compare @code{Message-ID}s and map the
1381 article numbers of the read articles and article marks. The @kbd{M-x
1382 gnus-change-server} command will do this for all your native groups. It
1383 will prompt for the method you want to move to.
1385 @kindex M-x gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1386 @findex gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1387 You can also move individual groups with the @kbd{M-x
1388 gnus-group-move-group-to-server} command. This is useful if you want to
1389 move a (foreign) group from one server to another.
1391 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1392 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1393 If you don't have access to both the old and new server, all your marks
1394 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use the @kbd{M-x
1395 gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} command to clear out all data
1396 that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.
1398 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data
1399 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
1400 Clear the data from the current group only---nix out marks and the
1401 list of read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
1403 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
1404 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
1405 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
1406 @code{gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} will ask you if you want
1407 to have it done automatically; for @code{gnus-group-clear-data}, you
1408 can use @kbd{M-x gnus-cache-move-cache} (but beware, it will move the
1409 cache for all groups).
1413 @section Startup Files
1414 @cindex startup files
1419 Most common Unix news readers use a shared startup file called
1420 @file{.newsrc}. This file contains all the information about what
1421 groups are subscribed, and which articles in these groups have been
1424 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
1425 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
1426 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
1427 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
1428 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
1429 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
1430 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
1432 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
1433 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
1434 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
1435 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
1436 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
1437 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
1439 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
1440 @vindex gnus-read-newsrc-file
1441 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
1442 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
1443 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster.
1444 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
1445 Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting
1446 @code{gnus-read-newsrc-file} to @code{nil} makes Gnus ignore the
1447 @file{.newsrc} file and any @file{.newsrc-SERVER} files, which can be
1448 convenient if you use a different news reader occasionally, and you
1449 want to read a different subset of the available groups with that
1452 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
1453 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
1454 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
1455 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
1456 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
1457 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
1458 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
1459 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
1460 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
1461 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
1462 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
1463 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
1465 @vindex gnus-startup-file
1466 @vindex gnus-backup-startup-file
1467 @vindex version-control
1468 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
1469 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
1470 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
1471 If you want version control for this file, set
1472 @code{gnus-backup-startup-file}. It respects the same values as the
1473 @code{version-control} variable.
1475 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
1476 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
1477 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
1478 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
1479 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
1480 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
1481 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
1482 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
1483 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
1484 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
1487 (defun turn-off-backup ()
1488 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
1490 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1491 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1494 @vindex gnus-init-file
1495 @vindex gnus-site-init-file
1496 When Gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
1497 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus-init} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
1498 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
1499 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
1500 @file{site-init} files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
1501 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
1502 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
1503 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
1504 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order). If Emacs was invoked with
1505 the @option{-q} or @option{--no-init-file} options (@pxref{Initial
1506 Options, ,Initial Options, emacs, The Emacs Manual}), Gnus doesn't read
1507 @code{gnus-init-file}.
1512 @cindex dribble file
1515 Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles,
1516 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
1517 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
1518 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
1519 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
1522 If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
1523 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
1526 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
1527 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, Gnus won't create and
1528 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
1530 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
1531 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
1532 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, Gnus will dribble
1533 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
1534 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
1535 file permissions as the @file{.newsrc} file.
1537 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
1538 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
1539 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
1542 @node The Active File
1543 @section The Active File
1545 @cindex ignored groups
1547 When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
1548 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
1549 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
1551 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
1552 Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the
1553 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
1554 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make Gnus
1555 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
1556 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
1557 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
1560 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
1561 @c if you set it to anything else.
1563 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
1565 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
1566 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
1567 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
1569 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
1570 you actually subscribe to.
1572 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
1573 variable to @code{nil} will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At
1574 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow Gnus down
1575 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
1577 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
1578 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
1579 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
1580 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
1581 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
1582 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
1584 Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for
1585 instance) do not support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group}. For these
1586 servers, @code{nil} is probably the most efficient value for this
1589 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will ask for group info in total
1590 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
1591 @acronym{NNTP} server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
1592 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
1593 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
1594 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
1596 If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three
1597 different values for this variable and see what works best for you.
1599 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
1600 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1602 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1603 secondary select methods.
1606 @node Startup Variables
1607 @section Startup Variables
1611 @item gnus-load-hook
1612 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1613 A hook run while Gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1614 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1615 times you start Gnus.
1617 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1618 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1619 A hook run after starting up Gnus successfully.
1621 @item gnus-startup-hook
1622 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1623 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1625 @item gnus-started-hook
1626 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1627 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1630 @item gnus-setup-news-hook
1631 @vindex gnus-setup-news-hook
1632 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1633 generating the group buffer.
1635 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1636 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1637 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1638 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1639 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1640 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1641 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1642 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1644 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1645 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1646 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1647 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1648 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1649 @file{~/.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @file{.emacs} instead.
1651 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1652 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1653 Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.
1655 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1656 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1657 If non-@code{nil}, play the Gnus jingle at startup.
1659 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1660 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1661 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1662 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1668 @chapter Group Buffer
1669 @cindex group buffer
1671 @c Alex Schroeder suggests to rearrange this as follows:
1673 @c <kensanata> ok, just save it for reference. I'll go to bed in a minute.
1674 @c 1. Selecting a Group, 2. (new) Finding a Group, 3. Group Levels,
1675 @c 4. Subscription Commands, 5. Group Maneuvering, 6. Group Data,
1676 @c 7. Group Score, 8. Group Buffer Format
1677 @c <kensanata> Group Levels should have more information on levels 5 to 9. I
1678 @c suggest to split the 4th paragraph ("Gnus considers groups...") as follows:
1679 @c <kensanata> First, "Gnus considers groups... (default 9)."
1680 @c <kensanata> New, a table summarizing what levels 1 to 9 mean.
1681 @c <kensanata> Third, "Gnus treats subscribed ... reasons of efficiency"
1682 @c <kensanata> Then expand the next paragraph or add some more to it.
1683 @c This short one sentence explains levels 1 and 2, therefore I understand
1684 @c that I should keep important news at 3 and boring news at 4.
1685 @c Say so! Then go on to explain why I should bother with levels 6 to 9.
1686 @c Maybe keep those that you don't want to read temporarily at 6,
1687 @c those that you never want to read at 8, those that offend your
1688 @c human rights at 9...
1691 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1692 is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1693 long as Gnus is active.
1697 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1698 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group,height=9cm}}
1699 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1700 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1701 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1702 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1703 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1704 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1710 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1711 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1712 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1713 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1714 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1715 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1716 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1717 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1718 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1719 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1720 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1721 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1722 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1723 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1724 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1725 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1726 * Non-ASCII Group Names:: Accessing groups of non-English names.
1727 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1731 @node Group Buffer Format
1732 @section Group Buffer Format
1735 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1736 * Group Mode Line Specification:: The group buffer mode line.
1737 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1740 You can customize the Group Mode tool bar, see @kbd{M-x
1741 customize-apropos RET gnus-group-tool-bar}. This feature is only
1744 The tool bar icons are now (de)activated correctly depending on the
1745 cursor position. Therefore, moving around in the Group Buffer is
1746 slower. You can disable this via the variable
1747 @code{gnus-group-update-tool-bar}. Its default value depends on your
1750 @node Group Line Specification
1751 @subsection Group Line Specification
1752 @cindex group buffer format
1754 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1755 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1757 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1760 25: news.announce.newusers
1761 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1766 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1767 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1768 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1769 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1771 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1772 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1773 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1774 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1775 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1776 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1778 @samp{%M%S%5y:%B%(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1780 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1781 the colon after performing an operation. @xref{Positioning
1782 Point}. Nothing else is required---not even the group name. All
1783 displayed text is just window dressing, and is never examined by Gnus.
1784 Gnus stores all real information it needs using text properties.
1786 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1787 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1788 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1790 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1795 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1798 Whether the group is subscribed.
1801 Level of subscribedness.
1804 Number of unread articles.
1807 Number of dormant articles.
1810 Number of ticked articles.
1813 Number of read articles.
1816 Number of unseen articles.
1819 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1820 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1822 Gnus uses this estimation because the @acronym{NNTP} protocol provides
1823 efficient access to @var{max-number} and @var{min-number} but getting
1824 the true unread message count is not possible efficiently. For
1825 hysterical raisins, even the mail back ends, where the true number of
1826 unread messages might be available efficiently, use the same limited
1827 interface. To remove this restriction from Gnus means that the back
1828 end interface has to be changed, which is not an easy job.
1830 The nnml backend (@pxref{Mail Spool}) has a feature called ``group
1831 compaction'' which circumvents this deficiency: the idea is to
1832 renumber all articles from 1, removing all gaps between numbers, hence
1833 getting a correct total count. Other backends may support this in the
1834 future. In order to keep your total article count relatively up to
1835 date, you might want to compact your groups (or even directly your
1836 server) from time to time. @xref{Misc Group Stuff}, @xref{Server Commands}.
1839 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1842 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1851 Group comment (@pxref{Group Parameters}) or group name if there is no
1852 comment element in the group parameters.
1855 Newsgroup description. You need to read the group descriptions
1856 before these will appear, and to do that, you either have to set
1857 @code{gnus-read-active-file} or use the group buffer @kbd{M-d}
1861 @samp{m} if moderated.
1864 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1870 If the summary buffer for the group is open or not.
1876 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1880 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1883 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1884 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1885 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1886 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1887 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.e.gnus}.
1890 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1892 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1896 @samp{#} (@code{gnus-process-mark}) if the group is process marked.
1899 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1903 The disk space used by the articles fetched by both the cache and
1904 agent. The value is automatically scaled to bytes(B), kilobytes(K),
1905 megabytes(M), or gigabytes(G) to minimize the column width. A format
1906 of %7F is sufficient for a fixed-width column.
1909 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1910 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1911 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1912 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1913 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1914 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1919 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1920 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1921 group, or a bogus native group.
1924 @node Group Mode Line Specification
1925 @subsection Group Mode Line Specification
1926 @cindex group mode line
1928 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1929 The mode line can be changed by setting
1930 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1931 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1935 The native news server.
1937 The native select method.
1941 @node Group Highlighting
1942 @subsection Group Highlighting
1943 @cindex highlighting
1944 @cindex group highlighting
1946 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1947 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1948 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1949 that look like @code{(@var{form} . @var{face})}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1950 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1952 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1956 (cond (window-system
1957 (setq custom-background-mode 'light)
1958 (defface my-group-face-1
1959 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face")
1960 (defface my-group-face-2
1961 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t)))
1962 "Second group face")
1963 (defface my-group-face-3
1964 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face")
1965 (defface my-group-face-4
1966 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face")
1967 (defface my-group-face-5
1968 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face")))
1970 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1971 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1972 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1973 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1974 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1975 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1978 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1980 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1987 The number of unread articles in the group.
1991 Whether the group is a mail group.
1993 The level of the group.
1995 The score of the group.
1997 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1999 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather,
2000 @var{max-number} minus @var{min-number} plus one.
2002 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
2003 topic being inserted.
2006 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
2007 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal Gnus
2008 functions for snarfing info on the group.
2010 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
2011 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
2012 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
2013 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}. This hook
2014 calls @code{gnus-group-highlight-line} by default.
2017 @node Group Maneuvering
2018 @section Group Maneuvering
2019 @cindex group movement
2021 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
2022 expected, hopefully.
2028 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
2029 Go to the next group that has unread articles
2030 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
2036 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
2037 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
2038 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
2042 @findex gnus-group-next-group
2043 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
2047 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
2048 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
2052 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
2053 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
2054 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
2058 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
2059 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
2060 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
2063 Three commands for jumping to groups:
2069 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
2070 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
2071 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
2076 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
2077 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
2078 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
2082 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
2083 Jump to the first group with unread articles
2084 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
2087 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
2088 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
2089 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
2090 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
2093 @vindex gnus-summary-next-group-on-exit
2094 If @code{gnus-summary-next-group-on-exit} is @code{t}, when a summary is
2095 exited, the point in the group buffer is moved to the next unread group.
2096 Otherwise, the point is set to the group just exited. The default is
2099 @node Selecting a Group
2100 @section Selecting a Group
2101 @cindex group selection
2106 @kindex SPACE (Group)
2107 @findex gnus-group-read-group
2108 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
2109 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
2110 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
2111 this command, Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
2112 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{n}, @var{n}
2113 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{n} is
2114 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{n} newest articles, if @var{n} is
2115 negative, Gnus fetches the @code{abs(@var{n})} oldest articles.
2117 Thus, @kbd{SPC} enters the group normally, @kbd{C-u SPC} offers old
2118 articles, @kbd{C-u 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 newest articles, and @kbd{C-u
2119 - 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 oldest ones.
2121 When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type
2122 @kbd{M-g} to fetch new articles, or @kbd{C-u M-g} to also show the old
2127 @findex gnus-group-select-group
2128 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
2129 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
2130 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
2131 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
2135 @kindex M-RET (Group)
2136 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
2137 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
2138 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
2139 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
2140 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
2141 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
2142 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), Gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
2143 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
2144 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
2147 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
2148 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
2149 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
2150 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
2151 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
2154 @kindex C-M-RET (Group)
2155 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
2156 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
2157 doing any processing of its contents
2158 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
2159 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
2160 manner will have no permanent effects.
2164 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
2165 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should
2166 consider to be a big group. If it is @code{nil}, no groups are
2167 considered big. The default value is 200. If the group has more
2168 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, Gnus will query the user
2169 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many
2170 articles should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a
2171 negative number (@var{-n}), the @var{n} oldest articles will be
2172 fetched. If it is positive, the @var{n} articles that have arrived
2173 most recently will be fetched.
2175 @vindex gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup
2176 @code{gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup} is the same as
2177 @code{gnus-large-newsgroup}, but is only used for ephemeral
2180 @vindex gnus-maximum-newsgroup
2181 In groups in some news servers, there might be a big gap between a few
2182 very old articles that will never be expired and the recent ones. In
2183 such a case, the server will return the data like @code{(1 . 30000000)}
2184 for the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, for example. Even if there
2185 are actually only the articles 1-10 and 29999900-30000000, Gnus doesn't
2186 know it at first and prepares for getting 30000000 articles. However,
2187 it will consume hundreds megabytes of memories and might make Emacs get
2188 stuck as the case may be. If you use such news servers, set the
2189 variable @code{gnus-maximum-newsgroup} to a positive number. The value
2190 means that Gnus ignores articles other than this number of the latest
2191 ones in every group. For instance, the value 10000 makes Gnus get only
2192 the articles 29990001-30000000 (if the latest article number is 30000000
2193 in a group). Note that setting this variable to a number might prevent
2194 you from reading very old articles. The default value of the variable
2195 @code{gnus-maximum-newsgroup} is @code{nil}, which means Gnus never
2196 ignores old articles.
2198 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
2199 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
2200 @vindex gnus-auto-select-subject
2201 If @code{gnus-auto-select-first} is non-@code{nil}, select an article
2202 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
2203 Which article this is is controlled by the
2204 @code{gnus-auto-select-subject} variable. Valid values for this
2210 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article.
2213 Place point on the subject line of the first article.
2216 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article.
2218 @item unseen-or-unread
2219 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article, and if
2220 there is no such article, place point on the subject line of the first
2224 Place point on the subject line of the highest-scored unread article.
2228 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function
2229 will be called to place point on a subject line.
2231 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
2232 binary group with Huge articles) you can set the
2233 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} variable to @code{nil} in
2234 @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
2238 @node Subscription Commands
2239 @section Subscription Commands
2240 @cindex subscription
2248 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
2249 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
2250 Toggle subscription to the current group
2251 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2257 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
2258 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
2259 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
2260 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
2266 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
2267 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
2268 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
2274 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
2275 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
2278 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2279 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2280 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
2281 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
2282 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
2288 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
2289 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
2293 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
2294 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
2297 @kindex S C-k (Group)
2298 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
2299 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
2300 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
2301 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
2302 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
2303 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
2304 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
2305 @file{.newsrc} file.
2309 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
2319 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
2320 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
2321 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
2322 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
2323 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
2324 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
2329 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
2330 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
2331 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
2335 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
2336 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
2337 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
2339 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2340 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2341 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2342 If you have switched from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another, all your marks
2343 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
2344 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
2351 @section Group Levels
2355 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
2356 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
2357 can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
2358 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
2359 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
2361 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
2367 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
2368 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
2369 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
2370 prompted for a level.
2373 @vindex gnus-level-killed
2374 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
2375 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
2376 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
2377 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
2378 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
2379 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
2380 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
2381 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
2382 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
2383 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
2384 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
2385 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
2386 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
2387 reasons of efficiency.
2389 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
2390 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
2392 Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to
2393 understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you
2394 subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting @kbd{L} you can have it show
2395 empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type @kbd{l} to
2396 go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed
2397 groups are hidden, in a way.
2399 Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they
2400 are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and
2401 unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for
2402 information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie
2403 and killed groups. Normally, you use @kbd{C-k} to kill the groups you
2404 aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.
2406 Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when
2407 a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie
2408 group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups,
2409 but you can type @kbd{A z} to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe
2410 the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (@kbd{A k} shows a
2411 list of killed groups.)
2413 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
2414 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
2415 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
2417 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
2418 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
2419 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
2420 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
2421 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
2422 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
2423 relevant valid ranges.
2425 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
2426 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
2427 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
2428 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
2429 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
2430 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
2433 If this variable is @code{best}, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the
2434 one with the best level.
2436 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
2437 All groups with a level less than or equal to
2438 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
2441 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
2442 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
2443 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
2444 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
2447 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
2448 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
2449 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
2450 use this level as the ``work'' level.
2452 @vindex gnus-activate-level
2453 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
2454 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
2455 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
2456 to 5. The default is 6.
2460 @section Group Score
2465 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
2466 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
2467 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
2470 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can have Gnus assign a score
2471 to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort
2472 the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on
2473 score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is
2474 called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has
2475 a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score
2476 of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the
2477 least significant part.))
2479 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
2480 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
2481 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
2482 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
2483 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
2484 action after each summary exit, you can add
2485 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
2486 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
2487 slow things down somewhat.
2490 @node Marking Groups
2491 @section Marking Groups
2492 @cindex marking groups
2494 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
2495 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
2496 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
2497 bidding on those groups.
2499 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
2500 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
2501 with the process mark and then execute the command.
2509 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
2510 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
2516 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
2517 Remove the mark from the current group
2518 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
2522 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
2523 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
2527 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
2528 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
2532 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
2533 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
2537 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
2538 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
2539 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
2542 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
2544 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
2545 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
2546 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
2547 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
2548 the command to be executed.
2551 @node Foreign Groups
2552 @section Foreign Groups
2553 @cindex foreign groups
2555 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
2556 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
2557 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
2558 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
2561 Changes from the group editing commands are stored in
2562 @file{~/.newsrc.eld} (@code{gnus-startup-file}). An alternative is the
2563 variable @code{gnus-parameters}, @xref{Group Parameters}.
2569 @findex gnus-group-make-group
2570 @cindex making groups
2571 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
2572 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
2573 to subscribe to @acronym{NNTP} groups (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
2577 @findex gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group
2578 Make an ephemeral group (@code{gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group}). Gnus
2579 will prompt you for a name, a method and an @dfn{address}.
2583 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
2584 @cindex renaming groups
2585 Rename the current group to something else
2586 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
2587 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
2593 @findex gnus-group-customize
2594 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
2598 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
2599 @cindex renaming groups
2600 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
2601 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
2605 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
2606 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
2607 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
2611 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
2612 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
2613 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
2617 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
2619 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
2620 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
2625 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
2626 Make the Gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
2630 @cindex (ding) archive
2631 @cindex archive group
2632 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
2633 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
2634 @vindex gnus-group-recent-archive-directory
2635 Make a Gnus archive group (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). By
2636 default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created
2637 (@code{gnus-group-recent-archive-directory}), but given a prefix, a full
2638 group will be created from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
2642 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
2644 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
2645 match groups to be ``included'' in the kiboze group, and a series of
2646 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
2647 @xref{Kibozed Groups}.
2651 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
2653 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
2654 @code{nneething} back end (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
2655 @xref{Anything Groups}.
2659 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
2660 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
2662 Make a group based on some file or other
2663 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2664 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
2665 Currently supported types are @code{mbox}, @code{babyl},
2666 @code{digest}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward},
2667 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts},
2668 @code{standard-digest}, @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs},
2669 @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook}, @code{oe-dbx}, and @code{mailman}. If
2670 you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file
2671 type. @xref{Document Groups}.
2675 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
2676 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
2677 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
2678 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
2682 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
2686 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
2687 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2688 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
2689 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
2690 include @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}.
2691 @xref{Web Searches}.
2693 If you use the @code{google} search engine, you can limit the search
2694 to a particular group by using a match string like
2695 @samp{shaving group:alt.sysadmin.recovery}.
2699 @findex gnus-group-make-rss-group
2700 Make a group based on an @acronym{RSS} feed
2701 (@code{gnus-group-make-rss-group}). You will be prompted for an URL.
2705 @kindex G DEL (Group)
2706 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
2707 This function will delete the current group
2708 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
2709 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
2710 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
2711 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
2712 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} groups), though.
2716 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
2717 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
2718 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
2722 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
2723 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
2724 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
2727 @xref{Select Methods}, for more information on the various select
2730 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
2731 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
2732 Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
2733 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
2734 groups from different @acronym{NNTP} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
2735 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
2739 @node Group Parameters
2740 @section Group Parameters
2741 @cindex group parameters
2743 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
2744 Here's an example group parameter list:
2747 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2751 We see that each element consists of a ``dotted pair''---the thing before
2752 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2753 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2754 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2756 Some parameters have correspondent customizable variables, each of which
2757 is an alist of regexps and values.
2759 The following group parameters can be used:
2764 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2767 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2770 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2771 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2772 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2773 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2774 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2776 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2777 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2778 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2779 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2780 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2781 list address instead.
2783 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-address-alist}.
2787 Address used when doing @kbd{a} in that group.
2790 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2793 It is totally ignored
2794 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2795 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2797 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2798 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2799 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2800 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2801 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2803 @findex gnus-mailing-list-mode
2804 @cindex mail list groups
2805 If this variable is set, @code{gnus-mailing-list-mode} is turned on when
2806 entering summary buffer.
2808 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-list-alist}.
2813 @cindex Mail-Followup-To
2814 @findex gnus-find-subscribed-addresses
2815 If this parameter is set to @code{t}, Gnus will consider the
2816 to-address and to-list parameters for this group as addresses of
2817 mailing lists you are subscribed to. Giving Gnus this information is
2818 (only) a first step in getting it to generate correct Mail-Followup-To
2819 headers for your posts to these lists. The second step is to put the
2820 following in your @file{.gnus.el}
2823 (setq message-subscribed-address-functions
2824 '(gnus-find-subscribed-addresses))
2827 @xref{Mailing Lists, ,Mailing Lists, message, The Message Manual}, for
2828 a complete treatment of available MFT support.
2832 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2833 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2834 of whether it has any unread articles.
2836 This parameter cannot be set via @code{gnus-parameters}. See
2837 @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} as an alternative.
2839 @item broken-reply-to
2840 @cindex broken-reply-to
2841 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2842 headers in this group are to be ignored, and for the header to be hidden
2843 if @code{reply-to} is part of @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}. This
2844 can be useful if you're reading a mailing list group where the listserv
2845 has inserted @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv
2846 itself. That is broken behavior. So there!
2850 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2851 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2855 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, Gnus
2856 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2857 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2862 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2863 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2864 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2865 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2866 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2867 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2868 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
2870 @strong{Caveat}: Adding @code{(gcc-self . t)} to the parameter list of
2871 @code{nntp} groups (or the like) isn't valid. An @code{nntp} server
2872 doesn't accept articles.
2876 @cindex expiring mail
2877 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2878 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2879 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2881 See also @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups}.
2884 @cindex total-expire
2885 @cindex expiring mail
2886 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2887 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2888 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2889 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2892 See also @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups}.
2896 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2897 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2898 @code{(expiry-wait . 10)}, this value will override any
2899 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function}
2900 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}) when expiring expirable messages. The value
2901 can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or the
2902 symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2905 @cindex expiry-target
2906 Where expired messages end up. This parameter overrides
2907 @code{nnmail-expiry-target}.
2910 @cindex score file group parameter
2911 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2912 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2913 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2916 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2917 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2918 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2919 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2922 @cindex admin-address
2923 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2924 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2925 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2926 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2930 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2931 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2935 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2938 Display the last @var{integer} articles in the group. This is the same as
2939 entering the group with @kbd{C-u @var{integer}}.
2942 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2946 Display articles that satisfy a predicate.
2948 Here are some examples:
2952 Display only unread articles.
2955 Display everything except expirable articles.
2957 @item [and (not reply) (not expire)]
2958 Display everything except expirable and articles you've already
2962 The available operators are @code{not}, @code{and} and @code{or}.
2963 Predicates include @code{tick}, @code{unsend}, @code{undownload},
2964 @code{unread}, @code{dormant}, @code{expire}, @code{reply},
2965 @code{killed}, @code{bookmark}, @code{score}, @code{save},
2966 @code{cache}, @code{forward}, @code{unseen} and @code{recent}.
2970 The @code{display} parameter works by limiting the summary buffer to
2971 the subset specified. You can pop the limit by using the @kbd{/ w}
2972 command (@pxref{Limiting}).
2976 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")} are
2977 arbitrary comments on the group. You can display comments in the
2978 group line (@pxref{Group Line Specification}).
2982 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
2983 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
2984 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
2986 See also @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}.
2988 @item ignored-charsets
2989 @cindex ignored-charset
2990 Elements that look like @code{(ignored-charsets x-unknown iso-8859-1)}
2991 will make @code{iso-8859-1} and @code{x-unknown} ignored; that is, the
2992 default charset will be used for decoding articles.
2994 See also @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
2997 @cindex posting-style
2998 You can store additional posting style information for this group
2999 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
3000 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
3001 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
3002 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
3004 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
3005 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
3006 like this in the group parameters:
3011 ("X-My-Header" "Funky Value")
3012 (signature "Funky Signature"))
3015 If you're using topics to organize your group buffer
3016 (@pxref{Group Topics}), note that posting styles can also be set in
3017 the topics parameters. Posting styles in topic parameters apply to all
3018 groups in this topic. More precisely, the posting-style settings for a
3019 group result from the hierarchical merging of all posting-style
3020 entries in the parameters of this group and all the topics it belongs
3026 If it is set, the value is used as the method for posting message
3027 instead of @code{gnus-post-method}.
3031 An item like @code{(banner . @var{regexp})} causes any part of an article
3032 that matches the regular expression @var{regexp} to be stripped. Instead of
3033 @var{regexp}, you can also use the symbol @code{signature} which strips the
3034 last signature or any of the elements of the alist
3035 @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}.
3039 This parameter contains a Sieve test that should match incoming mail
3040 that should be placed in this group. From this group parameter, a
3041 Sieve @samp{IF} control structure is generated, having the test as the
3042 condition and @samp{fileinto "group.name";} as the body.
3044 For example, if the @samp{INBOX.list.sieve} group has the @code{(sieve
3045 address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com")} group parameter, when
3046 translating the group parameter into a Sieve script (@pxref{Sieve
3047 Commands}) the following Sieve code is generated:
3050 if address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com" @{
3051 fileinto "INBOX.list.sieve";
3055 To generate tests for multiple email-addresses use a group parameter
3056 like @code{(sieve address "sender" ("name@@one.org" else@@two.org"))}.
3057 When generating a sieve script (@pxref{Sieve Commands}) Sieve code
3058 like the following is generated:
3061 if address "sender" ["name@@one.org", "else@@two.org"] @{
3062 fileinto "INBOX.list.sieve";
3066 See @pxref{Sieve Commands} for commands and variables that might be of
3067 interest in relation to the sieve parameter.
3069 The Sieve language is described in RFC 3028. @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve,
3070 Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
3072 @item (agent parameters)
3073 If the agent has been enabled, you can set any of the its parameters
3074 to control the behavior of the agent in individual groups. See Agent
3075 Parameters in @ref{Category Syntax}. Most users will choose to set
3076 agent parameters in either an agent category or group topic to
3077 minimize the configuration effort.
3079 @item (@var{variable} @var{form})
3080 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
3081 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
3082 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
3083 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
3084 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
3085 @code{eval}ed there.
3087 Note that this feature sets the variable locally to the summary buffer.
3088 But some variables are evaluated in the article buffer, or in the
3089 message buffer (of a reply or followup or otherwise newly created
3090 message). As a workaround, it might help to add the variable in
3091 question to @code{gnus-newsgroup-variables}. @xref{Various Summary
3092 Stuff}. So if you want to set @code{message-from-style} via the group
3093 parameters, then you may need the following statement elsewhere in your
3094 @file{~/.gnus} file:
3097 (add-to-list 'gnus-newsgroup-variables 'message-from-style)
3100 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
3101 A use for this feature is to remove a mailing list identifier tag in
3102 the subject fields of articles. E.g. if the news group
3105 nntp+news.gnus.org:gmane.text.docbook.apps
3108 has the tag @samp{DOC-BOOK-APPS:} in the subject of all articles, this
3109 tag can be removed from the article subjects in the summary buffer for
3110 the group by putting @code{(gnus-list-identifiers "DOCBOOK-APPS:")}
3111 into the group parameters for the group.
3113 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function. If you want to
3114 hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put something like
3115 @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that group.
3116 @code{dummy-variable} will be set to the (meaningless) result of the
3119 Alternatively, since the VARIABLE becomes local to the group, this
3120 pattern can be used to temporarily change a hook. For example, if the
3121 following is added to a group parameter
3124 (gnus-summary-prepared-hook
3125 '(lambda nil (local-set-key "d" (local-key-binding "n"))))
3128 when the group is entered, the 'd' key will not mark the article as
3133 Use the @kbd{G p} or the @kbd{G c} command to edit group parameters of a
3134 group. (@kbd{G p} presents you with a Lisp-based interface, @kbd{G c}
3135 presents you with a Customize-like interface. The latter helps avoid
3136 silly Lisp errors.) You might also be interested in reading about topic
3137 parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}).
3139 @vindex gnus-parameters
3140 Group parameters can be set via the @code{gnus-parameters} variable too.
3141 But some variables, such as @code{visible}, have no effect (For this
3142 case see @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} as an alternative.).
3146 (setq gnus-parameters
3148 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3149 (gnus-use-scoring nil)
3150 (gnus-summary-line-format
3151 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%d:%ub%-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
3155 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
3159 (gnus-use-scoring t))
3163 (broken-reply-to . t))))
3166 String value of parameters will be subjected to regexp substitution, as
3167 the @code{to-group} example shows.
3169 @vindex gnus-parameters-case-fold-search
3170 By default, whether comparing the group name and one of those regexps
3171 specified in @code{gnus-parameters} is done in a case-sensitive manner
3172 or a case-insensitive manner depends on the value of
3173 @code{case-fold-search} at the time when the comparison is done. The
3174 value of @code{case-fold-search} is typically @code{t}; it means, for
3175 example, the element @code{("INBOX\\.FOO" (total-expire . t))} might be
3176 applied to both the @samp{INBOX.FOO} group and the @samp{INBOX.foo}
3177 group. If you want to make those regexps always case-sensitive, set the
3178 value of the @code{gnus-parameters-case-fold-search} variable to
3179 @code{nil}. Otherwise, set it to @code{t} if you want to compare them
3180 always in a case-insensitive manner.
3182 You can define different sorting to different groups via
3183 @code{gnus-parameters}. Here is an example to sort an @acronym{NNTP}
3184 group by reverse date to see the latest news at the top and an
3185 @acronym{RSS} group by subject. In this example, the first group is the
3186 Debian daily news group @code{gmane.linux.debian.user.news} from
3187 news.gmane.org. The @acronym{RSS} group corresponds to the Debian
3188 weekly news RSS feed
3189 @url{http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main.en.rdf},
3195 '(("nntp.*gmane\\.debian\\.user\\.news"
3196 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3197 (gnus-article-sort-functions '((not gnus-article-sort-by-date)))
3198 (gnus-use-adaptive-scoring nil)
3199 (gnus-use-scoring nil))
3201 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3202 (gnus-article-sort-functions 'gnus-article-sort-by-subject)
3203 (gnus-use-adaptive-scoring nil)
3204 (gnus-use-scoring t)
3205 (gnus-score-find-score-files-function 'gnus-score-find-single)
3206 (gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%d %I%(%[ %s %]%)\n"))))
3210 @node Listing Groups
3211 @section Listing Groups
3212 @cindex group listing
3214 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
3222 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
3223 List all groups that have unread articles
3224 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
3225 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
3226 only lists groups of level five (i.e.,
3227 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
3234 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
3235 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
3236 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
3237 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
3238 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
3239 unsubscribed groups).
3243 @findex gnus-group-list-level
3244 List all unread groups on a specific level
3245 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
3246 with no unread articles.
3250 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
3251 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
3252 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
3253 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
3258 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
3259 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
3263 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
3264 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
3265 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
3269 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
3270 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
3274 @findex gnus-group-list-active
3275 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
3276 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
3277 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
3278 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
3279 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
3280 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
3281 Take the output with some grains of salt.
3285 @findex gnus-group-apropos
3286 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
3287 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
3291 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
3292 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
3293 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
3297 @findex gnus-group-list-cached
3298 List all groups with cached articles (@code{gnus-group-list-cached}).
3302 @findex gnus-group-list-dormant
3303 List all groups with dormant articles (@code{gnus-group-list-dormant}).
3307 @findex gnus-group-list-limit
3308 List groups limited within the current selection
3309 (@code{gnus-group-list-limit}).
3313 @findex gnus-group-list-flush
3314 Flush groups from the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-flush}).
3318 @findex gnus-group-list-plus
3319 List groups plus the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-plus}).
3323 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3324 @cindex visible group parameter
3325 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
3326 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
3327 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
3328 get the same effect.
3330 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
3331 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
3332 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
3333 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
3334 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
3337 @node Sorting Groups
3338 @section Sorting Groups
3339 @cindex sorting groups
3341 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
3342 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
3343 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
3344 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
3345 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
3346 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
3351 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3352 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3353 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
3355 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3356 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3357 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
3359 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
3360 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
3361 Sort by group level.
3363 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
3364 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
3365 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
3367 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3368 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3369 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
3370 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
3372 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3373 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3374 Sort by number of unread articles.
3376 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
3377 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
3378 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
3380 @item gnus-group-sort-by-server
3381 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-server
3382 Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.
3387 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
3388 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
3392 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
3393 some sorting criteria:
3397 @kindex G S a (Group)
3398 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3399 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
3400 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3403 @kindex G S u (Group)
3404 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
3405 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
3406 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3409 @kindex G S l (Group)
3410 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
3411 Sort the group buffer by group level
3412 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
3415 @kindex G S v (Group)
3416 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
3417 Sort the group buffer by group score
3418 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3421 @kindex G S r (Group)
3422 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
3423 Sort the group buffer by group rank
3424 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3427 @kindex G S m (Group)
3428 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
3429 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by back end name@*
3430 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
3433 @kindex G S n (Group)
3434 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name
3435 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3436 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name}).
3440 All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention
3441 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3443 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
3444 commands will sort in reverse order.
3446 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
3450 @kindex G P a (Group)
3451 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
3452 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
3453 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
3456 @kindex G P u (Group)
3457 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
3458 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
3459 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
3462 @kindex G P l (Group)
3463 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
3464 Sort the groups by group level
3465 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
3468 @kindex G P v (Group)
3469 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
3470 Sort the groups by group score
3471 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3474 @kindex G P r (Group)
3475 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
3476 Sort the groups by group rank
3477 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3480 @kindex G P m (Group)
3481 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
3482 Sort the groups alphabetically by back end name@*
3483 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
3486 @kindex G P n (Group)
3487 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name
3488 Sort the groups alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3489 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name}).
3492 @kindex G P s (Group)
3493 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups
3494 Sort the groups according to @code{gnus-group-sort-function}.
3498 And finally, note that you can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} to manually
3502 @node Group Maintenance
3503 @section Group Maintenance
3504 @cindex bogus groups
3509 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
3510 Find bogus groups and delete them
3511 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
3515 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
3516 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
3517 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
3518 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
3519 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
3523 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
3524 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
3525 @cindex expiring mail
3526 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
3527 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}). That is, delete
3528 all expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
3529 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3532 @kindex C-c C-M-x (Group)
3533 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
3534 @cindex expiring mail
3535 Run all expirable articles in all groups through the expiry process
3536 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
3541 @node Browse Foreign Server
3542 @section Browse Foreign Server
3543 @cindex foreign servers
3544 @cindex browsing servers
3549 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
3550 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
3551 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
3552 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
3555 @findex gnus-browse-mode
3556 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
3557 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
3558 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
3560 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
3565 @findex gnus-group-next-group
3566 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
3570 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
3571 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
3574 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
3575 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
3576 Enter the current group and display the first article
3577 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
3580 @kindex RET (Browse)
3581 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
3582 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
3586 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
3587 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
3588 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
3594 @findex gnus-browse-exit
3595 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
3599 @findex gnus-browse-describe-group
3600 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-browse-describe-group}).
3604 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
3605 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
3606 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
3611 @section Exiting Gnus
3612 @cindex exiting Gnus
3614 Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.
3619 @findex gnus-group-suspend
3620 Suspend Gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit Gnus,
3621 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
3622 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
3626 @findex gnus-group-exit
3627 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
3628 Quit Gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
3632 @findex gnus-group-quit
3633 Quit Gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
3634 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
3637 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
3638 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
3639 @vindex gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook
3640 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend Gnus and
3641 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit Gnus, while
3642 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
3648 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
3649 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
3650 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
3656 @section Group Topics
3659 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
3660 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
3661 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
3662 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
3663 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
3664 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
3668 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
3669 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group-topic,height=9cm}}
3680 2: alt.religion.emacs
3683 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3685 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3686 13: comp.sources.unix
3689 @findex gnus-topic-mode
3691 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
3692 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
3693 is a toggling command.)
3695 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
3696 dum@dots{} Nice tune, that@dots{} la la la@dots{} What, you're back?
3697 Yes, and now press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed
3698 under @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?
3701 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
3702 the hook for the group mode. Put the following line in your
3703 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
3706 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
3710 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
3711 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
3712 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
3713 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
3714 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
3718 @node Topic Commands
3719 @subsection Topic Commands
3720 @cindex topic commands
3722 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
3723 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
3724 definitions slightly.
3726 In general, the following kinds of operations are possible on topics.
3727 First of all, you want to create topics. Secondly, you want to put
3728 groups in topics and to move them around until you have an order you
3729 like. The third kind of operation is to show/hide parts of the whole
3730 shebang. You might want to hide a topic including its subtopics and
3731 groups, to get a better overview of the other groups.
3733 Here is a list of the basic keys that you might need to set up topics
3740 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
3741 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
3742 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
3746 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
3748 @findex gnus-topic-indent
3749 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3750 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
3751 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
3754 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
3755 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
3756 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3757 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
3761 The following two keys can be used to move groups and topics around.
3762 They work like the well-known cut and paste. @kbd{C-k} is like cut and
3763 @kbd{C-y} is like paste. Of course, this being Emacs, we use the terms
3764 kill and yank rather than cut and paste.
3770 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
3771 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
3772 topic will be removed along with the topic.
3776 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
3777 Yank the previously killed group or topic
3778 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
3781 So, to move a topic to the beginning of the list of topics, just hit
3782 @kbd{C-k} on it. This is like the ``cut'' part of cut and paste. Then,
3783 move the cursor to the beginning of the buffer (just below the ``Gnus''
3784 topic) and hit @kbd{C-y}. This is like the ``paste'' part of cut and
3785 paste. Like I said -- E-Z.
3787 You can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} on groups as well as on topics. So
3788 you can move topics around as well as groups.
3792 After setting up the topics the way you like them, you might wish to
3793 hide a topic, or to show it again. That's why we have the following
3800 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
3802 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
3803 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
3804 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
3805 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
3806 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
3807 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
3811 Now for a list of other commands, in no particular order.
3817 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
3818 Move the current group to some other topic
3819 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3820 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3824 @findex gnus-topic-jump-to-topic
3825 Go to a topic (@code{gnus-topic-jump-to-topic}).
3829 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
3830 Copy the current group to some other topic
3831 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3832 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3836 @findex gnus-topic-hide-topic
3837 Hide the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-hide-topic}). If given
3838 a prefix, hide the topic permanently.
3842 @findex gnus-topic-show-topic
3843 Show the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-show-topic}). If given
3844 a prefix, show the topic permanently.
3848 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
3849 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
3850 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
3851 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
3852 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
3853 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
3854 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
3857 This command uses the process/prefix convention
3858 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3862 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
3863 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3864 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
3868 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
3869 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3870 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
3874 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
3875 Toggle hiding empty topics
3876 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
3880 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
3881 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
3882 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3883 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3886 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
3887 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
3888 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
3889 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3890 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3893 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
3894 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
3895 @cindex expiring mail
3896 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the
3897 expiry process (if any)
3898 (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}). (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3902 @findex gnus-topic-rename
3903 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
3906 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
3907 @findex gnus-topic-delete
3908 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
3912 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
3913 List all groups that Gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
3914 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
3917 @kindex T M-n (Topic)
3918 @findex gnus-topic-goto-next-topic
3919 Go to the next topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-next-topic}).
3922 @kindex T M-p (Topic)
3923 @findex gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic
3924 Go to the previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic}).
3928 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
3929 @cindex group parameters
3930 @cindex topic parameters
3932 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
3933 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
3938 @node Topic Variables
3939 @subsection Topic Variables
3940 @cindex topic variables
3942 The previous section told you how to tell Gnus which topics to display.
3943 This section explains how to tell Gnus what to display about each topic.
3945 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
3946 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
3947 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3960 Number of groups in the topic.
3962 Number of unread articles in the topic.
3964 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
3967 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
3968 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
3969 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
3972 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
3973 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
3975 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
3976 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
3977 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
3981 @subsection Topic Sorting
3982 @cindex topic sorting
3984 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
3990 @kindex T S a (Topic)
3991 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3992 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
3993 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3996 @kindex T S u (Topic)
3997 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
3998 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
3999 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
4002 @kindex T S l (Topic)
4003 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
4004 Sort the current topic by group level
4005 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
4008 @kindex T S v (Topic)
4009 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
4010 Sort the current topic by group score
4011 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
4014 @kindex T S r (Topic)
4015 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
4016 Sort the current topic by group rank
4017 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
4020 @kindex T S m (Topic)
4021 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
4022 Sort the current topic alphabetically by back end name
4023 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
4026 @kindex T S e (Topic)
4027 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server
4028 Sort the current topic alphabetically by server name
4029 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server}).
4032 @kindex T S s (Topic)
4033 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups
4034 Sort the current topic according to the function(s) given by the
4035 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable
4036 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups}).
4040 When given a prefix argument, all these commands will sort in reverse
4041 order. @xref{Sorting Groups}, for more information about group
4045 @node Topic Topology
4046 @subsection Topic Topology
4047 @cindex topic topology
4050 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
4057 2: alt.religion.emacs
4060 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
4062 8: comp.binaries.fractals
4063 13: comp.sources.unix
4067 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
4068 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
4069 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
4074 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
4075 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
4079 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
4080 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
4081 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
4082 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
4083 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
4084 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
4086 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
4087 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
4088 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
4091 @node Topic Parameters
4092 @subsection Topic Parameters
4093 @cindex topic parameters
4095 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent
4096 (and ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid
4097 topic parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}). When the agent is
4098 enabled, all agent parameters (See Agent Parameters in @ref{Category
4099 Syntax}) are also valid topic parameters.
4101 In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic
4106 When subscribing new groups by topic (@pxref{Subscription Methods}), the
4107 @code{subscribe} topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its
4108 value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that
4111 @item subscribe-level
4112 When subscribing new groups by topic (see the @code{subscribe} parameter),
4113 the group will be subscribed with the level specified in the
4114 @code{subscribe-level} instead of @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}.
4118 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
4119 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
4120 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
4121 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
4128 2: alt.religion.emacs
4132 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
4134 8: comp.binaries.fractals
4135 13: comp.sources.unix
4140 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
4141 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
4142 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
4143 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
4144 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
4145 . "religion.SCORE")}.
4147 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
4148 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
4149 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
4150 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
4151 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
4153 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
4154 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
4155 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
4156 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
4157 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
4158 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
4159 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
4160 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
4163 @node Non-ASCII Group Names
4164 @section Accessing groups of non-English names
4165 @cindex non-ascii group names
4167 There are some news servers that provide groups of which the names are
4168 expressed with their native languages in the world. For instance, in a
4169 certain news server there are some newsgroups of which the names are
4170 spelled in Chinese, where people are talking in Chinese. You can, of
4171 course, subscribe to such news groups using Gnus. Currently Gnus
4172 supports non-@acronym{ASCII} group names not only with the @code{nntp}
4173 back end but also with the @code{nnml} back end and the @code{nnrss}
4176 Every such group name is encoded by a certain charset in the server
4177 side (in an @acronym{NNTP} server its administrator determines the
4178 charset, but for groups in the other back ends it is determined by you).
4179 Gnus has to display the decoded ones for you in the group buffer and the
4180 article buffer, and needs to use the encoded ones when communicating
4181 with servers. However, Gnus doesn't know what charset is used for each
4182 non-@acronym{ASCII} group name. The following two variables are just
4183 the ones for telling Gnus what charset should be used for each group:
4186 @item gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4187 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4188 An alist of select methods and charsets. The default value is
4189 @code{nil}. The names of groups in the server specified by that select
4190 method are all supposed to use the corresponding charset. For example:
4193 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4194 '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))
4197 Charsets specified for groups with this variable are preferred to the
4198 ones specified for the same groups with the
4199 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist} variable (see below).
4201 A select method can be very long, like:
4205 (nntp-address "news.gnus.org")
4206 (nntp-end-of-line "\n")
4207 (nntp-open-connection-function
4208 nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet)
4209 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
4210 (nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
4211 ("-C" "-t" "-e" "none"))
4212 (nntp-via-address @dots{}))
4215 In that case, you can truncate it into @code{(nntp "quimby")} in this
4216 variable. That is, it is enough to contain only the back end name and
4219 @item gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4220 @cindex UTF-8 group names
4221 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4222 An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names.
4223 @code{((".*" . utf-8))} is the default value if UTF-8 is supported,
4224 otherwise the default is @code{nil}. For example:
4227 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4228 '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)
4232 Note that this variable is ignored if the match is made with
4233 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist}.
4236 Those two variables are used also to determine the charset for encoding
4237 and decoding non-@acronym{ASCII} group names that are in the back ends
4238 other than @code{nntp}. It means that it is you who determine it. If
4239 you do nothing, the charset used for group names in those back ends will
4240 all be @code{utf-8} because of the last element of
4241 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist}.
4243 There is one more important variable for non-@acronym{ASCII} group
4244 names. @emph{XEmacs users must set this}. Emacs users necessarily need
4248 @item nnmail-pathname-coding-system
4249 The value of this variable should be a coding system or @code{nil}
4250 (which is the default). The @code{nnml} back end, the @code{nnrss} back
4251 end, the @acronym{NNTP} marks feature (@pxref{NNTP marks}), the agent,
4252 and the cache use non-@acronym{ASCII} group names in those files and
4253 directories. This variable overrides the value of
4254 @code{file-name-coding-system} which specifies the coding system used
4255 when encoding and decoding those file names and directory names.
4257 In XEmacs (with the @code{mule} feature), @code{file-name-coding-system}
4258 is the only means to specify the coding system used to encode and decode
4259 file names. Therefore, @emph{you, XEmacs users, have to set it} to the
4260 coding system that is suitable to encode and decode non-@acronym{ASCII}
4261 group names. On the other hand, Emacs uses the value of
4262 @code{default-file-name-coding-system} if @code{file-name-coding-system}
4263 is @code{nil}. Normally the value of
4264 @code{default-file-name-coding-system} is initialized according to the
4265 locale, so you will need to do nothing if the value is suitable to
4266 encode and decode non-@acronym{ASCII} group names.
4268 The value of this variable (or @code{default-file-name-coding-system})
4269 does not necessarily need to be the same value that is determined by
4270 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist} and
4271 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist}.
4273 If you want to subscribe to the groups spelled in Chinese but
4274 @code{default-file-name-coding-system} is initialized by default to
4275 @code{iso-latin-1} for example, that is the most typical case where you
4276 have to set @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system} even if you are an
4277 Emacs user. The @code{utf-8} coding system is a good candidate for it.
4278 Otherwise, you may change the locale in your system so that
4279 @code{default-file-name-coding-system} may be initialized to an
4280 appropriate value, instead of specifying this variable.
4283 Note that when you copy or move articles from a non-@acronym{ASCII}
4284 group to another group, the charset used to encode and decode group
4285 names should be the same in both groups. Otherwise the Newsgroups
4286 header will be displayed incorrectly in the article buffer.
4289 @node Misc Group Stuff
4290 @section Misc Group Stuff
4293 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
4294 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
4295 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
4296 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
4297 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
4304 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Group)
4305 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
4306 command or better use it as a prefix key. For example:
4309 (define-key gnus-group-mode-map (kbd "v j d")
4312 (gnus-group-jump-to-group "nndraft:drafts")))
4315 On keys reserved for users in Emacs and on keybindings in general
4316 @xref{Keymaps, Keymaps, , emacs, The Emacs Editor}.
4320 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
4321 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
4322 @xref{Server Buffer}.
4326 @findex gnus-group-post-news
4327 Start composing a message (a news by default)
4328 (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a prefix, post to the group
4329 under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
4330 Contrary to what the name of this function suggests, the prepared
4331 article might be a mail instead of a news, if a mail group is specified
4332 with the prefix argument. @xref{Composing Messages}.
4336 @findex gnus-group-mail
4337 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}). If given a prefix,
4338 use the posting style of the group under the point. If the prefix is 1,
4339 prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
4340 @xref{Composing Messages}.
4344 @findex gnus-group-news
4345 Start composing a news (@code{gnus-group-news}). If given a prefix,
4346 post to the group under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt
4347 for group to post to. @xref{Composing Messages}.
4349 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
4350 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
4351 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
4352 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
4353 for this to work though.
4357 @findex gnus-group-compact-group
4359 Compact the group under point (@code{gnus-group-compact-group}).
4360 Currently implemented only in nnml (@pxref{Mail Spool}). This removes
4361 gaps between article numbers, hence getting a correct total article
4366 Variables for the group buffer:
4370 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
4371 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
4372 is called after the group buffer has been
4375 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
4376 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
4377 is called after the group buffer is
4378 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
4381 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
4382 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
4383 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
4384 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
4386 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
4387 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
4388 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
4389 whether they are empty or not.
4393 @node Scanning New Messages
4394 @subsection Scanning New Messages
4395 @cindex new messages
4396 @cindex scanning new news
4402 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
4403 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
4404 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
4405 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
4406 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
4407 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
4412 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
4413 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
4414 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
4415 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
4416 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
4417 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
4418 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
4420 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
4421 @cindex activating groups
4423 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
4424 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
4429 @findex gnus-group-restart
4430 Restart Gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
4431 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
4432 Gnus variables, and then starts Gnus all over again.
4436 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
4437 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
4439 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
4440 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
4444 @node Group Information
4445 @subsection Group Information
4446 @cindex group information
4447 @cindex information on groups
4454 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
4455 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
4458 Try to fetch the @acronym{FAQ} for the current group
4459 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the @acronym{FAQ}
4460 from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on
4461 a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
4462 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
4463 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be
4464 used for fetching the file.
4466 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, Gnus will attempt to go
4467 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
4471 @findex gnus-group-fetch-charter
4472 @vindex gnus-group-charter-alist
4474 Try to open the charter for the current group in a web browser
4475 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-charter}). Query for a group if given a
4478 Gnus will use @code{gnus-group-charter-alist} to find the location of
4479 the charter. If no location is known, Gnus will fetch the control
4480 messages for the group, which in some cases includes the charter.
4484 @findex gnus-group-fetch-control
4485 @vindex gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url
4486 @cindex control message
4487 Fetch the control messages for the group from the archive at
4488 @code{ftp.isc.org} (@code{gnus-group-fetch-control}). Query for a
4489 group if given a prefix argument.
4491 If @code{gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url} is non-@code{nil},
4492 Gnus will open the control messages in a browser using
4493 @code{browse-url}. Otherwise they are fetched using @code{ange-ftp}
4494 and displayed in an ephemeral group.
4496 Note that the control messages are compressed. To use this command
4497 you need to turn on @code{auto-compression-mode} (@pxref{Compressed
4498 Files, ,Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Manual}).
4502 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
4504 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
4505 @cindex describing groups
4506 @cindex group description
4507 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
4508 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
4509 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
4513 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
4514 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
4515 prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
4522 @findex gnus-version
4523 Display current Gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
4527 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
4528 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
4531 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
4534 @findex gnus-info-find-node
4535 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
4539 @node Group Timestamp
4540 @subsection Group Timestamp
4542 @cindex group timestamps
4544 It can be convenient to let Gnus keep track of when you last read a
4545 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
4546 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
4549 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
4552 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
4554 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
4555 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
4558 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4559 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
4562 This will result in lines looking like:
4565 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
4566 0: custom 19961002T012713
4569 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
4570 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
4574 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4575 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
4578 If you would like greater control of the time format, you can use a
4579 user-defined format spec. Something like the following should do the
4583 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4584 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %ud\n")
4585 (defun gnus-user-format-function-d (headers)
4586 (let ((time (gnus-group-timestamp gnus-tmp-group)))
4588 (format-time-string "%b %d %H:%M" time)
4594 @subsection File Commands
4595 @cindex file commands
4601 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
4602 @vindex gnus-init-file
4603 @cindex reading init file
4604 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
4605 @file{~/.gnus.el}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
4609 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
4610 @cindex saving .newsrc
4611 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
4612 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
4613 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
4616 @c @kindex Z (Group)
4617 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
4618 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
4623 @node Sieve Commands
4624 @subsection Sieve Commands
4625 @cindex group sieve commands
4627 Sieve is a server-side mail filtering language. In Gnus you can use
4628 the @code{sieve} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to specify
4629 sieve rules that should apply to each group. Gnus provides two
4630 commands to translate all these group parameters into a proper Sieve
4631 script that can be transfered to the server somehow.
4633 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4634 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-start
4635 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-end
4636 The generated Sieve script is placed in @code{gnus-sieve-file} (by
4637 default @file{~/.sieve}). The Sieve code that Gnus generate is placed
4638 between two delimiters, @code{gnus-sieve-region-start} and
4639 @code{gnus-sieve-region-end}, so you may write additional Sieve code
4640 outside these delimiters that will not be removed the next time you
4641 regenerate the Sieve script.
4643 @vindex gnus-sieve-crosspost
4644 The variable @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} controls how the Sieve script
4645 is generated. If it is non-@code{nil} (the default) articles is
4646 placed in all groups that have matching rules, otherwise the article
4647 is only placed in the group with the first matching rule. For
4648 example, the group parameter @samp{(sieve address "sender"
4649 "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu")} will generate the following piece of Sieve
4650 code if @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is @code{nil}. (When
4651 @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is non-@code{nil}, it looks the same
4652 except that the line containing the call to @code{stop} is removed.)
4655 if address "sender" "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu" @{
4656 fileinto "INBOX.ding";
4661 @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve, Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
4667 @findex gnus-sieve-generate
4668 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4669 @cindex generating sieve script
4670 Regenerate a Sieve script from the @code{sieve} group parameters and
4671 put you into the @code{gnus-sieve-file} without saving it.
4675 @findex gnus-sieve-update
4676 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4677 @cindex updating sieve script
4678 Regenerates the Gnus managed part of @code{gnus-sieve-file} using the
4679 @code{sieve} group parameters, save the file and upload it to the
4680 server using the @code{sieveshell} program.
4685 @node Summary Buffer
4686 @chapter Summary Buffer
4687 @cindex summary buffer
4689 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
4690 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
4692 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
4693 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
4695 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
4697 You can customize the Summary Mode tool bar, see @kbd{M-x
4698 customize-apropos RET gnus-summary-tool-bar}. This feature is only
4702 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Summary)
4703 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
4704 command or better use it as a prefix key. For example:
4706 (define-key gnus-summary-mode-map (kbd "v -") "LrS") ;; lower subthread
4710 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
4711 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
4712 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
4713 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
4714 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
4715 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
4716 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
4717 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
4718 * Threading:: How threads are made.
4719 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
4720 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
4721 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
4722 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
4723 * Sticky Articles:: Article buffers that are not reused.
4724 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
4725 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
4726 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
4727 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
4728 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
4729 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
4730 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
4731 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
4732 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
4733 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
4734 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
4735 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
4736 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
4737 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
4738 or reselecting the current group.
4739 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
4740 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
4741 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
4742 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
4746 @node Summary Buffer Format
4747 @section Summary Buffer Format
4748 @cindex summary buffer format
4752 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
4753 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary,width=7.5cm}}
4754 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-article,width=7.5cm}}}
4760 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
4761 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
4762 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
4763 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
4766 @findex mail-extract-address-components
4767 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
4768 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
4769 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
4770 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
4771 @code{From} header. Two pre-defined functions exist:
4772 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
4773 fast, and too simplistic solution; and
4774 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works very nicely, but is
4775 slower. The default function will return the wrong answer in 5% of the
4776 cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the other function instead:
4779 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
4780 'mail-extract-address-components)
4783 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
4784 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
4785 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
4786 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
4789 @node Summary Buffer Lines
4790 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
4792 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4793 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
4794 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
4795 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
4796 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
4798 There should always be a colon or a point position marker on the line;
4799 the cursor always moves to the point position marker or the colon after
4800 performing an operation. (Of course, Gnus wouldn't be Gnus if it wasn't
4801 possible to change this. Just write a new function
4802 @code{gnus-goto-colon} which does whatever you like with the cursor.)
4803 @xref{Positioning Point}.
4805 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n}.
4807 The following format specification characters and extended format
4808 specification(s) are understood:
4814 Subject string. List identifiers stripped,
4815 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. @xref{Article Hiding}.
4817 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
4818 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
4819 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
4821 Full @code{From} header.
4823 The name (from the @code{From} header).
4825 The name, @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header (@pxref{To
4828 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
4829 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
4830 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
4831 may be more thorough.
4833 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
4836 Number of lines in the article.
4838 Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported
4839 in some methods (like nnfolder).
4841 Pretty-printed version of the number of characters in the article;
4842 for example, @samp{1.2k} or @samp{0.4M}.
4844 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4846 A complex trn-style thread tree, showing response-connecting trace
4847 lines. A thread could be drawn like this:
4860 You can customize the appearance with the following options. Note
4861 that it is possible to make the thread display look really neat by
4862 replacing the default @acronym{ASCII} characters with graphic
4863 line-drawing glyphs.
4865 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
4866 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
4867 Used for the root of a thread. If @code{nil}, use subject
4868 instead. The default is @samp{> }.
4870 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
4871 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
4872 Used for the false root of a thread (@pxref{Loose Threads}). If
4873 @code{nil}, use subject instead. The default is @samp{> }.
4875 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
4876 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
4877 Used for a thread with just one message. If @code{nil}, use subject
4878 instead. The default is @samp{}.
4880 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
4881 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
4882 Used for drawing a vertical line. The default is @samp{| }.
4884 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
4885 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
4886 Used for indenting. The default is @samp{ }.
4888 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
4889 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
4890 Used for a leaf with brothers. The default is @samp{+-> }.
4892 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
4893 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
4894 Used for a leaf without brothers. The default is @samp{\-> }
4899 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
4900 pushes everything after it off the screen).
4902 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
4903 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4905 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
4906 for adopted articles.
4908 One space for each thread level.
4910 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
4912 Unread. @xref{Read Articles}.
4915 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
4916 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
4917 or has been saved. @xref{Other Marks}.
4920 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
4922 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
4923 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
4924 default level. If the difference between
4925 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
4926 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
4934 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
4936 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
4942 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
4943 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
4945 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
4946 article has any children.
4952 Desired cursor position (instead of after first colon).
4954 Age sensitive date format. Various date format is defined in
4955 @code{gnus-user-date-format-alist}.
4957 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
4958 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
4959 @code{gnus-user-format-function-@var{x}}, where @var{x} is the letter
4960 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
4961 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
4962 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
4965 Text between @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} will be highlighted with
4966 @code{gnus-mouse-face} when the mouse point is placed inside the area.
4967 There can only be one such area.
4969 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
4970 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will
4971 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
4972 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
4973 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
4974 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
4976 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
4977 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
4979 This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
4982 @node To From Newsgroups
4983 @subsection To From Newsgroups
4987 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
4988 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
4989 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
4990 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
4991 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
4995 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
4996 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
4997 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
5001 (setq gnus-extra-headers
5002 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
5005 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
5006 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
5009 @findex gnus-extra-header
5010 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
5011 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
5012 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
5015 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
5019 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
5020 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
5021 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
5022 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
5023 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
5024 headers are used instead.
5026 To distinguish regular articles from those where the @code{From} field
5027 has been swapped, a string is prefixed to the @code{To} or
5028 @code{Newsgroups} header in the summary line. By default the string is
5029 @samp{-> } for @code{To} and @samp{=> } for @code{Newsgroups}, you can
5030 customize these strings with @code{gnus-summary-to-prefix} and
5031 @code{gnus-summary-newsgroup-prefix}.
5035 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
5036 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
5037 to include extra headers when generating overview (@acronym{NOV}) files.
5038 If you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after
5039 changing this variable, by entering the server buffer using @kbd{^},
5040 and then @kbd{g} on the appropriate mail server (e.g. nnml) to cause
5043 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
5044 You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the
5045 @code{%n} spec to the @code{%f} spec in the
5046 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable.
5048 In summary, you'd typically put something like the following in
5052 (setq gnus-extra-headers
5054 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
5055 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
5056 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
5057 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
5061 (The values listed above are the default values in Gnus. Alter them
5064 A note for news server administrators, or for users who wish to try to
5065 convince their news server administrator to provide some additional
5068 The above is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
5069 the @acronym{NOV} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
5070 nntp admin to add (in the usual implementation, notably INN):
5076 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
5077 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
5080 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
5081 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
5083 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
5084 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
5085 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
5086 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
5088 Here are the elements you can play with:
5094 Unprefixed group name.
5096 Current article number.
5098 Current article score.
5102 Number of unread articles in this group.
5104 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
5107 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
5108 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
5109 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
5110 and no unselected ones.
5112 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
5113 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
5115 Subject of the current article.
5117 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
5119 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
5121 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
5123 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
5125 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
5127 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
5131 @node Summary Highlighting
5132 @subsection Summary Highlighting
5136 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
5137 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
5138 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
5139 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
5140 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
5142 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
5143 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
5144 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
5145 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
5147 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
5148 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
5149 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
5150 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
5152 @item gnus-summary-highlight
5153 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
5154 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
5155 list where the elements are of the format @code{(@var{form}
5156 . @var{face})}. If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be
5157 italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable
5160 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
5161 ((> score default) . bold))
5163 As you may have guessed, if @var{form} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
5164 @var{face} will be applied to the line.
5168 @node Summary Maneuvering
5169 @section Summary Maneuvering
5170 @cindex summary movement
5172 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
5173 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
5175 None of these commands select articles.
5180 @kindex M-n (Summary)
5181 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
5182 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
5183 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
5184 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
5188 @kindex M-p (Summary)
5189 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
5190 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
5191 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
5192 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
5195 @kindex G g (Summary)
5196 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
5197 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
5198 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
5201 If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
5202 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
5203 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
5204 to the group buffer.
5206 Variables related to summary movement:
5210 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
5211 @item gnus-auto-select-next
5212 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
5213 no more unread articles after the current one, Gnus will offer to go to
5214 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
5215 empty, Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
5216 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, Gnus will select the
5217 next group with unread articles. As a special case, if this variable
5218 is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the next group without asking for
5219 confirmation. If this variable is @code{almost-quietly}, the same
5220 will happen only if you are located on the last article in the group.
5221 Finally, if this variable is @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n}
5222 command will go to the next group without confirmation. Also
5223 @pxref{Group Levels}.
5225 @item gnus-auto-select-same
5226 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
5227 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
5228 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
5229 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
5230 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
5231 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
5233 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
5235 @item gnus-summary-check-current
5236 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
5237 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
5238 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
5239 Instead, they will choose the current article.
5241 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
5242 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
5243 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
5244 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
5245 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
5246 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
5247 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
5248 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
5251 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
5252 the given number of lines from the top.
5257 @node Choosing Articles
5258 @section Choosing Articles
5259 @cindex selecting articles
5262 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
5263 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
5267 @node Choosing Commands
5268 @subsection Choosing Commands
5270 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
5271 and they all select and display an article.
5273 If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see
5274 @ref{Exiting the Summary Buffer}.
5278 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
5279 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
5280 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
5281 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
5283 If you have an article window open already and you press @kbd{SPACE}
5284 again, the article will be scrolled. This lets you conveniently
5285 @kbd{SPACE} through an entire newsgroup. @xref{Paging the Article}.
5290 @kindex G n (Summary)
5291 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
5292 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
5293 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
5298 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
5299 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
5300 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
5305 @kindex G N (Summary)
5306 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
5307 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
5312 @kindex G P (Summary)
5313 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
5314 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
5317 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
5318 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
5319 Go to the next article with the same subject
5320 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
5323 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
5324 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
5325 Go to the previous article with the same subject
5326 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
5330 @kindex G f (Summary)
5332 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
5333 Go to the first unread article
5334 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
5338 @kindex G b (Summary)
5340 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
5341 Go to the unread article with the highest score
5342 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}). If given a prefix argument,
5343 go to the first unread article that has a score over the default score.
5348 @kindex G l (Summary)
5349 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
5350 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
5353 @kindex G o (Summary)
5354 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
5356 @cindex article history
5357 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
5358 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
5359 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
5360 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
5361 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
5362 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
5367 @kindex G j (Summary)
5368 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
5369 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
5370 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
5375 @node Choosing Variables
5376 @subsection Choosing Variables
5378 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
5381 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
5382 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
5383 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
5384 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
5385 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
5386 the server and display it in the article buffer.
5388 @item gnus-select-article-hook
5389 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
5390 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. The default is
5391 @code{nil}. If you would like each article to be saved in the Agent as
5392 you read it, putting @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} on this
5395 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
5396 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
5397 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
5398 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
5399 @findex gnus-unread-mark
5400 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
5401 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
5402 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
5403 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-read-mark}. The only
5404 articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
5405 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
5406 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
5407 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
5408 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
5413 @node Paging the Article
5414 @section Scrolling the Article
5415 @cindex article scrolling
5420 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
5421 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
5422 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
5423 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
5424 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
5426 @vindex gnus-article-boring-faces
5427 @vindex gnus-article-skip-boring
5428 If @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} is non-@code{nil} and the rest of
5429 the article consists only of citations and signature, then it will be
5430 skipped; the next article will be shown instead. You can customize
5431 what is considered uninteresting with
5432 @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}. You can manually view the article's
5433 pages, no matter how boring, using @kbd{C-M-v}.
5436 @kindex DEL (Summary)
5437 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
5438 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
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