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308 \gnusauthor{by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen}
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325 * Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
335 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
337 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
345 @top The Gnus Newsreader
349 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using Gnus. The news
350 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@acronym{NNTP}, local
351 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
354 @c Adjust ../Makefile.in if you change the following line:
355 This manual corresponds to No Gnus v0.11.
370 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
371 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
373 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
374 being accused of plagiarism:
376 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
377 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
378 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you
379 can even read news with it!
381 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
382 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
383 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend Gnus to make it behave
384 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
385 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
388 @c Adjust ../Makefile.in if you change the following line:
389 This manual corresponds to No Gnus v0.11.
391 @heading Other related manuals
393 @item Message manual: Composing messages
394 @item Emacs-MIME: Composing messages; @acronym{MIME}-specific parts.
395 @item Sieve: Managing Sieve scripts in Emacs.
396 @item PGG: @acronym{PGP/MIME} with Gnus.
397 @item SASL: @acronym{SASL} authentication in Emacs.
403 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
404 * Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
405 * Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
406 * Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
407 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
408 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
409 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
410 * Various:: General purpose settings.
411 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
412 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, @acronym{FAQ}, History, Internals.
413 * GNU Free Documentation License:: The license for this documentation.
414 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
415 * Key Index:: Key Index.
417 Other related manuals
419 * Message:(message). Composing messages.
420 * Emacs-MIME:(emacs-mime). Composing messages; @acronym{MIME}-specific parts.
421 * Sieve:(sieve). Managing Sieve scripts in Emacs.
422 * PGG:(pgg). @acronym{PGP/MIME} with Gnus.
423 * SASL:(sasl). @acronym{SASL} authentication in Emacs.
426 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
430 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
431 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
432 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
433 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
434 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
435 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
436 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
437 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
438 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
439 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
440 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
444 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
445 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
446 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
450 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
451 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
452 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
453 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
454 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
455 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
456 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
457 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
458 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
459 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
460 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
461 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
462 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
463 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
464 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
465 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
466 * Non-ASCII Group Names:: Accessing groups of non-English names.
467 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
471 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
472 * Group Mode Line Specification:: The group buffer mode line.
473 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
477 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
478 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
479 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
480 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
481 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
485 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
486 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
487 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
488 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
489 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
493 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
494 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
495 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
496 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
497 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
498 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
499 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
500 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
501 * Threading:: How threads are made.
502 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
503 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
504 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
505 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
506 * Sticky Articles:: Article buffers that are not reused.
507 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
508 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
509 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
510 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
511 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
512 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
513 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
514 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
515 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
516 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
517 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
518 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
519 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
520 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
521 or reselecting the current group.
522 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
523 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
524 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
525 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
527 Summary Buffer Format
529 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
530 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
531 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
532 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
536 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
537 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
539 Reply, Followup and Post
541 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
542 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
543 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
544 * Canceling and Superseding::
548 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
549 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
550 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
551 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
552 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
553 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
557 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
558 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
560 Customizing Threading
562 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
563 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
564 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
565 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
569 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
570 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
571 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
572 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
573 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
574 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
578 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
579 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
580 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
584 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
585 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
586 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
587 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
588 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
589 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
590 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
591 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
592 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
593 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
594 * Article Miscellanea:: Various other stuff.
596 Alternative Approaches
598 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
599 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
601 Various Summary Stuff
603 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
604 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
605 * Summary Generation Commands::
606 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
610 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
611 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @acronym{MIME} before reading them.
612 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
613 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
614 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
618 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
619 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
620 * POP before SMTP:: You cannot send a mail unless you read a mail.
621 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
622 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
623 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
624 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
625 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
626 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
630 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
631 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
632 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
633 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
634 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @acronym{IMAP} client.
635 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
636 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
637 * Email Based Diary:: Using mails to manage diary events in Gnus.
638 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
642 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
643 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
644 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
645 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
646 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
647 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
648 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
652 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @acronym{NNTP} server.
653 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
657 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
658 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
659 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
660 * NNTP marks:: Storing marks for @acronym{NNTP} servers.
664 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
665 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
666 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
667 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
668 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
669 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
670 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
671 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
672 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
673 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
674 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
675 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
676 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
680 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
681 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
682 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
684 Choosing a Mail Back End
686 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
687 * Babyl:: Babyl was used by older versions of Rmail.
688 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
689 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
690 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
691 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
692 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
697 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
698 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
699 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
700 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
701 * Customizing W3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/W3 from Gnus.
705 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
706 * Expiring in IMAP:: Expiring mail with nnimap.
707 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
708 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a ``compress mailbox'' button.
709 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use @acronym{IMAP} namespace in Gnus.
710 * Debugging IMAP:: What to do when things don't work.
714 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
715 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
716 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
717 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
718 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
722 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
726 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
727 * SOUP Groups:: A back end for reading @sc{soup} packets.
728 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
732 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
733 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
737 * The NNDiary Back End:: Basic setup and usage.
738 * The Gnus Diary Library:: Utility toolkit on top of nndiary.
739 * Sending or Not Sending:: A final note on sending diary messages.
743 * Diary Messages:: What makes a message valid for nndiary.
744 * Running NNDiary:: NNDiary has two modes of operation.
745 * Customizing NNDiary:: Bells and whistles.
747 The Gnus Diary Library
749 * Diary Summary Line Format:: A nicer summary buffer line format.
750 * Diary Articles Sorting:: A nicer way to sort messages.
751 * Diary Headers Generation:: Not doing it manually.
752 * Diary Group Parameters:: Not handling them manually.
756 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
757 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
758 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
759 * Agent Visuals:: Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
760 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
761 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
762 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
763 * Agent and flags:: How the Agent maintains flags.
764 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with @acronym{IMAP}.
765 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
766 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
767 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
768 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
769 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
773 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
774 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
775 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
779 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
780 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
781 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
785 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
786 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
787 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
788 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
789 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
790 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
791 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
792 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
793 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
794 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
795 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
796 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
797 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
798 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
799 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
800 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
804 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
805 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
806 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
810 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
811 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
812 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
813 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
814 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
815 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
816 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
817 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
818 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
819 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
820 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
821 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
822 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
823 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
824 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
825 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
826 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
827 * Thwarting Email Spam:: Simple ways to avoid unsolicited commercial email.
828 * Spam Package:: A package for filtering and processing spam.
829 * The Gnus Registry:: A package for tracking messages by Message-ID.
830 * Other modes:: Interaction with other modes.
831 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
835 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
836 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
837 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
838 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
839 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
840 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
841 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
842 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
846 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
847 * Face:: Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
848 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were
850 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
851 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
855 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
856 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
857 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
858 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
862 * Spam Package Introduction::
863 * Filtering Incoming Mail::
864 * Detecting Spam in Groups::
865 * Spam and Ham Processors::
866 * Spam Package Configuration Examples::
868 * Extending the Spam package::
869 * Spam Statistics Package::
871 Spam Statistics Package
873 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
874 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
875 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
879 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
880 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
881 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
882 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
883 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
884 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
885 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
886 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
887 * Frequently Asked Questions:: The Gnus FAQ
891 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
892 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
893 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
894 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
895 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
896 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
897 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
898 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
899 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
903 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
904 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
905 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
906 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
907 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
908 * Oort Gnus:: It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10/5.11.
909 * No Gnus:: Very punny.
913 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
914 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
915 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
916 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
920 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
921 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
922 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
923 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
924 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
925 * Group Info:: The group info format.
926 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
927 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
928 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
932 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
933 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
934 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
935 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
936 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
937 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
941 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
942 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
946 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
947 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
953 @chapter Starting Gnus
956 If you haven't used Emacs much before using Gnus, read @ref{Emacs for
961 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus
962 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
963 your Emacs. If not, you should customize the variable
964 @code{gnus-select-method} as described in @ref{Finding the News}. For a
965 minimal setup for posting should also customize the variables
966 @code{user-full-name} and @code{user-mail-address}.
968 @findex gnus-other-frame
969 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
970 If you want to start Gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
971 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
973 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
974 variables in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file. This file is similar to
975 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when Gnus starts.
977 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
978 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
981 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
982 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
983 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
984 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
985 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
986 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
987 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
988 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
989 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
990 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
994 @node Finding the News
995 @section Finding the News
998 First of all, you should know that there is a special buffer called
999 @code{*Server*} that lists all the servers Gnus knows about. You can
1000 press @kbd{^} from the Group buffer to see it. In the Server buffer,
1001 you can press @kbd{RET} on a defined server to see all the groups it
1002 serves (subscribed or not!). You can also add or delete servers, edit
1003 a foreign server's definition, agentize or de-agentize a server, and
1004 do many other neat things. @xref{Server Buffer}.
1005 @xref{Foreign Groups}. @xref{Agent Basics}.
1007 @vindex gnus-select-method
1009 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where Gnus should look for
1010 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
1011 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
1012 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
1015 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @acronym{NNTP} server is where
1016 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
1019 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
1022 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
1025 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
1028 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
1029 certainly be much faster. But do not use the local spool if your
1030 server is running Leafnode (which is a simple, standalone private news
1031 server); in this case, use @code{(nntp "localhost")}.
1033 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
1035 @cindex @acronym{NNTP} server
1036 If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
1037 @env{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
1038 Gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
1039 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter.
1040 If that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs
1041 as an @acronym{NNTP} server. That's a long shot, though.
1043 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1044 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
1045 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
1046 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
1048 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
1049 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1050 You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
1051 @acronym{NNTP} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
1052 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), Gnus will let you choose between the servers
1053 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
1054 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this
1055 will set @code{gnus-nntp-server}, which means that if you then @kbd{M-x
1056 gnus} later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same
1059 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
1061 However, if you use one @acronym{NNTP} server regularly and are just
1062 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
1063 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
1064 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
1065 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
1066 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
1068 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
1070 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
1071 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
1072 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
1073 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
1074 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
1075 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
1078 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} back end to read your mail,
1079 you would typically set this variable to
1082 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
1085 Note: the @acronym{NNTP} back end stores marks in marks files
1086 (@pxref{NNTP marks}). This feature makes it easy to share marks between
1087 several Gnus installations, but may slow down things a bit when fetching
1088 new articles. @xref{NNTP marks}, for more information.
1091 @node The First Time
1092 @section The First Time
1093 @cindex first time usage
1095 If no startup files exist (@pxref{Startup Files}), Gnus will try to
1096 determine what groups should be subscribed by default.
1098 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
1099 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, Gnus
1100 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
1101 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
1104 Since she hasn't, Gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
1105 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
1106 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
1108 You'll also be subscribed to the Gnus documentation group, which should
1109 help you with most common problems.
1111 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, Gnus will just
1112 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
1116 @node The Server is Down
1117 @section The Server is Down
1118 @cindex server errors
1120 If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some
1121 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
1122 the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.
1124 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
1125 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
1126 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
1127 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
1128 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
1129 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
1130 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
1132 @findex gnus-no-server
1133 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
1135 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
1136 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
1137 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start Gnus. That might come in handy
1138 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
1139 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
1140 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
1141 levels.) Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1145 @section Slave Gnusae
1148 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the
1149 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
1150 are using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers),
1151 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
1153 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
1154 @file{.newsrc} file.
1156 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the Gnus
1157 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
1158 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
1159 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
1160 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
1161 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
1162 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
1165 Anyway, you start one Gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
1166 however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with
1167 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
1168 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
1169 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus
1170 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
1171 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
1172 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
1174 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
1175 information in the normal (i.e., master) @file{.newsrc} file.
1177 If the @file{.newsrc*} files have not been saved in the master when the
1178 slave starts, you may be prompted as to whether to read an auto-save
1179 file. If you answer ``yes'', the unsaved changes to the master will be
1180 incorporated into the slave. If you answer ``no'', the slave may see some
1181 messages as unread that have been read in the master.
1188 @cindex subscription
1190 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
1191 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
1192 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
1193 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
1194 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
1195 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
1196 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
1197 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the back ends for new groups even
1198 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1201 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
1202 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
1203 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
1207 @node Checking New Groups
1208 @subsection Checking New Groups
1210 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
1211 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
1212 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
1213 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, Gnus will ask the
1214 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
1215 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
1216 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
1217 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
1218 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
1219 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
1221 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
1222 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
1223 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
1224 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
1225 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
1226 work. I could write a function to make Gnus guess whether the server
1227 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
1228 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
1229 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
1230 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
1231 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
1233 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will
1234 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
1235 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
1236 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
1237 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
1238 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
1241 @node Subscription Methods
1242 @subsection Subscription Methods
1244 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
1245 What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
1246 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
1248 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
1249 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
1251 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
1255 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
1256 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
1257 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
1258 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
1259 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
1261 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
1262 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
1263 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
1264 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
1266 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1267 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1268 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
1270 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1271 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1272 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
1273 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
1274 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
1275 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its
1276 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
1277 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
1278 up. Or something like that.
1280 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
1281 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
1282 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask
1283 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
1284 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
1286 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
1287 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
1288 Kill all new groups.
1290 @item gnus-subscribe-topics
1291 @vindex gnus-subscribe-topics
1292 Put the groups into the topic that has a matching @code{subscribe} topic
1293 parameter (@pxref{Topic Parameters}). For instance, a @code{subscribe}
1294 topic parameter that looks like
1300 will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under
1303 If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the
1308 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
1309 A closely related variable is
1310 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
1311 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you in a
1312 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
1313 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
1316 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
1317 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
1318 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
1319 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
1322 @node Filtering New Groups
1323 @subsection Filtering New Groups
1325 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
1326 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
1327 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
1330 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
1333 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
1334 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
1335 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
1336 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
1337 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
1338 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
1339 subscribing these groups.
1340 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
1341 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
1343 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
1344 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
1345 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
1346 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
1347 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
1348 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
1349 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
1350 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
1352 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
1353 Yet another variable that meddles here is
1354 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
1355 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous,
1356 but I thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is
1357 more meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is
1358 used more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new
1359 groups that come from mail back ends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
1360 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, @code{nnmh}, and @code{nnmaildir})
1361 subscribed. If you don't like that, just set this variable to
1364 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
1365 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
1368 @node Changing Servers
1369 @section Changing Servers
1370 @cindex changing servers
1372 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another.
1373 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
1374 very flaky and you want to use another.
1376 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
1377 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
1381 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
1382 @acronym{NNTP} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
1383 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
1384 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
1387 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1388 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1389 You can use the @kbd{M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups}
1390 command to clear out all data that you have on your native groups.
1393 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data
1394 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
1395 Clear the data from the current group only---nix out marks and the
1396 list of read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
1398 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
1399 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
1400 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
1401 @code{gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} will ask you if you want
1402 to have it done automatically; for @code{gnus-group-clear-data}, you
1403 can use @kbd{M-x gnus-cache-move-cache} (but beware, it will move the
1404 cache for all groups).
1408 @section Startup Files
1409 @cindex startup files
1414 Most common Unix news readers use a shared startup file called
1415 @file{.newsrc}. This file contains all the information about what
1416 groups are subscribed, and which articles in these groups have been
1419 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
1420 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
1421 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
1422 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
1423 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
1424 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
1425 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
1427 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
1428 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
1429 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
1430 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
1431 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
1432 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
1434 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
1435 @vindex gnus-read-newsrc-file
1436 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
1437 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
1438 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster.
1439 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
1440 Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting
1441 @code{gnus-read-newsrc-file} to @code{nil} makes Gnus ignore the
1442 @file{.newsrc} file and any @file{.newsrc-SERVER} files, which can be
1443 convenient if you use a different news reader occasionally, and you
1444 want to read a different subset of the available groups with that
1447 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
1448 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
1449 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
1450 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
1451 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
1452 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
1453 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
1454 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
1455 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
1456 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
1457 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
1458 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
1460 @vindex gnus-startup-file
1461 @vindex gnus-backup-startup-file
1462 @vindex version-control
1463 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
1464 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
1465 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
1466 If you want version control for this file, set
1467 @code{gnus-backup-startup-file}. It respects the same values as the
1468 @code{version-control} variable.
1470 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
1471 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
1472 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
1473 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
1474 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
1475 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
1476 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
1477 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
1478 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
1479 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
1482 (defun turn-off-backup ()
1483 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
1485 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1486 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1489 @vindex gnus-init-file
1490 @vindex gnus-site-init-file
1491 When Gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
1492 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus-init} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
1493 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
1494 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
1495 @file{site-init} files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
1496 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
1497 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
1498 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
1499 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order). If Emacs was invoked with
1500 the @option{-q} or @option{--no-init-file} options (@pxref{Initial
1501 Options, ,Initial Options, emacs, The Emacs Manual}), Gnus doesn't read
1502 @code{gnus-init-file}.
1507 @cindex dribble file
1510 Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles,
1511 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
1512 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
1513 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
1514 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
1517 If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
1518 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
1521 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
1522 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, Gnus won't create and
1523 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
1525 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
1526 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
1527 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, Gnus will dribble
1528 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
1529 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
1530 file permissions as the @file{.newsrc} file.
1532 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
1533 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
1534 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
1537 @node The Active File
1538 @section The Active File
1540 @cindex ignored groups
1542 When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
1543 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
1544 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
1546 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
1547 Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the
1548 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
1549 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make Gnus
1550 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
1551 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
1552 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
1555 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
1556 @c if you set it to anything else.
1558 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
1560 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
1561 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
1562 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
1564 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
1565 you actually subscribe to.
1567 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
1568 variable to @code{nil} will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At
1569 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow Gnus down
1570 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
1572 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
1573 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
1574 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
1575 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
1576 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
1577 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
1579 Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for
1580 instance) do not support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group}. For these
1581 servers, @code{nil} is probably the most efficient value for this
1584 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will ask for group info in total
1585 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
1586 @acronym{NNTP} server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
1587 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
1588 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
1589 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
1591 If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three
1592 different values for this variable and see what works best for you.
1594 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
1595 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1597 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1598 secondary select methods.
1601 @node Startup Variables
1602 @section Startup Variables
1606 @item gnus-load-hook
1607 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1608 A hook run while Gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1609 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1610 times you start Gnus.
1612 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1613 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1614 A hook called as the first thing when Gnus is started.
1616 @item gnus-startup-hook
1617 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1618 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1620 @item gnus-started-hook
1621 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1622 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1625 @item gnus-setup-news-hook
1626 @vindex gnus-setup-news-hook
1627 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1628 generating the group buffer.
1630 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1631 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1632 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1633 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1634 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1635 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1636 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1637 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1639 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1640 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1641 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1642 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1643 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1644 @file{~/.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @file{.emacs} instead.
1646 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1647 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1648 Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.
1650 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1651 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1652 If non-@code{nil}, play the Gnus jingle at startup.
1654 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1655 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1656 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1657 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1663 @chapter Group Buffer
1664 @cindex group buffer
1666 @c Alex Schroeder suggests to rearrange this as follows:
1668 @c <kensanata> ok, just save it for reference. I'll go to bed in a minute.
1669 @c 1. Selecting a Group, 2. (new) Finding a Group, 3. Group Levels,
1670 @c 4. Subscription Commands, 5. Group Maneuvering, 6. Group Data,
1671 @c 7. Group Score, 8. Group Buffer Format
1672 @c <kensanata> Group Levels should have more information on levels 5 to 9. I
1673 @c suggest to split the 4th paragraph ("Gnus considers groups...") as follows:
1674 @c <kensanata> First, "Gnus considers groups... (default 9)."
1675 @c <kensanata> New, a table summarizing what levels 1 to 9 mean.
1676 @c <kensanata> Third, "Gnus treats subscribed ... reasons of efficiency"
1677 @c <kensanata> Then expand the next paragraph or add some more to it.
1678 @c This short one sentence explains levels 1 and 2, therefore I understand
1679 @c that I should keep important news at 3 and boring news at 4.
1680 @c Say so! Then go on to explain why I should bother with levels 6 to 9.
1681 @c Maybe keep those that you don't want to read temporarily at 6,
1682 @c those that you never want to read at 8, those that offend your
1683 @c human rights at 9...
1686 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1687 is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1688 long as Gnus is active.
1692 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1693 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group,height=9cm}}
1694 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1695 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1696 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1697 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1698 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1699 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1705 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1706 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1707 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1708 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1709 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1710 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1711 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1712 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1713 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1714 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1715 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1716 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1717 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1718 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1719 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1720 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1721 * Non-ASCII Group Names:: Accessing groups of non-English names.
1722 * Searching:: Mail search engines.
1723 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1727 @node Group Buffer Format
1728 @section Group Buffer Format
1731 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1732 * Group Mode Line Specification:: The group buffer mode line.
1733 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1736 You can customize the Group Mode tool bar, see @kbd{M-x
1737 customize-apropos RET gnus-group-tool-bar}. This feature is only
1740 The tool bar icons are now (de)activated correctly depending on the
1741 cursor position. Therefore, moving around in the Group Buffer is
1742 slower. You can disable this via the variable
1743 @code{gnus-group-update-tool-bar}. Its default value depends on your
1746 @node Group Line Specification
1747 @subsection Group Line Specification
1748 @cindex group buffer format
1750 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1751 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1753 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1756 25: news.announce.newusers
1757 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1762 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1763 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1764 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1765 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1767 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1768 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1769 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1770 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1771 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1772 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1774 @samp{%M%S%5y:%B%(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1776 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1777 the colon after performing an operation. @xref{Positioning
1778 Point}. Nothing else is required---not even the group name. All
1779 displayed text is just window dressing, and is never examined by Gnus.
1780 Gnus stores all real information it needs using text properties.
1782 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1783 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1784 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1786 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1791 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1794 Whether the group is subscribed.
1797 Level of subscribedness.
1800 Number of unread articles.
1803 Number of dormant articles.
1806 Number of ticked articles.
1809 Number of read articles.
1812 Number of unseen articles.
1815 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1816 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1818 Gnus uses this estimation because the @acronym{NNTP} protocol provides
1819 efficient access to @var{max-number} and @var{min-number} but getting
1820 the true unread message count is not possible efficiently. For
1821 hysterical raisins, even the mail back ends, where the true number of
1822 unread messages might be available efficiently, use the same limited
1823 interface. To remove this restriction from Gnus means that the back
1824 end interface has to be changed, which is not an easy job.
1826 The nnml backend (@pxref{Mail Spool}) has a feature called ``group
1827 compaction'' which circumvents this deficiency: the idea is to
1828 renumber all articles from 1, removing all gaps between numbers, hence
1829 getting a correct total count. Other backends may support this in the
1830 future. In order to keep your total article count relatively up to
1831 date, you might want to compact your groups (or even directly your
1832 server) from time to time. @xref{Misc Group Stuff}, @xref{Server Commands}.
1835 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1838 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1847 Group comment (@pxref{Group Parameters}) or group name if there is no
1848 comment element in the group parameters.
1851 Newsgroup description. You need to read the group descriptions
1852 before these will appear, and to do that, you either have to set
1853 @code{gnus-read-active-file} or use the group buffer @kbd{M-d}
1857 @samp{m} if moderated.
1860 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1866 If the summary buffer for the group is open or not.
1872 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1876 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1879 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1880 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1881 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1882 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1883 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.e.gnus}.
1886 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1888 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1892 @samp{#} (@code{gnus-process-mark}) if the group is process marked.
1895 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1899 The disk space used by the articles fetched by both the cache and
1900 agent. The value is automatically scaled to bytes(B), kilobytes(K),
1901 megabytes(M), or gigabytes(G) to minimize the column width. A format
1902 of %7F is sufficient for a fixed-width column.
1905 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1906 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1907 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1908 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1909 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1910 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1915 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1916 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1917 group, or a bogus native group.
1920 @node Group Mode Line Specification
1921 @subsection Group Mode Line Specification
1922 @cindex group mode line
1924 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1925 The mode line can be changed by setting
1926 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1927 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1931 The native news server.
1933 The native select method.
1937 @node Group Highlighting
1938 @subsection Group Highlighting
1939 @cindex highlighting
1940 @cindex group highlighting
1942 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1943 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1944 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1945 that look like @code{(@var{form} . @var{face})}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1946 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1948 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1952 (cond (window-system
1953 (setq custom-background-mode 'light)
1954 (defface my-group-face-1
1955 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face")
1956 (defface my-group-face-2
1957 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t)))
1958 "Second group face")
1959 (defface my-group-face-3
1960 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face")
1961 (defface my-group-face-4
1962 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face")
1963 (defface my-group-face-5
1964 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face")))
1966 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1967 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1968 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1969 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1970 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1971 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1974 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1976 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1983 The number of unread articles in the group.
1987 Whether the group is a mail group.
1989 The level of the group.
1991 The score of the group.
1993 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1995 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather,
1996 @var{max-number} minus @var{min-number} plus one.
1998 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
1999 topic being inserted.
2002 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
2003 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal Gnus
2004 functions for snarfing info on the group.
2006 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
2007 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
2008 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
2009 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}. This hook
2010 calls @code{gnus-group-highlight-line} by default.
2013 @node Group Maneuvering
2014 @section Group Maneuvering
2015 @cindex group movement
2017 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
2018 expected, hopefully.
2024 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
2025 Go to the next group that has unread articles
2026 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
2032 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
2033 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
2034 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
2038 @findex gnus-group-next-group
2039 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
2043 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
2044 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
2048 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
2049 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
2050 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
2054 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
2055 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
2056 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
2059 Three commands for jumping to groups:
2065 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
2066 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
2067 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
2072 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
2073 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
2074 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
2078 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
2079 Jump to the first group with unread articles
2080 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
2083 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
2084 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
2085 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
2086 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
2089 @vindex gnus-summary-next-group-on-exit
2090 If @code{gnus-summary-next-group-on-exit} is @code{t}, when a summary is
2091 exited, the point in the group buffer is moved to the next unread group.
2092 Otherwise, the point is set to the group just exited. The default is
2095 @node Selecting a Group
2096 @section Selecting a Group
2097 @cindex group selection
2102 @kindex SPACE (Group)
2103 @findex gnus-group-read-group
2104 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
2105 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
2106 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
2107 this command, Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
2108 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{n}, @var{n}
2109 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{n} is
2110 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{n} newest articles, if @var{n} is
2111 negative, Gnus fetches the @code{abs(@var{n})} oldest articles.
2113 Thus, @kbd{SPC} enters the group normally, @kbd{C-u SPC} offers old
2114 articles, @kbd{C-u 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 newest articles, and @kbd{C-u
2115 - 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 oldest ones.
2117 When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type
2118 @kbd{M-g} to fetch new articles, or @kbd{C-u M-g} to also show the old
2123 @findex gnus-group-select-group
2124 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
2125 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
2126 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
2127 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
2131 @kindex M-RET (Group)
2132 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
2133 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
2134 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
2135 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
2136 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
2137 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
2138 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), Gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
2139 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
2140 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
2143 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
2144 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
2145 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
2146 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
2147 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
2150 @kindex C-M-RET (Group)
2151 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
2152 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
2153 doing any processing of its contents
2154 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
2155 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
2156 manner will have no permanent effects.
2160 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
2161 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should
2162 consider to be a big group. If it is @code{nil}, no groups are
2163 considered big. The default value is 200. If the group has more
2164 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, Gnus will query the user
2165 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many
2166 articles should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a
2167 negative number (@var{-n}), the @var{n} oldest articles will be
2168 fetched. If it is positive, the @var{n} articles that have arrived
2169 most recently will be fetched.
2171 @vindex gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup
2172 @code{gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup} is the same as
2173 @code{gnus-large-newsgroup}, but is only used for ephemeral
2176 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-maximum-articles
2177 In groups in some news servers, there might be a big gap between a few
2178 very old articles that will never be expired and the recent ones. In
2179 such a case, the server will return the data like @code{(1 . 30000000)}
2180 for the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, for example. Even if there
2181 are actually only the articles 1-10 and 29999900-30000000, Gnus doesn't
2182 know it at first and prepares for getting 30000000 articles. However,
2183 it will consume hundreds megabytes of memories and might make Emacs get
2184 stuck as the case may be. If you use such news servers, set the
2185 variable @code{gnus-newsgroup-maximum-articles} to a positive number.
2186 The value means that Gnus ignores articles other than this number of the
2187 latest ones in every group. For instance, the value 10000 makes Gnus
2188 get only the articles 29990001-30000000 (if the latest article number is
2189 30000000 in a group). Note that setting this variable to a number might
2190 prevent you from reading very old articles. The default value of the
2191 variable @code{gnus-newsgroup-maximum-articles} is @code{nil}, which
2192 means Gnus never ignores old articles.
2194 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
2195 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
2196 @vindex gnus-auto-select-subject
2197 If @code{gnus-auto-select-first} is non-@code{nil}, select an article
2198 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
2199 Which article this is controlled by the
2200 @code{gnus-auto-select-subject} variable. Valid values for this
2206 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article.
2209 Place point on the subject line of the first article.
2212 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article.
2214 @item unseen-or-unread
2215 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article, and if
2216 there is no such article, place point on the subject line of the first
2220 Place point on the subject line of the highest-scored unread article.
2224 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function
2225 will be called to place point on a subject line.
2227 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
2228 binary group with Huge articles) you can set the
2229 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} variable to @code{nil} in
2230 @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
2234 @node Subscription Commands
2235 @section Subscription Commands
2236 @cindex subscription
2244 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
2245 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
2246 Toggle subscription to the current group
2247 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2253 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
2254 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
2255 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
2256 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
2262 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
2263 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
2264 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
2270 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
2271 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
2274 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2275 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2276 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
2277 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
2278 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
2284 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
2285 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
2289 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
2290 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
2293 @kindex S C-k (Group)
2294 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
2295 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
2296 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
2297 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
2298 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
2299 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
2300 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
2301 @file{.newsrc} file.
2305 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
2315 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
2316 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
2317 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
2318 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
2319 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
2320 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
2325 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
2326 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
2327 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
2331 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
2332 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
2333 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
2335 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2336 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2337 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2338 If you have switched from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another, all your marks
2339 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
2340 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
2347 @section Group Levels
2351 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
2352 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
2353 can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
2354 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
2355 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
2357 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
2363 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
2364 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
2365 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
2366 prompted for a level.
2369 @vindex gnus-level-killed
2370 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
2371 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
2372 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
2373 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
2374 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
2375 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
2376 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
2377 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
2378 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
2379 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
2380 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
2381 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
2382 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
2383 reasons of efficiency.
2385 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
2386 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
2388 Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to
2389 understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you
2390 subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting @kbd{L} you can have it show
2391 empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type @kbd{l} to
2392 go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed
2393 groups are hidden, in a way.
2395 Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they
2396 are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and
2397 unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for
2398 information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie
2399 and killed groups. Normally, you use @kbd{C-k} to kill the groups you
2400 aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.
2402 Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when
2403 a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie
2404 group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups,
2405 but you can type @kbd{A z} to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe
2406 the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (@kbd{A k} shows a
2407 list of killed groups.)
2409 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
2410 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
2411 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
2413 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
2414 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
2415 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
2416 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
2417 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
2418 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
2419 relevant valid ranges.
2421 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
2422 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
2423 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
2424 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
2425 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
2426 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
2429 If this variable is @code{best}, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the
2430 one with the best level.
2432 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
2433 All groups with a level less than or equal to
2434 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
2437 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
2438 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
2439 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
2440 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
2443 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
2444 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
2445 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
2446 use this level as the ``work'' level.
2448 @vindex gnus-activate-level
2449 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
2450 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
2451 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
2452 to 5. The default is 6.
2456 @section Group Score
2461 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
2462 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
2463 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
2466 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can have Gnus assign a score
2467 to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort
2468 the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on
2469 score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is
2470 called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has
2471 a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score
2472 of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the
2473 least significant part.))
2475 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
2476 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
2477 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
2478 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
2479 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
2480 action after each summary exit, you can add
2481 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
2482 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
2483 slow things down somewhat.
2486 @node Marking Groups
2487 @section Marking Groups
2488 @cindex marking groups
2490 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
2491 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
2492 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
2493 bidding on those groups.
2495 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
2496 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
2497 with the process mark and then execute the command.
2505 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
2506 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
2512 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
2513 Remove the mark from the current group
2514 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
2518 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
2519 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
2523 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
2524 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
2528 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
2529 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
2533 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
2534 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
2535 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
2538 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
2540 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
2541 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
2542 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
2543 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
2544 the command to be executed.
2547 @node Foreign Groups
2548 @section Foreign Groups
2549 @cindex foreign groups
2551 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
2552 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
2553 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
2554 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
2557 Changes from the group editing commands are stored in
2558 @file{~/.newsrc.eld} (@code{gnus-startup-file}). An alternative is the
2559 variable @code{gnus-parameters}, @xref{Group Parameters}.
2565 @findex gnus-group-make-group
2566 @cindex making groups
2567 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
2568 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
2569 to subscribe to @acronym{NNTP} groups (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
2573 @findex gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group
2574 Make an ephemeral group (@code{gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group}). Gnus
2575 will prompt you for a name, a method and an @dfn{address}.
2579 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
2580 @cindex renaming groups
2581 Rename the current group to something else
2582 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
2583 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
2589 @findex gnus-group-customize
2590 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
2594 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
2595 @cindex renaming groups
2596 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
2597 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
2601 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
2602 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
2603 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
2607 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
2608 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
2609 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
2613 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
2615 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
2616 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
2621 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
2622 Make the Gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
2626 @cindex (ding) archive
2627 @cindex archive group
2628 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
2629 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
2630 @vindex gnus-group-recent-archive-directory
2631 Make a Gnus archive group (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). By
2632 default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created
2633 (@code{gnus-group-recent-archive-directory}), but given a prefix, a full
2634 group will be created from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
2638 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
2640 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
2641 match groups to be ``included'' in the kiboze group, and a series of
2642 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
2643 @xref{Kibozed Groups}.
2647 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
2649 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
2650 @code{nneething} back end (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
2651 @xref{Anything Groups}.
2655 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
2656 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
2658 Make a group based on some file or other
2659 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2660 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
2661 Currently supported types are @code{mbox}, @code{babyl},
2662 @code{digest}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward},
2663 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts},
2664 @code{standard-digest}, @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs},
2665 @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook}, @code{oe-dbx}, and @code{mailman}. If
2666 you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file
2667 type. @xref{Document Groups}.
2671 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
2672 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
2673 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
2674 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
2678 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
2682 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
2683 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2684 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
2685 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
2686 include @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}.
2687 @xref{Web Searches}.
2689 If you use the @code{google} search engine, you can limit the search
2690 to a particular group by using a match string like
2691 @samp{shaving group:alt.sysadmin.recovery}.
2695 @findex gnus-group-make-rss-group
2696 Make a group based on an @acronym{RSS} feed
2697 (@code{gnus-group-make-rss-group}). You will be prompted for an URL.
2701 @kindex G DEL (Group)
2702 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
2703 This function will delete the current group
2704 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
2705 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
2706 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
2707 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
2708 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} groups), though.
2712 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
2713 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
2714 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
2718 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
2719 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
2720 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
2723 @xref{Select Methods}, for more information on the various select
2726 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
2727 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
2728 Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
2729 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
2730 groups from different @acronym{NNTP} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
2731 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
2735 The following commands create ephemeral groups. They can be called not
2736 only from the Group buffer, but in any Gnus buffer.
2739 @item gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group
2740 @findex gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group
2741 @vindex gnus-gmane-group-download-format
2742 Read an ephemeral group on Gmane.org. The articles are downloaded via
2743 HTTP using the URL specified by @code{gnus-gmane-group-download-format}.
2744 Gnus will prompt you for a group name, the start article number and an
2747 @item gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group-url
2748 @findex gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group-url
2749 This command is similar to @code{gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group}, but
2750 the group name and the article number and range are constructed from a
2751 given @acronym{URL}. Supported @acronym{URL} formats include e.g.
2752 @url{http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.foo.bar/12300/focus=12399},
2753 @url{http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.foo.bar/12345/},
2754 @url{http://article.gmane.org/gmane.foo.bar/12345/},
2755 @url{http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.foo.bar/12345/}, and
2756 @url{http://news.gmane.org/group/gmane.foo.bar/thread=12345}.
2758 @item gnus-read-ephemeral-emacs-bug-group
2759 @findex gnus-read-ephemeral-emacs-bug-group
2760 Read an Emacs bug report in an ephemeral group. Gnus will prompt for a
2761 bug number. The default is the number at point. The @acronym{URL} is
2762 specified in @code{gnus-bug-group-download-format-alist}.
2764 @item gnus-read-ephemeral-debian-bug-group
2765 @findex gnus-read-ephemeral-debian-bug-group
2766 Read a Debian bug report in an ephemeral group. Analog to
2767 @code{gnus-read-ephemeral-emacs-bug-group}.
2770 Some of these command are also useful for article buttons, @xref{Article
2778 '("#\\([0-9]+\\)\\>" 1
2779 (string-match "\\<emacs\\>" (or gnus-newsgroup-name ""))
2780 gnus-read-ephemeral-emacs-bug-group 1))
2784 @node Group Parameters
2785 @section Group Parameters
2786 @cindex group parameters
2788 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
2790 Use the @kbd{G p} or the @kbd{G c} command to edit group parameters of a
2791 group. (@kbd{G p} presents you with a Lisp-based interface, @kbd{G c}
2792 presents you with a Customize-like interface. The latter helps avoid
2793 silly Lisp errors.) You might also be interested in reading about topic
2794 parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}).
2795 Additionally, you can set group parameters via the
2796 @code{gnus-parameters} variable, see below.
2798 Here's an example group parameter list:
2801 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2805 We see that each element consists of a ``dotted pair''---the thing before
2806 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2807 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2808 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2810 Some parameters have correspondent customizable variables, each of which
2811 is an alist of regexps and values.
2813 The following group parameters can be used:
2818 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2821 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2824 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2825 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2826 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2827 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2828 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2830 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2831 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2832 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2833 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2834 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2835 list address instead.
2837 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-address-alist}.
2841 Address used when doing @kbd{a} in that group.
2844 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2847 It is totally ignored
2848 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2849 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2851 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2852 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2853 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2854 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2855 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2857 @findex gnus-mailing-list-mode
2858 @cindex mail list groups
2859 If this variable is set, @code{gnus-mailing-list-mode} is turned on when
2860 entering summary buffer.
2862 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-list-alist}.
2867 @cindex Mail-Followup-To
2868 @findex gnus-find-subscribed-addresses
2869 If this parameter is set to @code{t}, Gnus will consider the
2870 to-address and to-list parameters for this group as addresses of
2871 mailing lists you are subscribed to. Giving Gnus this information is
2872 (only) a first step in getting it to generate correct Mail-Followup-To
2873 headers for your posts to these lists. The second step is to put the
2874 following in your @file{.gnus.el}
2877 (setq message-subscribed-address-functions
2878 '(gnus-find-subscribed-addresses))
2881 @xref{Mailing Lists, ,Mailing Lists, message, The Message Manual}, for
2882 a complete treatment of available MFT support.
2886 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2887 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2888 of whether it has any unread articles.
2890 This parameter cannot be set via @code{gnus-parameters}. See
2891 @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} as an alternative.
2893 @item broken-reply-to
2894 @cindex broken-reply-to
2895 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2896 headers in this group are to be ignored, and for the header to be hidden
2897 if @code{reply-to} is part of @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}. This
2898 can be useful if you're reading a mailing list group where the listserv
2899 has inserted @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv
2900 itself. That is broken behavior. So there!
2904 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2905 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2909 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, Gnus
2910 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2911 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2916 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2917 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2918 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2919 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2920 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2921 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2922 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
2924 @strong{Caveat}: Adding @code{(gcc-self . t)} to the parameter list of
2925 @code{nntp} groups (or the like) isn't valid. An @code{nntp} server
2926 doesn't accept articles.
2930 @cindex expiring mail
2931 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2932 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2933 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2935 See also @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups}.
2938 @cindex total-expire
2939 @cindex expiring mail
2940 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2941 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2942 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2943 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2946 See also @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups}.
2950 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2951 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2952 @code{(expiry-wait . 10)}, this value will override any
2953 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function}
2954 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}) when expiring expirable messages. The value
2955 can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or the
2956 symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2959 @cindex expiry-target
2960 Where expired messages end up. This parameter overrides
2961 @code{nnmail-expiry-target}.
2964 @cindex score file group parameter
2965 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2966 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2967 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2970 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2971 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2972 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2973 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2976 @cindex admin-address
2977 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2978 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2979 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2980 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2984 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2985 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2989 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2992 Display the last @var{integer} articles in the group. This is the same as
2993 entering the group with @kbd{C-u @var{integer}}.
2996 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
3000 Display articles that satisfy a predicate.
3002 Here are some examples:
3006 Display only unread articles.
3009 Display everything except expirable articles.
3011 @item [and (not reply) (not expire)]
3012 Display everything except expirable and articles you've already
3016 The available operators are @code{not}, @code{and} and @code{or}.
3017 Predicates include @code{tick}, @code{unsend}, @code{undownload},
3018 @code{unread}, @code{dormant}, @code{expire}, @code{reply},
3019 @code{killed}, @code{bookmark}, @code{score}, @code{save},
3020 @code{cache}, @code{forward}, @code{unseen} and @code{recent}.
3024 The @code{display} parameter works by limiting the summary buffer to
3025 the subset specified. You can pop the limit by using the @kbd{/ w}
3026 command (@pxref{Limiting}).
3030 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")} are
3031 arbitrary comments on the group. You can display comments in the
3032 group line (@pxref{Group Line Specification}).
3036 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
3037 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
3038 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
3040 See also @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}.
3042 @item ignored-charsets
3043 @cindex ignored-charset
3044 Elements that look like @code{(ignored-charsets x-unknown iso-8859-1)}
3045 will make @code{iso-8859-1} and @code{x-unknown} ignored; that is, the
3046 default charset will be used for decoding articles.
3048 See also @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
3051 @cindex posting-style
3052 You can store additional posting style information for this group
3053 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
3054 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
3055 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
3056 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
3058 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
3059 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
3060 like this in the group parameters:
3065 ("X-My-Header" "Funky Value")
3066 (signature "Funky Signature"))
3069 If you're using topics to organize your group buffer
3070 (@pxref{Group Topics}), note that posting styles can also be set in
3071 the topics parameters. Posting styles in topic parameters apply to all
3072 groups in this topic. More precisely, the posting-style settings for a
3073 group result from the hierarchical merging of all posting-style
3074 entries in the parameters of this group and all the topics it belongs
3080 If it is set, the value is used as the method for posting message
3081 instead of @code{gnus-post-method}.
3085 If it is set, and the setting of @code{mail-sources} includes a
3086 @code{group} mail source (@pxref{Mail Sources}), the value is a
3087 mail source for this group.
3091 An item like @code{(banner . @var{regexp})} causes any part of an article
3092 that matches the regular expression @var{regexp} to be stripped. Instead of
3093 @var{regexp}, you can also use the symbol @code{signature} which strips the
3094 last signature or any of the elements of the alist
3095 @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}.
3099 This parameter contains a Sieve test that should match incoming mail
3100 that should be placed in this group. From this group parameter, a
3101 Sieve @samp{IF} control structure is generated, having the test as the
3102 condition and @samp{fileinto "group.name";} as the body.
3104 For example, if the @samp{INBOX.list.sieve} group has the @code{(sieve
3105 address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com")} group parameter, when
3106 translating the group parameter into a Sieve script (@pxref{Sieve
3107 Commands}) the following Sieve code is generated:
3110 if address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com" @{
3111 fileinto "INBOX.list.sieve";
3115 To generate tests for multiple email-addresses use a group parameter
3116 like @code{(sieve address "sender" ("name@@one.org" else@@two.org"))}.
3117 When generating a sieve script (@pxref{Sieve Commands}) Sieve code
3118 like the following is generated:
3121 if address "sender" ["name@@one.org", "else@@two.org"] @{
3122 fileinto "INBOX.list.sieve";
3126 See @pxref{Sieve Commands} for commands and variables that might be of
3127 interest in relation to the sieve parameter.
3129 The Sieve language is described in RFC 3028. @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve,
3130 Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
3132 @item (agent parameters)
3133 If the agent has been enabled, you can set any of the its parameters
3134 to control the behavior of the agent in individual groups. See Agent
3135 Parameters in @ref{Category Syntax}. Most users will choose to set
3136 agent parameters in either an agent category or group topic to
3137 minimize the configuration effort.
3139 @item (@var{variable} @var{form})
3140 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
3141 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
3142 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
3143 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
3144 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
3145 @code{eval}ed there.
3147 Note that this feature sets the variable locally to the summary buffer
3148 if and only if @var{variable} has been bound as a variable. Otherwise,
3149 only evaluating the form will take place. So, you may want to bind the
3150 variable in advance using @code{defvar} or other if the result of the
3151 form needs to be set to it.
3153 But some variables are evaluated in the article buffer, or in the
3154 message buffer (of a reply or followup or otherwise newly created
3155 message). As a workaround, it might help to add the variable in
3156 question to @code{gnus-newsgroup-variables}. @xref{Various Summary
3157 Stuff}. So if you want to set @code{message-from-style} via the group
3158 parameters, then you may need the following statement elsewhere in your
3159 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
3162 (add-to-list 'gnus-newsgroup-variables 'message-from-style)
3165 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
3166 A use for this feature is to remove a mailing list identifier tag in
3167 the subject fields of articles. E.g. if the news group
3170 nntp+news.gnus.org:gmane.text.docbook.apps
3173 has the tag @samp{DOC-BOOK-APPS:} in the subject of all articles, this
3174 tag can be removed from the article subjects in the summary buffer for
3175 the group by putting @code{(gnus-list-identifiers "DOCBOOK-APPS:")}
3176 into the group parameters for the group.
3178 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function. If you want to
3179 hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put something like
3180 @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that group. If
3181 @code{dummy-variable} has been bound (see above), it will be set to the
3182 (meaningless) result of the @code{(ding)} form.
3184 Alternatively, since the VARIABLE becomes local to the group, this
3185 pattern can be used to temporarily change a hook. For example, if the
3186 following is added to a group parameter
3189 (gnus-summary-prepared-hook
3190 '(lambda nil (local-set-key "d" (local-key-binding "n"))))
3193 when the group is entered, the 'd' key will not mark the article as
3198 @vindex gnus-parameters
3199 Group parameters can be set via the @code{gnus-parameters} variable too.
3200 But some variables, such as @code{visible}, have no effect (For this
3201 case see @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} as an alternative.).
3205 (setq gnus-parameters
3207 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3208 (gnus-use-scoring nil)
3209 (gnus-summary-line-format
3210 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%d:%ub%-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
3214 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
3218 (gnus-use-scoring t))
3222 (broken-reply-to . t))))
3225 String value of parameters will be subjected to regexp substitution, as
3226 the @code{to-group} example shows.
3228 @vindex gnus-parameters-case-fold-search
3229 By default, whether comparing the group name and one of those regexps
3230 specified in @code{gnus-parameters} is done in a case-sensitive manner
3231 or a case-insensitive manner depends on the value of
3232 @code{case-fold-search} at the time when the comparison is done. The
3233 value of @code{case-fold-search} is typically @code{t}; it means, for
3234 example, the element @code{("INBOX\\.FOO" (total-expire . t))} might be
3235 applied to both the @samp{INBOX.FOO} group and the @samp{INBOX.foo}
3236 group. If you want to make those regexps always case-sensitive, set the
3237 value of the @code{gnus-parameters-case-fold-search} variable to
3238 @code{nil}. Otherwise, set it to @code{t} if you want to compare them
3239 always in a case-insensitive manner.
3241 You can define different sorting to different groups via
3242 @code{gnus-parameters}. Here is an example to sort an @acronym{NNTP}
3243 group by reverse date to see the latest news at the top and an
3244 @acronym{RSS} group by subject. In this example, the first group is the
3245 Debian daily news group @code{gmane.linux.debian.user.news} from
3246 news.gmane.org. The @acronym{RSS} group corresponds to the Debian
3247 weekly news RSS feed
3248 @url{http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main.en.rdf},
3254 '(("nntp.*gmane\\.debian\\.user\\.news"
3255 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3256 (gnus-article-sort-functions '((not gnus-article-sort-by-date)))
3257 (gnus-use-adaptive-scoring nil)
3258 (gnus-use-scoring nil))
3260 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3261 (gnus-article-sort-functions 'gnus-article-sort-by-subject)
3262 (gnus-use-adaptive-scoring nil)
3263 (gnus-use-scoring t)
3264 (gnus-score-find-score-files-function 'gnus-score-find-single)
3265 (gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%d %I%(%[ %s %]%)\n"))))
3269 @node Listing Groups
3270 @section Listing Groups
3271 @cindex group listing
3273 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
3281 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
3282 List all groups that have unread articles
3283 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
3284 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
3285 only lists groups of level five (i.e.,
3286 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
3293 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
3294 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
3295 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
3296 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
3297 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
3298 unsubscribed groups).
3302 @findex gnus-group-list-level
3303 List all unread groups on a specific level
3304 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
3305 with no unread articles.
3309 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
3310 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
3311 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
3312 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
3317 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
3318 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
3322 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
3323 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
3324 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
3328 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
3329 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
3333 @findex gnus-group-list-active
3334 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
3335 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
3336 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
3337 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
3338 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
3339 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
3340 Take the output with some grains of salt.
3344 @findex gnus-group-apropos
3345 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
3346 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
3350 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
3351 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
3352 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
3356 @findex gnus-group-list-cached
3357 List all groups with cached articles (@code{gnus-group-list-cached}).
3361 @findex gnus-group-list-dormant
3362 List all groups with dormant articles (@code{gnus-group-list-dormant}).
3366 @findex gnus-group-list-limit
3367 List groups limited within the current selection
3368 (@code{gnus-group-list-limit}).
3372 @findex gnus-group-list-flush
3373 Flush groups from the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-flush}).
3377 @findex gnus-group-list-plus
3378 List groups plus the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-plus}).
3382 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3383 @cindex visible group parameter
3384 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
3385 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
3386 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
3387 get the same effect.
3389 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
3390 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
3391 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
3392 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
3393 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
3396 @node Sorting Groups
3397 @section Sorting Groups
3398 @cindex sorting groups
3400 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
3401 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
3402 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
3403 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
3404 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
3405 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
3410 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3411 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3412 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
3414 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3415 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3416 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
3418 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
3419 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
3420 Sort by group level.
3422 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
3423 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
3424 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
3426 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3427 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3428 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
3429 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
3431 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3432 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3433 Sort by number of unread articles.
3435 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
3436 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
3437 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
3439 @item gnus-group-sort-by-server
3440 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-server
3441 Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.
3446 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
3447 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
3451 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
3452 some sorting criteria:
3456 @kindex G S a (Group)
3457 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3458 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
3459 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3462 @kindex G S u (Group)
3463 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
3464 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
3465 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3468 @kindex G S l (Group)
3469 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
3470 Sort the group buffer by group level
3471 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
3474 @kindex G S v (Group)
3475 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
3476 Sort the group buffer by group score
3477 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3480 @kindex G S r (Group)
3481 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
3482 Sort the group buffer by group rank
3483 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3486 @kindex G S m (Group)
3487 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
3488 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by back end name@*
3489 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
3492 @kindex G S n (Group)
3493 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name
3494 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3495 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name}).
3499 All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention
3500 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3502 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
3503 commands will sort in reverse order.
3505 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
3509 @kindex G P a (Group)
3510 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
3511 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
3512 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
3515 @kindex G P u (Group)
3516 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
3517 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
3518 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
3521 @kindex G P l (Group)
3522 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
3523 Sort the groups by group level
3524 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
3527 @kindex G P v (Group)
3528 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
3529 Sort the groups by group score
3530 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3533 @kindex G P r (Group)
3534 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
3535 Sort the groups by group rank
3536 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3539 @kindex G P m (Group)
3540 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
3541 Sort the groups alphabetically by back end name@*
3542 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
3545 @kindex G P n (Group)
3546 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name
3547 Sort the groups alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3548 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name}).
3551 @kindex G P s (Group)
3552 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups
3553 Sort the groups according to @code{gnus-group-sort-function}.
3557 And finally, note that you can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} to manually
3561 @node Group Maintenance
3562 @section Group Maintenance
3563 @cindex bogus groups
3568 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
3569 Find bogus groups and delete them
3570 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
3574 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
3575 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
3576 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
3577 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
3578 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
3582 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
3583 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
3584 @cindex expiring mail
3585 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
3586 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}). That is, delete
3587 all expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
3588 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3591 @kindex C-c C-M-x (Group)
3592 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
3593 @cindex expiring mail
3594 Run all expirable articles in all groups through the expiry process
3595 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
3600 @node Browse Foreign Server
3601 @section Browse Foreign Server
3602 @cindex foreign servers
3603 @cindex browsing servers
3608 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
3609 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
3610 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
3611 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
3614 @findex gnus-browse-mode
3615 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
3616 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
3617 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
3619 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
3624 @findex gnus-group-next-group
3625 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
3629 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
3630 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
3633 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
3634 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
3635 Enter the current group and display the first article
3636 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
3639 @kindex RET (Browse)
3640 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
3641 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
3645 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
3646 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
3647 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
3653 @findex gnus-browse-exit
3654 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
3658 @findex gnus-browse-describe-group
3659 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-browse-describe-group}).
3663 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
3664 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
3665 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
3670 @section Exiting Gnus
3671 @cindex exiting Gnus
3673 Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.
3678 @findex gnus-group-suspend
3679 Suspend Gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit Gnus,
3680 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
3681 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
3685 @findex gnus-group-exit
3686 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
3687 Quit Gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
3691 @findex gnus-group-quit
3692 Quit Gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
3693 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
3696 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
3697 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
3698 @vindex gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook
3699 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend Gnus and
3700 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit Gnus, while
3701 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
3707 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
3708 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
3709 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
3715 @section Group Topics
3718 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
3719 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
3720 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
3721 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
3722 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
3723 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
3727 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
3728 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group-topic,height=9cm}}
3739 2: alt.religion.emacs
3742 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3744 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3745 13: comp.sources.unix
3748 @findex gnus-topic-mode
3750 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
3751 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
3752 is a toggling command.)
3754 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
3755 dum@dots{} Nice tune, that@dots{} la la la@dots{} What, you're back?
3756 Yes, and now press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed
3757 under @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?
3760 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
3761 the hook for the group mode. Put the following line in your
3762 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
3765 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
3769 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
3770 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
3771 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
3772 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
3773 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
3777 @node Topic Commands
3778 @subsection Topic Commands
3779 @cindex topic commands
3781 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
3782 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
3783 definitions slightly.
3785 In general, the following kinds of operations are possible on topics.
3786 First of all, you want to create topics. Secondly, you want to put
3787 groups in topics and to move them around until you have an order you
3788 like. The third kind of operation is to show/hide parts of the whole
3789 shebang. You might want to hide a topic including its subtopics and
3790 groups, to get a better overview of the other groups.
3792 Here is a list of the basic keys that you might need to set up topics
3799 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
3800 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
3801 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
3805 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
3807 @findex gnus-topic-indent
3808 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3809 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
3810 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
3813 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
3814 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
3815 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3816 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
3820 The following two keys can be used to move groups and topics around.
3821 They work like the well-known cut and paste. @kbd{C-k} is like cut and
3822 @kbd{C-y} is like paste. Of course, this being Emacs, we use the terms
3823 kill and yank rather than cut and paste.
3829 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
3830 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
3831 topic will be removed along with the topic.
3835 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
3836 Yank the previously killed group or topic
3837 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
3840 So, to move a topic to the beginning of the list of topics, just hit
3841 @kbd{C-k} on it. This is like the ``cut'' part of cut and paste. Then,
3842 move the cursor to the beginning of the buffer (just below the ``Gnus''
3843 topic) and hit @kbd{C-y}. This is like the ``paste'' part of cut and
3844 paste. Like I said -- E-Z.
3846 You can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} on groups as well as on topics. So
3847 you can move topics around as well as groups.
3851 After setting up the topics the way you like them, you might wish to
3852 hide a topic, or to show it again. That's why we have the following
3859 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
3861 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
3862 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
3863 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
3864 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
3865 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
3866 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
3870 Now for a list of other commands, in no particular order.
3876 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
3877 Move the current group to some other topic
3878 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3879 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3883 @findex gnus-topic-jump-to-topic
3884 Go to a topic (@code{gnus-topic-jump-to-topic}).
3888 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
3889 Copy the current group to some other topic
3890 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3891 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3895 @findex gnus-topic-hide-topic
3896 Hide the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-hide-topic}). If given
3897 a prefix, hide the topic permanently.
3901 @findex gnus-topic-show-topic
3902 Show the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-show-topic}). If given
3903 a prefix, show the topic permanently.
3907 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
3908 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
3909 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
3910 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
3911 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
3912 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
3913 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
3916 This command uses the process/prefix convention
3917 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3921 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
3922 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3923 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
3927 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
3928 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3929 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
3933 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
3934 Toggle hiding empty topics
3935 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
3939 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
3940 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
3941 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3942 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3945 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
3946 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
3947 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
3948 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3949 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3952 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
3953 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
3954 @cindex expiring mail
3955 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the
3956 expiry process (if any)
3957 (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}). (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3961 @findex gnus-topic-rename
3962 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
3965 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
3966 @findex gnus-topic-delete
3967 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
3971 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
3972 List all groups that Gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
3973 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
3976 @kindex T M-n (Topic)
3977 @findex gnus-topic-goto-next-topic
3978 Go to the next topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-next-topic}).
3981 @kindex T M-p (Topic)
3982 @findex gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic
3983 Go to the previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic}).
3987 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
3988 @cindex group parameters
3989 @cindex topic parameters
3991 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
3992 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
3997 @node Topic Variables
3998 @subsection Topic Variables
3999 @cindex topic variables
4001 The previous section told you how to tell Gnus which topics to display.
4002 This section explains how to tell Gnus what to display about each topic.
4004 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
4005 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
4006 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
4019 Number of groups in the topic.
4021 Number of unread articles in the topic.
4023 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
4026 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
4027 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
4028 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
4031 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
4032 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
4034 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
4035 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
4036 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
4040 @subsection Topic Sorting
4041 @cindex topic sorting
4043 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
4049 @kindex T S a (Topic)
4050 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
4051 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
4052 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
4055 @kindex T S u (Topic)
4056 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
4057 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
4058 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
4061 @kindex T S l (Topic)
4062 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
4063 Sort the current topic by group level
4064 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
4067 @kindex T S v (Topic)
4068 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
4069 Sort the current topic by group score
4070 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
4073 @kindex T S r (Topic)
4074 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
4075 Sort the current topic by group rank
4076 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
4079 @kindex T S m (Topic)
4080 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
4081 Sort the current topic alphabetically by back end name
4082 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
4085 @kindex T S e (Topic)
4086 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server
4087 Sort the current topic alphabetically by server name
4088 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server}).
4091 @kindex T S s (Topic)
4092 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups
4093 Sort the current topic according to the function(s) given by the
4094 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable
4095 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups}).
4099 When given a prefix argument, all these commands will sort in reverse
4100 order. @xref{Sorting Groups}, for more information about group
4104 @node Topic Topology
4105 @subsection Topic Topology
4106 @cindex topic topology
4109 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
4116 2: alt.religion.emacs
4119 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
4121 8: comp.binaries.fractals
4122 13: comp.sources.unix
4126 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
4127 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
4128 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
4133 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
4134 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
4138 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
4139 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
4140 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
4141 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
4142 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
4143 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
4145 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
4146 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
4147 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
4150 @node Topic Parameters
4151 @subsection Topic Parameters
4152 @cindex topic parameters
4154 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent
4155 (and ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid
4156 topic parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}). When the agent is
4157 enabled, all agent parameters (See Agent Parameters in @ref{Category
4158 Syntax}) are also valid topic parameters.
4160 In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic
4165 When subscribing new groups by topic (@pxref{Subscription Methods}), the
4166 @code{subscribe} topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its
4167 value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that
4170 @item subscribe-level
4171 When subscribing new groups by topic (see the @code{subscribe} parameter),
4172 the group will be subscribed with the level specified in the
4173 @code{subscribe-level} instead of @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}.
4177 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
4178 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
4179 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
4180 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
4187 2: alt.religion.emacs
4191 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
4193 8: comp.binaries.fractals
4194 13: comp.sources.unix
4199 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
4200 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
4201 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
4202 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
4203 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
4204 . "religion.SCORE")}.
4206 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
4207 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
4208 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
4209 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
4210 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
4212 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
4213 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
4214 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
4215 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
4216 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
4217 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
4218 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
4219 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
4222 @node Non-ASCII Group Names
4223 @section Accessing groups of non-English names
4224 @cindex non-ascii group names
4226 There are some news servers that provide groups of which the names are
4227 expressed with their native languages in the world. For instance, in a
4228 certain news server there are some newsgroups of which the names are
4229 spelled in Chinese, where people are talking in Chinese. You can, of
4230 course, subscribe to such news groups using Gnus. Currently Gnus
4231 supports non-@acronym{ASCII} group names not only with the @code{nntp}
4232 back end but also with the @code{nnml} back end and the @code{nnrss}
4235 Every such group name is encoded by a certain charset in the server
4236 side (in an @acronym{NNTP} server its administrator determines the
4237 charset, but for groups in the other back ends it is determined by you).
4238 Gnus has to display the decoded ones for you in the group buffer and the
4239 article buffer, and needs to use the encoded ones when communicating
4240 with servers. However, Gnus doesn't know what charset is used for each
4241 non-@acronym{ASCII} group name. The following two variables are just
4242 the ones for telling Gnus what charset should be used for each group:
4245 @item gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4246 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4247 An alist of select methods and charsets. The default value is
4248 @code{nil}. The names of groups in the server specified by that select
4249 method are all supposed to use the corresponding charset. For example:
4252 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4253 '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))
4256 Charsets specified for groups with this variable are preferred to the
4257 ones specified for the same groups with the
4258 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist} variable (see below).
4260 A select method can be very long, like:
4264 (nntp-address "news.gmane.org")
4265 (nntp-end-of-line "\n")
4266 (nntp-open-connection-function
4267 nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet)
4268 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
4269 (nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
4270 ("-C" "-t" "-e" "none"))
4271 (nntp-via-address @dots{}))
4274 In that case, you can truncate it into @code{(nntp "gmane")} in this
4275 variable. That is, it is enough to contain only the back end name and
4278 @item gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4279 @cindex UTF-8 group names
4280 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4281 An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names.
4282 @code{((".*" . utf-8))} is the default value if UTF-8 is supported,
4283 otherwise the default is @code{nil}. For example:
4286 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4287 '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)
4291 Note that this variable is ignored if the match is made with
4292 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist}.
4295 Those two variables are used also to determine the charset for encoding
4296 and decoding non-@acronym{ASCII} group names that are in the back ends
4297 other than @code{nntp}. It means that it is you who determine it. If
4298 you do nothing, the charset used for group names in those back ends will
4299 all be @code{utf-8} because of the last element of
4300 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist}.
4302 There is one more important variable for non-@acronym{ASCII} group
4306 @item nnmail-pathname-coding-system
4307 @vindex nnmail-pathname-coding-system
4308 The value of this variable should be a coding system or @code{nil}. The
4309 default is @code{nil} in Emacs, or is the aliasee of the coding system
4310 named @code{file-name} (a certain coding system of which an alias is
4311 @code{file-name}) in XEmacs.
4313 The @code{nnml} back end, the @code{nnrss} back end, the @acronym{NNTP}
4314 marks feature (@pxref{NNTP marks}), the agent, and the cache use
4315 non-@acronym{ASCII} group names in those files and directories. This
4316 variable overrides the value of @code{file-name-coding-system} which
4317 specifies the coding system used when encoding and decoding those file
4318 names and directory names.
4320 In XEmacs (with the @code{mule} feature), @code{file-name-coding-system}
4321 is the only means to specify the coding system used to encode and decode
4322 file names. On the other hand, Emacs uses the value of
4323 @code{default-file-name-coding-system} if @code{file-name-coding-system}
4324 is @code{nil} or it is bound to the value of
4325 @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system} which is @code{nil}.
4327 Normally the value of @code{default-file-name-coding-system} in Emacs or
4328 @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system} in XEmacs is initialized according
4329 to the locale, so you will need to do nothing if the value is suitable
4330 to encode and decode non-@acronym{ASCII} group names.
4332 The value of this variable (or @code{default-file-name-coding-system})
4333 does not necessarily need to be the same value that is determined by
4334 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist} and
4335 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist}.
4337 If @code{default-file-name-coding-system} or this variable is
4338 initialized by default to @code{iso-latin-1} for example, although you
4339 want to subscribe to the groups spelled in Chinese, that is the most
4340 typical case where you have to customize
4341 @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system}. The @code{utf-8} coding system is
4342 a good candidate for it. Otherwise, you may change the locale in your
4343 system so that @code{default-file-name-coding-system} or this variable
4344 may be initialized to an appropriate value.
4347 Note that when you copy or move articles from a non-@acronym{ASCII}
4348 group to another group, the charset used to encode and decode group
4349 names should be the same in both groups. Otherwise the Newsgroups
4350 header will be displayed incorrectly in the article buffer.
4357 * nnir:: Searching on IMAP, with swish, namazu, etc.
4358 * nnmairix:: Searching maildir, MH or mbox with Mairix.
4363 FIXME: This node is a stub.
4365 FIXME: Add a brief overview of Gnus search capabilities. A brief
4366 comparison of nnir, nnmairix, contrib/gnus-namazu would be nice
4369 FIXME: Explain difference to @ref{Searching for Articles}, add reference
4375 FIXME: As a first step, convert the commentary of @file{nnir} to texi.
4379 @subsection nnmairix
4383 This paragraph describes how to set up mairix and the back end
4384 @code{nnmairix} for indexing and searching your mail from within
4385 Gnus. Additionally, you can create permanent ``smart'' groups which are
4386 bound to mairix searches and are automatically updated.
4389 * About mairix:: About the mairix mail search engine
4390 * nnmairix requirements:: What you will need for using nnmairix
4391 * What nnmairix does:: What does nnmairix actually do?
4392 * Setting up mairix:: Set up your mairix installation
4393 * Configuring nnmairix:: Set up the nnmairix back end
4394 * nnmairix keyboard shortcuts:: List of available keyboard shortcuts
4395 * Propagating marks:: How to propagate marks from nnmairix groups
4396 * nnmairix tips and tricks:: Some tips, tricks and examples
4397 * nnmairix caveats:: Some more stuff you might want to know
4400 @c FIXME: The markup in this section might need improvement.
4401 @c E.g. adding @samp, @var, @file, @command, etc.
4402 @c Cf. (info "(texinfo)Indicating")
4405 @subsubsection About mairix
4407 Mairix is a tool for indexing and searching words in locally stored
4408 mail. It was written by Richard Curnow and is licensed under the
4409 GPL. Mairix comes with most popular GNU/Linux distributions, but it also
4410 runs under Windows (with cygwin), Mac OS X and Solaris. The homepage can
4412 @uref{http://www.rpcurnow.force9.co.uk/mairix/index.html}
4414 Though mairix might not be as flexible as other search tools like
4415 swish++ or namazu, which you can use via the @code{nnir} back end, it
4416 has the prime advantage of being incredibly fast. On current systems, it
4417 can easily search through headers and message bodies of thousands and
4418 thousands of mails in well under a second. Building the database
4419 necessary for searching might take a minute or two, but only has to be
4420 done once fully. Afterwards, the updates are done incrementally and
4421 therefore are really fast, too. Additionally, mairix is very easy to set
4424 For maximum speed though, mairix should be used with mails stored in
4425 @code{Maildir} or @code{MH} format (this includes the @code{nnml} back
4426 end), although it also works with mbox. Mairix presents the search
4427 results by populating a @emph{virtual} maildir/MH folder with symlinks
4428 which point to the ``real'' message files (if mbox is used, copies are
4429 made). Since mairix already presents search results in such a virtual
4430 mail folder, it is very well suited for using it as an external program
4431 for creating @emph{smart} mail folders, which represent certain mail
4432 searches. This is similar to a Kiboze group (@pxref{Kibozed Groups}),
4435 @node nnmairix requirements
4436 @subsubsection nnmairix requirements
4438 Mairix searches local mail---that means, mairix absolutely must have
4439 direct access to your mail folders. If your mail resides on another
4440 server (e.g. an @acronym{IMAP} server) and you happen to have shell
4441 access, @code{nnmairix} supports running mairix remotely, e.g. via ssh.
4443 Additionally, @code{nnmairix} only supports the following Gnus back
4444 ends: @code{nnml}, @code{nnmaildir}, and @code{nnimap}. You must use
4445 one of these back ends for using @code{nnmairix}. Other back ends, like
4446 @code{nnmbox}, @code{nnfolder} or @code{nnmh}, won't work.
4448 If you absolutely must use mbox and still want to use @code{nnmairix},
4449 you can set up a local @acronym{IMAP} server, which you then access via
4450 @code{nnimap}. This is a rather massive setup for accessing some mbox
4451 files, so just change to MH or Maildir already... However, if you're
4452 really, really passionate about using mbox, you might want to look into
4453 the package @file{mairix.el}, which comes with Emacs 23.
4455 @node What nnmairix does
4456 @subsubsection What nnmairix does
4458 The back end @code{nnmairix} enables you to call mairix from within Gnus,
4459 either to query mairix with a search term or to update the
4460 database. While visiting a message in the summary buffer, you can use
4461 several pre-defined shortcuts for calling mairix, e.g. to quickly
4462 search for all mails from the sender of the current message or to
4463 display the whole thread associated with the message, even if the
4464 mails are in different folders.
4466 Additionally, you can create permanent @code{nnmairix} groups which are bound
4467 to certain mairix searches. This way, you can easily create a group
4468 containing mails from a certain sender, with a certain subject line or
4469 even for one specific thread based on the Message-ID. If you check for
4470 new mail in these folders (e.g. by pressing @kbd{g} or @kbd{M-g}), they
4471 automatically update themselves by calling mairix.
4473 You might ask why you need @code{nnmairix} at all, since mairix already
4474 creates the group, populates it with links to the mails so that you can
4475 then access it with Gnus, right? Well, this @emph{might} work, but often
4476 does not---at least not without problems. Most probably you will get
4477 strange article counts, and sometimes you might see mails which Gnus
4478 claims have already been canceled and are inaccessible. This is due to
4479 the fact that Gnus isn't really amused when things are happening behind
4480 its back. Another problem can be the mail back end itself, e.g. if you
4481 use mairix with an @acronym{IMAP} server (I had Dovecot complaining
4482 about corrupt index files when mairix changed the contents of the search
4483 group). Using @code{nnmairix} should circumvent these problems.
4485 @code{nnmairix} is not really a mail back end---it's actually more like
4486 a wrapper, sitting between a ``real'' mail back end where mairix stores
4487 the searches and the Gnus front end. You can choose between three
4488 different mail back ends for the mairix folders: @code{nnml},
4489 @code{nnmaildir} or @code{nnimap}. @code{nnmairix} will call the mairix
4490 binary so that the search results are stored in folders named
4491 @code{zz_mairix-<NAME>-<NUMBER>} on this mail back end, but it will
4492 present these folders in the Gnus front end only with @code{<NAME>}.
4493 You can use an existing mail back end where you already store your mail,
4494 but if you're uncomfortable with @code{nnmairix} creating new mail
4495 groups alongside your other mail, you can also create e.g. a new
4496 @code{nnmaildir} or @code{nnml} server exclusively for mairix, but then
4497 make sure those servers do not accidentally receive your new mail
4498 (@pxref{nnmairix caveats}). A special case exists if you want to use
4499 mairix remotely on an IMAP server with @code{nnimap}---here the mairix
4500 folders and your other mail must be on the same @code{nnimap} back end.
4502 @node Setting up mairix
4503 @subsubsection Setting up mairix
4505 First: create a backup of your mail folders (@pxref{nnmairix caveats}).
4507 Setting up mairix is easy: simply create a @file{.mairixrc} file with
4508 (at least) the following entries:
4511 # Your Maildir/MH base folder
4515 This is the base folder for your mails. All the following directories
4516 are relative to this base folder. If you want to use @code{nnmairix}
4517 with @code{nnimap}, this base directory has to point to the mail
4518 directory where the @acronym{IMAP} server stores the mail folders!
4521 maildir= ... your maildir folders which should be indexed ...
4522 mh= ... your nnml/mh folders which should be indexed ...
4523 mbox = ... your mbox files which should be indexed ...
4526 This specifies all your mail folders and mbox files (relative to the
4527 base directory!) you want to index with mairix. Note that the
4528 @code{nnml} back end saves mails in MH format, so you have to put those
4529 directories in the @code{mh} line. See the example at the end of this
4530 section and mairixrc's man-page for further details.
4536 @vindex nnmairix-group-prefix
4537 This should make sure that you don't accidentally index the mairix
4538 search results. You can change the prefix of these folders with the
4539 variable @code{nnmairix-group-prefix}.
4542 mformat= ... 'maildir' or 'mh' ...
4543 database= ... location of database file ...
4546 The @code{format} setting specifies the output format for the mairix
4547 search folder. Set this to @code{mh} if you want to access search results
4548 with @code{nnml}. Otherwise choose @code{maildir}.
4550 To summarize, here is my shortened @file{.mairixrc} file as an example:
4554 maildir=.personal:.work:.logcheck:.sent
4555 mh=../Mail/nnml/*...
4556 mbox=../mboxmail/mailarchive_year*
4559 database=~/.mairixdatabase
4562 In this case, the base directory is @file{~/Maildir}, where all my Maildir
4563 folders are stored. As you can see, the folders are separated by
4564 colons. If you wonder why every folder begins with a dot: this is
4565 because I use Dovecot as @acronym{IMAP} server, which again uses
4566 @code{Maildir++} folders. For testing nnmairix, I also have some
4567 @code{nnml} mail, which is saved in @file{~/Mail/nnml}. Since this has
4568 to be specified relative to the @code{base} directory, the @code{../Mail}
4569 notation is needed. Note that the line ends in @code{*...}, which means
4570 to recursively scan all files under this directory. Without the three
4571 dots, the wildcard @code{*} will not work recursively. I also have some
4572 old mbox files with archived mail lying around in @file{~/mboxmail}.
4573 The other lines should be obvious.
4575 See the man page for @code{mairixrc} for details and further options,
4576 especially regarding wildcard usage, which may be a little different
4577 than you are used to.
4579 Now simply call @code{mairix} to create the index for the first time.
4580 Note that this may take a few minutes, but every following index will do
4581 the updates incrementally and hence is very fast.
4583 @node Configuring nnmairix
4584 @subsubsection Configuring nnmairix
4586 In group mode, type @kbd{G b c}
4587 (@code{nnmairix-create-server-and-default-group}). This will ask you for all
4588 necessary information and create a @code{nnmairix} server as a foreign
4589 server. You will have to specify the following:
4594 The @strong{name} of the @code{nnmairix} server---choose whatever you
4598 The name of the @strong{back end server} where mairix should store its
4599 searches. This must be a full server name, like @code{nnml:mymail}.
4600 Just hit @kbd{TAB} to see the available servers. Currently, servers
4601 which are accessed through @code{nnmaildir}, @code{nnimap} and
4602 @code{nnml} are supported. As explained above, for locally stored
4603 mails, this can be an existing server where you store your mails.
4604 However, you can also create e.g. a new @code{nnmaildir} or @code{nnml}
4605 server exclusively for @code{nnmairix} in your secondary select methods
4606 (@pxref{Finding the News}). If you use a secondary @code{nnml} server
4607 just for mairix, make sure that you explicitly set the server variable
4608 @code{nnml-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}, or you might loose mail
4609 (@pxref{nnmairix caveats}). If you want to use mairix remotely on an
4610 @acronym{IMAP} server, you have to choose the corresponding
4611 @code{nnimap} server here.
4614 @vindex nnmairix-mairix-search-options
4615 The @strong{command} to call the mairix binary. This will usually just
4616 be @code{mairix}, but you can also choose something like @code{ssh
4617 SERVER mairix} if you want to call mairix remotely, e.g. on your
4618 @acronym{IMAP} server. If you want to add some default options to
4619 mairix, you could do this here, but better use the variable
4620 @code{nnmairix-mairix-search-options} instead.
4623 The name of the @strong{default search group}. This will be the group
4624 where all temporary mairix searches are stored, i.e. all searches which
4625 are not bound to permanent @code{nnmairix} groups. Choose whatever you
4629 If the mail back end is @code{nnimap} or @code{nnmaildir}, you will be
4630 asked if you work with @strong{Maildir++}, i.e. with hidden maildir
4631 folders (=beginning with a dot). For example, you have to answer
4632 @samp{yes} here if you work with the Dovecot @acronym{IMAP}
4633 server. Otherwise, you should answer @samp{no} here.
4637 @node nnmairix keyboard shortcuts
4638 @subsubsection nnmairix keyboard shortcuts
4645 @kindex G b c (Group)
4646 @findex nnmairix-create-server-and-default-group
4647 Creates @code{nnmairix} server and default search group for this server
4648 (@code{nnmairix-create-server-and-default-group}). You should have done
4649 this by now (@pxref{Configuring nnmairix}).
4652 @kindex G b s (Group)
4653 @findex nnmairix-search
4654 Prompts for query which is then sent to the mairix binary. Search
4655 results are put into the default search group which is automatically
4656 displayed (@code{nnmairix-search}).
4659 @kindex G b m (Group)
4660 @findex nnmairix-widget-search
4661 Allows you to create a mairix search or a permanent group more
4662 comfortably using graphical widgets, similar to a customization
4663 group. Just try it to see how it works (@code{nnmairix-widget-search}).
4666 @kindex G b i (Group)
4667 @findex nnmairix-search-interactive
4668 Another command for creating a mairix query more comfortably, but uses
4669 only the minibuffer (@code{nnmairix-search-interactive}).
4672 @kindex G b g (Group)
4673 @findex nnmairix-create-search-group
4674 Creates a permanent group which is associated with a search query
4675 (@code{nnmairix-create-search-group}). The @code{nnmairix} back end
4676 automatically calls mairix when you update this group with @kbd{g} or
4680 @kindex G b q (Group)
4681 @findex nnmairix-group-change-query-this-group
4682 Changes the search query for the @code{nnmairix} group under cursor
4683 (@code{nnmairix-group-change-query-this-group}).
4686 @kindex G b t (Group)
4687 @findex nnmairix-group-toggle-threads-this-group
4688 Toggles the 'threads' parameter for the @code{nnmairix} group under cursor,
4689 i.e. if you want see the whole threads of the found messages
4690 (@code{nnmairix-group-toggle-threads-this-group}).
4693 @kindex G b u (Group)
4694 @findex nnmairix-update-database
4695 @vindex nnmairix-mairix-update-options
4696 Calls mairix binary for updating the database
4697 (@code{nnmairix-update-database}). The default parameters are @code{-F}
4698 and @code{-Q} for making this as fast as possible (see variable
4699 @code{nnmairix-mairix-update-options} for defining these default
4703 @kindex G b r (Group)
4704 @findex nnmairix-group-toggle-readmarks-this-group
4705 Keep articles in this @code{nnmairix} group always read or unread, or leave the
4706 marks unchanged (@code{nnmairix-group-toggle-readmarks-this-group}).
4709 @kindex G b d (Group)
4710 @findex nnmairix-group-delete-recreate-this-group
4711 Recreate @code{nnmairix} group on the ``real'' mail back end
4712 (@code{nnmairix-group-delete-recreate-this-group}). You can do this if
4713 you always get wrong article counts with a @code{nnmairix} group.
4716 @kindex G b a (Group)
4717 @findex nnmairix-group-toggle-allowfast-this-group
4718 Toggles the @code{allow-fast} parameters for group under cursor
4719 (@code{nnmairix-group-toggle-allowfast-this-group}). The default
4720 behavior of @code{nnmairix} is to do a mairix search every time you
4721 update or enter the group. With the @code{allow-fast} parameter set,
4722 mairix will only be called when you explicitly update the group, but not
4723 upon entering. This makes entering the group faster, but it may also
4724 lead to dangling symlinks if something changed between updating and
4725 entering the group which is not yet in the mairix database.
4728 @kindex G b p (Group)
4729 @findex nnmairix-group-toggle-propmarks-this-group
4730 Toggle marks propagation for this group
4731 (@code{nnmairix-group-toggle-propmarks-this-group}). (@pxref{Propagating
4735 @kindex G b o (Group)
4736 @findex nnmairix-propagate-marks
4737 Manually propagate marks (@code{nnmairix-propagate-marks}); needed only when
4738 @code{nnmairix-propagate-marks-upon-close} is set to @code{nil}.
4747 @kindex $ m (Summary)
4748 @findex nnmairix-widget-search-from-this-article
4749 Allows you to create a mairix query or group based on the current
4750 message using graphical widgets (same as @code{nnmairix-widget-search})
4751 (@code{nnmairix-widget-search-from-this-article}).
4754 @kindex $ g (Summary)
4755 @findex nnmairix-create-search-group-from-message
4756 Interactively creates a new search group with query based on the current
4757 message, but uses the minibuffer instead of graphical widgets
4758 (@code{nnmairix-create-search-group-from-message}).
4761 @kindex $ t (Summary)
4762 @findex nnmairix-search-thread-this-article
4763 Searches thread for the current article
4764 (@code{nnmairix-search-thread-this-article}). This is effectively a
4765 shortcut for calling @code{nnmairix-search} with @samp{m:msgid} of the
4766 current article and enabled threads.
4769 @kindex $ f (Summary)
4770 @findex nnmairix-search-from-this-article
4771 Searches all messages from sender of the current article
4772 (@code{nnmairix-search-from-this-article}). This is a shortcut for
4773 calling @code{nnmairix-search} with @samp{f:From}.
4776 @kindex $ o (Summary)
4777 @findex nnmairix-goto-original-article
4778 (Only in @code{nnmairix} groups!) Tries determine the group this article
4779 originally came from and displays the article in this group, so that
4780 e.g. replying to this article the correct posting styles/group
4781 parameters are applied (@code{nnmairix-goto-original-article}). This
4782 function will use the registry if available, but can also parse the
4783 article file name as a fallback method.
4786 @kindex $ u (Summary)
4787 @findex nnmairix-remove-tick-mark-original-article
4788 Remove possibly existing tick mark from original article
4789 (@code{nnmairix-remove-tick-mark-original-article}). (@pxref{nnmairix
4794 @node Propagating marks
4795 @subsubsection Propagating marks
4797 First of: you really need a patched mairix binary for using the marks
4798 propagation feature efficiently. Otherwise, you would have to update
4799 the mairix database all the time. You can get the patch at
4801 @uref{http://www.randomsample.de/mairix-maildir-patch.tar}
4803 You need the mairix v0.21 source code for this patch; everything else
4804 is explained in the accompanied readme file. If you don't want to use
4805 marks propagation, you don't have to apply these patches, but they also
4806 fix some annoyances regarding changing maildir flags, so it might still
4809 With the patched mairix binary, you can use @code{nnmairix} as an
4810 alternative to mail splitting (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}). For
4811 example, instead of splitting all mails from @samp{david@@foobar.com}
4812 into a group, you can simply create a search group with the query
4813 @samp{f:david@@foobar.com}. This is actually what ``smart folders'' are
4814 all about: simply put everything in one mail folder and dynamically
4815 create searches instead of splitting. This is more flexible, since you
4816 can dynamically change your folders any time you want to. This also
4817 implies that you will usually read your mails in the @code{nnmairix}
4818 groups instead of your ``real'' mail groups.
4820 There is one problem, though: say you got a new mail from
4821 @samp{david@@foobar.com}; it will now show up in two groups, the
4822 ``real'' group (your INBOX, for example) and in the @code{nnmairix}
4823 search group (provided you have updated the mairix database). Now you
4824 enter the @code{nnmairix} group and read the mail. The mail will be
4825 marked as read, but only in the @code{nnmairix} group---in the ``real''
4826 mail group it will be still shown as unread.
4828 You could now catch up the mail group (@pxref{Group Data}), but this is
4829 tedious and error prone, since you may overlook mails you don't have
4830 created @code{nnmairix} groups for. Of course, you could first use
4831 @code{nnmairix-goto-original-article} (@pxref{nnmairix keyboard
4832 shortcuts}) and then read the mail in the original group, but that's
4833 even more cumbersome.
4835 Clearly, the easiest way would be if marks could somehow be
4836 automatically set for the original article. This is exactly what
4837 @emph{marks propagation} is about.
4839 Marks propagation is deactivated by default. You can activate it for a
4840 certain @code{nnmairix} group with
4841 @code{nnmairix-group-toggle-propmarks-this-group} (bound to @kbd{G b
4842 p}). This function will warn you if you try to use it with your default
4843 search group; the reason is that the default search group is used for
4844 temporary searches, and it's easy to accidentally propagate marks from
4845 this group. However, you can ignore this warning if you really want to.
4847 With marks propagation enabled, all the marks you set in a @code{nnmairix}
4848 group should now be propagated to the original article. For example,
4849 you can now tick an article (by default with @kbd{!}) and this mark should
4850 magically be set for the original article, too.
4852 A few more remarks which you may or may not want to know:
4854 @vindex nnmairix-propagate-marks-upon-close
4855 Marks will not be set immediately, but only upon closing a group. This
4856 not only makes marks propagation faster, it also avoids problems with
4857 dangling symlinks when dealing with maildir files (since changing flags
4858 will change the file name). You can also control when to propagate marks
4859 via @code{nnmairix-propagate-marks-upon-close} (see the doc-string for
4862 Obviously, @code{nnmairix} will have to look up the original group for every
4863 article you want to set marks for. If available, @code{nnmairix} will first use
4864 the registry for determining the original group. The registry is very
4865 fast, hence you should really, really enable the registry when using
4866 marks propagation. If you don't have to worry about RAM and disc space,
4867 set @code{gnus-registry-max-entries} to a large enough value; to be on
4868 the safe side, choose roughly the amount of mails you index with mairix.
4870 @vindex nnmairix-only-use-registry
4871 If you don't want to use the registry or the registry hasn't seen the
4872 original article yet, @code{nnmairix} will use an additional mairix
4873 search for determining the file name of the article. This, of course, is
4874 way slower than the registry---if you set hundreds or even thousands of
4875 marks this way, it might take some time. You can avoid this situation by
4876 setting @code{nnmairix-only-use-registry} to t.
4878 Maybe you also want to propagate marks the other way round, i.e. if you
4879 tick an article in a "real" mail group, you'd like to have the same
4880 article in a @code{nnmairix} group ticked, too. For several good
4881 reasons, this can only be done efficiently if you use maildir. To
4882 immediately contradict myself, let me mention that it WON'T work with
4883 @code{nnmaildir}, since @code{nnmaildir} stores the marks externally and
4884 not in the file name. Therefore, propagating marks to @code{nnmairix}
4885 groups will usually only work if you use an IMAP server which uses
4886 maildir as its file format.
4888 @vindex nnmairix-propagate-marks-to-nnmairix-groups
4889 If you work with this setup, just set
4890 @code{nnmairix-propagate-marks-to-nnmairix-groups} to @code{t} and see what
4891 happens. If you don't like what you see, just set it to @code{nil} again. One
4892 problem might be that you get a wrong number of unread articles; this
4893 usually happens when you delete or expire articles in the original
4894 groups. When this happens, you can recreate the @code{nnmairix} group on the
4895 back end using @kbd{G b d}.
4897 @node nnmairix tips and tricks
4898 @subsubsection nnmairix tips and tricks
4904 @findex nnmairix-update-groups
4905 I put all my important mail groups at group level 1. The mairix groups
4906 have group level 5, so they do not get checked at start up (@pxref{Group
4909 I use the following to check for mails:
4912 (defun my-check-mail-mairix-update (level)
4914 ;; if no prefix given, set level=1
4915 (gnus-group-get-new-news (or level 1))
4916 (nnmairix-update-groups "mairixsearch" t t)
4917 (gnus-group-list-groups))
4919 (define-key gnus-group-mode-map "g" 'my-check-mail-mairix-update)
4922 Instead of @samp{"mairixsearch"} use the name of your @code{nnmairix}
4923 server. See the doc string for @code{nnmairix-update-groups} for
4927 Example: search group for ticked articles
4929 For example, you can create a group for all ticked articles, where the
4930 articles always stay unread:
4932 Hit @kbd{G b g}, enter group name (e.g. @samp{important}), use
4933 @samp{F:f} as query and do not include threads.
4935 Now activate marks propagation for this group by using @kbd{G b p}. Then
4936 activate the always-unread feature by using @kbd{G b r} twice.
4938 So far so good---but how do you remove the tick marks in the @code{nnmairix}
4939 group? There are two options: You may simply use
4940 @code{nnmairix-remove-tick-mark-original-article} (bound to @kbd{$ u}) to remove
4941 tick marks from the original article. The other possibility is to set
4942 @code{nnmairix-propagate-marks-to-nnmairix-groups} to @code{t}, but see the above
4943 comments about this option. If it works for you, the tick marks should
4944 also exist in the @code{nnmairix} group and you can remove them as usual,
4945 e.g. by marking an article as read.
4947 When you have removed a tick mark from the original article, this
4948 article should vanish from the @code{nnmairix} group after you have updated the
4949 mairix database and updated the group. Fortunately, there is a function
4950 for doing exactly that: @code{nnmairix-update-groups}. See the previous code
4951 snippet and the doc string for details.
4954 Dealing with auto-subscription of mail groups
4956 As described before, all @code{nnmairix} groups are in fact stored on
4957 the mail back end in the form @samp{zz_mairix-<NAME>-<NUMBER>}. You can
4958 see them when you enter the back end server in the server buffer. You
4959 should not subscribe these groups! Unfortunately, these groups will
4960 usually get @emph{auto-subscribed} when you use @code{nnmaildir} or
4961 @code{nnml}, i.e. you will suddenly see groups of the form
4962 @samp{zz_mairix*} pop up in your group buffer. If this happens to you,
4963 simply kill these groups with C-k. For avoiding this, turn off
4964 auto-subscription completely by setting the variable
4965 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups} to @code{nil} (@pxref{Filtering New
4966 Groups}), or if you like to keep this feature use the following kludge
4967 for turning it off for all groups beginning with @samp{zz_}:
4970 (setq gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
4971 "^\\(nnml\\|nnfolder\\|nnmbox\\|nnmh\\|nnbabyl\\|nnmaildir\\).*:\\([^z]\\|z$\\|\\z[^z]\\|zz$\\|zz[^_]\\|zz_$\\).*")
4976 @node nnmairix caveats
4977 @subsubsection nnmairix caveats
4981 You can create a secondary @code{nnml} server just for nnmairix, but then
4982 you have to explicitly set the corresponding server variable
4983 @code{nnml-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}. Otherwise, new mail might get
4984 put into this secondary server (and would never show up again). Here's
4985 an example server definition:
4988 (nnml "mairix" (nnml-directory "mairix") (nnml-get-new-mail nil))
4991 (The @code{nnmaildir} back end also has a server variabe
4992 @code{get-new-mail}, but its default value is @code{nil}, so you don't
4993 have to explicitly set it if you use a @code{nnmaildir} server just for
4997 If you use the Gnus registry: don't use the registry with
4998 @code{nnmairix} groups (put them in
4999 @code{gnus-registry-unfollowed-groups}). Be @emph{extra careful} if
5000 you use @code{gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent}; mails which are
5001 split into @code{nnmairix} groups are usually gone for good as soon as
5002 you check the group for new mail (yes, it has happened to me...).
5005 Therefore: @emph{Never ever} put ``real'' mails into @code{nnmairix}
5006 groups (you shouldn't be able to, anyway).
5009 If you use the Gnus agent (@pxref{Gnus Unplugged}): don't agentize
5010 @code{nnmairix} groups (though I have no idea what happens if you do).
5013 mairix does only support us-ascii characters.
5016 @code{nnmairix} uses a rather brute force method to force Gnus to
5017 completely reread the group on the mail back end after mairix was
5018 called---it simply deletes and re-creates the group on the mail
5019 back end. So far, this has worked for me without any problems, and I
5020 don't see how @code{nnmairix} could delete other mail groups than its
5021 own, but anyway: you really should have a backup of your mail
5025 All necessary information is stored in the group parameters
5026 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). This has the advantage that no active file
5027 is needed, but also implies that when you kill a @code{nnmairix} group,
5028 it is gone for good.
5031 @findex nnmairix-purge-old-groups
5032 If you create and kill a lot of @code{nnmairix} groups, the
5033 ``zz_mairix-*'' groups will accumulate on the mail back end server. To
5034 delete old groups which are no longer needed, call
5035 @code{nnmairix-purge-old-groups}. Note that this assumes that you don't
5036 save any ``real'' mail in folders of the form
5037 @code{zz_mairix-<NAME>-<NUMBER>}. You can change the prefix of
5038 @code{nnmairix} groups by changing the variable
5039 @code{nnmairix-group-prefix}.
5042 The following only applies if you @emph{don't} use the mentioned patch
5043 for mairix (@pxref{Propagating marks}):
5045 A problem can occur when using @code{nnmairix} with maildir folders and
5046 comes with the fact that maildir stores mail flags like @samp{Seen} or
5047 @samp{Replied} by appending chars @samp{S} and @samp{R} to the message
5048 file name, respectively. This implies that currently you would have to
5049 update the mairix database not only when new mail arrives, but also when
5050 mail flags are changing. The same applies to new mails which are indexed
5051 while they are still in the @samp{new} folder but then get moved to
5052 @samp{cur} when Gnus has seen the mail. If you don't update the database
5053 after this has happened, a mairix query can lead to symlinks pointing to
5054 non-existing files. In Gnus, these messages will usually appear with
5055 ``(none)'' entries in the header and can't be accessed. If this happens
5056 to you, using @kbd{G b u} and updating the group will usually fix this.
5060 @node Misc Group Stuff
5061 @section Misc Group Stuff
5064 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
5065 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
5066 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
5067 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
5068 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
5075 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Group)
5076 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
5077 command or better use it as a prefix key. For example:
5080 (define-key gnus-group-mode-map (kbd "v j d")
5083 (gnus-group-jump-to-group "nndraft:drafts")))
5086 On keys reserved for users in Emacs and on keybindings in general
5087 @xref{Keymaps, Keymaps, , emacs, The Emacs Editor}.
5091 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
5092 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
5093 @xref{Server Buffer}.
5097 @findex gnus-group-post-news
5098 Start composing a message (a news by default)
5099 (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a prefix, post to the group
5100 under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
5101 Contrary to what the name of this function suggests, the prepared
5102 article might be a mail instead of a news, if a mail group is specified
5103 with the prefix argument. @xref{Composing Messages}.
5107 @findex gnus-group-mail
5108 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}). If given a prefix,
5109 use the posting style of the group under the point. If the prefix is 1,
5110 prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
5111 @xref{Composing Messages}.
5115 @findex gnus-group-news
5116 Start composing a news (@code{gnus-group-news}). If given a prefix,
5117 post to the group under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt
5118 for group to post to. @xref{Composing Messages}.
5120 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
5121 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
5122 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
5123 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
5124 for this to work though.
5128 @findex gnus-group-compact-group
5130 Compact the group under point (@code{gnus-group-compact-group}).
5131 Currently implemented only in nnml (@pxref{Mail Spool}). This removes
5132 gaps between article numbers, hence getting a correct total article
5137 Variables for the group buffer:
5141 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
5142 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
5143 is called after the group buffer has been
5146 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
5147 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
5148 is called after the group buffer is
5149 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
5152 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
5153 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
5154 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
5155 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
5157 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
5158 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
5159 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
5160 whether they are empty or not.
5164 @node Scanning New Messages
5165 @subsection Scanning New Messages
5166 @cindex new messages
5167 @cindex scanning new news
5173 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
5174 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
5175 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
5176 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
5177 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
5178 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
5183 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
5184 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
5185 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
5186 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
5187 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
5188 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
5189 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
5191 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
5192 @cindex activating groups
5194 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
5195 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
5200 @findex gnus-group-restart
5201 Restart Gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
5202 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
5203 Gnus variables, and then starts Gnus all over again.
5207 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
5208 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
5210 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
5211 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
5215 @node Group Information
5216 @subsection Group Information
5217 @cindex group information
5218 @cindex information on groups
5225 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
5226 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
5229 Try to fetch the @acronym{FAQ} for the current group
5230 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the @acronym{FAQ}
5231 from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on
5232 a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
5233 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
5234 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be
5235 used for fetching the file.
5237 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, Gnus will attempt to go
5238 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
5242 @findex gnus-group-fetch-charter
5243 @vindex gnus-group-charter-alist
5245 Try to open the charter for the current group in a web browser
5246 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-charter}). Query for a group if given a
5249 Gnus will use @code{gnus-group-charter-alist} to find the location of
5250 the charter. If no location is known, Gnus will fetch the control
5251 messages for the group, which in some cases includes the charter.
5255 @findex gnus-group-fetch-control
5256 @vindex gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url
5257 @cindex control message
5258 Fetch the control messages for the group from the archive at
5259 @code{ftp.isc.org} (@code{gnus-group-fetch-control}). Query for a
5260 group if given a prefix argument.
5262 If @code{gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url} is non-@code{nil},
5263 Gnus will open the control messages in a browser using
5264 @code{browse-url}. Otherwise they are fetched using @code{ange-ftp}
5265 and displayed in an ephemeral group.
5267 Note that the control messages are compressed. To use this command
5268 you need to turn on @code{auto-compression-mode} (@pxref{Compressed
5269 Files, ,Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Manual}).
5273 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
5275 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
5276 @cindex describing groups
5277 @cindex group description
5278 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
5279 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
5280 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
5284 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
5285 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
5286 prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
5293 @findex gnus-version
5294 Display current Gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
5298 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
5299 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
5302 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
5305 @findex gnus-info-find-node
5306 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
5310 @node Group Timestamp
5311 @subsection Group Timestamp
5313 @cindex group timestamps
5315 It can be convenient to let Gnus keep track of when you last read a
5316 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
5317 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
5320 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
5323 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
5325 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
5326 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
5329 (setq gnus-group-line-format
5330 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
5333 This will result in lines looking like:
5336 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
5337 0: custom 19961002T012713
5340 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
5341 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
5345 (setq gnus-group-line-format
5346 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
5349 If you would like greater control of the time format, you can use a
5350 user-defined format spec. Something like the following should do the
5354 (setq gnus-group-line-format
5355 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %ud\n")
5356 (defun gnus-user-format-function-d (headers)
5357 (let ((time (gnus-group-timestamp gnus-tmp-group)))
5359 (format-time-string "%b %d %H:%M" time)
5365 @subsection File Commands
5366 @cindex file commands
5372 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
5373 @vindex gnus-init-file
5374 @cindex reading init file
5375 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
5376 @file{~/.gnus.el}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
5380 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
5381 @cindex saving .newsrc
5382 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
5383 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
5384 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
5387 @c @kindex Z (Group)
5388 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
5389 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
5394 @node Sieve Commands
5395 @subsection Sieve Commands
5396 @cindex group sieve commands
5398 Sieve is a server-side mail filtering language. In Gnus you can use
5399 the @code{sieve} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to specify
5400 sieve rules that should apply to each group. Gnus provides two
5401 commands to translate all these group parameters into a proper Sieve
5402 script that can be transfered to the server somehow.
5404 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
5405 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-start
5406 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-end
5407 The generated Sieve script is placed in @code{gnus-sieve-file} (by
5408 default @file{~/.sieve}). The Sieve code that Gnus generate is placed
5409 between two delimiters, @code{gnus-sieve-region-start} and
5410 @code{gnus-sieve-region-end}, so you may write additional Sieve code
5411 outside these delimiters that will not be removed the next time you
5412 regenerate the Sieve script.
5414 @vindex gnus-sieve-crosspost
5415 The variable @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} controls how the Sieve script
5416 is generated. If it is non-@code{nil} (the default) articles is
5417 placed in all groups that have matching rules, otherwise the article
5418 is only placed in the group with the first matching rule. For
5419 example, the group parameter @samp{(sieve address "sender"
5420 "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu")} will generate the following piece of Sieve
5421 code if @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is @code{nil}. (When
5422 @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is non-@code{nil}, it looks the same
5423 except that the line containing the call to @code{stop} is removed.)
5426 if address "sender" "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu" @{
5427 fileinto "INBOX.ding";
5432 @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve, Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
5438 @findex gnus-sieve-generate
5439 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
5440 @cindex generating sieve script
5441 Regenerate a Sieve script from the @code{sieve} group parameters and
5442 put you into the @code{gnus-sieve-file} without saving it.
5446 @findex gnus-sieve-update
5447 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
5448 @cindex updating sieve script
5449 Regenerates the Gnus managed part of @code{gnus-sieve-file} using the
5450 @code{sieve} group parameters, save the file and upload it to the
5451 server using the @code{sieveshell} program.
5456 @node Summary Buffer
5457 @chapter Summary Buffer
5458 @cindex summary buffer
5460 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
5461 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
5463 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
5464 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
5466 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
5468 You can customize the Summary Mode tool bar, see @kbd{M-x
5469 customize-apropos RET gnus-summary-tool-bar}. This feature is only
5473 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Summary)
5474 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
5475 command or better use it as a prefix key. For example:
5477 (define-key gnus-summary-mode-map (kbd "v -") "LrS") ;; lower subthread
5481 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
5482 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
5483 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
5484 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
5485 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
5486 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
5487 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
5488 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
5489 * Threading:: How threads are made.
5490 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
5491 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
5492 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
5493 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
5494 * Sticky Articles:: Article buffers that are not reused.
5495 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
5496 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
5497 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
5498 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
5499 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
5500 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
5501 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
5502 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
5503 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
5504 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
5505 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
5506 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
5507 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
5508 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
5509 or reselecting the current group.
5510 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
5511 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
5512 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
5513 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
5517 @node Summary Buffer Format
5518 @section Summary Buffer Format
5519 @cindex summary buffer format
5523 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
5524 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary,width=7.5cm}}
5525 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-article,width=7.5cm}}}
5531 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
5532 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
5533 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
5534 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
5537 @findex mail-extract-address-components
5538 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
5539 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
5540 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
5541 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
5542 @code{From} header. Two pre-defined functions exist:
5543 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
5544 fast, and too simplistic solution; and
5545 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works very nicely, but is
5546 slower. The default function will return the wrong answer in 5% of the
5547 cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the other function instead:
5550 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
5551 'mail-extract-address-components)
5554 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
5555 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
5556 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
5557 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
5560 @node Summary Buffer Lines
5561 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
5563 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
5564 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
5565 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
5566 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
5567 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
5569 There should always be a colon or a point position marker on the line;
5570 the cursor always moves to the point position marker or the colon after
5571 performing an operation. (Of course, Gnus wouldn't be Gnus if it wasn't
5572 possible to change this. Just write a new function
5573 @code{gnus-goto-colon} which does whatever you like with the cursor.)
5574 @xref{Positioning Point}.
5576 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n}.
5578 The following format specification characters and extended format
5579 specification(s) are understood:
5585 Subject string. List identifiers stripped,
5586 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. @xref{Article Hiding}.
5588 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
5589 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
5590 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
5592 Full @code{From} header.
5594 The name (from the @code{From} header).
5596 The name, @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header (@pxref{To
5599 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
5600 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
5601 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
5602 may be more thorough.
5604 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
5607 Number of lines in the article.
5609 Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported
5610 in some methods (like nnfolder).
5612 Pretty-printed version of the number of characters in the article;
5613 for example, @samp{1.2k} or @samp{0.4M}.
5615 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
5617 A complex trn-style thread tree, showing response-connecting trace
5618 lines. A thread could be drawn like this:
5631 You can customize the appearance with the following options. Note
5632 that it is possible to make the thread display look really neat by
5633 replacing the default @acronym{ASCII} characters with graphic
5634 line-drawing glyphs.
5636 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
5637 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
5638 Used for the root of a thread. If @code{nil}, use subject
5639 instead. The default is @samp{> }.
5641 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
5642 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
5643 Used for the false root of a thread (@pxref{Loose Threads}). If
5644 @code{nil}, use subject instead. The default is @samp{> }.
5646 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
5647 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
5648 Used for a thread with just one message. If @code{nil}, use subject
5649 instead. The default is @samp{}.
5651 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
5652 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
5653 Used for drawing a vertical line. The default is @samp{| }.
5655 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
5656 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
5657 Used for indenting. The default is @samp{ }.
5659 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
5660 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
5661 Used for a leaf with brothers. The default is @samp{+-> }.
5663 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
5664 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
5665 Used for a leaf without brothers. The default is @samp{\-> }
5670 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
5671 pushes everything after it off the screen).
5673 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
5674 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
5676 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
5677 for adopted articles.
5679 One space for each thread level.
5681 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
5683 Unread. @xref{Read Articles}.
5686 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
5687 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
5688 or has been saved. @xref{Other Marks}.
5691 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
5693 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
5694 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
5695 default level. If the difference between
5696 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
5697 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
5705 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
5707 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
5713 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
5714 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
5716 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
5717 article has any children.
5723 Desired cursor position (instead of after first colon).
5725 Age sensitive date format. Various date format is defined in
5726 @code{gnus-user-date-format-alist}.
5728 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
5729 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
5730 @code{gnus-user-format-function-@var{x}}, where @var{x} is the letter
5731 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
5732 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
5733 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
5736 Text between @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} will be highlighted with
5737 @code{gnus-mouse-face} when the mouse point is placed inside the area.
5738 There can only be one such area.
5740 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
5741 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will
5742 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
5743 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
5744 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
5745 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
5747 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
5748 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
5750 This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
5753 @node To From Newsgroups
5754 @subsection To From Newsgroups
5758 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
5759 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
5760 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
5761 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
5762 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
5766 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
5767 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
5768 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
5772 (setq gnus-extra-headers
5773 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
5776 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
5777 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
5780 @findex gnus-extra-header
5781 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
5782 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
5783 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
5786 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
5790 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
5791 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
5792 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
5793 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
5794 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
5795 headers are used instead.
5797 To distinguish regular articles from those where the @code{From} field
5798 has been swapped, a string is prefixed to the @code{To} or
5799 @code{Newsgroups} header in the summary line. By default the string is
5800 @samp{-> } for @code{To} and @samp{=> } for @code{Newsgroups}, you can
5801 customize these strings with @code{gnus-summary-to-prefix} and
5802 @code{gnus-summary-newsgroup-prefix}.
5806 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
5807 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
5808 to include extra headers when generating overview (@acronym{NOV}) files.
5809 If you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after
5810 changing this variable, by entering the server buffer using @kbd{^},
5811 and then @kbd{g} on the appropriate mail server (e.g. nnml) to cause
5814 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
5815 You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the
5816 @code{%n} spec to the @code{%f} spec in the
5817 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable.
5819 In summary, you'd typically put something like the following in
5823 (setq gnus-extra-headers
5825 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
5826 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
5827 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
5828 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
5832 (The values listed above are the default values in Gnus. Alter them
5835 A note for news server administrators, or for users who wish to try to
5836 convince their news server administrator to provide some additional
5839 The above is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
5840 the @acronym{NOV} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
5841 nntp admin to add (in the usual implementation, notably INN):
5847 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
5848 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
5851 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
5852 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
5854 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
5855 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
5856 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
5857 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
5859 Here are the elements you can play with:
5865 Unprefixed group name.
5867 Current article number.
5869 Current article score.
5873 Number of unread articles in this group.
5875 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
5878 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
5879 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
5880 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
5881 and no unselected ones.
5883 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
5884 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
5886 Subject of the current article.
5888 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
5890 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
5892 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
5894 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
5896 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
5898 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
5902 @node Summary Highlighting
5903 @subsection Summary Highlighting
5907 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
5908 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
5909 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
5910 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
5911 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
5913 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
5914 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
5915 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
5916 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
5918 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
5919 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
5920 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
5921 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
5923 @item gnus-summary-highlight
5924 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
5925 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
5926 list where the elements are of the format @code{(@var{form}
5927 . @var{face})}. If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be
5928 italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable
5931 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
5932 ((> score default) . bold))
5934 As you may have guessed, if @var{form} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
5935 @var{face} will be applied to the line.
5939 @node Summary Maneuvering
5940 @section Summary Maneuvering
5941 @cindex summary movement
5943 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
5944 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
5946 None of these commands select articles.
5951 @kindex M-n (Summary)
5952 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
5953 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
5954 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
5955 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
5959 @kindex M-p (Summary)
5960 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
5961 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
5962 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
5963 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
5966 @kindex G g (Summary)
5967 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
5968 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
5969 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
5972 If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
5973 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
5974 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
5975 to the group buffer.
5977 Variables related to summary movement:
5981 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
5982 @item gnus-auto-select-next
5983 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
5984 no more unread articles after the current one, Gnus will offer to go to
5985 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
5986 empty, Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
5987 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, Gnus will select the
5988 next group with unread articles. As a special case, if this variable
5989 is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the next group without asking for
5990 confirmation. If this variable is @code{almost-quietly}, the same
5991 will happen only if you are located on the last article in the group.
5992 Finally, if this variable is @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n}
5993 command will go to the next group without confirmation. Also
5994 @pxref{Group Levels}.
5996 @item gnus-auto-select-same
5997 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
5998 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
5999 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
6000 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
6001 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
6002 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
6004 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
6006 @item gnus-summary-check-current
6007 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
6008 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
6009 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
6010 Instead, they will choose the current article.
6012 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
6013 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
6014 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
6015 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
6016 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
6017 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
6018 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
6019 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
6022 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
6023 the given number of lines from the top.
6025 @item gnus-summary-stop-at-end-of-message
6026 @vindex gnus-summary-stop-at-end-of-message
6027 If non-@code{nil}, don't go to the next article when hitting
6028 @kbd{SPC}, and you're at the end of the article.
6033 @node Choosing Articles
6034 @section Choosing Articles
6035 @cindex selecting articles
6038 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
6039 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
6043 @node Choosing Commands
6044 @subsection Choosing Commands
6046 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
6047 and they all select and display an article.
6049 If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see
6050 @ref{Exiting the Summary Buffer}.
6054 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
6055 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
6056 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
6057 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
6059 If you have an article window open already and you press @kbd{SPACE}
6060 again, the article will be scrolled. This lets you conveniently
6061 @kbd{SPACE} through an entire newsgroup. @xref{Paging the Article}.
6066 @kindex G n (Summary)
6067 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
6068 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
6069 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
6074 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
6075 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
6076 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
6081 @kindex G N (Summary)
6082 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
6083 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
6088 @kindex G P (Summary)
6089 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
6090 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
6093 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
6094 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
6095 Go to the next article with the same subject
6096 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
6099 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
6100 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
6101 Go to the previous article with the same subject
6102 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
6106 @kindex G f (Summary)
6108 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
6109 Go to the first unread article
6110 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
6114 @kindex G b (Summary)
6116 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
6117 Go to the unread article with the highest score
6118 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}). If given a prefix argument,
6119 go to the first unread article that has a score over the default score.
6124 @kindex G l (Summary)
6125 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
6126 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
6129 @kindex G o (Summary)
6130 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
6132 @cindex article history
6133 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
6134 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
6135 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
6136 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
6137 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
6138 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
6143 @kindex G j (Summary)
6144 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
6145 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
6146 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
6151 @node Choosing Variables
6152 @subsection Choosing Variables
6154 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
6157 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
6158 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
6159 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
6160 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
6161 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
6162 the server and display it in the article buffer.
6164 @item gnus-select-article-hook
6165 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
6166 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. The default is
6167 @code{nil}. If you would like each article to be saved in the Agent as
6168 you read it, putting @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} on this
6171 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
6172 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
6173 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
6174 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
6175 @findex gnus-unread-mark
6176 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
6177 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
6178 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
6179 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-read-mark}. The only
6180 articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
6181 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
6182 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
6183 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
6184 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
6189 @node Paging the Article
6190 @section Scrolling the Article
6191 @cindex article scrolling
6196 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
6197 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
6198 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
6199 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
6200 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
6202 @vindex gnus-article-boring-faces
6203 @vindex gnus-article-skip-boring
6204 If @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} is non-@code{nil} and the rest of
6205 the article consists only of citations and signature, then it will be
6206 skipped; the next article will be shown instead. You can customize
6207 what is considered uninteresting with
6208 @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}. You can manually view the article's
6209 pages, no matter how boring, using @kbd{C-M-v}.
6212 @kindex DEL (Summary)
6213 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
6214 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
6217 @kindex RET (Summary)
6218 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
6219 Scroll the current article one line forward
6220 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
6223 @kindex M-RET (Summary)
6224 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-down
6225 Scroll the current article one line backward
6226 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-down}).
6230 @kindex A g (Summary)
6232 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
6233 @vindex gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
6234 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
6235 given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the
6236 article treatment functions. This will give you a ``raw'' article, just
6237 the way it came from the server.
6239 @cindex charset, view article with different charset
6240 If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual charset stuff.
6241 @kbd{C-u 0 g cn-gb-2312 RET} will decode the message as if it were
6242 encoded in the @code{cn-gb-2312} charset. If you have
6245 (setq gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
6250 then you can say @kbd{C-u 1 g} to get the same effect.
6255 @kindex A < (Summary)
6256 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
6257 Scroll to the beginning of the article
6258 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
6263 @kindex A > (Summary)
6264 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
6265 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
6269 @kindex A s (Summary)
6271 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
6272 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
6273 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
6277 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
6278 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
6283 @node Reply Followup and Post
6284 @section Reply, Followup and Post
6287 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
6288 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
6289 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
6290 * Canceling and Superseding::
6294 @node Summary Mail Commands
6295 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
6297 @cindex composing mail
6299 Commands for composing a mail message:
6305 @kindex S r (Summary)
6307 @findex gnus-summary-reply
6308 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
6309 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
6310 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
6311 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
6316 @kindex S R (Summary)
6317 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
6318 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
6319 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
6320 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
6321 command uses the process/prefix convention.
6324 @kindex S w (Summary)
6325 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
6326 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
6327 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
6328 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
6329 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers. If @code{Mail-Followup-To} is
6330 present, that's used instead.
6333 @kindex S W (Summary)
6334 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
6335 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
6336 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
6337 the process/prefix convention, but only uses the headers from the
6338 first article to determine the recipients.
6341 @kindex S v (Summary)
6342 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply
6343 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article
6344 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{very wide reply} is a reply
6345 that goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
6346 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers in all the process/prefixed
6347 articles. This command uses the process/prefix convention.
6350 @kindex S V (Summary)
6351 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original
6352 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article and include the
6353 original message (@code{gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original}). This
6354 command uses the process/prefix convention.
6357 @kindex S B r (Summary)
6358 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to
6359 Mail a reply to the author of the current article but ignore the
6360 @code{Reply-To} field (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to}).
6361 If you need this because a mailing list incorrectly sets a
6362 @code{Reply-To} header pointing to the list, you probably want to set
6363 the @code{broken-reply-to} group parameter instead, so things will work
6364 correctly. @xref{Group Parameters}.
6367 @kindex S B R (Summary)
6368 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original
6369 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
6370 original message but ignore the @code{Reply-To} field
6371 (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original}).
6375 @kindex S o m (Summary)
6376 @kindex C-c C-f (Summary)
6377 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
6378 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
6379 Forward the current article to some other person
6380 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If no prefix is given, the message
6381 is forwarded according to the value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime})
6382 and (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
6383 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
6384 as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
6385 forward as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
6386 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
6387 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
6388 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME}
6394 @kindex S m (Summary)
6395 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
6396 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
6397 Prepare a mail (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}). By default, use
6398 the posting style of the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
6399 If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
6402 @kindex S i (Summary)
6403 @findex gnus-summary-news-other-window
6404 Prepare a news (@code{gnus-summary-news-other-window}). By default,
6405 post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that. If the
6406 prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
6408 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
6409 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
6410 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
6411 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
6412 for this to work though.
6415 @kindex S D b (Summary)
6416 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
6417 @cindex bouncing mail
6418 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
6419 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
6420 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
6421 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
6422 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
6423 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, Gnus will try to fetch
6424 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
6425 very well fail, though.
6428 @kindex S D r (Summary)
6429 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
6430 Not to be confused with the previous command,
6431 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
6432 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
6433 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
6434 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
6435 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
6436 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
6437 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
6439 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
6440 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
6441 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
6442 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
6443 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muss sein!
6445 This command understands the process/prefix convention
6446 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
6449 @kindex S D e (Summary)
6450 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message-edit
6452 Like the previous command, but will allow you to edit the message as
6453 if it were a new message before resending.
6456 @kindex S O m (Summary)
6457 @findex gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward
6458 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
6459 result using mail (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command
6460 uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
6463 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
6464 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
6465 @cindex crossposting
6466 @cindex excessive crossposting
6467 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
6468 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
6470 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
6471 This command is provided as a way to fight back against the current
6472 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
6473 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
6474 command understands the process/prefix convention
6475 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
6479 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
6480 Manual}, for more information.
6483 @node Summary Post Commands
6484 @subsection Summary Post Commands
6486 @cindex composing news
6488 Commands for posting a news article:
6494 @kindex S p (Summary)
6495 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
6496 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
6497 Prepare for posting an article (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}). By
6498 default, post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
6499 If the prefix is 1, prompt for another group instead.
6504 @kindex S f (Summary)
6505 @findex gnus-summary-followup
6506 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
6507 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
6511 @kindex S F (Summary)
6513 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
6514 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
6515 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
6516 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
6517 process/prefix convention.
6520 @kindex S n (Summary)
6521 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
6522 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
6523 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
6526 @kindex S N (Summary)
6527 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original
6528 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
6529 message through mail and include the original message
6530 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
6531 the process/prefix convention.
6534 @kindex S o p (Summary)
6535 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
6536 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
6537 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}).
6538 If no prefix is given, the message is forwarded according to the value
6539 of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}) and
6540 (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
6541 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
6542 as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
6543 forward as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
6544 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
6545 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
6546 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section.
6549 @kindex S O p (Summary)
6550 @findex gnus-uu-digest-post-forward
6552 @cindex making digests
6553 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
6554 (@code{gnus-uu-digest-post-forward}). This command uses the
6555 process/prefix convention.
6558 @kindex S u (Summary)
6559 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
6560 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
6561 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
6562 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
6565 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
6566 Manual}, for more information.
6569 @node Summary Message Commands
6570 @subsection Summary Message Commands
6574 @kindex S y (Summary)
6575 @findex gnus-summary-yank-message
6576 Yank the current article into an already existing Message composition
6577 buffer (@code{gnus-summary-yank-message}). This command prompts for
6578 what message buffer you want to yank into, and understands the
6579 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
6584 @node Canceling and Superseding
6585 @subsection Canceling Articles
6586 @cindex canceling articles
6587 @cindex superseding articles
6589 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
6590 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
6592 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
6594 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
6596 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
6597 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
6598 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
6599 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
6600 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
6601 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
6603 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
6604 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
6607 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when canceling. If you
6608 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
6609 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
6611 Gnus ensures that only you can cancel your own messages using a
6612 @code{Cancel-Lock} header (@pxref{Canceling News, Canceling News, ,
6613 message, Message Manual}).
6615 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
6616 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
6617 your original article.
6619 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
6621 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
6622 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
6623 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
6626 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
6627 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
6628 have posted almost the same article twice.
6630 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
6631 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
6632 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
6633 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
6634 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
6635 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
6636 header by substituting one of those words for the word
6637 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
6638 you would do normally. The previous article will be
6639 canceled/superseded.
6641 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
6643 @node Delayed Articles
6644 @section Delayed Articles
6645 @cindex delayed sending
6646 @cindex send delayed
6648 Sometimes, you might wish to delay the sending of a message. For
6649 example, you might wish to arrange for a message to turn up just in time
6650 to remind your about the birthday of your Significant Other. For this,
6651 there is the @code{gnus-delay} package. Setup is simple:
6654 (gnus-delay-initialize)
6657 @findex gnus-delay-article
6658 Normally, to send a message you use the @kbd{C-c C-c} command from
6659 Message mode. To delay a message, use @kbd{C-c C-j}
6660 (@code{gnus-delay-article}) instead. This will ask you for how long the
6661 message should be delayed. Possible answers are:
6665 A time span. Consists of an integer and a letter. For example,
6666 @code{42d} means to delay for 42 days. Available letters are @code{m}
6667 (minutes), @code{h} (hours), @code{d} (days), @code{w} (weeks), @code{M}
6668 (months) and @code{Y} (years).
6671 A specific date. Looks like @code{YYYY-MM-DD}. The message will be
6672 delayed until that day, at a specific time (eight o'clock by default).
6673 See also @code{gnus-delay-default-hour}.
6676 A specific time of day. Given in @code{hh:mm} format, 24h, no am/pm
6677 stuff. The deadline will be at that time today, except if that time has
6678 already passed, then it's at the given time tomorrow. So if it's ten
6679 o'clock in the morning and you specify @code{11:15}, then the deadline
6680 is one hour and fifteen minutes hence. But if you specify @code{9:20},
6681 that means a time tomorrow.
6684 The action of the @code{gnus-delay-article} command is influenced by a
6685 couple of variables:
6688 @item gnus-delay-default-hour
6689 @vindex gnus-delay-default-hour
6690 When you specify a specific date, the message will be due on that hour
6691 on the given date. Possible values are integers 0 through 23.
6693 @item gnus-delay-default-delay
6694 @vindex gnus-delay-default-delay
6695 This is a string and gives the default delay. It can be of any of the
6696 formats described above.
6698 @item gnus-delay-group
6699 @vindex gnus-delay-group
6700 Delayed articles will be kept in this group on the drafts server until
6701 they are due. You probably don't need to change this. The default
6702 value is @code{"delayed"}.
6704 @item gnus-delay-header
6705 @vindex gnus-delay-header
6706 The deadline for each article will be stored in a header. This variable
6707 is a string and gives the header name. You probably don't need to
6708 change this. The default value is @code{"X-Gnus-Delayed"}.
6711 The way delaying works is like this: when you use the
6712 @code{gnus-delay-article} command, you give a certain delay. Gnus
6713 calculates the deadline of the message and stores it in the
6714 @code{X-Gnus-Delayed} header and puts the message in the
6715 @code{nndraft:delayed} group.
6717 @findex gnus-delay-send-queue
6718 And whenever you get new news, Gnus looks through the group for articles
6719 which are due and sends them. It uses the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue}
6720 function for this. By default, this function is added to the hook
6721 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But of course, you can change this.
6722 Maybe you want to use the demon to send drafts? Just tell the demon to
6723 execute the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} function.
6726 @item gnus-delay-initialize
6727 @findex gnus-delay-initialize
6728 By default, this function installs @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} in
6729 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But it accepts the optional second
6730 argument @code{no-check}. If it is non-@code{nil},
6731 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is not changed. The optional first
6732 argument is ignored.
6734 For example, @code{(gnus-delay-initialize nil t)} means to do nothing.
6735 Presumably, you want to use the demon for sending due delayed articles.
6736 Just don't forget to set that up :-)
6739 When delaying an article with @kbd{C-c C-j}, Message mode will
6740 automatically add a @code{"Date"} header with the current time. In
6741 many cases you probably want the @code{"Date"} header to reflect the
6742 time the message is sent instead. To do this, you have to delete
6743 @code{Date} from @code{message-draft-headers}.
6746 @node Marking Articles
6747 @section Marking Articles
6748 @cindex article marking
6749 @cindex article ticking
6752 There are several marks you can set on an article.
6754 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
6755 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
6756 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
6758 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
6761 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks.
6765 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
6766 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
6767 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
6768 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
6769 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
6770 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
6774 @node Unread Articles
6775 @subsection Unread Articles
6777 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
6782 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
6783 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
6785 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
6786 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
6787 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
6788 tick it. However, articles can be expired (from news servers by the
6789 news server software, Gnus itself never expires ticked messages), so if
6790 you want to keep an article forever, you'll have to make it persistent
6791 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
6794 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
6795 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
6797 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
6798 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
6799 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
6800 Otherwise (except for the visibility issue), they are just like ticked
6804 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
6805 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
6807 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
6812 @subsection Read Articles
6813 @cindex expirable mark
6815 All the following marks mark articles as read.
6820 @vindex gnus-del-mark
6821 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
6822 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
6825 @vindex gnus-read-mark
6826 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
6829 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
6830 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
6831 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
6834 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
6835 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
6838 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
6839 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
6842 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
6843 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
6846 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
6847 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
6850 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
6851 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
6854 @vindex gnus-souped-mark
6855 @sc{soup}ed article (@code{gnus-souped-mark}). @xref{SOUP}.
6858 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
6859 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
6863 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
6864 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
6865 (@code{gnus-duplicate-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
6869 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
6870 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
6872 One more special mark, though:
6876 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
6877 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
6879 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
6880 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
6881 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
6882 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by Gnus at
6888 @subsection Other Marks
6889 @cindex process mark
6892 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
6898 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
6899 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
6900 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
6901 in the article, and Gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
6902 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}.
6905 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
6906 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
6907 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
6908 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
6911 @vindex gnus-forwarded-mark
6912 All articles that you have forwarded will be marked with an @samp{F} in
6913 the second column (@code{gnus-forwarded-mark}).
6916 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
6917 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
6918 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}.
6921 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
6922 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
6923 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
6924 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
6927 @vindex gnus-recent-mark
6928 Articles that according to the server haven't been shown to the user
6929 before are marked with a @samp{N} in the second column
6930 (@code{gnus-recent-mark}). Note that not all servers support this
6931 mark, in which case it simply never appears. Compare with
6932 @code{gnus-unseen-mark}.
6935 @vindex gnus-unseen-mark
6936 Articles that haven't been seen before in Gnus by the user are marked
6937 with a @samp{.} in the second column (@code{gnus-unseen-mark}).
6938 Compare with @code{gnus-recent-mark}.
6941 @vindex gnus-downloaded-mark
6942 When using the Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}), articles may be
6943 downloaded for unplugged (offline) viewing. If you are using the
6944 @samp{%O} spec, these articles get the @samp{+} mark in that spec.
6945 (The variable @code{gnus-downloaded-mark} controls which character to
6949 @vindex gnus-undownloaded-mark
6950 When using the Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}), some articles might
6951 not have been downloaded. Such articles cannot be viewed while you
6952 are unplugged (offline). If you are using the @samp{%O} spec, these
6953 articles get the @samp{-} mark in that spec. (The variable
6954 @code{gnus-undownloaded-mark} controls which character to use.)
6957 @vindex gnus-downloadable-mark
6958 The Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}) downloads some articles
6959 automatically, but it is also possible to explicitly mark articles for
6960 download, even if they would not be downloaded automatically. Such
6961 explicitly-marked articles get the @samp{%} mark in the first column.
6962 (The variable @code{gnus-downloadable-mark} controls which character to
6966 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
6967 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
6968 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
6969 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
6970 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
6973 @vindex gnus-process-mark
6974 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
6975 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
6976 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
6977 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
6978 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
6982 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
6983 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
6984 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
6986 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
6987 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
6988 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
6992 @subsection Setting Marks
6993 @cindex setting marks
6995 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
7000 @kindex M c (Summary)
7001 @kindex M-u (Summary)
7002 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
7003 @cindex mark as unread
7004 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
7005 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
7011 @kindex M t (Summary)
7012 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
7013 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
7014 @xref{Article Caching}.
7019 @kindex M ? (Summary)
7020 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
7021 Mark the current article as dormant
7022 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}.
7026 @kindex M d (Summary)
7028 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
7029 Mark the current article as read
7030 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
7034 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
7035 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
7036 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
7041 @kindex M k (Summary)
7042 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
7043 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
7044 and then select the next unread article
7045 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
7049 @kindex M K (Summary)
7050 @kindex C-k (Summary)
7051 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
7052 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
7053 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
7056 @kindex M C (Summary)
7057 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
7058 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
7059 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
7062 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
7063 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
7064 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
7065 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
7068 @kindex M H (Summary)
7069 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
7070 Catchup the current group to point (before the point)
7071 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
7074 @kindex M h (Summary)
7075 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-from-here
7076 Catchup the current group from point (after the point)
7077 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-from-here}).
7080 @kindex C-w (Summary)
7081 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
7082 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
7083 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
7086 @kindex M V k (Summary)
7087 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
7088 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
7089 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
7093 @kindex M e (Summary)
7095 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
7096 Mark the current article as expirable
7097 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
7100 @kindex M b (Summary)
7101 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
7102 Set a bookmark in the current article
7103 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
7106 @kindex M B (Summary)
7107 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
7108 Remove the bookmark from the current article
7109 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
7112 @kindex M V c (Summary)
7113 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
7114 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
7115 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
7118 @kindex M V u (Summary)
7119 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
7120 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
7121 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
7124 @kindex M V m (Summary)
7125 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
7126 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
7127 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
7128 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
7131 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
7132 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
7133 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
7134 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
7135 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
7136 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
7137 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
7138 The default is @code{t}.
7141 @node Generic Marking Commands
7142 @subsection Generic Marking Commands
7144 Some people would like the command that ticks an article (@kbd{!}) go to
7145 the next article. Others would like it to go to the next unread
7146 article. Yet others would like it to stay on the current article. And
7147 even though I haven't heard of anybody wanting it to go to the
7148 previous (unread) article, I'm sure there are people that want that as
7151 Multiply these five behaviors with five different marking commands, and
7152 you get a potentially complex set of variable to control what each
7155 To sidestep that mess, Gnus provides commands that do all these
7156 different things. They can be found on the @kbd{M M} map in the summary
7157 buffer. Type @kbd{M M C-h} to see them all---there are too many of them
7158 to list in this manual.
7160 While you can use these commands directly, most users would prefer
7161 altering the summary mode keymap. For instance, if you would like the
7162 @kbd{!} command to go to the next article instead of the next unread
7163 article, you could say something like:
7167 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'my-alter-summary-map)
7168 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
7169 (local-set-key "!" 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-ticked-next))
7177 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
7178 (local-set-key "!" "MM!n"))
7182 @node Setting Process Marks
7183 @subsection Setting Process Marks
7184 @cindex setting process marks
7186 Process marks are displayed as @code{#} in the summary buffer, and are
7187 used for marking articles in such a way that other commands will
7188 process these articles. For instance, if you process mark four
7189 articles and then use the @kbd{*} command, Gnus will enter these four
7190 articles into the cache. For more information,
7191 @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
7198 @kindex M P p (Summary)
7199 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
7200 Mark the current article with the process mark
7201 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
7202 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
7206 @kindex M P u (Summary)
7207 @kindex M-# (Summary)
7208 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
7209 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
7212 @kindex M P U (Summary)
7213 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
7214 Remove the process mark from all articles
7215 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
7218 @kindex M P i (Summary)
7219 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
7220 Invert the list of process marked articles
7221 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
7224 @kindex M P R (Summary)
7225 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
7226 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
7227 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
7230 @kindex M P G (Summary)
7231 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp
7232 Unmark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
7233 expression (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp}).
7236 @kindex M P r (Summary)
7237 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
7238 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
7241 @kindex M P g (Summary)
7242 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-region
7243 Unmark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-region}).
7246 @kindex M P t (Summary)
7247 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
7248 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
7249 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
7252 @kindex M P T (Summary)
7253 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
7254 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
7255 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
7258 @kindex M P v (Summary)
7259 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
7260 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
7261 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
7264 @kindex M P s (Summary)
7265 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
7266 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
7269 @kindex M P S (Summary)
7270 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
7271 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
7272 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
7275 @kindex M P a (Summary)
7276 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
7277 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}).
7280 @kindex M P b (Summary)
7281 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
7282 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
7283 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
7286 @kindex M P k (Summary)
7287 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
7288 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
7289 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
7292 @kindex M P y (Summary)
7293 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
7294 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
7295 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
7298 @kindex M P w (Summary)
7299 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
7300 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
7301 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
7305 Also see the @kbd{&} command in @ref{Searching for Articles}, for how to
7306 set process marks based on article body contents.
7313 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
7314 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
7315 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
7318 Limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched from
7319 the servers. These commands don't query the server for additional
7326 @kindex / / (Summary)
7327 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
7328 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
7329 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}). If given a prefix, exclude
7333 @kindex / a (Summary)
7334 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
7335 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
7336 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}). If given a prefix, exclude
7340 @kindex / R (Summary)
7341 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-recipient
7342 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some recipient
7343 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-recipient}). If given a prefix, exclude
7347 @kindex / A (Summary)
7348 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-address
7349 Limit the summary buffer to articles in which contents of From, To or Cc
7350 header match a given address (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-address}). If
7351 given a prefix, exclude matching articles.
7354 @kindex / S (Summary)
7355 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-singletons
7356 Limit the summary buffer to articles that aren't part of any displayed
7357 threads (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-singletons}). If given a prefix,
7358 limit to articles that are part of displayed threads.
7361 @kindex / x (Summary)
7362 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-extra
7363 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match one of the ``extra''
7364 headers (@pxref{To From Newsgroups})
7365 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-extra}). If given a prefix, exclude
7370 @kindex / u (Summary)
7372 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
7373 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
7374 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
7375 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
7376 dormant articles will also be excluded.
7379 @kindex / m (Summary)
7380 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
7381 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have been marked
7382 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
7385 @kindex / t (Summary)
7386 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
7387 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
7388 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-age}). If given a prefix, limit to
7389 articles younger than that number of days.
7392 @kindex / n (Summary)
7393 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
7394 With prefix @samp{n}, limit the summary buffer to the next @samp{n}
7395 articles. If not given a prefix, use the process marked articles
7396 instead. (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}).
7399 @kindex / w (Summary)
7400 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
7401 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
7402 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
7406 @kindex / . (Summary)
7407 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen
7408 Limit the summary buffer to the unseen articles
7409 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen}).
7412 @kindex / v (Summary)
7413 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
7414 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
7415 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
7418 @kindex / p (Summary)
7419 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate
7420 Limit the summary buffer to articles that satisfy the @code{display}
7421 group parameter predicate
7422 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate}). @xref{Group
7423 Parameters}, for more on this predicate.
7426 @kindex / r (Summary)
7427 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-replied
7428 Limit the summary buffer to replied articles
7429 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-replied}). If given a prefix, exclude
7434 @kindex M S (Summary)
7435 @kindex / E (Summary)
7436 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
7437 Include all expunged articles in the limit
7438 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
7441 @kindex / D (Summary)
7442 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
7443 Include all dormant articles in the limit
7444 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
7447 @kindex / * (Summary)
7448 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
7449 Include all cached articles in the limit
7450 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
7453 @kindex / d (Summary)
7454 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
7455 Exclude all dormant articles from the limit
7456 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
7459 @kindex / M (Summary)
7460 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks
7461 Exclude all marked articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks}).
7464 @kindex / T (Summary)
7465 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
7466 Include all the articles in the current thread in the limit.
7469 @kindex / c (Summary)
7470 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
7471 Exclude all dormant articles that have no children from the limit@*
7472 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
7475 @kindex / C (Summary)
7476 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
7477 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
7478 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
7479 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
7482 @kindex / b (Summary)
7483 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-bodies
7484 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have bodies that match a
7485 certain regexp (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-bodies}). If given a
7486 prefix, reverse the limit. This command is quite slow since it
7487 requires selecting each article to find the matches.
7490 @kindex / h (Summary)
7491 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-headers
7492 Like the previous command, only limit to headers instead
7493 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-headers}).
7498 The following commands aren't limiting commands, but use the @kbd{/}
7503 @kindex / N (Summary)
7504 @findex gnus-summary-insert-new-articles
7505 Insert all new articles in the summary buffer. It scans for new emails
7506 if @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} is non-@code{nil}.
7509 @kindex / o (Summary)
7510 @findex gnus-summary-insert-old-articles
7511 Insert all old articles in the summary buffer. If given a numbered
7512 prefix, fetch this number of articles.
7520 @cindex article threading
7522 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
7523 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
7524 hierarchical fashion.
7526 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
7527 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
7528 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
7529 or simply missing. Weird news propagation exacerbates the problem,
7530 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
7531 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
7532 @ref{Customizing Threading}.
7534 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
7538 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
7541 A tree-like article structure.
7544 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
7547 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
7548 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
7549 summary buffer. We then typically have many sub-threads that really
7550 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
7551 called loose threads.
7553 @item thread gathering
7554 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
7556 @item sparse threads
7557 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
7558 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
7564 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
7565 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
7569 @node Customizing Threading
7570 @subsection Customizing Threading
7571 @cindex customizing threading
7574 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
7575 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
7576 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
7577 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
7582 @subsubsection Loose Threads
7585 @cindex loose threads
7588 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
7589 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
7590 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
7591 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
7592 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
7593 read or killed the root in a previous session.
7595 When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
7596 something. This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
7597 There are four possible values:
7601 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
7602 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-adopt,width=7.5cm}}
7603 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-empty,width=7.5cm}}}
7604 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-none,width=7.5cm}}}
7605 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-dummy,width=7.5cm}}}
7610 @cindex adopting articles
7615 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
7616 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
7617 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
7618 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
7621 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
7622 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root-always
7623 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
7624 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
7625 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
7626 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
7627 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
7628 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
7629 If you want all threads to have a dummy root, even the non-gathered
7630 ones, set @code{gnus-summary-make-false-root-always} to @code{t}.
7633 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
7634 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
7635 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
7639 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
7640 display them after one another.
7643 Don't gather loose threads.
7646 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
7647 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
7648 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
7649 variable is @code{nil}, Gnus requires an exact match between the
7650 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
7651 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
7652 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
7653 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
7654 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
7655 variable to a really low number, you'll find that Gnus will gather
7656 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
7658 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
7659 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, Gnus will
7660 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
7663 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
7664 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
7665 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
7666 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
7667 simplification is used.
7669 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
7670 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
7671 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
7672 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
7674 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
7676 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
7682 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
7683 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
7684 "answer" "reference" "announce"
7685 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
7690 (mapconcat 'identity
7691 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
7693 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
7696 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
7699 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
7700 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
7701 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
7702 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
7703 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
7704 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
7706 Useful functions to put in this list include:
7709 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
7710 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
7711 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
7713 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
7714 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
7717 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
7718 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
7719 Remove excessive whitespace.
7721 @item gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
7722 @findex gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
7723 Remove all whitespace.
7726 You may also write your own functions, of course.
7729 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
7730 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
7731 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
7732 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
7733 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
7734 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
7735 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
7736 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
7738 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7739 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7740 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
7741 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
7742 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
7743 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
7744 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
7745 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
7746 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
7750 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
7751 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
7752 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
7753 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
7755 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
7756 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
7757 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
7760 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
7764 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7765 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7771 @node Filling In Threads
7772 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
7775 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
7776 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
7777 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
7778 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you would
7779 like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still connect as
7780 many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable to
7781 @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than that
7782 number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case, fetching
7783 old headers only works if the back end you are using carries overview
7784 files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool},
7785 @code{nnml}, and @code{nnmaildir}. Also remember that if the root of
7786 the thread has been expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can
7789 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
7790 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
7791 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
7793 The server has to support @acronym{NOV} for any of this to work.
7795 @cindex Gmane, gnus-fetch-old-headers
7796 This feature can seriously impact performance it ignores all locally
7797 cached header entries. Setting it to @code{t} for groups for a server
7798 that doesn't expire articles (such as news.gmane.org), leads to very
7799 slow summary generation.
7801 @item gnus-fetch-old-ephemeral-headers
7802 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-ephemeral-headers
7803 Same as @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}, but only used for ephemeral
7806 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
7807 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
7808 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
7809 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
7810 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
7811 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
7812 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where Gnus guesses that an article
7813 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
7814 lines. If you select a gap, Gnus will try to fetch the article in
7815 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, Gnus will display all these
7816 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
7817 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, Gnus won't cut
7818 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
7819 @code{nil} by default.
7821 @item gnus-read-all-available-headers
7822 @vindex gnus-read-all-available-headers
7823 This is a rather obscure variable that few will find useful. It's
7824 intended for those non-news newsgroups where the back end has to fetch
7825 quite a lot to present the summary buffer, and where it's impossible to
7826 go back to parents of articles. This is mostly the case in the
7827 web-based groups, like the @code{nnultimate} groups.
7829 If you don't use those, then it's safe to leave this as the default
7830 @code{nil}. If you want to use this variable, it should be a regexp
7831 that matches the group name, or @code{t} for all groups.
7836 @node More Threading
7837 @subsubsection More Threading
7840 @item gnus-show-threads
7841 @vindex gnus-show-threads
7842 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
7843 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
7844 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
7845 slower and more awkward.
7847 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
7848 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
7849 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
7852 This can also be a predicate specifier (@pxref{Predicate Specifiers}).
7853 Available predicates are @code{gnus-article-unread-p} and
7854 @code{gnus-article-unseen-p}.
7859 (setq gnus-thread-hide-subtree
7860 '(or gnus-article-unread-p
7861 gnus-article-unseen-p))
7864 (It's a pretty nonsensical example, since all unseen articles are also
7865 unread, but you get my drift.)
7868 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
7869 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
7870 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
7871 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
7872 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
7873 threads are expunged.
7875 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
7876 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
7877 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
7880 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
7881 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
7882 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
7883 this variable is non-@code{nil}, which is the default, the subject
7884 change is ignored. If it is @code{nil}, a change in the subject will
7885 result in a new thread.
7887 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
7888 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
7889 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
7892 @item gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
7893 @vindex gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
7894 Sometimes, particularly with mailing lists, the order in which mails
7895 arrive locally is not necessarily the same as the order in which they
7896 arrived on the mailing list. Consequently, when sorting sub-threads
7897 using the default @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number}, responses can end
7898 up appearing before the article to which they are responding to.
7899 Setting this variable to an alternate value
7900 (e.g. @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}), in a group's parameters or in an
7901 appropriate hook (e.g. @code{gnus-summary-generate-hook}) can produce a
7902 more logical sub-thread ordering in such instances.
7907 @node Low-Level Threading
7908 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
7912 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
7913 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
7914 Hook run before parsing any headers.
7916 @item gnus-alter-header-function
7917 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
7918 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
7919 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
7920 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
7921 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
7922 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
7923 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
7924 meaningful. Here's one example:
7927 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
7929 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
7930 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
7932 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
7934 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
7941 @node Thread Commands
7942 @subsection Thread Commands
7943 @cindex thread commands
7949 @kindex T k (Summary)
7950 @kindex C-M-k (Summary)
7951 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
7952 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
7953 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
7954 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
7959 @kindex T l (Summary)
7960 @kindex C-M-l (Summary)
7961 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
7962 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
7963 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
7966 @kindex T i (Summary)
7967 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
7968 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
7969 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
7972 @kindex T # (Summary)
7973 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
7974 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
7975 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
7978 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
7979 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
7980 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
7981 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
7984 @kindex T T (Summary)
7985 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
7986 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
7989 @kindex T s (Summary)
7990 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
7991 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any@*
7992 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
7995 @kindex T h (Summary)
7996 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
7997 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
8000 @kindex T S (Summary)
8001 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
8002 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
8005 @kindex T H (Summary)
8006 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
8007 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
8010 @kindex T t (Summary)
8011 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
8012 Re-thread the current article's thread
8013 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
8014 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
8017 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
8018 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
8019 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
8020 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
8023 @kindex T M-^ (Summary)
8024 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-children
8025 Make the current article the parent of the marked articles
8026 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-children}).
8030 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
8031 understand the numeric prefix.
8036 @kindex T n (Summary)
8038 @kindex C-M-n (Summary)
8040 @kindex M-down (Summary)
8041 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
8042 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
8045 @kindex T p (Summary)
8047 @kindex C-M-p (Summary)
8049 @kindex M-up (Summary)
8050 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
8051 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
8054 @kindex T d (Summary)
8055 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
8056 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
8059 @kindex T u (Summary)
8060 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
8061 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
8064 @kindex T o (Summary)
8065 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
8066 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
8069 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
8070 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
8071 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
8072 a command like @kbd{T k} (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
8073 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
8074 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
8075 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
8076 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
8077 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
8078 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
8079 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
8080 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
8084 @node Sorting the Summary Buffer
8085 @section Sorting the Summary Buffer
8087 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
8088 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
8089 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
8090 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
8091 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
8092 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-recipient
8093 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
8094 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-random
8095 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
8096 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number
8097 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date
8098 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
8099 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which can be either a single
8100 function, a list of functions, or a list containing functions and
8101 @code{(not some-function)} elements.
8103 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
8104 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
8105 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-recipient},
8106 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
8107 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date},
8108 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score},
8109 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number},
8110 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date},
8111 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-random} and
8112 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
8114 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
8115 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
8116 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread.
8118 If you use more than one function, the primary sort key should be the
8119 last function in the list. You should probably always include
8120 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
8121 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
8122 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
8123 ascending article order.
8125 If you would like to sort by reverse score, then by subject, and finally
8126 by number, you could do something like:
8129 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
8130 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
8131 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
8132 (not gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score)))
8135 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
8136 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
8137 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
8138 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
8139 which the articles arrived.
8141 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
8145 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
8146 '((not gnus-thread-sort-by-number)
8147 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
8150 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
8151 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
8152 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
8153 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
8156 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
8157 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
8158 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-most-recent-date
8159 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
8160 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
8161 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
8162 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-random
8163 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
8164 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-most-recent-number
8165 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or
8166 other, you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions}
8167 variable. It is very similar to the
8168 @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that it uses slightly
8169 different functions for article comparison. Available sorting
8170 predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
8171 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author},
8172 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date},
8173 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-random}, and
8174 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
8176 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
8180 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
8181 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
8182 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
8185 You can define group specific sorting via @code{gnus-parameters},
8186 @xref{Group Parameters}.
8189 @node Asynchronous Fetching
8190 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
8191 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
8192 @cindex article pre-fetch
8195 If you read your news from an @acronym{NNTP} server that's far away, the
8196 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
8197 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
8198 article appears. Why can't Gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
8199 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
8201 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
8202 article fetching, especially the way Gnus does it.
8204 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
8205 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
8206 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
8207 article 3, but since Gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
8208 connection is blocked.
8210 To avoid these situations, Gnus will open two (count 'em two)
8211 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
8212 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
8213 extra connection takes some time, so Gnus startup will be slower.
8215 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
8216 the link between your machine and the @acronym{NNTP} server will become more
8217 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
8218 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
8221 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing@dots{} unless
8224 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
8225 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
8226 happen automatically.
8228 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
8229 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
8230 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
8231 that when you read an article in the group, the back end will pre-fetch
8232 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the back end will
8233 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
8234 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
8236 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
8237 @findex gnus-async-unread-p
8238 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
8239 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p}
8240 variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This
8241 function should return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is
8242 to be pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-unread-p}, which
8243 returns @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an
8244 article data structure as the only parameter.
8246 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter
8247 than 100 lines, you could say something like:
8250 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
8251 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
8252 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
8253 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
8256 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
8259 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
8260 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down Gnus too much.
8261 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
8263 @vindex gnus-async-post-fetch-function
8264 @findex gnus-html-prefetch-images
8265 After an article has been prefetched, this
8266 @code{gnus-async-post-fetch-function} will be called. The buffer will
8267 be narrowed to the region of the article that was fetched. A useful
8268 value would be @code{gnus-html-prefetch-images}, which will prefetch
8269 and store images referenced in the article, so that you don't have to
8270 wait for them to be fetched when you read the article. This is useful
8271 for @acronym{HTML} messages that have external images.
8273 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
8274 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
8275 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
8276 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
8280 Remove articles when they are read.
8283 Remove articles when exiting the group.
8286 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
8288 @c @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
8289 @c If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
8290 @c from the next group.
8293 @node Article Caching
8294 @section Article Caching
8295 @cindex article caching
8298 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @acronym{NNTP} connection, you may
8299 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
8300 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
8301 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
8302 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
8304 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
8306 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
8307 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
8308 @vindex gnus-use-cache
8309 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
8310 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
8311 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
8312 cache is flat or hierarchical is controlled by the
8313 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
8315 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
8316 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
8317 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
8318 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
8319 as dormant, and don't worry.
8321 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
8323 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
8324 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
8325 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
8326 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
8327 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
8328 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
8329 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
8330 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
8331 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
8332 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
8334 @findex gnus-jog-cache
8335 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
8336 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
8337 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
8338 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
8339 command if 1) your connection to the @acronym{NNTP} server is really, really,
8340 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
8341 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
8342 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
8343 not then be downloaded by this command.
8345 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
8346 @vindex gnus-cacheable-groups
8347 It is likely that you do not want caching on all groups. For instance,
8348 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
8349 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
8350 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.
8352 To limit the caching, you could set @code{gnus-cacheable-groups} to a
8353 regexp of groups to cache, @samp{^nntp} for instance, or set the
8354 @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to @samp{^nnml}, for instance.
8355 Both variables are @code{nil} by default. If a group matches both
8356 variables, the group is not cached.
8358 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
8359 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
8360 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
8361 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
8362 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
8363 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, Gnus
8364 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
8365 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @acronym{NOV}
8366 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
8369 @findex gnus-cache-move-cache
8370 @code{gnus-cache-move-cache} will move your whole
8371 @code{gnus-cache-directory} to some other location. You get asked to
8372 where, isn't that cool?
8374 @node Persistent Articles
8375 @section Persistent Articles
8376 @cindex persistent articles
8378 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
8379 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
8380 useful in my opinion.
8382 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
8383 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
8384 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
8385 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
8386 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
8387 the expiry going on at the news server.
8389 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
8390 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
8391 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
8397 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
8398 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
8401 @kindex M-* (Summary)
8402 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
8403 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
8404 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
8408 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
8410 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
8411 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
8412 interested in persistent articles:
8415 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
8418 @node Sticky Articles
8419 @section Sticky Articles
8420 @cindex sticky articles
8422 When you select an article the current article buffer will be reused
8423 according to the value of the variable
8424 @code{gnus-single-article-buffer}. If its value is non-@code{nil} (the
8425 default) all articles reuse the same article buffer. Else each group
8426 has its own article buffer.
8428 This implies that it's not possible to have more than one article buffer
8429 in a group at a time. But sometimes you might want to display all the
8430 latest emails from your mother, your father, your aunt, your uncle and
8431 your 17 cousins to coordinate the next christmas party.
8433 That's where sticky articles come in handy. A sticky article buffer
8434 basically is a normal article buffer, but it won't be reused when you
8435 select another article. You can make an article sticky with:
8439 @kindex A S (Summary)
8440 @findex gnus-sticky-article
8441 Make the current article sticky. If a prefix arg is given, ask for a
8442 name for this sticky article buffer.
8445 To close a sticky article buffer you can use these commands:
8451 Puts this sticky article buffer at the end of the list of all buffers.
8455 @findex gnus-kill-sticky-article-buffer
8456 Kills this sticky article buffer.
8459 To kill all sticky article buffers you can use:
8461 @defun gnus-kill-sticky-article-buffers ARG
8462 Kill all sticky article buffers.
8463 If a prefix ARG is given, ask for confirmation.
8466 @node Article Backlog
8467 @section Article Backlog
8469 @cindex article backlog
8471 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
8472 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
8473 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where Gnus will buffer
8474 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
8475 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
8476 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
8477 that, turning the backlog on will slow Gnus down a little bit, and
8478 increase memory usage some.
8480 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
8481 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, Gnus will store
8482 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
8483 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, Gnus will store
8484 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
8485 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
8486 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
8488 The default value is 20.
8491 @node Saving Articles
8492 @section Saving Articles
8493 @cindex saving articles
8495 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
8496 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
8497 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
8498 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
8499 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
8501 For the commands listed here, the target is a file. If you want to
8502 save to a group, see the @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article})
8503 command (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
8505 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
8506 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will not delete
8507 unwanted headers before saving the article.
8509 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
8510 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
8511 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
8512 deleted before saving.
8518 @kindex O o (Summary)
8520 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
8521 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
8522 Save the current article using the default article saver
8523 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
8526 @kindex O m (Summary)
8527 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
8528 Save the current article in a Unix mail box (mbox) file
8529 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
8532 @kindex O r (Summary)
8533 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
8534 Save the current article in Rmail format
8535 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}). This is mbox since Emacs 23,
8536 Babyl in older versions.
8539 @kindex O f (Summary)
8540 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
8541 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
8542 Save the current article in plain file format
8543 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
8546 @kindex O F (Summary)
8547 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
8548 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
8549 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
8552 @kindex O b (Summary)
8553 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
8554 Save the current article body in plain file format
8555 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
8558 @kindex O h (Summary)
8559 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
8560 Save the current article in mh folder format
8561 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
8564 @kindex O v (Summary)
8565 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
8566 Save the current article in a VM folder
8567 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
8571 @kindex O p (Summary)
8573 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
8574 @vindex gnus-summary-pipe-output-default-command
8575 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
8576 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
8577 If given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), include the
8578 complete headers in the piped output. The symbolic prefix @code{r} is
8579 special; it lets this command pipe a raw article including all headers.
8580 The @code{gnus-summary-pipe-output-default-command} variable can be set
8581 to a string containing the default command and options (default
8585 @kindex O P (Summary)
8586 @findex gnus-summary-muttprint
8587 @vindex gnus-summary-muttprint-program
8588 Save the current article into muttprint. That is, print it using the
8589 external program @uref{http://muttprint.sourceforge.net/,
8590 Muttprint}. The program name and options to use is controlled by the
8591 variable @code{gnus-summary-muttprint-program}.
8592 (@code{gnus-summary-muttprint}).
8596 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
8597 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
8598 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
8599 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
8600 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
8601 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
8602 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
8603 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
8604 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
8605 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
8606 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
8607 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
8611 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
8612 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
8613 Gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the eight ready-made
8614 functions below, or you can create your own.
8618 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
8619 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
8620 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
8621 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
8622 This is the default format, that used by the Rmail package. Since Emacs
8623 23, Rmail uses standard mbox format. Before this, it used the
8624 @dfn{Babyl} format. Accordingly, this command writes mbox format since
8625 Emacs 23, unless appending to an existing Babyl file. In older versions
8626 of Emacs, it always uses Babyl format. Uses the function in the
8627 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
8628 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
8630 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
8631 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
8632 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
8633 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
8634 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
8635 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
8637 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
8638 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
8639 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
8640 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
8641 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
8642 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
8643 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
8645 @item gnus-summary-write-to-file
8646 @findex gnus-summary-write-to-file
8647 Write the article straight to an ordinary file. The file is
8648 overwritten if it exists. Uses the function in the
8649 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
8650 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
8652 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
8653 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
8654 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
8655 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
8656 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
8658 @item gnus-summary-write-body-to-file
8659 @findex gnus-summary-write-body-to-file
8660 Write the article body straight to an ordinary file. The file is
8661 overwritten if it exists. Uses the function in the
8662 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
8663 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
8665 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
8666 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
8667 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
8668 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
8669 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
8672 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
8673 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
8674 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
8675 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
8676 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
8678 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
8679 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
8680 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
8681 reader to use this setting.
8683 @item gnus-summary-save-in-pipe
8684 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-pipe
8685 Pipe the article to a shell command. This function takes optional two
8686 arguments COMMAND and RAW. Valid values for COMMAND include:
8690 The executable command name and possibly arguments.
8692 You will be prompted for the command in the minibuffer.
8693 @item the symbol @code{default}@*
8694 It will be replaced with the command which the variable
8695 @code{gnus-summary-pipe-output-default-command} holds or the command
8696 last used for saving.
8699 Non-@code{nil} value for RAW overrides @code{:decode} and
8700 @code{:headers} properties (see below) and the raw article including all
8701 headers will be piped.
8704 The symbol of each function may have the following properties:
8708 The value non-@code{nil} means save decoded articles. This is
8709 meaningful only with @code{gnus-summary-save-in-file},
8710 @code{gnus-summary-save-body-in-file},
8711 @code{gnus-summary-write-to-file},
8712 @code{gnus-summary-write-body-to-file}, and
8713 @code{gnus-summary-save-in-pipe}.
8716 The value specifies an alternative function which appends, not
8717 overwrites, articles to a file. This implies that when saving many
8718 articles at a time, @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} is bound to
8719 @code{t} and all articles are saved in a single file. This is
8720 meaningful only with @code{gnus-summary-write-to-file} and
8721 @code{gnus-summary-write-body-to-file}.
8724 The value specifies the symbol of a variable of which the value
8725 specifies headers to be saved. If it is omitted,
8726 @code{gnus-save-all-headers} and @code{gnus-saved-headers} control what
8727 headers should be saved.
8730 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
8731 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
8732 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
8733 @env{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
8736 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
8737 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
8738 available functions that generate names:
8742 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
8743 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
8744 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
8746 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
8747 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
8748 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
8750 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
8751 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
8752 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
8754 @item gnus-plain-save-name
8755 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
8756 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
8758 @item gnus-sender-save-name
8759 @findex gnus-sender-save-name
8760 File names like @file{~/News/larsi}.
8763 @vindex gnus-split-methods
8764 You can have Gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
8765 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
8766 save articles related to Gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
8767 related to VM in @file{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
8771 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
8772 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
8773 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
8774 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
8777 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
8778 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
8779 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
8780 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
8781 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
8782 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
8783 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
8784 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
8785 called returns a string or a list of strings.
8787 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
8788 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
8789 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
8790 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
8792 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
8793 means that Gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
8794 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
8797 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
8798 lots of mail groups called things like
8799 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
8800 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
8801 following will do just that:
8804 (defun my-save-name (group)
8805 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
8806 (substring group (match-end 0))))
8808 (setq gnus-split-methods
8809 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
8814 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
8815 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
8816 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
8817 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
8818 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
8819 all the files in the top level directory
8820 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
8821 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
8822 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
8823 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
8825 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
8826 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
8827 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
8828 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
8829 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
8832 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
8836 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; @r{to get a hierarchy}
8837 (setq gnus-default-article-saver
8838 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; @r{no encoding}
8841 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
8842 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
8843 the top level directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
8844 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
8847 @node Decoding Articles
8848 @section Decoding Articles
8849 @cindex decoding articles
8851 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
8852 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
8855 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
8856 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
8857 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
8858 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
8859 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
8860 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
8864 @cindex article series
8865 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
8866 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
8867 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
8868 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
8869 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
8871 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
8872 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
8873 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
8875 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, Gnus
8876 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
8877 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
8879 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
8880 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
8881 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
8884 @node Uuencoded Articles
8885 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
8887 @cindex uuencoded articles
8892 @kindex X u (Summary)
8893 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
8894 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
8895 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
8898 @kindex X U (Summary)
8899 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
8900 Uudecodes and saves the current series
8901 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
8904 @kindex X v u (Summary)
8905 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
8906 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
8909 @kindex X v U (Summary)
8910 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
8911 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
8912 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
8916 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
8917 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
8918 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
8919 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
8920 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
8922 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
8923 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
8924 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
8925 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
8928 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
8929 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
8930 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
8931 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
8932 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
8933 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
8937 @node Shell Archives
8938 @subsection Shell Archives
8940 @cindex shell archives
8941 @cindex shared articles
8943 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
8944 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
8945 some commands to deal with these:
8950 @kindex X s (Summary)
8951 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
8952 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
8955 @kindex X S (Summary)
8956 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
8957 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
8960 @kindex X v s (Summary)
8961 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
8962 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
8965 @kindex X v S (Summary)
8966 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
8967 Unshars, views and saves the current series
8968 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
8972 @node PostScript Files
8973 @subsection PostScript Files
8979 @kindex X p (Summary)
8980 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
8981 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
8984 @kindex X P (Summary)
8985 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
8986 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
8987 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
8990 @kindex X v p (Summary)
8991 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
8992 View the current PostScript series
8993 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
8996 @kindex X v P (Summary)
8997 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
8998 View and save the current PostScript series
8999 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
9004 @subsection Other Files
9008 @kindex X o (Summary)
9009 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
9010 Save the current series
9011 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
9014 @kindex X b (Summary)
9015 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
9016 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
9017 doesn't really work yet.
9020 @kindex X Y (Summary)
9021 @findex gnus-uu-decode-yenc
9022 yEnc-decode the current series and save it (@code{gnus-uu-decode-yenc}).
9026 @node Decoding Variables
9027 @subsection Decoding Variables
9029 Adjective, not verb.
9032 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
9033 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
9034 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
9038 @node Rule Variables
9039 @subsubsection Rule Variables
9040 @cindex rule variables
9042 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
9043 variables are of the form
9046 (list '(regexp1 command2)
9053 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
9054 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
9056 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
9057 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @file{.au} sound file, you could
9060 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
9061 (list '("\\\\.au$" "sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio")))
9064 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
9065 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
9066 This variable is consulted if Gnus couldn't make any matches from the
9067 user and default view rules.
9069 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
9070 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
9071 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
9076 @node Other Decode Variables
9077 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
9080 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
9082 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
9083 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
9084 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
9085 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
9086 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
9090 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
9091 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
9094 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
9095 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
9096 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
9099 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
9100 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
9101 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
9102 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
9103 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
9106 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
9107 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
9108 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
9110 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
9111 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
9112 Files with a @acronym{MIME} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
9113 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
9114 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @acronym{MIME} package (yet), so this is slightly
9117 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
9118 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
9119 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
9121 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
9122 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
9123 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
9124 looking for files to display.
9126 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
9127 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
9128 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
9131 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
9132 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
9133 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
9136 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
9137 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
9138 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
9141 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
9142 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
9143 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
9146 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
9147 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
9148 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
9149 decoded articles as unread.
9151 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
9152 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
9153 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
9154 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
9156 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
9157 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
9158 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
9160 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
9161 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
9163 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
9164 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @acronym{MIME}
9165 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
9166 @code{metamail} for viewing.
9168 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
9169 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
9170 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
9171 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
9172 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
9173 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC 1153---no easy way
9174 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
9175 simply dropped them.
9180 @node Uuencoding and Posting
9181 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
9185 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
9186 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
9187 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
9188 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
9189 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
9190 for you when you post the article.
9192 @item gnus-uu-post-length
9193 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
9194 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
9195 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
9197 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
9198 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
9199 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
9200 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
9201 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
9202 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
9203 think that counts@dots{}) Default is @code{nil}.
9205 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
9206 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
9207 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
9208 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
9209 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
9210 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
9211 Default is @code{t}.
9217 @subsection Viewing Files
9218 @cindex viewing files
9219 @cindex pseudo-articles
9221 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, Gnus will attempt
9222 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
9223 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
9224 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, Gnus will
9225 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
9226 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
9227 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
9229 Finally, Gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
9230 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
9231 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
9232 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
9234 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
9235 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
9236 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
9238 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
9239 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
9240 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
9241 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
9242 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
9244 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
9245 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
9246 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
9247 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
9248 a list of parameters to that command.
9250 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
9251 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
9252 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
9254 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
9255 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
9256 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
9259 @node Article Treatment
9260 @section Article Treatment
9262 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
9263 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
9264 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
9265 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
9266 these articles easier.
9269 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
9270 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
9271 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
9272 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
9273 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
9274 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
9275 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
9276 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
9277 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
9278 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
9279 * Article Miscellanea:: Various other stuff.
9283 @node Article Highlighting
9284 @subsection Article Highlighting
9285 @cindex highlighting
9287 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
9288 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
9293 @kindex W H a (Summary)
9294 @findex gnus-article-highlight
9295 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
9296 Do much highlighting of the current article
9297 (@code{gnus-article-highlight}). This function highlights header, cited
9298 text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.
9301 @kindex W H h (Summary)
9302 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
9303 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
9304 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
9305 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
9306 variable, which is a list where each element has the form
9307 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{name} @var{content})}.
9308 @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
9309 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
9310 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
9311 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
9312 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
9315 @kindex W H c (Summary)
9316 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
9317 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
9319 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
9322 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
9324 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
9325 If the article size in bytes is bigger than this variable (which is
9326 25000 by default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
9328 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
9329 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
9330 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
9332 @item gnus-cite-face-list
9333 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
9334 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
9335 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
9336 Gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
9337 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
9339 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
9340 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
9341 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
9343 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
9344 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
9345 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
9347 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
9348 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
9349 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
9350 that it's a citation.
9352 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
9353 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
9354 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
9356 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
9357 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
9358 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
9360 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
9361 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
9362 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
9363 cited text belonging to the attribution.
9365 @item gnus-cite-ignore-quoted-from
9366 @vindex gnus-cite-ignore-quoted-from
9367 If non-@code{nil}, no citation highlighting will be performed on lines
9368 beginning with @samp{>From }. Those lines may have been quoted by MTAs
9369 in order not to mix up with the envelope From line. The default value
9376 @kindex W H s (Summary)
9377 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
9378 @vindex gnus-signature-face
9379 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
9380 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
9381 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
9382 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
9383 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
9388 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to highlight articles automatically.
9391 @node Article Fontisizing
9392 @subsection Article Fontisizing
9394 @cindex article emphasis
9396 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
9397 @kindex W e (Summary)
9398 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
9399 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*} or @samp{/this/}. Gnus can make
9400 this look nicer by running the article through the @kbd{W e}
9401 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
9403 @vindex gnus-emphasis-alist
9404 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
9405 @code{gnus-emphasis-alist} variable. This is an alist where the first
9406 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
9407 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
9408 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
9409 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
9410 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
9414 (setq gnus-emphasis-alist
9415 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
9416 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
9425 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
9426 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
9427 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
9428 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
9429 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
9430 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
9431 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
9432 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
9433 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
9434 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
9435 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
9436 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
9437 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
9439 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
9440 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
9441 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
9445 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
9448 @vindex gnus-group-highlight-words-alist
9450 If you want to highlight arbitrary words, you can use the
9451 @code{gnus-group-highlight-words-alist} variable, which uses the same
9452 syntax as @code{gnus-emphasis-alist}. The @code{highlight-words} group
9453 parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) can also be used.
9455 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to fontize articles automatically.
9458 @node Article Hiding
9459 @subsection Article Hiding
9460 @cindex article hiding
9462 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
9463 too much cruft in most articles.
9468 @kindex W W a (Summary)
9469 @findex gnus-article-hide
9470 Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
9471 (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}). In particular, this function will hide
9472 headers, @acronym{PGP}, cited text and the signature.
9475 @kindex W W h (Summary)
9476 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
9477 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}). @xref{Hiding
9481 @kindex W W b (Summary)
9482 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
9483 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
9484 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
9487 @kindex W W s (Summary)
9488 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
9489 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
9493 @kindex W W l (Summary)
9494 @findex gnus-article-hide-list-identifiers
9495 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
9496 Strip list identifiers specified in @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. These
9497 are strings some mailing list servers add to the beginning of all
9498 @code{Subject} headers---for example, @samp{[zebra 4711]}. Any leading
9499 @samp{Re: } is skipped before stripping. @code{gnus-list-identifiers}
9500 may not contain @code{\\(..\\)}.
9504 @item gnus-list-identifiers
9505 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
9506 A regular expression that matches list identifiers to be removed from
9507 subject. This can also be a list of regular expressions.
9512 @kindex W W P (Summary)
9513 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
9514 Hide @acronym{PEM} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
9515 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
9518 @kindex W W B (Summary)
9519 @findex gnus-article-strip-banner
9520 @vindex gnus-article-banner-alist
9521 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
9524 @cindex stripping advertisements
9525 @cindex advertisements
9526 Strip the banner specified by the @code{banner} group parameter
9527 (@code{gnus-article-strip-banner}). This is mainly used to hide those
9528 annoying banners and/or signatures that some mailing lists and moderated
9529 groups adds to all the messages. The way to use this function is to add
9530 the @code{banner} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to the
9531 group you want banners stripped from. The parameter either be a string,
9532 which will be interpreted as a regular expression matching text to be
9533 removed, or the symbol @code{signature}, meaning that the (last)
9534 signature should be removed, or other symbol, meaning that the
9535 corresponding regular expression in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist} is
9538 Regardless of a group, you can hide things like advertisements only when
9539 the sender of an article has a certain mail address specified in
9540 @code{gnus-article-address-banner-alist}.
9544 @item gnus-article-address-banner-alist
9545 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
9546 Alist of mail addresses and banners. Each element has the form
9547 @code{(@var{address} . @var{banner})}, where @var{address} is a regexp
9548 matching a mail address in the From header, @var{banner} is one of a
9549 symbol @code{signature}, an item in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist},
9550 a regexp and @code{nil}. If @var{address} matches author's mail
9551 address, it will remove things like advertisements. For example, if a
9552 sender has the mail address @samp{hail@@yoo-hoo.co.jp} and there is a
9553 banner something like @samp{Do You Yoo-hoo!?} in all articles he
9554 sends, you can use the following element to remove them:
9557 ("@@yoo-hoo\\.co\\.jp\\'" .
9558 "\n_+\nDo You Yoo-hoo!\\?\n.*\n.*\n")
9564 @kindex W W c (Summary)
9565 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
9566 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
9567 customizing the hiding:
9571 @item gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
9572 @itemx gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
9573 @vindex gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
9574 @vindex gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
9575 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
9576 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
9577 by these format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
9582 Starting point of the hidden text.
9584 Ending point of the hidden text.
9586 Number of characters in the hidden region.
9588 Number of lines of hidden text.
9591 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
9592 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
9593 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave
9594 shown. This can also be a cons cell with the number of lines at the top
9595 and bottom of the text, respectively, to remain visible.
9600 @kindex W W C-c (Summary)
9601 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe
9603 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe}) depending on the
9604 following two variables:
9607 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
9608 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
9609 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
9610 50), hide the cited text.
9612 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
9613 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
9614 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
9619 @kindex W W C (Summary)
9620 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
9621 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
9622 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
9623 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
9624 have happen automatically (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
9628 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
9629 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
9630 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
9632 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
9633 citation customization.
9635 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to hide article elements
9639 @node Article Washing
9640 @subsection Article Washing
9642 @cindex article washing
9644 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
9645 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
9647 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
9648 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
9651 @xref{Customizing Articles}, if you want to change how Gnus displays
9652 articles by default.
9657 This is not really washing, it's sort of the opposite of washing. If
9658 you type this, you see the article exactly as it exists on disk or on
9662 Force redisplaying of the current article
9663 (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). This is also not really washing.
9664 If you type this, you see the article without any previously applied
9665 interactive Washing functions but with all default treatments
9666 (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
9669 @kindex W l (Summary)
9670 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
9671 Remove page breaks from the current article
9672 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}). @xref{Misc Article}, for page
9676 @kindex W r (Summary)
9677 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
9678 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
9679 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
9680 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
9681 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
9682 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
9684 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
9685 positions in the alphabet, e. g. @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
9686 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
9687 is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
9690 @kindex W m (Summary)
9691 @findex gnus-summary-morse-message
9692 Morse decode the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-morse-message}).
9695 @kindex W i (Summary)
9696 @findex gnus-summary-idna-message
9697 Decode IDNA encoded domain names in the current articles. IDNA
9698 encoded domain names looks like @samp{xn--bar}. If a string remain
9699 unencoded after running invoking this, it is likely an invalid IDNA
9700 string (@samp{xn--bar} is invalid). You must have GNU Libidn
9701 (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/}) installed for this command
9706 @kindex W t (Summary)
9708 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
9709 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
9710 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
9713 @kindex W v (Summary)
9714 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-headers
9715 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
9716 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-headers}).
9719 @kindex W o (Summary)
9720 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
9721 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
9724 @kindex W d (Summary)
9725 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
9726 @vindex gnus-article-dumbquotes-map
9728 @cindex M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s
9730 Treat M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s according to
9731 @code{gnus-article-dumbquotes-map}
9732 (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}). Note that this function guesses
9733 whether a character is a sm*rtq**t* or not, so it should only be used
9736 Sm*rtq**t*s are M****s***'s unilateral extension to the character map in
9737 an attempt to provide more quoting characters. If you see something
9738 like @code{\222} or @code{\264} where you're expecting some kind of
9739 apostrophe or quotation mark, then try this wash.
9742 @kindex W Y f (Summary)
9743 @findex gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article
9744 @cindex Outlook Express
9745 Full deuglify of broken Outlook (Express) articles: Treat dumbquotes,
9746 unwrap lines, repair attribution and rearrange citation.
9747 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article}).
9750 @kindex W Y u (Summary)
9751 @findex gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines
9752 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min
9753 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max
9754 Unwrap lines that appear to be wrapped citation lines. You can control
9755 what lines will be unwrapped by frobbing
9756 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min} and
9757 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max}, indicating the minimum and
9758 maximum length of an unwrapped citation line.
9759 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines}).
9762 @kindex W Y a (Summary)
9763 @findex gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution
9764 Repair a broken attribution line.@*
9765 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution}).
9768 @kindex W Y c (Summary)
9769 @findex gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation
9770 Repair broken citations by rearranging the text.
9771 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation}).
9774 @kindex W w (Summary)
9775 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
9776 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}).
9778 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
9782 @kindex W Q (Summary)
9783 @findex gnus-article-fill-long-lines
9784 Fill long lines (@code{gnus-article-fill-long-lines}).
9787 @kindex W C (Summary)
9788 @findex gnus-article-capitalize-sentences
9789 Capitalize the first word in each sentence
9790 (@code{gnus-article-capitalize-sentences}).
9793 @kindex W c (Summary)
9794 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
9795 Translate CRLF pairs (i. e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines) into LF
9796 (this takes care of DOS line endings), and then translate any remaining
9797 CRs into LF (this takes care of Mac line endings)
9798 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
9801 @kindex W q (Summary)
9802 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
9803 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
9804 Quoted-Printable is one common @acronym{MIME} encoding employed when
9805 sending non-@acronym{ASCII} (i.e., 8-bit) articles. It typically
9806 makes strings like @samp{d@'ej@`a vu} look like @samp{d=E9j=E0 vu},
9807 which doesn't look very readable to me. Note that this is usually
9808 done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
9809 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding
9810 has been done. If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
9813 @kindex W 6 (Summary)
9814 @findex gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable
9815 Treat base64 (@code{gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable}). Base64 is
9816 one common @acronym{MIME} encoding employed when sending
9817 non-@acronym{ASCII} (i.e., 8-bit) articles. Note that this is
9818 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
9819 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding
9820 has been done. If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
9823 @kindex W Z (Summary)
9824 @findex gnus-article-decode-HZ
9825 Treat HZ or HZP (@code{gnus-article-decode-HZ}). HZ (or HZP) is one
9826 common encoding employed when sending Chinese articles. It typically
9827 makes strings look like @samp{~@{<:Ky2;S@{#,NpJ)l6HK!#~@}}.
9830 @kindex W A (Summary)
9831 @findex gnus-article-treat-ansi-sequences
9832 @cindex @acronym{ANSI} control sequences
9833 Translate @acronym{ANSI} SGR control sequences into overlays or
9834 extents (@code{gnus-article-treat-ansi-sequences}). @acronym{ANSI}
9835 sequences are used in some Chinese hierarchies for highlighting.
9838 @kindex W u (Summary)
9839 @findex gnus-article-unsplit-urls
9840 Remove newlines from within URLs. Some mailers insert newlines into
9841 outgoing email messages to keep lines short. This reformatting can
9842 split long URLs onto multiple lines. Repair those URLs by removing
9843 the newlines (@code{gnus-article-unsplit-urls}).
9846 @kindex W h (Summary)
9847 @findex gnus-article-wash-html
9848 Treat @acronym{HTML} (@code{gnus-article-wash-html}). Note that this is
9849 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
9850 @code{Content-Type} header that says that the message is @acronym{HTML}.
9852 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for. If it is a number,
9853 the charset defined in @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist}
9854 (@pxref{Paging the Article}) will be used.
9856 @vindex gnus-article-wash-function
9857 The default is to use the function specified by
9858 @code{mm-text-html-renderer} (@pxref{Display Customization, ,Display
9859 Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}) to convert the
9860 @acronym{HTML}, but this is controlled by the
9861 @code{gnus-article-wash-function} variable. Pre-defined functions you
9869 Use @uref{http://emacs-w3m.namazu.org/, emacs-w3m}.
9871 @item w3m-standalone
9872 Use @uref{http://w3m.sourceforge.net/, w3m}.
9875 Use @uref{http://links.sf.net/, Links}.
9878 Use @uref{http://lynx.isc.org/, Lynx}.
9881 Use html2text---a simple @acronym{HTML} converter included with Gnus.
9886 @kindex W b (Summary)
9887 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
9888 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
9889 @xref{Article Buttons}.
9892 @kindex W B (Summary)
9893 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
9894 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
9895 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
9898 @kindex W p (Summary)
9899 @findex gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig
9900 Verify a signed control message
9901 (@code{gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig}). Control messages such as
9902 @code{newgroup} and @code{checkgroups} are usually signed by the
9903 hierarchy maintainer. You need to add the @acronym{PGP} public key of
9904 the maintainer to your keyring to verify the
9905 message.@footnote{@acronym{PGP} keys for many hierarchies are
9906 available at @uref{ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README.html}}
9909 @kindex W s (Summary)
9910 @findex gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt
9911 Verify a signed (@acronym{PGP}, @acronym{PGP/MIME} or
9912 @acronym{S/MIME}) message
9913 (@code{gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt}). @xref{Security}.
9916 @kindex W a (Summary)
9917 @findex gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body
9918 Strip headers like the @code{X-No-Archive} header from the beginning of
9919 article bodies (@code{gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body}).
9922 @kindex W E l (Summary)
9923 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
9924 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
9925 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
9928 @kindex W E m (Summary)
9929 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
9930 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
9931 lines with a single empty line.
9932 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
9935 @kindex W E t (Summary)
9936 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
9937 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
9938 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
9941 @kindex W E a (Summary)
9942 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
9943 Do all the three commands above
9944 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
9947 @kindex W E A (Summary)
9948 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
9949 Remove all blank lines
9950 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
9953 @kindex W E s (Summary)
9954 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
9955 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
9956 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
9959 @kindex W E e (Summary)
9960 @findex gnus-article-strip-trailing-space
9961 Remove all white space from the end of all lines of the article
9962 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-trailing-space}).
9966 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to wash articles automatically.
9969 @node Article Header
9970 @subsection Article Header
9972 These commands perform various transformations of article header.
9977 @kindex W G u (Summary)
9978 @findex gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers
9979 Unfold folded header lines (@code{gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers}).
9982 @kindex W G n (Summary)
9983 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups
9984 Fold the @code{Newsgroups} and @code{Followup-To} headers
9985 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups}).
9988 @kindex W G f (Summary)
9989 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-headers
9990 Fold all the message headers
9991 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-headers}).
9994 @kindex W E w (Summary)
9995 @findex gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace
9996 Remove excessive whitespace from all headers
9997 (@code{gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace}).
10002 @node Article Buttons
10003 @subsection Article Buttons
10006 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
10007 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
10008 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
10009 button on these references.
10011 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
10012 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
10013 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links, man pages and
10014 Emacs or Gnus related references. This is controlled by two variables,
10015 one that handles article bodies and one that handles article heads:
10019 @item gnus-button-alist
10020 @vindex gnus-button-alist
10021 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
10024 (@var{regexp} @var{button-par} @var{use-p} @var{function} @var{data-par})
10030 All text that match this regular expression (case insensitive) will be
10031 considered an external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches
10032 embedded URLs: @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}. This can also be a
10033 variable containing a regexp, useful variables to use include
10034 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp} and @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp}.
10037 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
10038 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
10039 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
10042 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
10043 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
10044 avoid false matches. Often variables named
10045 @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} are used here, @xref{Article Button
10046 Levels}, but any other form may be used too.
10048 @c @code{use-p} is @code{eval}ed only if @code{regexp} matches.
10051 This function will be called when you click on this button.
10054 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
10055 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
10059 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
10062 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
10065 @item gnus-header-button-alist
10066 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
10067 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
10068 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
10069 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
10072 (@var{header} @var{regexp} @var{button-par} @var{use-p} @var{function} @var{data-par})
10075 @var{header} is a regular expression.
10078 @subsubsection Related variables and functions
10081 @item gnus-button-@var{*}-level
10082 @xref{Article Button Levels}.
10084 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-browse-level
10086 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
10087 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
10088 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
10089 default values of the variables above.
10091 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-man-level
10093 @item gnus-button-man-handler
10094 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
10095 The function to use for displaying man pages. It must take at least one
10096 argument with a string naming the man page.
10098 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-message-level
10100 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
10101 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
10102 Regular expression that matches a message ID or a mail address.
10104 @item gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
10105 @vindex gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
10106 This variable determines what to do when the button on a string as
10107 @samp{foo123@@bar.invalid} is pushed. Strings like this can be either a
10108 message ID or a mail address. If it is one of the symbols @code{mid} or
10109 @code{mail}, Gnus will always assume that the string is a message ID or
10110 a mail address, respectively. If this variable is set to the symbol
10111 @code{ask}, always query the user what to do. If it is a function, this
10112 function will be called with the string as its only argument. The
10113 function must return @code{mid}, @code{mail}, @code{invalid} or
10114 @code{ask}. The default value is the function
10115 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
10117 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
10118 @findex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
10119 Function that guesses whether its argument is a message ID or a mail
10120 address. Returns @code{mid} if it's a message IDs, @code{mail} if
10121 it's a mail address, @code{ask} if unsure and @code{invalid} if the
10124 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
10125 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
10126 An alist of @code{(RATE . REGEXP)} pairs used by the function
10127 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
10129 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-tex-level
10131 @item gnus-button-ctan-handler
10132 @findex gnus-button-ctan-handler
10133 The function to use for displaying CTAN links. It must take one
10134 argument, the string naming the URL.
10136 @item gnus-ctan-url
10137 @vindex gnus-ctan-url
10138 Top directory of a CTAN (Comprehensive TeX Archive Network) archive used
10139 by @code{gnus-button-ctan-handler}.
10143 @item gnus-article-button-face
10144 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
10145 Face used on buttons.
10147 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
10148 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
10149 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
10153 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to buttonize articles automatically.
10156 @node Article Button Levels
10157 @subsection Article button levels
10158 @cindex button levels
10159 The higher the value of the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level},
10160 the more buttons will appear. If the level is zero, no corresponding
10161 buttons are displayed. With the default value (which is 5) you should
10162 already see quite a lot of buttons. With higher levels, you will see
10163 more buttons, but you may also get more false positives. To avoid them,
10164 you can set the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} local to
10165 specific groups (@pxref{Group Parameters}). Here's an example for the
10166 variable @code{gnus-parameters}:
10169 ;; @r{increase @code{gnus-button-*-level} in some groups:}
10170 (setq gnus-parameters
10171 '(("\\<\\(emacs\\|gnus\\)\\>" (gnus-button-emacs-level 10))
10172 ("\\<unix\\>" (gnus-button-man-level 10))
10173 ("\\<tex\\>" (gnus-button-tex-level 10))))
10178 @item gnus-button-browse-level
10179 @vindex gnus-button-browse-level
10180 Controls the display of references to message IDs, mail addresses and
10181 news URLs. Related variables and functions include
10182 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp}, @code{browse-url}, and
10183 @code{browse-url-browser-function}.
10185 @item gnus-button-emacs-level
10186 @vindex gnus-button-emacs-level
10187 Controls the display of Emacs or Gnus references. Related functions are
10188 @code{gnus-button-handle-custom},
10189 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-function},
10190 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-variable},
10191 @code{gnus-button-handle-symbol},
10192 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-key},
10193 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos},
10194 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-command},
10195 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-variable},
10196 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-documentation}, and
10197 @code{gnus-button-handle-library}.
10199 @item gnus-button-man-level
10200 @vindex gnus-button-man-level
10201 Controls the display of references to (Unix) man pages.
10202 See @code{gnus-button-man-handler}.
10204 @item gnus-button-message-level
10205 @vindex gnus-button-message-level
10206 Controls the display of message IDs, mail addresses and news URLs.
10207 Related variables and functions include
10208 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp},
10209 @code{gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail},
10210 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}, and
10211 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist}.
10213 @item gnus-button-tex-level
10214 @vindex gnus-button-tex-level
10215 Controls the display of references to @TeX{} or LaTeX stuff, e.g. for CTAN
10216 URLs. See the variables @code{gnus-ctan-url},
10217 @code{gnus-button-ctan-handler},
10218 @code{gnus-button-ctan-directory-regexp}, and
10219 @code{gnus-button-handle-ctan-bogus-regexp}.
10225 @subsection Article Date
10227 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
10228 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
10229 when the article was sent.
10234 @kindex W T u (Summary)
10235 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
10236 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
10237 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
10240 @kindex W T i (Summary)
10241 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
10243 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
10244 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
10247 @kindex W T l (Summary)
10248 @findex gnus-article-date-local
10249 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
10252 @kindex W T p (Summary)
10253 @findex gnus-article-date-english
10254 Display the date in a format that's easily pronounceable in English
10255 (@code{gnus-article-date-english}).
10258 @kindex W T s (Summary)
10259 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
10260 @findex gnus-article-date-user
10261 @findex format-time-string
10262 Display the date using a user-defined format
10263 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
10264 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
10265 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
10266 for a list of possible format specs.
10269 @kindex W T e (Summary)
10270 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
10271 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
10272 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
10273 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
10274 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). It looks something like:
10277 X-Sent: 6 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes, 8 seconds ago
10280 @vindex gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header
10281 The value of @code{gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header} determines
10282 whether this header will just be added below the old Date one, or will
10285 An advantage of using Gnus to read mail is that it converts simple bugs
10286 into wonderful absurdities.
10288 If you want to have this line updated continually, you can put
10291 (gnus-start-date-timer)
10294 in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file, or you can run it off of some hook. If
10295 you want to stop the timer, you can use the @code{gnus-stop-date-timer}
10299 @kindex W T o (Summary)
10300 @findex gnus-article-date-original
10301 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
10302 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
10303 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
10304 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
10305 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
10309 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to display the date in your
10310 preferred format automatically.
10313 @node Article Display
10314 @subsection Article Display
10319 These commands add various frivolous display gimmicks to the article
10320 buffer in Emacs versions that support them.
10322 @code{X-Face} headers are small black-and-white images supplied by the
10323 message headers (@pxref{X-Face}).
10325 @code{Face} headers are small colored images supplied by the message
10326 headers (@pxref{Face}).
10328 Smileys are those little @samp{:-)} symbols that people like to litter
10329 their messages with (@pxref{Smileys}).
10331 Picons, on the other hand, reside on your own system, and Gnus will
10332 try to match the headers to what you have (@pxref{Picons}).
10334 All these functions are toggles---if the elements already exist,
10335 they'll be removed.
10339 @kindex W D x (Summary)
10340 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
10341 Display an @code{X-Face} in the @code{From} header.
10342 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}).
10345 @kindex W D d (Summary)
10346 @findex gnus-article-display-face
10347 Display a @code{Face} in the @code{From} header.
10348 (@code{gnus-article-display-face}).
10351 @kindex W D s (Summary)
10352 @findex gnus-treat-smiley
10353 Display smileys (@code{gnus-treat-smiley}).
10356 @kindex W D f (Summary)
10357 @findex gnus-treat-from-picon
10358 Piconify the @code{From} header (@code{gnus-treat-from-picon}).
10361 @kindex W D m (Summary)
10362 @findex gnus-treat-mail-picon
10363 Piconify all mail headers (i. e., @code{Cc}, @code{To})
10364 (@code{gnus-treat-mail-picon}).
10367 @kindex W D n (Summary)
10368 @findex gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon
10369 Piconify all news headers (i. e., @code{Newsgroups} and
10370 @code{Followup-To}) (@code{gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon}).
10373 @kindex W D D (Summary)
10374 @findex gnus-article-remove-images
10375 Remove all images from the article buffer
10376 (@code{gnus-article-remove-images}).
10382 @node Article Signature
10383 @subsection Article Signature
10385 @cindex article signature
10387 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
10388 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
10389 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
10390 that says what is to be considered a signature is
10391 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
10392 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
10393 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
10394 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
10395 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
10398 (setq gnus-signature-separator
10399 '("^-- $" ; @r{The standard}
10400 "^-- *$" ; @r{A common mangling}
10401 "^-------*$" ; @r{Many people just use a looong}
10402 ; @r{line of dashes. Shame!}
10403 "^ *--------*$" ; @r{Double-shame!}
10404 "^________*$" ; @r{Underscores are also popular}
10405 "^========*$")) ; @r{Pervert!}
10408 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
10411 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
10412 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
10413 signature when displaying articles.
10417 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
10420 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
10423 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
10424 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
10426 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
10427 in question is not a signature.
10430 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
10431 listed above. Here's an example:
10434 (setq gnus-signature-limit
10435 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
10438 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
10439 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
10440 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
10441 signature after all.
10444 @node Article Miscellanea
10445 @subsection Article Miscellanea
10449 @kindex A t (Summary)
10450 @findex gnus-article-babel
10451 Translate the article from one language to another
10452 (@code{gnus-article-babel}).
10457 @node MIME Commands
10458 @section MIME Commands
10459 @cindex MIME decoding
10460 @cindex attachments
10461 @cindex viewing attachments
10463 The following commands all understand the numerical prefix. For
10464 instance, @kbd{3 K v} means ``view the third @acronym{MIME} part''.
10469 @kindex b (Summary)
10470 @kindex K v (Summary)
10471 View the @acronym{MIME} part.
10474 @kindex K o (Summary)
10475 Save the @acronym{MIME} part.
10478 @kindex K O (Summary)
10479 Prompt for a file name, then save the @acronym{MIME} part and strip it
10480 from the article. The stripped @acronym{MIME} object will be referred
10481 via the message/external-body @acronym{MIME} type.
10484 @kindex K r (Summary)
10485 Replace the @acronym{MIME} part with an external body.
10488 @kindex K d (Summary)
10489 Delete the @acronym{MIME} part and add some information about the
10493 @kindex K c (Summary)
10494 Copy the @acronym{MIME} part.
10497 @kindex K e (Summary)
10498 View the @acronym{MIME} part externally.
10501 @kindex K i (Summary)
10502 View the @acronym{MIME} part internally.
10505 @kindex K | (Summary)
10506 Pipe the @acronym{MIME} part to an external command.
10509 The rest of these @acronym{MIME} commands do not use the numerical prefix in
10514 @kindex K H (Summary)
10515 @findex gnus-article-browse-html-article
10516 View @samp{text/html} parts of the current article with a WWW browser.
10517 Inline images embedded in a message using the @code{cid} scheme, as they
10518 are generally considered to be safe, will be processed properly. The
10519 message header is added to the beginning of every @acronym{HTML} part
10520 unless the prefix argument is given.
10522 Warning: Spammers use links to images (using the @code{http} scheme) in
10523 @acronym{HTML} articles to verify whether you have read the message. As
10524 this command passes the @acronym{HTML} content to the browser without
10525 eliminating these ``web bugs'' you should only use it for mails from
10528 If you always want to display @acronym{HTML} parts in the browser, set
10529 @code{mm-text-html-renderer} to @code{nil}.
10531 This command creates temporary files to pass @acronym{HTML} contents
10532 including images if any to the browser, and deletes them when exiting
10533 the group (if you want).
10536 @kindex K b (Summary)
10537 Make all the @acronym{MIME} parts have buttons in front of them. This is
10538 mostly useful if you wish to save (or perform other actions) on inlined
10542 @kindex K m (Summary)
10543 @findex gnus-summary-repair-multipart
10544 Some multipart messages are transmitted with missing or faulty headers.
10545 This command will attempt to ``repair'' these messages so that they can
10546 be viewed in a more pleasant manner
10547 (@code{gnus-summary-repair-multipart}).
10550 @kindex X m (Summary)
10551 @findex gnus-summary-save-parts
10552 Save all parts matching a @acronym{MIME} type to a directory
10553 (@code{gnus-summary-save-parts}). Understands the process/prefix
10554 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
10557 @kindex M-t (Summary)
10558 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized
10559 Toggle the buttonized display of the article buffer
10560 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized}).
10563 @kindex W M w (Summary)
10564 @findex gnus-article-decode-mime-words
10565 Decode RFC 2047-encoded words in the article headers
10566 (@code{gnus-article-decode-mime-words}).
10569 @kindex W M c (Summary)
10570 @findex gnus-article-decode-charset
10571 Decode encoded article bodies as well as charsets
10572 (@code{gnus-article-decode-charset}).
10574 This command looks in the @code{Content-Type} header to determine the
10575 charset. If there is no such header in the article, you can give it a
10576 prefix, which will prompt for the charset to decode as. In regional
10577 groups where people post using some common encoding (but do not
10578 include @acronym{MIME} headers), you can set the @code{charset} group/topic
10579 parameter to the required charset (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
10582 @kindex W M v (Summary)
10583 @findex gnus-mime-view-all-parts
10584 View all the @acronym{MIME} parts in the current article
10585 (@code{gnus-mime-view-all-parts}).
10589 Relevant variables:
10592 @item gnus-ignored-mime-types
10593 @vindex gnus-ignored-mime-types
10594 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
10595 this list will be completely ignored by Gnus. The default value is
10598 To have all Vcards be ignored, you'd say something like this:
10601 (setq gnus-ignored-mime-types
10605 @item gnus-article-loose-mime
10606 @vindex gnus-article-loose-mime
10607 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus won't require the @samp{MIME-Version} header
10608 before interpreting the message as a @acronym{MIME} message. This helps
10609 when reading messages from certain broken mail user agents. The
10610 default is @code{t}.
10612 @item gnus-article-emulate-mime
10613 @vindex gnus-article-emulate-mime
10616 There are other, non-@acronym{MIME} encoding methods used. The most common
10617 is @samp{uuencode}, but yEncode is also getting to be popular. If
10618 this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will look in message bodies to
10619 see if it finds these encodings, and if so, it'll run them through the
10620 Gnus @acronym{MIME} machinery. The default is @code{t}. Only
10621 single-part yEnc encoded attachments can be decoded. There's no support
10622 for encoding in Gnus.
10624 @item gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
10625 @vindex gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
10626 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
10627 this list won't have @acronym{MIME} buttons inserted unless they aren't
10628 displayed or this variable is overridden by
10629 @code{gnus-buttonized-mime-types}. The default value is
10630 @code{(".*/.*")}. This variable is only used when
10631 @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing} is @code{nil}.
10633 @item gnus-buttonized-mime-types
10634 @vindex gnus-buttonized-mime-types
10635 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
10636 this list will have @acronym{MIME} buttons inserted unless they aren't
10637 displayed. This variable overrides
10638 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types}. The default value is @code{nil}.
10639 This variable is only used when @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing}
10642 To see e.g. security buttons but no other buttons, you could set this
10643 variable to @code{("multipart/signed")} and leave
10644 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types} at the default value.
10646 You could also add @code{"multipart/alternative"} to this list to
10647 display radio buttons that allow you to choose one of two media types
10648 those mails include. See also @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives}
10649 (@pxref{Display Customization, ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The
10650 Emacs MIME Manual}).
10652 @item gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
10653 @vindex gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
10654 If this is non-@code{nil}, then all @acronym{MIME} parts get buttons. The
10655 default value is @code{nil}.
10657 @item gnus-article-mime-part-function
10658 @vindex gnus-article-mime-part-function
10659 For each @acronym{MIME} part, this function will be called with the @acronym{MIME}
10660 handle as the parameter. The function is meant to be used to allow
10661 users to gather information from the article (e. g., add Vcard info to
10662 the bbdb database) or to do actions based on parts (e. g., automatically
10663 save all jpegs into some directory).
10665 Here's an example function the does the latter:
10668 (defun my-save-all-jpeg-parts (handle)
10669 (when (equal (car (mm-handle-type handle)) "image/jpeg")
10671 (insert (mm-get-part handle))
10672 (write-region (point-min) (point-max)
10673 (read-file-name "Save jpeg to: ")))))
10674 (setq gnus-article-mime-part-function
10675 'my-save-all-jpeg-parts)
10678 @vindex gnus-mime-multipart-functions
10679 @item gnus-mime-multipart-functions
10680 Alist of @acronym{MIME} multipart types and functions to handle them.
10682 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed
10683 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed
10684 Display "multipart/alternative" parts as "multipart/mixed".
10686 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed
10687 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed
10688 Display "multipart/related" parts as "multipart/mixed".
10690 If displaying @samp{text/html} is discouraged, see
10691 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives}, images or other material inside a
10692 "multipart/related" part might be overlooked when this variable is
10693 @code{nil}. @ref{Display Customization, Display Customization, ,
10694 emacs-mime, Emacs-Mime Manual}.
10696 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-as-mixed
10697 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-as-mixed
10698 Display "multipart" parts as "multipart/mixed". If @code{t}, it
10699 overrides @code{nil} values of
10700 @code{gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed} and
10701 @code{gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed}.
10703 @vindex mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
10704 @item mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
10705 List of functions used for rewriting file names of @acronym{MIME} parts.
10706 Each function takes a file name as input and returns a file name.
10708 Ready-made functions include@*
10709 @code{mm-file-name-delete-whitespace},
10710 @code{mm-file-name-trim-whitespace},
10711 @code{mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace}, and
10712 @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace}. The later uses the value of
10713 the variable @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace} to replace each
10714 whitespace character in a file name with that string; default value
10715 is @code{"_"} (a single underscore).
10716 @findex mm-file-name-delete-whitespace
10717 @findex mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
10718 @findex mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
10719 @findex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
10720 @vindex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
10722 The standard functions @code{capitalize}, @code{downcase},
10723 @code{upcase}, and @code{upcase-initials} may be useful, too.
10725 Everybody knows that whitespace characters in file names are evil,
10726 except those who don't know. If you receive lots of attachments from
10727 such unenlightened users, you can make live easier by adding
10730 (setq mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
10731 '(mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
10732 mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
10733 mm-file-name-replace-whitespace))
10737 to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
10746 People use different charsets, and we have @acronym{MIME} to let us know what
10747 charsets they use. Or rather, we wish we had. Many people use
10748 newsreaders and mailers that do not understand or use @acronym{MIME}, and
10749 just send out messages without saying what character sets they use. To
10750 help a bit with this, some local news hierarchies have policies that say
10751 what character set is the default. For instance, the @samp{fj}
10752 hierarchy uses @code{iso-2022-jp}.
10754 @vindex gnus-group-charset-alist
10755 This knowledge is encoded in the @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}
10756 variable, which is an alist of regexps (use the first item to match full
10757 group names) and default charsets to be used when reading these groups.
10759 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets
10760 In addition, some people do use soi-disant @acronym{MIME}-aware agents that
10761 aren't. These blithely mark messages as being in @code{iso-8859-1}
10762 even if they really are in @code{koi-8}. To help here, the
10763 @code{gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets} variable can be used. The
10764 charsets that are listed here will be ignored. The variable can be
10765 set on a group-by-group basis using the group parameters (@pxref{Group
10766 Parameters}). The default value is @code{(unknown-8bit x-unknown)},
10767 which includes values some agents insist on having in there.
10769 @vindex gnus-group-posting-charset-alist
10770 When posting, @code{gnus-group-posting-charset-alist} is used to
10771 determine which charsets should not be encoded using the @acronym{MIME}
10772 encodings. For instance, some hierarchies discourage using
10773 quoted-printable header encoding.
10775 This variable is an alist of regexps and permitted unencoded charsets
10776 for posting. Each element of the alist has the form @code{(}@var{test
10777 header body-list}@code{)}, where:
10781 is either a regular expression matching the newsgroup header or a
10784 is the charset which may be left unencoded in the header (@code{nil}
10785 means encode all charsets),
10787 is a list of charsets which may be encoded using 8bit content-transfer
10788 encoding in the body, or one of the special values @code{nil} (always
10789 encode using quoted-printable) or @code{t} (always use 8bit).
10796 @cindex coding system aliases
10797 @cindex preferred charset
10799 @xref{Encoding Customization, , Encoding Customization, emacs-mime,
10800 The Emacs MIME Manual}, for additional variables that control which
10801 MIME charsets are used when sending messages.
10803 Other charset tricks that may be useful, although not Gnus-specific:
10805 If there are several @acronym{MIME} charsets that encode the same Emacs
10806 charset, you can choose what charset to use by saying the following:
10809 (put-charset-property 'cyrillic-iso8859-5
10810 'preferred-coding-system 'koi8-r)
10813 This means that Russian will be encoded using @code{koi8-r} instead of
10814 the default @code{iso-8859-5} @acronym{MIME} charset.
10816 If you want to read messages in @code{koi8-u}, you can cheat and say
10819 (define-coding-system-alias 'koi8-u 'koi8-r)
10822 This will almost do the right thing.
10824 And finally, to read charsets like @code{windows-1251}, you can say
10828 (codepage-setup 1251)
10829 (define-coding-system-alias 'windows-1251 'cp1251)
10833 @node Article Commands
10834 @section Article Commands
10841 @kindex A P (Summary)
10842 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
10843 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
10844 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
10845 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will
10846 be run just before printing the buffer. An alternative way to print
10847 article is to use Muttprint (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
10852 @node Summary Sorting
10853 @section Summary Sorting
10854 @cindex summary sorting
10856 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
10857 can't really see why you'd want that.
10862 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
10863 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
10864 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
10866 @item C-c C-s C-m C-n
10867 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
10868 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-most-recent-number
10869 Sort by most recent article number
10870 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-most-recent-number}).
10873 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
10874 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
10875 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
10878 @kindex C-c C-s C-t (Summary)
10879 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-recipient
10880 Sort by recipient (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-recipient}).
10883 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
10884 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
10885 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
10888 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
10889 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
10890 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
10892 @item C-c C-s C-m C-d
10893 @kindex C-c C-s C-m C-d (Summary)
10894 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-most-recent-date
10895 Sort by most recent date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-most-recent-date}).
10898 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
10899 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
10900 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
10903 @kindex C-c C-s C-c (Summary)
10904 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-chars
10905 Sort by article length (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-chars}).
10908 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
10909 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
10910 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
10913 @kindex C-c C-s C-r (Summary)
10914 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-random
10915 Randomize (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-random}).
10918 @kindex C-c C-s C-o (Summary)
10919 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-original
10920 Sort using the default sorting method
10921 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-original}).
10924 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
10925 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
10926 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
10927 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
10928 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
10931 If a prefix argument if given, the sort order is reversed.
10934 @node Finding the Parent
10935 @section Finding the Parent
10936 @cindex parent articles
10937 @cindex referring articles
10941 @kindex ^ (Summary)
10942 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
10943 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
10944 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
10945 if the current group is fetched by @acronym{NNTP}, the parent hasn't expired
10946 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
10947 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
10948 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
10949 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
10950 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
10952 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
10953 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
10954 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, Gnus will fetch the parent, the
10955 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
10956 @kbd{-3 ^}, Gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
10959 @item A R (Summary)
10960 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
10961 @kindex A R (Summary)
10962 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
10963 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
10965 @item A T (Summary)
10966 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
10967 @kindex A T (Summary)
10968 Display the full thread where the current article appears
10969 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
10970 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
10971 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
10972 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
10973 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
10974 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
10976 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
10977 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i. e.,
10978 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
10979 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
10980 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
10981 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
10983 @item M-^ (Summary)
10984 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
10985 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
10987 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
10988 You can also ask Gnus for an arbitrary article, no matter what group it
10989 belongs to. @kbd{M-^} (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you
10990 for a @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read
10991 thingies that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}.
10992 You have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
10994 Gnus looks for the @code{Message-ID} in the headers that have already
10995 been fetched, but also tries all the select methods specified by
10996 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} if it is not found.
10999 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
11000 If the group you are reading is located on a back end that does not
11001 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
11002 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @acronym{NNTP} method. It
11003 would, perhaps, be best if the @acronym{NNTP} server you consult is the one
11004 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
11007 It can also be a list of select methods, as well as the special symbol
11008 @code{current}, which means to use the current select method. If it
11009 is a list, Gnus will try all the methods in the list until it finds a
11012 Here's an example setting that will first try the current method, and
11013 then ask Google if that fails:
11016 (setq gnus-refer-article-method
11018 (nnweb "google" (nnweb-type google))))
11021 Most of the mail back ends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but
11022 do not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox},
11023 @code{nnbabyl}, @code{nnmaildir}, @code{nnml}, are able to locate
11024 articles from any groups, while @code{nnfolder}, and @code{nnimap} are
11025 only able to locate articles that have been posted to the current
11026 group. (Anything else would be too time consuming.) @code{nnmh} does
11027 not support this at all.
11030 @node Alternative Approaches
11031 @section Alternative Approaches
11033 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
11034 Gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
11037 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
11038 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
11042 @node Pick and Read
11043 @subsection Pick and Read
11044 @cindex pick and read
11046 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
11047 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
11048 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
11049 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
11051 @findex gnus-pick-mode
11052 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
11053 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
11054 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
11055 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
11056 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
11058 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
11063 @findex gnus-pick-article-or-thread
11064 Pick the article or thread on the current line
11065 (@code{gnus-pick-article-or-thread}). If the variable
11066 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key selects the
11067 entire thread when used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise,
11068 it selects just the article. If given a numerical prefix, go to that
11069 thread or article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
11070 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
11073 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
11074 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
11075 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
11076 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
11080 @findex gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread.
11081 Unpick the thread or article
11082 (@code{gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread}). If the variable
11083 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key unpicks the
11084 thread if used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise it unpicks
11085 just the article. You can give this key a numerical prefix to unpick
11086 the thread or article at that line.
11090 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
11091 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
11092 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
11093 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
11094 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
11095 will still be visible when you are reading.
11099 All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
11100 pick-mode, with the exception of @kbd{u}. However @kbd{!} is available
11101 which is mapped to the same function
11102 @code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}.
11104 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
11107 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
11110 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
11111 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
11113 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
11114 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
11115 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
11117 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
11118 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
11119 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
11120 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
11121 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
11122 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
11123 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
11126 @node Binary Groups
11127 @subsection Binary Groups
11128 @cindex binary groups
11130 @findex gnus-binary-mode
11131 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
11132 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
11133 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
11134 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
11135 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
11136 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
11139 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
11140 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
11141 command, when you have turned on this mode
11142 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
11144 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
11145 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
11149 @section Tree Display
11152 @vindex gnus-use-trees
11153 If you don't like the normal Gnus summary display, you might try setting
11154 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
11155 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
11156 in the tree buffer.
11158 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
11161 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
11162 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
11163 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
11165 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
11166 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
11167 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers (@pxref{Mode
11168 Line Formatting}). The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list
11169 of valid specs, @pxref{Summary Buffer Mode Line}.
11171 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
11172 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
11173 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
11174 default is @code{modeline}.
11176 @item gnus-tree-line-format
11177 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
11178 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
11179 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
11180 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
11181 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
11182 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
11188 The name of the poster.
11190 The @code{From} header.
11192 The number of the article.
11194 The opening bracket.
11196 The closing bracket.
11201 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
11203 Variables related to the display are:
11206 @item gnus-tree-brackets
11207 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
11208 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
11209 ``sparse'' articles. The format is
11211 ((@var{real-open} . @var{real-close})
11212 (@var{sparse-open} . @var{sparse-close})
11213 (@var{dummy-open} . @var{dummy-close}))
11215 and the default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
11217 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
11218 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
11219 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
11220 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
11224 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
11225 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
11226 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will try to keep the tree
11227 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other Gnus
11228 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
11229 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
11230 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
11231 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
11232 other windows displayed next to it.
11234 You may also wish to add the following hook to keep the window minimized
11238 (add-hook 'gnus-configure-windows-hook
11239 'gnus-tree-perhaps-minimize)
11242 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
11243 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
11244 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
11245 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
11246 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
11247 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
11248 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
11252 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
11255 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
11265 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
11270 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
11271 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
11273 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
11275 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
11281 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
11282 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
11283 following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
11286 (setq gnus-use-trees t
11287 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
11288 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
11289 (gnus-add-configuration
11293 (summary 0.75 point)
11298 @xref{Window Layout}.
11301 @node Mail Group Commands
11302 @section Mail Group Commands
11303 @cindex mail group commands
11305 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
11306 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
11308 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
11309 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
11314 @kindex B e (Summary)
11315 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
11316 @cindex expiring mail
11317 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
11318 process (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}). That is, delete all
11319 expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
11320 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
11323 @kindex B C-M-e (Summary)
11324 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
11325 @cindex expiring mail
11326 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
11327 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
11328 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
11329 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
11332 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
11333 @cindex deleting mail
11334 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
11335 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
11336 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
11337 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
11338 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
11341 @kindex B m (Summary)
11343 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
11344 @vindex gnus-preserve-marks
11345 Move the article from one mail group to another
11346 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}). Marks will be preserved if
11347 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
11350 @kindex B c (Summary)
11352 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
11353 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
11354 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
11355 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}). Marks will be preserved if
11356 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
11359 @kindex B B (Summary)
11360 @cindex crosspost mail
11361 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
11362 Crosspost the current article to some other group
11363 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
11364 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
11365 be properly updated.
11368 @kindex B i (Summary)
11369 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
11370 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
11371 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
11372 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
11375 @kindex B I (Summary)
11376 @findex gnus-summary-create-article
11377 Create an empty article in the current mail newsgroups
11378 (@code{gnus-summary-create-article}). You will be prompted for a
11379 @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
11382 @kindex B r (Summary)
11383 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
11384 @vindex gnus-summary-respool-default-method
11385 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-respool-article}).
11386 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
11387 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
11388 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
11389 Marks will be preserved if @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil}
11390 (which is the default).
11394 @kindex B w (Summary)
11395 @kindex e (Summary)
11396 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
11397 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
11398 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article-done
11399 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
11400 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
11401 (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
11402 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, Gnus won't re-highlight the article.
11405 @kindex B q (Summary)
11406 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
11407 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
11408 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
11409 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
11412 @kindex B t (Summary)
11413 @findex gnus-summary-respool-trace
11414 Similarly, this command will display all fancy splitting patterns used
11415 when respooling, if any (@code{gnus-summary-respool-trace}).
11418 @kindex B p (Summary)
11419 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
11420 Some people have a tendency to send you ``courtesy'' copies when they
11421 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
11422 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
11423 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
11424 article from your news server (or rather, from
11425 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
11426 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
11427 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
11428 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
11429 just not have arrived yet.
11432 @kindex K E (Summary)
11433 @findex gnus-article-encrypt-body
11434 @vindex gnus-article-encrypt-protocol
11435 Encrypt the body of an article (@code{gnus-article-encrypt-body}).
11436 The body is encrypted with the encryption protocol specified by the
11437 variable @code{gnus-article-encrypt-protocol}.
11441 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
11442 @cindex moving articles
11443 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have Gnus
11444 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
11445 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
11446 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
11447 suggestions you find reasonable. (Note that
11448 @code{gnus-move-split-methods} uses group names where
11449 @code{gnus-split-methods} uses file names.)
11452 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
11453 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
11454 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
11455 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
11459 @node Various Summary Stuff
11460 @section Various Summary Stuff
11463 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
11464 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
11465 * Summary Generation Commands::
11466 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
11470 @vindex gnus-summary-display-while-building
11471 @item gnus-summary-display-while-building
11472 If non-@code{nil}, show and update the summary buffer as it's being
11473 built. If @code{t}, update the buffer after every line is inserted.
11474 If the value is an integer, @var{n}, update the display every @var{n}
11475 lines. The default is @code{nil}.
11477 @vindex gnus-summary-display-arrow
11478 @item gnus-summary-display-arrow
11479 If non-@code{nil}, display an arrow in the fringe to indicate the
11482 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
11483 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
11484 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
11486 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
11487 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
11488 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
11489 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
11490 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
11491 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
11494 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
11495 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
11496 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
11497 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
11498 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
11500 @vindex gnus-summary-prepared-hook
11501 @item gnus-summary-prepared-hook
11502 A hook called as the very last thing after the summary buffer has been
11505 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
11506 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
11507 When Gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
11508 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
11509 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
11510 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
11511 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), Gnus will rename the
11512 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
11513 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
11514 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
11516 @vindex gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
11517 @item gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
11518 This function, which takes two parameters (the group name and the list
11519 of articles to be selected), is called to allow the user to alter the
11520 list of articles to be selected.
11522 For instance, the following function adds the list of cached articles to
11523 the list in one particular group:
11526 (defun my-add-cached-articles (group articles)
11527 (if (string= group "some.group")
11528 (append gnus-newsgroup-cached articles)
11532 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-variables
11533 @item gnus-newsgroup-variables
11534 A list of newsgroup (summary buffer) local variables, or cons of
11535 variables and their default expressions to be evalled (when the default
11536 values are not @code{nil}), that should be made global while the summary
11539 Note: The default expressions will be evaluated (using function
11540 @code{eval}) before assignment to the local variable rather than just
11541 assigned to it. If the default expression is the symbol @code{global},
11542 that symbol will not be evaluated but the global value of the local
11543 variable will be used instead.
11545 These variables can be used to set variables in the group parameters
11546 while still allowing them to affect operations done in other
11547 buffers. For example:
11550 (setq gnus-newsgroup-variables
11551 '(message-use-followup-to
11552 (gnus-visible-headers .
11553 "^From:\\|^Newsgroups:\\|^Subject:\\|^Date:\\|^To:")))
11556 Also @pxref{Group Parameters}.
11558 @vindex gnus-propagate-marks
11559 @item gnus-propagate-marks
11560 If non-@code{nil}, propagate marks to the backends for possible
11561 storing. @xref{NNTP marks}, and friends, for a more fine-grained
11567 @node Summary Group Information
11568 @subsection Summary Group Information
11573 @kindex H f (Summary)
11574 @findex gnus-summary-fetch-faq
11575 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
11576 Try to fetch the @acronym{FAQ} (list of frequently asked questions)
11577 for the current group (@code{gnus-summary-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try
11578 to get the @acronym{FAQ} from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which
11579 is usually a directory on a remote machine. This variable can also be
11580 a list of directories. In that case, giving a prefix to this command
11581 will allow you to choose between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp}
11582 or @code{efs} will probably be used for fetching the file.
11585 @kindex H d (Summary)
11586 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
11587 Give a brief description of the current group
11588 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
11589 rereading the description from the server.
11592 @kindex H h (Summary)
11593 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
11594 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
11595 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
11598 @kindex H i (Summary)
11599 @findex gnus-info-find-node
11600 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
11604 @node Searching for Articles
11605 @subsection Searching for Articles
11610 @kindex M-s (Summary)
11611 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
11612 Search through all subsequent (raw) articles for a regexp
11613 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
11616 @kindex M-r (Summary)
11617 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
11618 Search through all previous (raw) articles for a regexp
11619 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
11622 @kindex M-S (Summary)
11623 @findex gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-forward
11624 Repeat the previous search forwards
11625 (@code{gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-forward}).
11628 @kindex M-R (Summary)
11629 @findex gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-backward
11630 Repeat the previous search backwards
11631 (@code{gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-backward}).
11634 @kindex & (Summary)
11635 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
11636 This command will prompt you for a header, a regular expression to match
11637 on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
11638 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If the header is an empty
11639 string, the match is done on the entire article. If given a prefix,
11640 search backward instead.
11642 For instance, @kbd{& RET some.*string RET #} will put the process mark on
11643 all articles that have heads or bodies that match @samp{some.*string}.
11646 @kindex M-& (Summary)
11647 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
11648 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
11649 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
11652 @node Summary Generation Commands
11653 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
11658 @kindex Y g (Summary)
11659 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
11660 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
11663 @kindex Y c (Summary)
11664 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
11665 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
11666 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
11669 @kindex Y d (Summary)
11670 @findex gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles
11671 Pull all dormant articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
11672 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles}).
11675 @kindex Y t (Summary)
11676 @findex gnus-summary-insert-ticked-articles
11677 Pull all ticked articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
11678 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-ticked-articles}).
11683 @node Really Various Summary Commands
11684 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
11690 @kindex C-d (Summary)
11691 @kindex A D (Summary)
11692 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
11693 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
11694 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
11695 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
11696 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
11697 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
11698 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
11699 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
11702 @vindex gnus-auto-select-on-ephemeral-exit
11703 The variable @code{gnus-auto-select-on-ephemeral-exit} controls what
11704 article should be selected after exiting a digest group. Valid values
11709 Select the next article.
11712 Select the next unread article.
11714 @item next-noselect
11715 Move the cursor to the next article. This is the default.
11717 @item next-unread-noselect
11718 Move the cursor to the next unread article.
11721 If it has any other value or there is no next (unread) article, the
11722 article selected before entering to the digest group will appear.
11725 @kindex C-M-d (Summary)
11726 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
11727 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
11728 several documents into one biiig group
11729 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
11730 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
11731 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
11732 command understands the process/prefix convention
11733 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
11736 @kindex C-t (Summary)
11737 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
11738 Toggle truncation of summary lines
11739 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
11740 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
11741 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
11744 @kindex = (Summary)
11745 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
11746 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
11747 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
11750 @kindex C-M-e (Summary)
11751 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
11752 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
11753 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
11756 @kindex C-M-a (Summary)
11757 @findex gnus-summary-customize-parameters
11758 Customize the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
11759 group (@code{gnus-summary-customize-parameters}).
11764 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
11765 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
11766 @cindex summary exit
11767 @cindex exiting groups
11769 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
11770 group and return you to the group buffer.
11777 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
11778 @kindex Z Q (Summary)
11779 @kindex q (Summary)
11780 @findex gnus-summary-exit
11781 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
11782 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
11783 @vindex gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook
11784 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
11785 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
11786 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
11787 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
11788 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
11789 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
11790 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
11791 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
11795 @kindex Z E (Summary)
11796 @kindex Q (Summary)
11797 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
11798 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
11799 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
11803 @kindex Z c (Summary)
11804 @kindex c (Summary)
11805 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
11806 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
11807 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
11808 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
11811 @kindex Z C (Summary)
11812 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
11813 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
11814 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
11817 @kindex Z n (Summary)
11818 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
11819 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
11820 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
11823 @kindex Z p (Summary)
11824 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-prev-group
11825 Mark all articles as read and go to the previous group
11826 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-prev-group}).
11830 @kindex Z R (Summary)
11831 @kindex C-x C-s (Summary)
11832 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
11833 Exit this group, and then enter it again
11834 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
11835 all articles, both read and unread.
11839 @kindex Z G (Summary)
11840 @kindex M-g (Summary)
11841 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
11842 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
11843 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
11844 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
11845 articles, both read and unread.
11848 @kindex Z N (Summary)
11849 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
11850 Exit the group and go to the next group
11851 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
11854 @kindex Z P (Summary)
11855 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
11856 Exit the group and go to the previous group
11857 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
11860 @kindex Z s (Summary)
11861 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
11862 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
11863 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
11864 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
11865 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
11868 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
11869 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current group
11870 with an ``updating'' exit. For instance @kbd{Q}
11871 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}) does not call this hook.
11873 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
11874 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
11875 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
11876 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
11877 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
11878 If you do that, Gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
11879 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
11880 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
11881 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
11882 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
11883 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
11884 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
11886 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
11888 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
11889 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
11890 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
11891 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
11892 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
11893 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
11894 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
11895 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
11896 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
11899 @node Crosspost Handling
11900 @section Crosspost Handling
11904 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
11905 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
11906 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
11907 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
11908 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
11909 heinous crime. You may want to try NoCeM handling to filter out spam
11912 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
11913 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
11914 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
11915 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
11916 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
11918 @cindex cross-posting
11920 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
11921 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
11922 correctly is if you use an @acronym{NNTP} server that supports @sc{xover}
11923 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
11924 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @acronym{NOV} lines. This is
11925 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
11926 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
11927 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
11928 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
11929 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
11930 the cross reference mechanism.
11932 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
11933 @cindex overview.fmt
11934 To check whether your @acronym{NNTP} server includes the @code{Xref} header
11935 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
11936 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
11937 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
11938 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
11939 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
11942 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
11943 set @code{nntp-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
11944 considerably. Also @pxref{Slow/Expensive Connection}.
11948 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
11951 @node Duplicate Suppression
11952 @section Duplicate Suppression
11954 By default, Gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
11955 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
11956 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
11957 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
11962 The @acronym{NNTP} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
11963 is evil and not very common.
11966 The @acronym{NNTP} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
11967 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
11970 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
11971 different @acronym{NNTP} servers.
11974 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
11977 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
11978 well, but these four are the most common situations.
11980 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
11981 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
11982 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
11983 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
11984 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
11985 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
11986 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
11989 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
11990 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
11991 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
11992 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
11993 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
11994 saw the article in.
11997 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
11998 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
11999 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
12001 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
12002 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
12003 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
12004 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
12005 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single Gnus
12006 session are suppressed.
12008 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
12009 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
12010 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
12011 suppression list. The default is 10000.
12013 @item gnus-duplicate-file
12014 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
12015 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
12016 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
12019 If you have a tendency to stop and start Gnus often, setting
12020 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
12021 you leave Gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
12022 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
12023 so that means that if you stop and start Gnus often, you should set
12024 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
12025 to you to figure out, I think.
12030 Gnus is able to verify signed messages or decrypt encrypted messages.
12031 The formats that are supported are @acronym{PGP}, @acronym{PGP/MIME}
12032 and @acronym{S/MIME}, however you need some external programs to get
12037 To handle @acronym{PGP} and @acronym{PGP/MIME} messages, you have to
12038 install an OpenPGP implementation such as GnuPG. The Lisp interface
12039 to GnuPG included with Emacs is called EasyPG (@pxref{Top, ,EasyPG,
12040 epa, EasyPG Assistant user's manual}), but PGG (@pxref{Top, ,PGG, pgg,
12041 PGG Manual}), Mailcrypt, and gpg.el are also supported.
12044 To handle @acronym{S/MIME} message, you need to install OpenSSL. OpenSSL 0.9.6
12045 or newer is recommended.
12049 The variables that control security functionality on reading/composing
12053 @item mm-verify-option
12054 @vindex mm-verify-option
12055 Option of verifying signed parts. @code{never}, not verify;
12056 @code{always}, always verify; @code{known}, only verify known
12057 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
12059 @item mm-decrypt-option
12060 @vindex mm-decrypt-option
12061 Option of decrypting encrypted parts. @code{never}, no decryption;
12062 @code{always}, always decrypt; @code{known}, only decrypt known
12063 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
12065 @item mm-sign-option
12066 @vindex mm-sign-option
12067 Option of creating signed parts. @code{nil}, use default signing
12068 keys; @code{guided}, ask user to select signing keys from the menu.
12070 @item mm-encrypt-option
12071 @vindex mm-encrypt-option
12072 Option of creating encrypted parts. @code{nil}, use the first
12073 public-key matching the @samp{From:} header as the recipient;
12074 @code{guided}, ask user to select recipient keys from the menu.
12077 @vindex mml1991-use
12078 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for
12079 @acronym{PGP} messages. The default is @code{epg}, but @code{pgg},
12080 @code{mailcrypt}, and @code{gpg} are also supported although
12081 deprecated. By default, Gnus uses the first available interface in
12085 @vindex mml2015-use
12086 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for
12087 @acronym{PGP/MIME} messages. The default is @code{epg}, but
12088 @code{pgg}, @code{mailcrypt}, and @code{gpg} are also supported
12089 although deprecated. By default, Gnus uses the first available
12090 interface in this order.
12094 By default the buttons that display security information are not
12095 shown, because they clutter reading the actual e-mail. You can type
12096 @kbd{K b} manually to display the information. Use the
12097 @code{gnus-buttonized-mime-types} and
12098 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types} variables to control this
12099 permanently. @ref{MIME Commands} for further details, and hints on
12100 how to customize these variables to always display security
12103 @cindex snarfing keys
12104 @cindex importing PGP keys
12105 @cindex PGP key ring import
12106 Snarfing OpenPGP keys (i.e., importing keys from articles into your
12107 key ring) is not supported explicitly through a menu item or command,
12108 rather Gnus do detect and label keys as @samp{application/pgp-keys},
12109 allowing you to specify whatever action you think is appropriate
12110 through the usual @acronym{MIME} infrastructure. You can use a
12111 @file{~/.mailcap} entry (@pxref{mailcap, , mailcap, emacs-mime, The
12112 Emacs MIME Manual}) such as the following to import keys using GNU
12113 Privacy Guard when you click on the @acronym{MIME} button
12114 (@pxref{Using MIME}).
12117 application/pgp-keys; gpg --import --interactive --verbose; needsterminal
12120 This happens to also be the default action defined in
12121 @code{mailcap-mime-data}.
12123 More information on how to set things for sending outgoing signed and
12124 encrypted messages up can be found in the message manual
12125 (@pxref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}).
12128 @section Mailing List
12129 @cindex mailing list
12132 @kindex A M (summary)
12133 @findex gnus-mailing-list-insinuate
12134 Gnus understands some mailing list fields of RFC 2369. To enable it,
12135 add a @code{to-list} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}),
12136 possibly using @kbd{A M} (@code{gnus-mailing-list-insinuate}) in the
12139 That enables the following commands to the summary buffer:
12144 @kindex C-c C-n h (Summary)
12145 @findex gnus-mailing-list-help
12146 Send a message to fetch mailing list help, if List-Help field exists.
12149 @kindex C-c C-n s (Summary)
12150 @findex gnus-mailing-list-subscribe
12151 Send a message to subscribe the mailing list, if List-Subscribe field exists.
12154 @kindex C-c C-n u (Summary)
12155 @findex gnus-mailing-list-unsubscribe
12156 Send a message to unsubscribe the mailing list, if List-Unsubscribe
12160 @kindex C-c C-n p (Summary)
12161 @findex gnus-mailing-list-post
12162 Post to the mailing list, if List-Post field exists.
12165 @kindex C-c C-n o (Summary)
12166 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
12167 Send a message to the mailing list owner, if List-Owner field exists.
12170 @kindex C-c C-n a (Summary)
12171 @findex gnus-mailing-list-archive
12172 Browse the mailing list archive, if List-Archive field exists.
12177 @node Article Buffer
12178 @chapter Article Buffer
12179 @cindex article buffer
12181 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
12182 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
12183 tell Gnus otherwise.
12186 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
12187 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @acronym{MIME} before reading them.
12188 * HTML:: Reading @acronym{HTML} messages.
12189 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
12190 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
12191 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
12195 @node Hiding Headers
12196 @section Hiding Headers
12197 @cindex hiding headers
12198 @cindex deleting headers
12200 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
12201 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
12203 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
12204 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
12205 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
12206 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
12207 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
12208 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
12209 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseam---and you'll probably want to get rid
12210 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
12211 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
12213 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
12217 @item gnus-visible-headers
12218 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
12219 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
12220 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
12221 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
12223 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
12224 the article and the subject, you'd say:
12227 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
12230 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
12233 @item gnus-ignored-headers
12234 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
12235 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
12236 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
12237 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
12238 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
12240 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} line
12241 and the @code{Xref} line, you might say:
12244 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
12247 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
12250 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
12251 variable will have no effect.
12255 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
12256 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
12257 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
12258 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
12259 the headers are to be displayed.
12261 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
12262 and then the subject, you might say something like:
12265 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
12268 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
12269 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
12271 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
12272 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
12273 You can hide further boring headers by setting
12274 @code{gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers} to @code{head}. What this function
12275 does depends on the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a
12276 list, but this list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead it
12277 lists various @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove
12280 These conditions are:
12283 Remove all empty headers.
12285 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
12286 @code{Newsgroups} header.
12288 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same addresses as
12289 the @code{From} header, or if the @code{broken-reply-to} group
12292 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
12295 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
12296 the current group's @code{to-address} parameter.
12298 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
12299 the current group's @code{to-list} parameter.
12301 Remove the @code{Cc} header if it only contains the address identical to
12302 the current group's @code{to-list} parameter.
12304 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
12307 Remove the @code{To} and/or @code{Cc} header if it is very long.
12309 Remove all @code{To} and/or @code{Cc} headers if there are more than one.
12312 To include these three elements, you could say something like:
12315 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
12316 '(empty followup-to reply-to))
12319 This is also the default value for this variable.
12323 @section Using MIME
12324 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
12326 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
12327 while people stand around yawning.
12329 @acronym{MIME}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
12330 while all newsreaders die of fear.
12332 @acronym{MIME} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
12333 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
12334 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
12336 @vindex gnus-display-mime-function
12337 @findex gnus-display-mime
12338 Gnus pushes @acronym{MIME} articles through @code{gnus-display-mime-function}
12339 to display the @acronym{MIME} parts. This is @code{gnus-display-mime} by
12340 default, which creates a bundle of clickable buttons that can be used to
12341 display, save and manipulate the @acronym{MIME} objects.
12343 The following commands are available when you have placed point over a
12344 @acronym{MIME} button:
12347 @findex gnus-article-press-button
12348 @item RET (Article)
12349 @kindex RET (Article)
12350 @itemx BUTTON-2 (Article)
12351 Toggle displaying of the @acronym{MIME} object
12352 (@code{gnus-article-press-button}). If built-in viewers can not display
12353 the object, Gnus resorts to external viewers in the @file{mailcap}
12354 files. If a viewer has the @samp{copiousoutput} specification, the
12355 object is displayed inline.
12357 @findex gnus-mime-view-part
12358 @item M-RET (Article)
12359 @kindex M-RET (Article)
12361 Prompt for a method, and then view the @acronym{MIME} object using this
12362 method (@code{gnus-mime-view-part}).
12364 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-type
12366 @kindex t (Article)
12367 View the @acronym{MIME} object as if it were a different @acronym{MIME} media type
12368 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-type}).
12370 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset
12372 @kindex C (Article)
12373 Prompt for a charset, and then view the @acronym{MIME} object using this
12374 charset (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset}).
12376 @findex gnus-mime-save-part
12378 @kindex o (Article)
12379 Prompt for a file name, and then save the @acronym{MIME} object
12380 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part}).
12382 @findex gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip
12383 @item C-o (Article)
12384 @kindex C-o (Article)
12385 Prompt for a file name, then save the @acronym{MIME} object and strip it from
12386 the article. Then proceed to article editing, where a reasonable
12387 suggestion is being made on how the altered article should look
12388 like. The stripped @acronym{MIME} object will be referred via the
12389 message/external-body @acronym{MIME} type.
12390 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip}).
12392 @findex gnus-mime-replace-part
12394 @kindex r (Article)
12395 Prompt for a file name, replace the @acronym{MIME} object with an
12396 external body refering to the file via the message/external-body
12397 @acronym{MIME} type. (@code{gnus-mime-replace-part}).
12399 @findex gnus-mime-delete-part
12401 @kindex d (Article)
12402 Delete the @acronym{MIME} object from the article and replace it with some
12403 information about the removed @acronym{MIME} object
12404 (@code{gnus-mime-delete-part}).
12406 @c FIXME: gnus-auto-select-part should be documented here
12408 @findex gnus-mime-copy-part
12410 @kindex c (Article)
12411 Copy the @acronym{MIME} object to a fresh buffer and display this buffer
12412 (@code{gnus-mime-copy-part}). If given a prefix, copy the raw contents
12413 without decoding. If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual
12414 charset stuff (see @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist} in
12415 @ref{Paging the Article}). Compressed files like @file{.gz} and
12416 @file{.bz2} are automatically decompressed if
12417 @code{auto-compression-mode} is enabled (@pxref{Compressed Files,,
12418 Accessing Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Editor}).
12420 @findex gnus-mime-print-part
12422 @kindex p (Article)
12423 Print the @acronym{MIME} object (@code{gnus-mime-print-part}). This
12424 command respects the @samp{print=} specifications in the
12425 @file{.mailcap} file.
12427 @findex gnus-mime-inline-part
12429 @kindex i (Article)
12430 Insert the contents of the @acronym{MIME} object into the buffer
12431 (@code{gnus-mime-inline-part}) as @samp{text/plain}. If given a prefix, insert
12432 the raw contents without decoding. If given a numerical prefix, you can
12433 do semi-manual charset stuff (see
12434 @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist} in @ref{Paging the
12435 Article}). Compressed files like @file{.gz} and @file{.bz2} are
12436 automatically decompressed depending on @code{jka-compr} regardless of
12437 @code{auto-compression-mode} (@pxref{Compressed Files,, Accessing
12438 Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Editor}).
12440 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-internally
12442 @kindex E (Article)
12443 View the @acronym{MIME} object with an internal viewer. If no internal
12444 viewer is available, use an external viewer
12445 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-internally}).
12447 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-externally
12449 @kindex e (Article)
12450 View the @acronym{MIME} object with an external viewer.
12451 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-externally}).
12453 @findex gnus-mime-pipe-part
12455 @kindex | (Article)
12456 Output the @acronym{MIME} object to a process (@code{gnus-mime-pipe-part}).
12458 @findex gnus-mime-action-on-part
12460 @kindex . (Article)
12461 Interactively run an action on the @acronym{MIME} object
12462 (@code{gnus-mime-action-on-part}).
12466 Gnus will display some @acronym{MIME} objects automatically. The way Gnus
12467 determines which parts to do this with is described in the Emacs
12468 @acronym{MIME} manual.
12470 It might be best to just use the toggling functions from the article
12471 buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance, you enter the
12472 group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it, @acronym{MIME} has
12473 decoded the sound file in the article and some horrible sing-a-long song
12474 comes screaming out your speakers, and you can't find the volume button,
12475 because there isn't one, and people are starting to look at you, and you
12476 try to stop the program, but you can't, and you can't find the program
12477 to control the volume, and everybody else in the room suddenly decides
12478 to look at you disdainfully, and you'll feel rather stupid.)
12480 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
12482 Also @pxref{MIME Commands}.
12486 @section @acronym{HTML}
12487 @cindex @acronym{HTML}
12489 If you have @code{w3m} installed on your system, Gnus can display
12490 @acronym{HTML} articles in the article buffer. There are many Gnus
12491 add-ons for doing this, using various approaches, but there's one
12492 (sort of) built-in method that's used by default.
12494 For a complete overview, consult @xref{Display Customization,
12495 ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}. This
12496 section only describes the default method.
12499 @item mm-text-html-renderer
12500 @vindex mm-text-html-renderer
12501 If set to @code{gnus-article-html}, Gnus will use the built-in method,
12502 that's based on @code{curl} and @code{w3m}.
12504 @item gnus-html-cache-directory
12505 @vindex gnus-html-cache-directory
12506 Gnus will download and cache images according to how
12507 @code{mm-w3m-safe-url-regexp} is set. These images will be stored in
12510 @item gnus-html-cache-size
12511 @vindex gnus-html-cache-size
12512 When @code{gnus-html-cache-size} bytes have been used in that
12513 directory, the oldest files will be deleted. The default is 500MB.
12515 @item gnus-html-frame-width
12516 @vindex gnus-html-frame-width
12517 The width to use when rendering HTML. The default is 70.
12521 To use this, make sure that you have @code{w3m} and @code{curl}
12522 installed. If you have, then Gnus should display @acronym{HTML}
12527 @node Customizing Articles
12528 @section Customizing Articles
12529 @cindex article customization
12531 A slew of functions for customizing how the articles are to look like
12532 exist. You can call these functions interactively
12533 (@pxref{Article Washing}), or you can have them
12534 called automatically when you select the articles.
12536 To have them called automatically, you should set the corresponding
12537 ``treatment'' variable. For instance, to have headers hidden, you'd set
12538 @code{gnus-treat-hide-headers}. Below is a list of variables that can
12539 be set, but first we discuss the values these variables can have.
12541 Note: Some values, while valid, make little sense. Check the list below
12542 for sensible values.
12546 @code{nil}: Don't do this treatment.
12549 @code{t}: Do this treatment on all body parts.
12552 @code{head}: Do the treatment on the headers.
12555 @code{first}: Do this treatment on the first body part.
12558 @code{last}: Do this treatment on the last body part.
12561 An integer: Do this treatment on all body parts that have a length less
12565 A list of strings: Do this treatment on all body parts that are in
12566 articles that are read in groups that have names that match one of the
12567 regexps in the list.
12570 A list where the first element is not a string:
12572 The list is evaluated recursively. The first element of the list is a
12573 predicate. The following predicates are recognized: @code{or},
12574 @code{and}, @code{not} and @code{typep}. Here's an example:
12578 (typep "text/x-vcard"))
12583 You may have noticed that the word @dfn{part} is used here. This refers
12584 to the fact that some messages are @acronym{MIME} multipart articles that may
12585 be divided into several parts. Articles that are not multiparts are
12586 considered to contain just a single part.
12588 @vindex gnus-article-treat-types
12589 Are the treatments applied to all sorts of multipart parts? Yes, if you
12590 want to, but by default, only @samp{text/plain} parts are given the
12591 treatment. This is controlled by the @code{gnus-article-treat-types}
12592 variable, which is a list of regular expressions that are matched to the
12593 type of the part. This variable is ignored if the value of the
12594 controlling variable is a predicate list, as described above.
12597 @c Avoid sort of redundant entries in the same section for the printed
12598 @c manual, but add them in info to allow `i gnus-treat-foo-bar RET' or
12600 @vindex gnus-treat-buttonize
12601 @vindex gnus-treat-buttonize-head
12602 @vindex gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences
12603 @vindex gnus-treat-overstrike
12604 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-cr
12605 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body
12606 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines
12607 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines
12608 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-pem
12609 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines
12610 @vindex gnus-treat-unsplit-urls
12611 @vindex gnus-treat-wash-html
12612 @vindex gnus-treat-date-english
12613 @vindex gnus-treat-date-iso8601
12614 @vindex gnus-treat-date-lapsed
12615 @vindex gnus-treat-date-local
12616 @vindex gnus-treat-date-original
12617 @vindex gnus-treat-date-user-defined
12618 @vindex gnus-treat-date-ut
12619 @vindex gnus-treat-from-picon
12620 @vindex gnus-treat-mail-picon
12621 @vindex gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon
12622 @vindex gnus-treat-display-smileys
12623 @vindex gnus-treat-body-boundary
12624 @vindex gnus-treat-display-x-face
12625 @vindex gnus-treat-display-face
12626 @vindex gnus-treat-emphasize
12627 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-article
12628 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-long-lines
12629 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers
12630 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation
12631 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe
12632 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-headers
12633 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-signature
12634 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-banner
12635 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers
12636 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-citation
12637 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-headers
12638 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-signature
12639 @vindex gnus-treat-play-sounds
12640 @vindex gnus-treat-translate
12641 @vindex gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig
12642 @vindex gnus-treat-unfold-headers
12643 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-headers
12644 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups
12645 @vindex gnus-treat-leading-whitespace
12648 The following treatment options are available. The easiest way to
12649 customize this is to examine the @code{gnus-article-treat} customization
12650 group. Values in parenthesis are suggested sensible values. Others are
12651 possible but those listed are probably sufficient for most people.
12654 @item gnus-treat-buttonize (t, integer)
12655 @item gnus-treat-buttonize-head (head)
12657 @xref{Article Buttons}.
12659 @item gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences (t, integer)
12660 @item gnus-treat-overstrike (t, integer)
12661 @item gnus-treat-strip-cr (t, integer)
12662 @item gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body (t, integer)
12663 @item gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines (t, first, integer)
12664 @item gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines (t, integer)
12665 @item gnus-treat-strip-pem (t, last, integer)
12666 @item gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines (t, last, integer)
12667 @item gnus-treat-unsplit-urls (t, integer)
12668 @item gnus-treat-wash-html (t, integer)
12670 @xref{Article Washing}.
12672 @item gnus-treat-date-english (head)
12673 @item gnus-treat-date-iso8601 (head)
12674 @item gnus-treat-date-lapsed (head)
12675 @item gnus-treat-date-local (head)
12676 @item gnus-treat-date-original (head)
12677 @item gnus-treat-date-user-defined (head)
12678 @item gnus-treat-date-ut (head)
12680 @xref{Article Date}.
12682 @item gnus-treat-from-picon (head)
12683 @item gnus-treat-mail-picon (head)
12684 @item gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon (head)
12688 @item gnus-treat-display-smileys (t, integer)
12690 @item gnus-treat-body-boundary (head)
12692 @vindex gnus-body-boundary-delimiter
12693 Adds a delimiter between header and body, the string used as delimiter
12694 is controlled by @code{gnus-body-boundary-delimiter}.
12698 @vindex gnus-treat-display-x-face
12699 @item gnus-treat-display-x-face (head)
12703 @vindex gnus-treat-display-face
12704 @item gnus-treat-display-face (head)
12708 @vindex gnus-treat-emphasize
12709 @item gnus-treat-emphasize (t, head, integer)
12710 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-article
12711 @item gnus-treat-fill-article (t, integer)
12712 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-long-lines
12713 @item gnus-treat-fill-long-lines (t, integer)
12714 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers
12715 @item gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers (head)
12716 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation
12717 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation (t, integer)
12718 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe
12719 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe (t, integer)
12720 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-headers
12721 @item gnus-treat-hide-headers (head)
12722 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-signature
12723 @item gnus-treat-hide-signature (t, last)
12724 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-banner
12725 @item gnus-treat-strip-banner (t, last)
12726 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers
12727 @item gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers (head)
12729 @xref{Article Hiding}.
12731 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-citation
12732 @item gnus-treat-highlight-citation (t, integer)
12733 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-headers
12734 @item gnus-treat-highlight-headers (head)
12735 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-signature
12736 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last, integer)
12738 @xref{Article Highlighting}.
12740 @vindex gnus-treat-play-sounds
12741 @item gnus-treat-play-sounds
12742 @vindex gnus-treat-translate
12743 @item gnus-treat-translate
12744 @item gnus-treat-ansi-sequences (t)
12745 @vindex gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig
12746 @item gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig (head)
12748 @vindex gnus-treat-unfold-headers
12749 @item gnus-treat-unfold-headers (head)
12750 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-headers
12751 @item gnus-treat-fold-headers (head)
12752 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups
12753 @item gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups (head)
12754 @vindex gnus-treat-leading-whitespace
12755 @item gnus-treat-leading-whitespace (head)
12757 @xref{Article Header}.
12762 @vindex gnus-part-display-hook
12763 You can, of course, write your own functions to be called from
12764 @code{gnus-part-display-hook}. The functions are called narrowed to the
12765 part, and you can do anything you like, pretty much. There is no
12766 information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can change
12770 @node Article Keymap
12771 @section Article Keymap
12773 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
12774 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
12775 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
12776 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
12779 @kindex v (Article)
12780 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Article)
12781 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
12782 command or better use it as a prefix key.
12784 A few additional keystrokes are available:
12789 @kindex SPACE (Article)
12790 @findex gnus-article-next-page
12791 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
12792 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h SPACE h}.
12795 @kindex DEL (Article)
12796 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
12797 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
12798 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h DEL h}.
12801 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
12802 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
12803 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
12804 @kbd{C-c ^}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
12805 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
12808 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
12809 @findex gnus-article-mail
12810 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
12811 given a prefix, include the mail.
12814 @kindex s (Article)
12815 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
12816 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
12817 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
12820 @kindex ? (Article)
12821 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
12822 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
12823 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
12826 @kindex TAB (Article)
12827 @findex gnus-article-next-button
12828 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
12829 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
12832 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
12833 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
12834 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
12837 @kindex R (Article)
12838 @findex gnus-article-reply-with-original
12839 Send a reply to the current article and yank the current article
12840 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}). If the region is active,
12841 only yank the text in the region.
12844 @kindex S W (Article)
12845 @findex gnus-article-wide-reply-with-original
12846 Send a wide reply to the current article and yank the current article
12847 (@code{gnus-article-wide-reply-with-original}). If the region is
12848 active, only yank the text in the region.
12851 @kindex F (Article)
12852 @findex gnus-article-followup-with-original
12853 Send a followup to the current article and yank the current article
12854 (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}). If the region is active,
12855 only yank the text in the region.
12862 @section Misc Article
12866 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
12867 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
12868 @cindex article buffers, several
12869 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
12870 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
12873 @vindex gnus-article-decode-hook
12874 @item gnus-article-decode-hook
12875 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
12876 Hook used to decode @acronym{MIME} articles. The default value is
12877 @code{(article-decode-charset article-decode-encoded-words)}
12879 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
12880 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
12881 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
12882 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
12883 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
12884 the contents of the article buffer.
12886 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
12887 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
12888 Hook called in article mode buffers.
12890 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
12891 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
12892 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
12893 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
12895 @vindex gnus-article-over-scroll
12896 @item gnus-article-over-scroll
12897 If non-@code{nil}, allow scrolling the article buffer even when there
12898 no more new text to scroll in. The default is @code{nil}.
12900 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
12901 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
12902 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
12903 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Summary Buffer Mode
12904 Line}). It accepts the same format specifications as that variable,
12905 with two extensions:
12910 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
12911 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
12912 performed. The characters and their meaning:
12917 Displayed when cited text may be hidden in the article buffer.
12920 Displayed when headers are hidden in the article buffer.
12923 Displayed when article is digitally signed or encrypted, and Gnus has
12924 hidden the security headers. (N.B. does not tell anything about
12925 security status, i.e. good or bad signature.)
12928 Displayed when the signature has been hidden in the Article buffer.
12931 Displayed when Gnus has treated overstrike characters in the article buffer.
12934 Displayed when Gnus has treated emphasized strings in the article buffer.
12939 The number of @acronym{MIME} parts in the article.
12943 @vindex gnus-break-pages
12945 @item gnus-break-pages
12946 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
12947 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
12948 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
12949 paging will not be done.
12951 @item gnus-page-delimiter
12952 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
12953 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
12957 @cindex internationalized domain names
12958 @vindex gnus-use-idna
12959 @item gnus-use-idna
12960 This variable controls whether Gnus performs IDNA decoding of
12961 internationalized domain names inside @samp{From}, @samp{To} and
12962 @samp{Cc} headers. @xref{IDNA, ,IDNA,message, The Message Manual},
12963 for how to compose such messages. This requires
12964 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/, GNU Libidn}, and this
12965 variable is only enabled if you have installed it.
12970 @node Composing Messages
12971 @chapter Composing Messages
12972 @cindex composing messages
12975 @cindex sending mail
12980 @cindex using s/mime
12981 @cindex using smime
12983 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
12984 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
12985 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the
12986 article by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Overview, message,
12987 Message Manual}. Where the message will be posted/mailed to depends
12988 on your setup (@pxref{Posting Server}).
12991 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
12992 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
12993 * POP before SMTP:: You cannot send a mail unless you read a mail.
12994 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
12995 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
12996 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
12997 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
12998 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
12999 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
13002 Also @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
13003 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
13009 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
13012 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
13013 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
13014 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
13015 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched. If
13016 @code{nil} include all headers.
13018 @item gnus-add-to-list
13019 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
13020 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
13021 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
13023 @item gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
13024 @vindex gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
13025 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you for a confirmation when you are
13026 about to reply to news articles by mail. If it is @code{nil}, nothing
13027 interferes in what you want to do. This can also be a function
13028 receiving the group name as the only parameter which should return
13029 non-@code{nil} if a confirmation is needed, or a regular expression
13030 matching group names, where confirmation should be asked for.
13032 If you find yourself never wanting to reply to mail, but occasionally
13033 press @kbd{R} anyway, this variable might be for you.
13035 @item gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
13036 @vindex gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
13037 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus also requests confirmation according to
13038 @code{gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news} when replying to mail. This is
13039 useful for treating mailing lists like newsgroups.
13044 @node Posting Server
13045 @section Posting Server
13047 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
13048 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
13050 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
13052 It can be quite complicated.
13054 @vindex gnus-post-method
13055 When posting news, Message usually invokes @code{message-send-news}
13056 (@pxref{News Variables, , News Variables, message, Message Manual}).
13057 Normally, Gnus will post using the same select method as you're
13058 reading from (which might be convenient if you're reading lots of
13059 groups from different private servers). However. If the server
13060 you're reading from doesn't allow posting, just reading, you probably
13061 want to use some other server to post your (extremely intelligent and
13062 fabulously interesting) articles. You can then set the
13063 @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
13066 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
13069 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
13070 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
13071 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
13072 the ``current'' server, to get back the default behavior, for posting.
13074 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
13075 Gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
13077 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
13078 If that's the case, Gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
13081 Finally, if you want to always post using the native select method,
13082 you can set this variable to @code{native}.
13084 @vindex message-send-mail-function
13085 When sending mail, Message invokes the function specified by the
13086 variable @code{message-send-mail-function}. Gnus tries to set it to a
13087 value suitable for your system.
13088 @xref{Mail Variables, ,Mail Variables,message,Message manual}, for more
13091 @node POP before SMTP
13092 @section POP before SMTP
13093 @cindex pop before smtp
13094 @findex message-smtpmail-send-it
13095 @findex mail-source-touch-pop
13097 Does your @acronym{ISP} require the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP}
13098 authentication? It is whether you need to connect to the @acronym{POP}
13099 mail server within a certain time before sending mails. If so, there is
13100 a convenient way. To do that, put the following lines in your
13101 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
13104 (setq message-send-mail-function 'message-smtpmail-send-it)
13105 (add-hook 'message-send-mail-hook 'mail-source-touch-pop)
13109 It means to let Gnus connect to the @acronym{POP} mail server in advance
13110 whenever you send a mail. The @code{mail-source-touch-pop} function
13111 does only a @acronym{POP} authentication according to the value of
13112 @code{mail-sources} without fetching mails, just before sending a mail.
13113 Note that you have to use @code{message-smtpmail-send-it} which runs
13114 @code{message-send-mail-hook} rather than @code{smtpmail-send-it} and
13115 set the value of @code{mail-sources} for a @acronym{POP} connection
13116 correctly. @xref{Mail Sources}.
13118 If you have two or more @acronym{POP} mail servers set in
13119 @code{mail-sources}, you may want to specify one of them to
13120 @code{mail-source-primary-source} as the @acronym{POP} mail server to be
13121 used for the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication. If it
13122 is your primary @acronym{POP} mail server (i.e., you are fetching mails
13123 mainly from that server), you can set it permanently as follows:
13126 (setq mail-source-primary-source
13127 '(pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
13128 :password "secret"))
13132 Otherwise, bind it dynamically only when performing the
13133 @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication as follows:
13136 (add-hook 'message-send-mail-hook
13138 (let ((mail-source-primary-source
13139 '(pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
13140 :password "secret")))
13141 (mail-source-touch-pop))))
13144 @node Mail and Post
13145 @section Mail and Post
13147 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
13151 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
13152 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
13153 @cindex mailing lists
13155 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
13156 gatewayed to the @acronym{NNTP} server, you can read those groups without
13157 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
13158 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
13159 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
13160 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
13161 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
13162 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
13163 still a pain, though.
13165 @item gnus-user-agent
13166 @vindex gnus-user-agent
13169 This variable controls which information should be exposed in the
13170 User-Agent header. It can be a list of symbols or a string. Valid
13171 symbols are @code{gnus} (show Gnus version) and @code{emacs} (show Emacs
13172 version). In addition to the Emacs version, you can add @code{codename}
13173 (show (S)XEmacs codename) or either @code{config} (show system
13174 configuration) or @code{type} (show system type). If you set it to a
13175 string, be sure to use a valid format, see RFC 2616.
13179 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
13180 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
13181 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
13184 @findex ispell-message
13186 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
13189 If you want to change the @code{ispell} dictionary based on what group
13190 you're in, you could say something like the following:
13193 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
13197 "^de\\." (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
13198 (ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch"))
13200 (ispell-change-dictionary "english")))))
13203 Modify to suit your needs.
13205 @vindex gnus-message-highlight-citation
13206 If @code{gnus-message-highlight-citation} is t, different levels of
13207 citations are highlighted like in Gnus article buffers also in message
13210 @node Archived Messages
13211 @section Archived Messages
13212 @cindex archived messages
13213 @cindex sent messages
13215 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
13216 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
13217 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
13218 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}, which
13221 For archiving interesting messages in a group you read, see the
13222 @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}) command (@pxref{Mail
13225 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
13226 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server Gnus is to
13227 use to store sent messages. The default is @code{"archive"}, and when
13228 actually being used it is expanded into:
13231 (nnfolder "archive"
13232 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
13233 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
13234 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
13235 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
13239 @vindex gnus-update-message-archive-method
13240 Note: a server like this is saved in the @file{~/.newsrc.eld} file first
13241 so that it may be used as a real method of the server which is named
13242 @code{"archive"} (that is, for the case where
13243 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} is set to @code{"archive"}) ever
13244 since. If it once has been saved, it will never be updated by default
13245 even if you change the value of @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
13246 afterward. Therefore, the server @code{"archive"} doesn't necessarily
13247 mean the @code{nnfolder} server like this at all times. If you want the
13248 saved method to reflect always the value of
13249 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, set the
13250 @code{gnus-update-message-archive-method} variable to a non-@code{nil}
13251 value. The default value of this variable is @code{nil}.
13254 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
13255 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likable select method
13256 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
13257 directory chosen, you could say something like:
13260 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
13261 '(nnfolder "archive"
13262 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
13263 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
13264 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
13267 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
13269 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
13270 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
13271 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
13273 This variable can be used to do the following:
13277 Messages will be saved in that group.
13279 Note that you can include a select method in the group name, then the
13280 message will not be stored in the select method given by
13281 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, but in the select method specified
13282 by the group name, instead. Suppose @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
13283 has the default value shown above. Then setting
13284 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{"foo"} means that outgoing
13285 messages are stored in @samp{nnfolder+archive:foo}, but if you use the
13286 value @code{"nnml:foo"}, then outgoing messages will be stored in
13289 @item a list of strings
13290 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
13292 @item an alist of regexps, functions and forms
13293 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
13296 No message archiving will take place. This is the default.
13301 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
13303 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
13306 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
13308 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
13311 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
13313 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
13314 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
13315 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
13316 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
13319 More complex stuff:
13321 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
13322 '((if (message-news-p)
13327 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
13328 messages in one file per month:
13331 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
13332 '((if (message-news-p)
13334 (concat "mail." (format-time-string "%Y-%m")))))
13337 @c (XEmacs 19.13 doesn't have @code{format-time-string}, so you'll have to
13338 @c use a different value for @code{gnus-message-archive-group} there.)
13340 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
13341 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
13342 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
13343 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
13344 Gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
13345 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
13346 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
13347 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
13348 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
13349 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
13351 That's the default method of archiving sent messages. Gnus offers a
13352 different way for the people who don't like the default method. In that
13353 case you should set @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{nil};
13354 this will disable archiving.
13357 @item gnus-outgoing-message-group
13358 @vindex gnus-outgoing-message-group
13359 All outgoing messages will be put in this group. If you want to store
13360 all your outgoing mail and articles in the group @samp{nnml:archive},
13361 you set this variable to that value. This variable can also be a list of
13364 If you want to have greater control over what group to put each
13365 message in, you can set this variable to a function that checks the
13366 current newsgroup name and then returns a suitable group name (or list
13369 This variable can be used instead of @code{gnus-message-archive-group},
13370 but the latter is the preferred method.
13372 @item gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
13373 @vindex gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
13374 If non-@code{nil}, automatically mark @code{Gcc} articles as read.
13376 @item gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
13377 @vindex gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
13378 If @code{nil}, attach files as normal parts in Gcc copies; if a regexp
13379 and matches the Gcc group name, attach files as external parts; if it is
13380 @code{all}, attach local files as external parts; if it is other
13381 non-@code{nil}, the behavior is the same as @code{all}, but it may be
13382 changed in the future.
13387 @node Posting Styles
13388 @section Posting Styles
13389 @cindex posting styles
13392 All them variables, they make my head swim.
13394 So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
13395 on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
13396 and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
13399 @vindex gnus-posting-styles
13400 One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
13401 variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
13402 came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
13403 a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
13408 (signature "Peace and happiness")
13409 (organization "What me?"))
13411 (signature "Death to everybody"))
13412 ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
13413 (organization "Emacs is it")))
13416 As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
13417 @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
13418 ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
13419 over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
13420 applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
13421 the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
13422 @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
13423 signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
13425 The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
13426 string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
13427 If it is the form @code{(header @var{match} @var{regexp})}, then Gnus
13428 will look in the original article for a header whose name is
13429 @var{match} and compare that @var{regexp}. @var{match} and
13430 @var{regexp} are strings. (The original article is the one you are
13431 replying or following up to. If you are not composing a reply or a
13432 followup, then there is nothing to match against.) If the
13433 @code{match} is a function symbol, that function will be called with
13434 no arguments. If it's a variable symbol, then the variable will be
13435 referenced. If it's a list, then that list will be @code{eval}ed. In
13436 any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil} value, then the style is
13437 said to @dfn{match}.
13439 Each style may contain an arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
13440 attribute consists of a @code{(@var{name} @var{value})} pair. In
13441 addition, you can also use the @code{(@var{name} :file @var{value})}
13442 form or the @code{(@var{name} :value @var{value})} form. Where
13443 @code{:file} signifies @var{value} represents a file name and its
13444 contents should be used as the attribute value, @code{:value} signifies
13445 @var{value} does not represent a file name explicitly. The attribute
13446 name can be one of:
13449 @item @code{signature}
13450 @item @code{signature-file}
13451 @item @code{x-face-file}
13452 @item @code{address}, overriding @code{user-mail-address}
13453 @item @code{name}, overriding @code{(user-full-name)}
13457 Note that the @code{signature-file} attribute honors the variable
13458 @code{message-signature-directory}.
13460 The attribute name can also be a string or a symbol. In that case,
13461 this will be used as a header name, and the value will be inserted in
13462 the headers of the article; if the value is @code{nil}, the header
13463 name will be removed. If the attribute name is @code{eval}, the form
13464 is evaluated, and the result is thrown away.
13466 The attribute value can be a string (used verbatim), a function with
13467 zero arguments (the return value will be used), a variable (its value
13468 will be used) or a list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value
13469 will be used). The functions and sexps are called/@code{eval}ed in the
13470 message buffer that is being set up. The headers of the current article
13471 are available through the @code{message-reply-headers} variable, which
13472 is a vector of the following headers: number subject from date id
13473 references chars lines xref extra.
13475 @vindex message-reply-headers
13477 If you wish to check whether the message you are about to compose is
13478 meant to be a news article or a mail message, you can check the values
13479 of the @code{message-news-p} and @code{message-mail-p} functions.
13481 @findex message-mail-p
13482 @findex message-news-p
13484 So here's a new example:
13487 (setq gnus-posting-styles
13489 (signature-file "~/.signature")
13491 (x-face-file "~/.xface")
13492 (x-url (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
13493 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
13495 (signature my-funny-signature-randomizer))
13496 ((equal (system-name) "gnarly") ;; @r{A form}
13497 (signature my-quote-randomizer))
13498 (message-news-p ;; @r{A function symbol}
13499 (signature my-news-signature))
13500 (window-system ;; @r{A value symbol}
13501 ("X-Window-System" (format "%s" window-system)))
13502 ;; @r{If I'm replying to Larsi, set the Organization header.}
13503 ((header "from" "larsi.*org")
13504 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
13505 ((posting-from-work-p) ;; @r{A user defined function}
13506 (signature-file "~/.work-signature")
13507 (address "user@@bar.foo")
13508 (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
13509 (organization "Important Work, Inc"))
13511 (From (with-current-buffer gnus-article-buffer
13512 (message-fetch-field "to"))))
13514 (signature-file "~/.mail-signature"))))
13517 The @samp{nnml:.*} rule means that you use the @code{To} address as the
13518 @code{From} address in all your outgoing replies, which might be handy
13519 if you fill many roles.
13520 You may also use @code{message-alternative-emails} instead.
13521 @xref{Message Headers, ,Message Headers, message, Message Manual}.
13527 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
13528 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
13529 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
13530 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
13531 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
13533 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
13534 some sort using the Gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
13535 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
13536 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
13537 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
13541 @vindex nndraft-directory
13542 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
13543 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
13544 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
13545 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
13546 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
13547 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
13549 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
13550 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
13551 unsubscribe it. The special properties of the draft group comes from
13552 a group property (@pxref{Group Parameters}), and if lost the group
13553 behaves like any other group. This means the commands below will not
13554 be available. To restore the special properties of the group, the
13555 simplest way is to kill the group, using @kbd{C-k}, and restart
13556 Gnus. The group is automatically created again with the
13557 correct parameters. The content of the group is not lost.
13559 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
13560 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
13561 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
13562 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
13563 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
13564 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
13565 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
13566 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
13567 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
13568 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
13569 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
13570 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
13571 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
13572 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
13574 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
13575 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
13576 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
13578 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
13579 @kindex D e (Draft)
13580 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
13581 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
13582 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
13584 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
13587 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
13588 @kindex D s (Draft)
13589 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
13590 @kindex D S (Draft)
13591 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
13592 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
13593 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
13594 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
13595 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
13598 @findex gnus-draft-toggle-sending
13599 @kindex D t (Draft)
13600 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
13601 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
13602 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
13604 Finally, if you want to delete a draft, use the normal @kbd{B DEL}
13605 command (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
13608 @node Rejected Articles
13609 @section Rejected Articles
13610 @cindex rejected articles
13612 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
13613 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
13614 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
13615 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
13617 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of Gnus.
13618 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
13619 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
13620 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So Gnus saves these
13621 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
13623 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
13624 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
13625 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
13627 @node Signing and encrypting
13628 @section Signing and encrypting
13630 @cindex using s/mime
13631 @cindex using smime
13633 Gnus can digitally sign and encrypt your messages, using vanilla
13634 @acronym{PGP} format or @acronym{PGP/MIME} or @acronym{S/MIME}. For
13635 decoding such messages, see the @code{mm-verify-option} and
13636 @code{mm-decrypt-option} options (@pxref{Security}).
13638 @vindex gnus-message-replysign
13639 @vindex gnus-message-replyencrypt
13640 @vindex gnus-message-replysignencrypted
13641 Often, you would like to sign replies to people who send you signed
13642 messages. Even more often, you might want to encrypt messages which
13643 are in reply to encrypted messages. Gnus offers
13644 @code{gnus-message-replysign} to enable the former, and
13645 @code{gnus-message-replyencrypt} for the latter. In addition, setting
13646 @code{gnus-message-replysignencrypted} (on by default) will sign
13647 automatically encrypted messages.
13649 Instructing @acronym{MML} to perform security operations on a
13650 @acronym{MIME} part is done using the @kbd{C-c C-m s} key map for
13651 signing and the @kbd{C-c C-m c} key map for encryption, as follows.
13656 @kindex C-c C-m s s (Message)
13657 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-smime
13659 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{S/MIME}.
13662 @kindex C-c C-m s o (Message)
13663 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
13665 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{PGP}.
13668 @kindex C-c C-m s p (Message)
13669 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
13671 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{PGP/MIME}.
13674 @kindex C-c C-m c s (Message)
13675 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-smime
13677 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{S/MIME}.
13680 @kindex C-c C-m c o (Message)
13681 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgp
13683 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{PGP}.
13686 @kindex C-c C-m c p (Message)
13687 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgpmime
13689 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{PGP/MIME}.
13692 @kindex C-c C-m C-n (Message)
13693 @findex mml-unsecure-message
13694 Remove security related @acronym{MML} tags from message.
13698 @xref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}, for more information.
13700 @node Select Methods
13701 @chapter Select Methods
13702 @cindex foreign groups
13703 @cindex select methods
13705 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
13706 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
13707 @acronym{NNTP} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
13708 personal mail group.
13710 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
13711 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
13712 list where the first element says what back end to use (e.g. @code{nntp},
13713 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
13714 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
13715 value may have special meaning for the back end in question.
13717 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
13718 we do just that (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
13720 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the back end will recognize the
13723 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @acronym{NNTP} server
13724 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
13725 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
13726 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
13727 back end just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
13729 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
13732 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
13733 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
13734 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
13735 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
13736 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @acronym{IMAP} client.
13737 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
13738 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
13739 * Email Based Diary:: Using mails to manage diary events in Gnus.
13740 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
13744 @node Server Buffer
13745 @section Server Buffer
13747 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
13748 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
13749 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
13750 one back end or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
13751 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
13752 back end represents a virtual server.
13754 For instance, the @code{nntp} back end may be used to connect to several
13755 different actual @acronym{NNTP} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
13756 on the same actual @acronym{NNTP} server. You tell Gnus which back end to
13757 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
13759 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
13760 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
13761 @acronym{NNTP} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
13762 hangs if queried for @acronym{NOV} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
13763 Anyway, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
13764 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
13765 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
13767 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
13768 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
13771 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
13772 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
13773 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
13774 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
13775 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
13776 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
13777 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
13780 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
13781 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
13784 @node Server Buffer Format
13785 @subsection Server Buffer Format
13786 @cindex server buffer format
13788 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
13789 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
13790 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
13791 variable, with some simple extensions:
13796 How the news is fetched---the back end name.
13799 The name of this server.
13802 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
13805 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
13808 Whether this server is agentized.
13811 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
13812 The mode line can also be customized by using the
13813 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable (@pxref{Mode Line
13814 Formatting}). The following specs are understood:
13824 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
13827 @node Server Commands
13828 @subsection Server Commands
13829 @cindex server commands
13835 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Server)
13836 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
13837 command or better use it as a prefix key.
13841 @findex gnus-server-add-server
13842 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
13846 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
13847 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
13850 @kindex SPACE (Server)
13851 @findex gnus-server-read-server
13852 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
13856 @findex gnus-server-exit
13857 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
13861 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
13862 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
13866 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
13867 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
13871 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
13872 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
13876 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
13877 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
13881 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
13882 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
13883 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
13888 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
13889 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
13890 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
13891 a mail back end that has gotten out of sync.
13895 @findex gnus-server-compact-server
13897 Compact all groups in the server under point
13898 (@code{gnus-server-compact-server}). Currently implemented only in
13899 nnml (@pxref{Mail Spool}). This removes gaps between article numbers,
13900 hence getting a correct total article count.
13905 @node Example Methods
13906 @subsection Example Methods
13908 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
13911 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
13914 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
13920 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
13921 back end, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
13924 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
13925 @code{(@var{variable} @var{form})} pairs.
13927 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
13928 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
13932 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
13935 You should read the documentation to each back end to find out what
13936 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
13938 @code{nnmh} is a mail back end that reads a spool-like structure. Say
13939 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
13940 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
13944 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
13947 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
13950 Here's the method for a public spool:
13954 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
13955 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
13961 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @acronym{NNTP}
13962 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
13963 on the firewall machine and connect with
13964 @uref{http://netcat.sourceforge.net/, netcat} from there to the
13965 @acronym{NNTP} server.
13966 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
13967 should probably look something like this:
13971 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat)
13972 (nntp-via-address "the.firewall.machine")
13973 (nntp-address "the.real.nntp.host"))
13976 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
13977 compressed connection over the modem line, you could add the following
13978 configuration to the example above:
13981 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
13984 See also @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches}. Here's an example for
13985 an indirect connection:
13988 (setq gnus-select-method
13990 (nntp-address "news.server.example")
13991 (nntp-via-user-name "intermediate_user_name")
13992 (nntp-via-address "intermediate.host.example")
13993 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
13994 (nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches ("-C"))
13995 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat)))
13998 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
13999 provide automatic authorization, of course.
14001 If you're behind a firewall, but have direct access to the outside world
14002 through a wrapper command like "runsocks", you could open a socksified
14003 netcat connection to the news server as follows:
14007 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
14008 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-netcat-stream)
14009 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
14013 @node Creating a Virtual Server
14014 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
14016 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
14017 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
14019 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
14020 would probably be best to use @code{nnml} to read the cache. You
14021 could also use @code{nnspool} or @code{nnmh}, though.
14023 Type @kbd{a nnml RET cache RET}.
14025 You should now have a brand new @code{nnml} virtual server called
14026 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
14027 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
14028 will contain the following:
14038 (nnml-directory "~/News/cache/")
14039 (nnml-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
14042 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
14043 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
14044 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
14047 @node Server Variables
14048 @subsection Server Variables
14049 @cindex server variables
14050 @cindex server parameters
14052 One sticky point when defining variables (both on back ends and in Emacs
14053 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
14054 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
14055 change the ``base'' variable after the variables have been loaded, you
14056 won't change the ``derived'' variables.
14058 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
14059 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
14060 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
14061 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
14062 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
14063 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
14064 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
14065 variables for each back end, see each back end's section later in this
14066 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
14070 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
14071 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
14072 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
14075 Server variables are often called @dfn{server parameters}.
14077 @node Servers and Methods
14078 @subsection Servers and Methods
14080 Wherever you would normally use a select method
14081 (e.g. @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
14082 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
14083 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
14087 @node Unavailable Servers
14088 @subsection Unavailable Servers
14090 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
14091 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
14092 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
14093 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
14094 actually the case or not.
14096 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
14097 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
14098 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
14099 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
14100 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
14101 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
14102 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
14103 it will regard that server as ``down''.
14105 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
14106 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
14108 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{Server Buffer}) and poke it
14109 with the following commands:
14115 @findex gnus-server-open-server
14116 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
14117 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
14121 @findex gnus-server-close-server
14122 Close the connection (if any) to the server
14123 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
14127 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
14128 Mark the current server as unreachable
14129 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
14132 @kindex M-o (Server)
14133 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
14134 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
14135 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
14138 @kindex M-c (Server)
14139 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
14140 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
14141 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
14145 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
14146 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
14147 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
14151 @findex gnus-server-offline-server
14152 Set server status to offline (@code{gnus-server-offline-server}).
14158 @section Getting News
14159 @cindex reading news
14160 @cindex news back ends
14162 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
14163 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @acronym{NNTP} server,
14164 or it can read from a local spool.
14167 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @acronym{NNTP} server.
14168 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
14176 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @acronym{NNTP} server is rather easy.
14177 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @acronym{NNTP}
14178 server as the, uhm, address.
14180 If the @acronym{NNTP} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
14181 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
14182 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
14183 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
14185 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
14186 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
14187 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
14189 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
14194 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
14195 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
14196 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
14198 @cindex authentication
14199 @cindex nntp authentication
14200 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
14201 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
14202 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
14203 commands to the @acronym{NNTP} server after it has been contacted. By
14204 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
14205 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
14206 present in this hook.
14208 @item nntp-authinfo-function
14209 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
14210 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
14211 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
14212 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @acronym{NNTP}
14213 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
14214 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
14215 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
14216 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
14217 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
14218 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
14219 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
14223 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
14226 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs.
14228 The valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password},
14229 @samp{default}. In addition Gnus introduces two new tokens, not present
14230 in the original @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp} syntax, namely @samp{port} and
14231 @samp{force}. (This is the only way the @file{.authinfo} file format
14232 deviates from the @file{.netrc} file format.) @samp{port} is used to
14233 indicate what port on the server the credentials apply to and
14234 @samp{force} is explained below.
14238 Here's an example file:
14241 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
14242 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
14245 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
14246 have to be first, for instance.
14248 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
14249 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
14250 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
14251 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
14252 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
14253 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
14254 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
14256 You can also add @samp{default} lines that will apply to all servers
14257 that don't have matching @samp{machine} lines.
14263 This will force sending @samp{AUTHINFO} commands to all servers not
14264 previously mentioned.
14266 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
14268 @item nntp-server-action-alist
14269 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
14270 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
14271 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
14272 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
14275 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
14276 '(("innd" (ding))))
14279 You probably don't want to do that, though.
14281 The default value is
14284 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
14285 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook
14286 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
14289 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
14290 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
14292 @item nntp-maximum-request
14293 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
14294 If the @acronym{NNTP} server doesn't support @acronym{NOV} headers, this back end
14295 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
14296 speed things up, the back end sends lots of these commands without
14297 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
14298 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
14299 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
14301 @item nntp-connection-timeout
14302 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
14303 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
14304 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @acronym{NNTP} servers not
14305 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
14306 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
14307 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
14308 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} back end should wait for a
14309 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
14310 no timeouts are done.
14312 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
14313 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
14314 If the @acronym{NNTP} server does not support @acronym{NOV}, you could set this
14315 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @acronym{NOV}
14318 @item nntp-xover-commands
14319 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
14320 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
14322 List of strings used as commands to fetch @acronym{NOV} lines from a
14323 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
14327 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
14328 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @acronym{NOV} lines to
14329 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
14330 if you have read articles 2-5000 in the group, and only want to read
14331 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @acronym{NOV}
14332 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
14333 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
14334 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
14335 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
14336 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
14337 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
14339 @item nntp-xref-number-is-evil
14340 @vindex nntp-xref-number-is-evil
14341 When Gnus refers to an article having the @code{Message-ID} that a user
14342 specifies or having the @code{Message-ID} of the parent article of the
14343 current one (@pxref{Finding the Parent}), Gnus sends a @code{HEAD}
14344 command to the @acronym{NNTP} server to know where it is, and the server
14345 returns the data containing the pairs of a group and an article number
14346 in the @code{Xref} header. Gnus normally uses the article number to
14347 refer to the article if the data shows that that article is in the
14348 current group, while it uses the @code{Message-ID} otherwise. However,
14349 some news servers, e.g., ones running Diablo, run multiple engines
14350 having the same articles but article numbers are not kept synchronized
14351 between them. In that case, the article number that appears in the
14352 @code{Xref} header varies by which engine is chosen, so you cannot refer
14353 to the parent article that is in the current group, for instance. If
14354 you connect to such a server, set this variable to a non-@code{nil}
14355 value, and Gnus never uses article numbers. For example:
14358 (setq gnus-select-method
14360 (nntp-address "newszilla.example.com")
14361 (nntp-xref-number-is-evil t)
14365 The default value of this server variable is @code{nil}.
14367 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
14368 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
14369 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @acronym{NNTP} server.
14371 @item nntp-record-commands
14372 @vindex nntp-record-commands
14373 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
14374 @acronym{NNTP} server (along with a timestamp) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
14375 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@acronym{NNTP} connection
14376 that doesn't seem to work.
14378 @item nntp-open-connection-function
14379 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
14380 It is possible to customize how the connection to the nntp server will
14381 be opened. If you specify an @code{nntp-open-connection-function}
14382 parameter, Gnus will use that function to establish the connection.
14383 Seven pre-made functions are supplied. These functions can be grouped
14384 in two categories: direct connection functions (four pre-made), and
14385 indirect ones (three pre-made).
14387 @item nntp-never-echoes-commands
14388 @vindex nntp-never-echoes-commands
14389 Non-@code{nil} means the nntp server never echoes commands. It is
14390 reported that some nntps server doesn't echo commands. So, you may want
14391 to set this to non-@code{nil} in the method for such a server setting
14392 @code{nntp-open-connection-function} to @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream} for
14393 example. The default value is @code{nil}. Note that the
14394 @code{nntp-open-connection-functions-never-echo-commands} variable
14395 overrides the @code{nil} value of this variable.
14397 @item nntp-open-connection-functions-never-echo-commands
14398 @vindex nntp-open-connection-functions-never-echo-commands
14399 List of functions that never echo commands. Add or set a function which
14400 you set to @code{nntp-open-connection-function} to this list if it does
14401 not echo commands. Note that a non-@code{nil} value of the
14402 @code{nntp-never-echoes-commands} variable overrides this variable. The
14403 default value is @code{(nntp-open-network-stream)}.
14405 @item nntp-prepare-post-hook
14406 @vindex nntp-prepare-post-hook
14407 A hook run just before posting an article. If there is no
14408 @code{Message-ID} header in the article and the news server provides the
14409 recommended ID, it will be added to the article before running this
14410 hook. It is useful to make @code{Cancel-Lock} headers even if you
14411 inhibit Gnus to add a @code{Message-ID} header, you could say:
14414 (add-hook 'nntp-prepare-post-hook 'canlock-insert-header)
14417 Note that not all servers support the recommended ID. This works for
14418 INN versions 2.3.0 and later, for instance.
14423 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
14424 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
14425 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
14426 * NNTP marks:: Storing marks for @acronym{NNTP} servers.
14430 @node Direct Functions
14431 @subsubsection Direct Functions
14432 @cindex direct connection functions
14434 These functions are called direct because they open a direct connection
14435 between your machine and the @acronym{NNTP} server. The behavior of these
14436 functions is also affected by commonly understood variables
14437 (@pxref{Common Variables}).
14440 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
14441 @item nntp-open-network-stream
14442 This is the default, and simply connects to some port or other on the
14445 @findex nntp-open-tls-stream
14446 @item nntp-open-tls-stream
14447 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
14448 this you must have @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/, GNUTLS}
14449 installed. You then define a server as follows:
14452 ;; @r{"nntps" is port 563 and is predefined in our @file{/etc/services}}
14453 ;; @r{however, @samp{gnutls-cli -p} doesn't like named ports.}
14455 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
14456 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-tls-stream)
14457 (nntp-port-number 563)
14458 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
14461 @findex nntp-open-ssl-stream
14462 @item nntp-open-ssl-stream
14463 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
14464 this you must have @uref{http://www.openssl.org, OpenSSL} or
14465 @uref{ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL, SSLeay} installed. You
14466 then define a server as follows:
14469 ;; @r{"snews" is port 563 and is predefined in our @file{/etc/services}}
14470 ;; @r{however, @samp{openssl s_client -port} doesn't like named ports.}
14472 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
14473 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-ssl-stream)
14474 (nntp-port-number 563)
14475 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
14478 @findex nntp-open-netcat-stream
14479 @item nntp-open-netcat-stream
14480 Opens a connection to an @acronym{NNTP} server using the @code{netcat}
14481 program. You might wonder why this function exists, since we have
14482 the default @code{nntp-open-network-stream} which would do the job. (One
14483 of) the reason(s) is that if you are behind a firewall but have direct
14484 connections to the outside world thanks to a command wrapper like
14485 @code{runsocks}, you can use it like this:
14489 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
14490 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-netcat-stream)
14491 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
14494 With the default method, you would need to wrap your whole Emacs
14495 session, which is not a good idea.
14497 @findex nntp-open-telnet-stream
14498 @item nntp-open-telnet-stream
14499 Like @code{nntp-open-netcat-stream}, but uses @code{telnet} rather than
14500 @code{netcat}. @code{telnet} is a bit less robust because of things
14501 like line-end-conversion, but sometimes netcat is simply
14502 not available. The previous example would turn into:
14506 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
14507 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-telnet-stream)
14508 (nntp-address "the.news.server")
14509 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
14514 @node Indirect Functions
14515 @subsubsection Indirect Functions
14516 @cindex indirect connection functions
14518 These functions are called indirect because they connect to an
14519 intermediate host before actually connecting to the @acronym{NNTP} server.
14520 All of these functions and related variables are also said to belong to
14521 the ``via'' family of connection: they're all prefixed with ``via'' to make
14522 things cleaner. The behavior of these functions is also affected by
14523 commonly understood variables (@pxref{Common Variables}).
14526 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat
14527 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat
14528 Does an @samp{rlogin} on a remote system, and then uses @code{netcat} to connect
14529 to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from there. This is useful for instance if
14530 you need to connect to a firewall machine first.
14532 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat}-specific variables:
14535 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
14536 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
14537 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
14538 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
14540 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
14541 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
14542 List of strings to be used as the switches to
14543 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. The default is @code{nil}. If you use
14544 @samp{ssh} for @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}, you may set this to
14545 @samp{("-C")} in order to compress all data connections.
14548 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
14549 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
14550 Does essentially the same, but uses @code{telnet} instead of @samp{netcat}
14551 to connect to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from the intermediate host.
14552 @code{telnet} is a bit less robust because of things like
14553 line-end-conversion, but sometimes @code{netcat} is simply not available.
14555 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet}-specific variables:
14558 @item nntp-telnet-command
14559 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
14560 Command used to connect to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from the
14561 intermediate host. The default is @samp{telnet}.
14563 @item nntp-telnet-switches
14564 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
14565 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
14566 @code{nntp-telnet-command} command. The default is @code{("-8")}.
14568 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
14569 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
14570 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
14571 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
14573 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
14574 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
14575 List of strings to be used as the switches to
14576 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. If you use @samp{ssh}, you may need to set
14577 this to @samp{("-t" "-e" "none")} or @samp{("-C" "-t" "-e" "none")} if
14578 the telnet command requires a pseudo-tty allocation on an intermediate
14579 host. The default is @code{nil}.
14582 Note that you may want to change the value for @code{nntp-end-of-line}
14583 to @samp{\n} (@pxref{Common Variables}).
14585 @item nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
14586 @findex nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
14587 Does essentially the same, but uses @samp{telnet} instead of
14588 @samp{rlogin} to connect to the intermediate host.
14590 @code{nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet}-specific variables:
14593 @item nntp-via-telnet-command
14594 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-command
14595 Command used to @code{telnet} the intermediate host. The default is
14598 @item nntp-via-telnet-switches
14599 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-switches
14600 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
14601 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @samp{("-8")}.
14603 @item nntp-via-user-password
14604 @vindex nntp-via-user-password
14605 Password to use when logging in on the intermediate host.
14607 @item nntp-via-envuser
14608 @vindex nntp-via-envuser
14609 If non-@code{nil}, the intermediate @code{telnet} session (client and
14610 server both) will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for
14611 login name. This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
14613 @item nntp-via-shell-prompt
14614 @vindex nntp-via-shell-prompt
14615 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the intermediate host. The default
14616 is @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
14620 Note that you may want to change the value for @code{nntp-end-of-line}
14621 to @samp{\n} (@pxref{Common Variables}).
14625 Here are some additional variables that are understood by all the above
14630 @item nntp-via-user-name
14631 @vindex nntp-via-user-name
14632 User name to use when connecting to the intermediate host.
14634 @item nntp-via-address
14635 @vindex nntp-via-address
14636 Address of the intermediate host to connect to.
14641 @node Common Variables
14642 @subsubsection Common Variables
14644 The following variables affect the behavior of all, or several of the
14645 pre-made connection functions. When not specified, all functions are
14646 affected (the values of the following variables will be used as the
14647 default if each virtual @code{nntp} server doesn't specify those server
14648 variables individually).
14652 @item nntp-pre-command
14653 @vindex nntp-pre-command
14654 A command wrapper to use when connecting through a non native
14655 connection function (all except @code{nntp-open-network-stream},
14656 @code{nntp-open-tls-stream}, and @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream}). This is
14657 where you would put a @samp{SOCKS} wrapper for instance.
14660 @vindex nntp-address
14661 The address of the @acronym{NNTP} server.
14663 @item nntp-port-number
14664 @vindex nntp-port-number
14665 Port number to connect to the @acronym{NNTP} server. The default is
14666 @samp{nntp}. If you use @acronym{NNTP} over
14667 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}, you may want to use integer ports rather
14668 than named ports (i.e, use @samp{563} instead of @samp{snews} or
14669 @samp{nntps}), because external @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} tools may
14670 not work with named ports.
14672 @item nntp-end-of-line
14673 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
14674 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @acronym{NNTP}
14675 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
14676 using a non native telnet connection function.
14678 @item nntp-netcat-command
14679 @vindex nntp-netcat-command
14680 Command to use when connecting to the @acronym{NNTP} server through
14681 @samp{netcat}. This is @emph{not} for an intermediate host. This is
14682 just for the real @acronym{NNTP} server. The default is
14685 @item nntp-netcat-switches
14686 @vindex nntp-netcat-switches
14687 A list of switches to pass to @code{nntp-netcat-command}. The default
14693 @subsubsection NNTP marks
14694 @cindex storing NNTP marks
14696 Gnus stores marks (@pxref{Marking Articles}) for @acronym{NNTP}
14697 servers in marks files. A marks file records what marks you have set
14698 in a group and each file is specific to the corresponding server.
14699 Marks files are stored in @file{~/News/marks}
14700 (@code{nntp-marks-directory}) under a classic hierarchy resembling
14701 that of a news server, for example marks for the group
14702 @samp{gmane.discuss} on the news.gmane.org server will be stored in
14703 the file @file{~/News/marks/news.gmane.org/gmane/discuss/.marks}.
14705 Marks files are useful because you can copy the @file{~/News/marks}
14706 directory (using rsync, scp or whatever) to another Gnus installation,
14707 and it will realize what articles you have read and marked. The data
14708 in @file{~/News/marks} has priority over the same data in
14709 @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
14711 Note that marks files are very much server-specific: Gnus remembers
14712 the article numbers so if you don't use the same servers on both
14713 installations things are most likely to break (most @acronym{NNTP}
14714 servers do not use the same article numbers as any other server).
14715 However, if you use servers A, B, C on one installation and servers A,
14716 D, E on the other, you can sync the marks files for A and then you'll
14717 get synchronization for that server between the two installations.
14719 Using @acronym{NNTP} marks can possibly incur a performance penalty so
14720 if Gnus feels sluggish, try setting the @code{nntp-marks-is-evil}
14721 variable to @code{t}. Marks will then be stored in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
14727 @item nntp-marks-is-evil
14728 @vindex nntp-marks-is-evil
14729 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any marks files. The
14730 default is @code{nil}.
14732 @item nntp-marks-directory
14733 @vindex nntp-marks-directory
14734 The directory where marks for nntp groups will be stored.
14740 @subsection News Spool
14744 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
14745 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
14746 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
14749 Anyway, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
14750 anything else) as the address.
14752 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
14753 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
14754 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
14755 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
14759 @item nnspool-inews-program
14760 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
14761 Program used to post an article.
14763 @item nnspool-inews-switches
14764 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
14765 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
14767 @item nnspool-spool-directory
14768 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
14769 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
14770 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
14772 @item nnspool-nov-directory
14773 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
14774 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @acronym{NOV} files. This is normally@*
14775 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
14777 @item nnspool-lib-dir
14778 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
14779 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
14781 @item nnspool-active-file
14782 @vindex nnspool-active-file
14783 The name of the active file.
14785 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
14786 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
14787 The name of the group descriptions file.
14789 @item nnspool-history-file
14790 @vindex nnspool-history-file
14791 The name of the news history file.
14793 @item nnspool-active-times-file
14794 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
14795 The name of the active date file.
14797 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
14798 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
14799 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @acronym{NOV} files
14802 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
14803 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
14805 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
14806 relevant portion from the overview file. If @code{nil},
14807 @code{nnspool} will load the entire file into a buffer and process it
14814 @section Getting Mail
14815 @cindex reading mail
14818 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
14822 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
14823 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
14824 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
14825 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
14826 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
14827 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
14828 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
14829 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
14830 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
14831 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
14832 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
14833 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
14834 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
14838 @node Mail in a Newsreader
14839 @subsection Mail in a Newsreader
14841 If you are used to traditional mail readers, but have decided to switch
14842 to reading mail with Gnus, you may find yourself experiencing something
14843 of a culture shock.
14845 Gnus does not behave like traditional mail readers. If you want to make
14846 it behave that way, you can, but it's an uphill battle.
14848 Gnus, by default, handles all its groups using the same approach. This
14849 approach is very newsreaderly---you enter a group, see the new/unread
14850 messages, and when you read the messages, they get marked as read, and
14851 you don't see them any more. (Unless you explicitly ask for them.)
14853 In particular, you do not do anything explicitly to delete messages.
14855 Does this mean that all the messages that have been marked as read are
14856 deleted? How awful!
14858 But, no, it means that old messages are @dfn{expired} according to some
14859 scheme or other. For news messages, the expire process is controlled by
14860 the news administrator; for mail, the expire process is controlled by
14861 you. The expire process for mail is covered in depth in @ref{Expiring
14864 What many Gnus users find, after using it a while for both news and
14865 mail, is that the transport mechanism has very little to do with how
14866 they want to treat a message.
14868 Many people subscribe to several mailing lists. These are transported
14869 via @acronym{SMTP}, and are therefore mail. But we might go for weeks without
14870 answering, or even reading these messages very carefully. We may not
14871 need to save them because if we should need to read one again, they are
14872 archived somewhere else.
14874 Some people have local news groups which have only a handful of readers.
14875 These are transported via @acronym{NNTP}, and are therefore news. But we may need
14876 to read and answer a large fraction of the messages very carefully in
14877 order to do our work. And there may not be an archive, so we may need
14878 to save the interesting messages the same way we would personal mail.
14880 The important distinction turns out to be not the transport mechanism,
14881 but other factors such as how interested we are in the subject matter,
14882 or how easy it is to retrieve the message if we need to read it again.
14884 Gnus provides many options for sorting mail into ``groups'' which behave
14885 like newsgroups, and for treating each group (whether mail or news)
14888 Some users never get comfortable using the Gnus (ahem) paradigm and wish
14889 that Gnus should grow up and be a male, er, mail reader. It is possible
14890 to whip Gnus into a more mailreaderly being, but, as said before, it's
14891 not easy. People who prefer proper mail readers should try @sc{vm}
14892 instead, which is an excellent, and proper, mail reader.
14894 I don't mean to scare anybody off, but I want to make it clear that you
14895 may be required to learn a new way of thinking about messages. After
14896 you've been subjected to The Gnus Way, you will come to love it. I can
14897 guarantee it. (At least the guy who sold me the Emacs Subliminal
14898 Brain-Washing Functions that I've put into Gnus did guarantee it. You
14899 Will Be Assimilated. You Love Gnus. You Love The Gnus Mail Way.
14903 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
14904 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
14906 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
14907 mail back end of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
14908 and things will happen automatically.
14910 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a ``one file per
14911 mail'' back end), you could put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
14914 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
14917 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this back end will be queried for new
14918 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
14919 directory, which is @file{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
14920 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
14921 like any other group.
14923 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
14926 (setq nnmail-split-methods
14927 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
14928 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
14932 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
14933 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
14934 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
14937 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
14938 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
14939 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Back End} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
14942 @node Splitting Mail
14943 @subsection Splitting Mail
14944 @cindex splitting mail
14945 @cindex mail splitting
14946 @cindex mail filtering (splitting)
14948 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
14949 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
14950 to be split into groups.
14953 (setq nnmail-split-methods
14954 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
14955 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
14956 ("mail.other" "")))
14959 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
14960 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
14961 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
14962 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
14963 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
14964 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
14965 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
14968 ("list.\\1" "From:.* \\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
14972 In that case, @code{nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded} controls whether
14973 the inserted text should be made lowercase. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
14975 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
14976 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
14977 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
14978 mail belongs in that group.
14980 @cindex @samp{bogus} group
14981 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
14982 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{""} so that it matches any mails
14983 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
14984 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first rule
14985 to make a match will ``win'', unless you have crossposting enabled. In
14986 that case, all matching rules will ``win''.) If no rule matched, the mail
14987 will end up in the @samp{bogus} group. When new groups are created by
14988 splitting mail, you may want to run @code{gnus-group-find-new-groups} to
14989 see the new groups. This also applies to the @samp{bogus} group.
14991 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
14992 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
14993 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
14994 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
14995 thinks should carry this mail message.
14997 Note that the mail back ends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
14998 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
14999 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
15000 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
15002 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
15003 The mail back ends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
15004 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
15005 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
15006 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{""}) group.
15008 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
15011 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
15012 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
15013 links. If that's the case for you, set
15014 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
15015 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
15017 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
15018 @findex nnmail-split-history
15019 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
15020 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command. If you wish to see
15021 where re-spooling messages would put the messages, you can use
15022 @code{gnus-summary-respool-trace} and related commands (@pxref{Mail
15025 @vindex nnmail-split-header-length-limit
15026 Header lines longer than the value of
15027 @code{nnmail-split-header-length-limit} are excluded from the split
15030 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes
15031 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-charset
15032 By default, splitting does not decode headers, so you can not match on
15033 non-@acronym{ASCII} strings. But it is useful if you want to match
15034 articles based on the raw header data. To enable it, set the
15035 @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes} variable to a non-@code{nil} value.
15036 In addition, the value of the @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-charset}
15037 variable is used for decoding non-@acronym{MIME} encoded string when
15038 @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes} is non-@code{nil}. The default
15039 value is @code{nil} which means not to decode non-@acronym{MIME} encoded
15040 string. A suitable value for you will be @code{undecided} or be the
15041 charset used normally in mails you are interested in.
15043 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
15044 By default, splitting is performed on all incoming messages. If you
15045 specify a @code{directory} entry for the variable @code{mail-sources}
15046 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}), however, then splitting does
15047 @emph{not} happen by default. You can set the variable
15048 @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming} to a non-@code{nil} value to make
15049 splitting happen even in this case. (This variable has no effect on
15050 other kinds of entries.)
15052 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
15053 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
15054 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
15055 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
15056 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
15057 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
15058 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
15059 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
15060 month's rent money.
15064 @subsection Mail Sources
15066 Mail can be gotten from many different sources---the mail spool, from
15067 a @acronym{POP} mail server, from a procmail directory, or from a
15068 maildir, for instance.
15071 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
15072 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
15073 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
15077 @node Mail Source Specifiers
15078 @subsubsection Mail Source Specifiers
15080 @cindex mail server
15083 @cindex mail source
15085 You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by setting @code{mail-sources}
15086 (@pxref{Fetching Mail}) to a @dfn{mail source specifier}.
15091 (pop :server "pop3.mailserver.com" :user "myname")
15094 As can be observed, a mail source specifier is a list where the first
15095 element is a @dfn{mail source type}, followed by an arbitrary number of
15096 @dfn{keywords}. Keywords that are not explicitly specified are given
15099 The @code{mail-sources} is global for all mail groups. You can specify
15100 an additional mail source for a particular group by including the
15101 @code{group} mail specifier in @code{mail-sources}, and setting a
15102 @code{mail-source} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) specifying
15103 a single mail source. When this is used, @code{mail-sources} is
15104 typically just @code{(group)}; the @code{mail-source} parameter for a
15105 group might look like this:
15108 (mail-source . (file :path "home/user/spools/foo.spool"))
15111 This means that the group's (and only this group's) messages will be
15112 fetched from the spool file @samp{/user/spools/foo.spool}.
15114 The following mail source types are available:
15118 Get mail from a single file; typically from the mail spool.
15124 The file name. Defaults to the value of the @env{MAIL}
15125 environment variable or the value of @code{rmail-spool-directory}
15126 (usually something like @file{/usr/mail/spool/user-name}).
15130 Script run before/after fetching mail.
15133 An example file mail source:
15136 (file :path "/usr/spool/mail/user-name")
15139 Or using the default file name:
15145 If the mail spool file is not located on the local machine, it's best
15146 to use @acronym{POP} or @acronym{IMAP} or the like to fetch the mail.
15147 You can not use ange-ftp file names here---it has no way to lock the
15148 mail spool while moving the mail.
15150 If it's impossible to set up a proper server, you can use ssh instead.
15154 '((file :prescript "ssh host bin/getmail >%t")))
15157 The @samp{getmail} script would look something like the following:
15161 # getmail - move mail from spool to stdout
15164 MOVEMAIL=/usr/lib/emacs/20.3/i386-redhat-linux/movemail
15166 rm -f $TMP; $MOVEMAIL $MAIL $TMP >/dev/null && cat $TMP
15169 Alter this script to fit the @samp{movemail} and temporary
15170 file you want to use.
15174 @vindex nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once
15175 Get mail from several files in a directory. This is typically used
15176 when you have procmail split the incoming mail into several files.
15177 That is, there is a one-to-one correspondence between files in that
15178 directory and groups, so that mail from the file @file{foo.bar.spool}
15179 will be put in the group @code{foo.bar}. (You can change the suffix
15180 to be used instead of @code{.spool}.) Setting
15181 @code{nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once} to non-@code{nil} forces
15182 Gnus to scan the mail source only once. This is particularly useful
15183 if you want to scan mail groups at a specified level.
15185 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
15186 There is also the variable @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming}, if you set
15187 that to a non-@code{nil} value, then the normal splitting process is
15188 applied to all the files from the directory, @ref{Splitting Mail}.
15194 The name of the directory where the files are. There is no default
15198 Only files ending with this suffix are used. The default is
15202 Only files that have this predicate return non-@code{nil} are returned.
15203 The default is @code{identity}. This is used as an additional
15204 filter---only files that have the right suffix @emph{and} satisfy this
15205 predicate are considered.
15209 Script run before/after fetching mail.
15213 An example directory mail source:
15216 (directory :path "/home/user-name/procmail-dir/"
15221 Get mail from a @acronym{POP} server.
15227 The name of the @acronym{POP} server. The default is taken from the
15228 @env{MAILHOST} environment variable.
15231 The port number of the @acronym{POP} server. This can be a number (eg,
15232 @samp{:port 1234}) or a string (eg, @samp{:port "pop3"}). If it is a
15233 string, it should be a service name as listed in @file{/etc/services} on
15234 Unix systems. The default is @samp{"pop3"}. On some systems you might
15235 need to specify it as @samp{"pop-3"} instead.
15238 The user name to give to the @acronym{POP} server. The default is the login
15242 The password to give to the @acronym{POP} server. If not specified,
15243 the user is prompted.
15246 The program to use to fetch mail from the @acronym{POP} server. This
15247 should be a @code{format}-like string. Here's an example:
15250 fetchmail %u@@%s -P %p %t
15253 The valid format specifier characters are:
15257 The name of the file the mail is to be moved to. This must always be
15258 included in this string.
15261 The name of the server.
15264 The port number of the server.
15267 The user name to use.
15270 The password to use.
15273 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
15274 corresponding keywords.
15277 A script to be run before fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
15278 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
15281 A script to be run after fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
15282 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
15285 The function to use to fetch mail from the @acronym{POP} server. The
15286 function is called with one parameter---the name of the file where the
15287 mail should be moved to.
15289 @item :authentication
15290 This can be either the symbol @code{password} or the symbol @code{apop}
15291 and says what authentication scheme to use. The default is
15296 @vindex pop3-movemail
15297 @vindex pop3-leave-mail-on-server
15298 If the @code{:program} and @code{:function} keywords aren't specified,
15299 @code{pop3-movemail} will be used. If @code{pop3-leave-mail-on-server}
15300 is non-@code{nil} the mail is to be left on the @acronym{POP} server
15301 after fetching when using @code{pop3-movemail}. Note that POP servers
15302 maintain no state information between sessions, so what the client
15303 believes is there and what is actually there may not match up. If they
15304 do not, then you may get duplicate mails or the whole thing can fall
15305 apart and leave you with a corrupt mailbox.
15307 Here are some examples for getting mail from a @acronym{POP} server.
15308 Fetch from the default @acronym{POP} server, using the default user
15309 name, and default fetcher:
15315 Fetch from a named server with a named user and password:
15318 (pop :server "my.pop.server"
15319 :user "user-name" :password "secret")
15322 Use @samp{movemail} to move the mail:
15325 (pop :program "movemail po:%u %t %p")
15329 Get mail from a maildir. This is a type of mailbox that is supported by
15330 at least qmail and postfix, where each file in a special directory
15331 contains exactly one mail.
15337 The name of the directory where the mails are stored. The default is
15338 taken from the @env{MAILDIR} environment variable or
15341 The subdirectories of the Maildir. The default is
15342 @samp{("new" "cur")}.
15344 @c If you sometimes look at your mail through a pop3 daemon before fetching
15345 @c them with Gnus, you may also have to fetch your mails from the
15346 @c @code{cur} directory inside the maildir, like in the first example
15349 You can also get mails from remote hosts (because maildirs don't suffer
15350 from locking problems).
15354 Two example maildir mail sources:
15357 (maildir :path "/home/user-name/Maildir/"
15358 :subdirs ("cur" "new"))
15362 (maildir :path "/user@@remotehost.org:~/Maildir/"
15367 Get mail from a @acronym{IMAP} server. If you don't want to use
15368 @acronym{IMAP} as intended, as a network mail reading protocol (ie
15369 with nnimap), for some reason or other, Gnus let you treat it similar
15370 to a @acronym{POP} server and fetches articles from a given
15371 @acronym{IMAP} mailbox. @xref{IMAP}, for more information.
15373 Note that for the Kerberos, GSSAPI, @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} and STARTTLS support you
15374 may need external programs and libraries, @xref{IMAP}.
15380 The name of the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is taken from the
15381 @env{MAILHOST} environment variable.
15384 The port number of the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is @samp{143}, or
15385 @samp{993} for @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} connections.
15388 The user name to give to the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is the login
15392 The password to give to the @acronym{IMAP} server. If not specified, the user is
15396 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this is one of the
15397 symbols in @code{imap-stream-alist}. Right now, this means
15398 @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{starttls}, @samp{tls},
15399 @samp{ssl}, @samp{shell} or the default @samp{network}.
15401 @item :authentication
15402 Which authenticator to use for authenticating to the server, this is
15403 one of the symbols in @code{imap-authenticator-alist}. Right now,
15404 this means @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{digest-md5},
15405 @samp{cram-md5}, @samp{anonymous} or the default @samp{login}.
15408 When using the `shell' :stream, the contents of this variable is
15409 mapped into the @code{imap-shell-program} variable. This should be a
15410 @code{format}-like string (or list of strings). Here's an example:
15416 Make sure nothing is interfering with the output of the program, e.g.,
15417 don't forget to redirect the error output to the void. The valid format
15418 specifier characters are:
15422 The name of the server.
15425 User name from @code{imap-default-user}.
15428 The port number of the server.
15431 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
15432 corresponding keywords.
15435 The name of the mailbox to get mail from. The default is @samp{INBOX}
15436 which normally is the mailbox which receives incoming mail.
15439 The predicate used to find articles to fetch. The default, @samp{UNSEEN
15440 UNDELETED}, is probably the best choice for most people, but if you
15441 sometimes peek in your mailbox with a @acronym{IMAP} client and mark some
15442 articles as read (or; SEEN) you might want to set this to @samp{1:*}.
15443 Then all articles in the mailbox is fetched, no matter what. For a
15444 complete list of predicates, see RFC 2060 section 6.4.4.
15447 How to flag fetched articles on the server, the default @samp{\Deleted}
15448 will mark them as deleted, an alternative would be @samp{\Seen} which
15449 would simply mark them as read. These are the two most likely choices,
15450 but more flags are defined in RFC 2060 section 2.3.2.
15453 If non-@code{nil}, don't remove all articles marked as deleted in the
15454 mailbox after finishing the fetch.
15458 An example @acronym{IMAP} mail source:
15461 (imap :server "mail.mycorp.com"
15463 :fetchflag "\\Seen")
15467 Get mail from a webmail server, such as @uref{http://www.hotmail.com/},
15468 @uref{http://webmail.netscape.com/}, @uref{http://www.netaddress.com/},
15469 @uref{http://mail.yahoo.com/}.
15471 NOTE: Webmail largely depends on cookies. A "one-line-cookie" patch is
15472 required for url "4.0pre.46".
15474 WARNING: Mails may be lost. NO WARRANTY.
15480 The type of the webmail server. The default is @code{hotmail}. The
15481 alternatives are @code{netscape}, @code{netaddress}, @code{my-deja}.
15484 The user name to give to the webmail server. The default is the login
15488 The password to give to the webmail server. If not specified, the user is
15492 If non-@code{nil}, only fetch unread articles and don't move them to
15493 trash folder after finishing the fetch.
15497 An example webmail source:
15500 (webmail :subtype 'hotmail
15502 :password "secret")
15506 Get the actual mail source from the @code{mail-source} group parameter,
15507 @xref{Group Parameters}.
15512 @item Common Keywords
15513 Common keywords can be used in any type of mail source.
15519 If non-@code{nil}, fetch the mail even when Gnus is unplugged. If you
15520 use directory source to get mail, you can specify it as in this
15525 '((directory :path "/home/pavel/.Spool/"
15530 Gnus will then fetch your mail even when you are unplugged. This is
15531 useful when you use local mail and news.
15536 @subsubsection Function Interface
15538 Some of the above keywords specify a Lisp function to be executed.
15539 For each keyword @code{:foo}, the Lisp variable @code{foo} is bound to
15540 the value of the keyword while the function is executing. For example,
15541 consider the following mail-source setting:
15544 (setq mail-sources '((pop :user "jrl"
15545 :server "pophost" :function fetchfunc)))
15548 While the function @code{fetchfunc} is executing, the symbol @code{user}
15549 is bound to @code{"jrl"}, and the symbol @code{server} is bound to
15550 @code{"pophost"}. The symbols @code{port}, @code{password},
15551 @code{program}, @code{prescript}, @code{postscript}, @code{function},
15552 and @code{authentication} are also bound (to their default values).
15554 See above for a list of keywords for each type of mail source.
15557 @node Mail Source Customization
15558 @subsubsection Mail Source Customization
15560 The following is a list of variables that influence how the mail is
15561 fetched. You would normally not need to set or change any of these
15565 @item mail-source-crash-box
15566 @vindex mail-source-crash-box
15567 File where mail will be stored while processing it. The default is@*
15568 @file{~/.emacs-mail-crash-box}.
15571 @item mail-source-delete-incoming
15572 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
15573 If non-@code{nil}, delete incoming files after handling them. If
15574 @code{t}, delete the files immediately, if @code{nil}, never delete any
15575 files. If a positive number, delete files older than number of days
15576 (the deletion will only happen when receiving new mail). You may also
15577 set @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} to @code{nil} and call
15578 @code{mail-source-delete-old-incoming} from a hook or interactively.
15579 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} defaults to @code{10} in alpha Gnusae
15580 and @code{2} in released Gnusae. @xref{Gnus Development}.
15582 @item mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
15583 @vindex mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
15584 If non-@code{nil}, ask for confirmation before deleting old incoming
15585 files. This variable only applies when
15586 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is a positive number.
15588 @item mail-source-ignore-errors
15589 @vindex mail-source-ignore-errors
15590 If non-@code{nil}, ignore errors when reading mail from a mail source.
15592 @item mail-source-directory
15593 @vindex mail-source-directory
15594 Directory where incoming mail source files (if any) will be stored. The
15595 default is @file{~/Mail/}. At present, the only thing this is used for
15596 is to say where the incoming files will be stored if the variable
15597 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil} or a number.
15599 @item mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
15600 @vindex mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
15601 Prefix for file name for storing incoming mail. The default is
15602 @file{Incoming}, in which case files will end up with names like
15603 @file{Incoming30630D_} or @file{Incoming298602ZD}. This is really only
15604 relevant if @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil} or a
15607 @item mail-source-default-file-modes
15608 @vindex mail-source-default-file-modes
15609 All new mail files will get this file mode. The default is 384.
15611 @item mail-source-movemail-program
15612 @vindex mail-source-movemail-program
15613 If non-@code{nil}, name of program for fetching new mail. If
15614 @code{nil}, @code{movemail} in @var{exec-directory}.
15619 @node Fetching Mail
15620 @subsubsection Fetching Mail
15622 @vindex mail-sources
15623 The way to actually tell Gnus where to get new mail from is to set
15624 @code{mail-sources} to a list of mail source specifiers
15625 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}).
15627 If this variable is @code{nil}, the mail back ends will never attempt to
15628 fetch mail by themselves.
15630 If you want to fetch mail both from your local spool as well as a
15631 @acronym{POP} mail server, you'd say something like:
15636 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
15637 :password "secret")))
15640 Or, if you don't want to use any of the keyword defaults:
15644 '((file :path "/var/spool/mail/user-name")
15645 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
15648 :password "secret")))
15652 When you use a mail back end, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
15653 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
15654 mail if you're not using a mail back end---you have to do a lot of magic
15655 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
15656 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
15657 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
15661 @node Mail Back End Variables
15662 @subsection Mail Back End Variables
15664 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
15668 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
15669 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
15670 The mail back ends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
15671 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
15673 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
15674 @item nnmail-split-hook
15675 @findex gnus-article-decode-encoded-words
15676 @cindex RFC 1522 decoding
15677 @cindex RFC 2047 decoding
15678 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
15679 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
15680 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
15681 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
15682 in the buffer will show up in any files.
15683 @code{gnus-article-decode-encoded-words} is one likely function to add
15686 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
15687 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
15688 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
15689 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
15690 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
15691 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
15692 starting to handle the new mail) and
15693 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
15694 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
15695 default file modes the new mail files get:
15698 (add-hook 'nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
15699 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 511)))
15701 (add-hook 'nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
15702 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 551)))
15705 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
15706 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
15707 If non-@code{nil}, the mail back ends will use long file and directory
15708 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
15709 (assuming use of @code{nnml} back end) or files (assuming use of
15710 @code{nnfolder} back end) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
15711 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
15713 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
15714 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
15715 @findex delete-file
15716 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
15718 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
15719 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
15720 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
15721 the back end (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
15722 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
15724 @item nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
15725 @vindex nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
15726 This can be a regular expression or a list of regular expressions.
15727 Group names that match any of the regular expressions will never be
15728 recorded in the @code{Message-ID} cache.
15730 This can be useful, for example, when using Fancy Splitting
15731 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}) together with the function
15732 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}.
15737 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
15738 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
15739 @cindex mail splitting
15740 @cindex fancy mail splitting
15742 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
15743 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
15744 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
15745 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
15746 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
15747 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
15749 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
15752 ;; @r{Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of}
15753 ;; @r{the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group}
15754 ;; @r{from real errors.}
15755 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
15757 ;; @r{Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant}
15758 ;; @r{groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the}
15759 ;; @r{(ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.}
15760 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
15761 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
15762 ;; @r{Other mailing lists@dots{}}
15763 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
15764 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
15765 ;; @r{Both lists below have the same suffix, so prevent}
15766 ;; @r{cross-posting to mkpkg.list of messages posted only to}
15767 ;; @r{the bugs- list, but allow cross-posting when the}
15768 ;; @r{message was really cross-posted.}
15769 (any "bugs-mypackage@@somewhere" "mypkg.bugs")
15770 (any "mypackage@@somewhere" - "bugs-mypackage" "mypkg.list")
15771 ;; @r{People@dots{}}
15772 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
15773 ;; @r{Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.}
15777 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a
15778 (possibly) recursive structure where each split may contain other
15779 splits. Here are the possible split syntaxes:
15784 If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group name. Normal
15785 regexp match expansion will be done. See below for examples.
15787 @c Don't fold this line.
15788 @item (@var{field} @var{value} [- @var{restrict} [@dots{}] ] @var{split} [@var{invert-partial}])
15789 The split can be a list containing at least three elements. If the
15790 first element @var{field} (a regexp matching a header) contains
15791 @var{value} (also a regexp) then store the message as specified by
15794 If @var{restrict} (yet another regexp) matches some string after
15795 @var{field} and before the end of the matched @var{value}, the
15796 @var{split} is ignored. If none of the @var{restrict} clauses match,
15797 @var{split} is processed.
15799 The last element @var{invert-partial} is optional. If it is
15800 non-@code{nil}, the match-partial-words behavior controlled by the
15801 variable @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} (see below) is
15802 be inverted. (New in Gnus 5.10.7)
15804 @item (| @var{split} @dots{})
15805 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{|} (vertical
15806 bar), then process each @var{split} until one of them matches. A
15807 @var{split} is said to match if it will cause the mail message to be
15808 stored in one or more groups.
15810 @item (& @var{split} @dots{})
15811 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{&}, then
15812 process all @var{split}s in the list.
15815 If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save (i.e., delete)
15816 this message. Use with extreme caution.
15818 @item (: @var{function} @var{arg1} @var{arg2} @dots{})
15819 If the split is a list, and the first element is @samp{:}, then the
15820 second element will be called as a function with @var{args} given as
15821 arguments. The function should return a @var{split}.
15824 For instance, the following function could be used to split based on the
15825 body of the messages:
15828 (defun split-on-body ()
15832 (goto-char (point-min))
15833 (when (re-search-forward "Some.*string" nil t)
15837 The buffer is narrowed to the header of the message in question when
15838 @var{function} is run. That's why @code{(widen)} needs to be called
15839 after @code{save-excursion} and @code{save-restriction} in the example
15840 above. Also note that with the nnimap backend, message bodies will
15841 not be downloaded by default. You need to set
15842 @code{nnimap-split-download-body} to @code{t} to do that
15843 (@pxref{Splitting in IMAP}).
15845 @item (! @var{func} @var{split})
15846 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{!}, then
15847 @var{split} will be processed, and @var{func} will be called as a
15848 function with the result of @var{split} as argument. @var{func}
15849 should return a split.
15852 If the split is @code{nil}, it is ignored.
15856 In these splits, @var{field} must match a complete field name.
15858 Normally, @var{value} in these splits must match a complete @emph{word}
15859 according to the fundamental mode syntax table. In other words, all
15860 @var{value}'s will be implicitly surrounded by @code{\<...\>} markers,
15861 which are word delimiters. Therefore, if you use the following split,
15865 (any "joe" "joemail")
15869 messages sent from @samp{joedavis@@foo.org} will normally not be filed
15870 in @samp{joemail}. If you want to alter this behavior, you can use any
15871 of the following three ways:
15875 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words
15876 You can set the @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} variable
15877 to non-@code{nil} in order to ignore word boundaries and instead the
15878 match becomes more like a grep. This variable controls whether partial
15879 words are matched during fancy splitting. The default value is
15882 Note that it influences all @var{value}'s in your split rules.
15885 @var{value} beginning with @code{.*} ignores word boundaries in front of
15886 a word. Similarly, if @var{value} ends with @code{.*}, word boundaries
15887 in the rear of a word will be ignored. For example, the @var{value}
15888 @code{"@@example\\.com"} does not match @samp{foo@@example.com} but
15889 @code{".*@@example\\.com"} does.
15892 You can set the @var{invert-partial} flag in your split rules of the
15893 @samp{(@var{field} @var{value} @dots{})} types, aforementioned in this
15894 section. If the flag is set, word boundaries on both sides of a word
15895 are ignored even if @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} is
15896 @code{nil}. Contrarily, if the flag is set, word boundaries are not
15897 ignored even if @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} is
15898 non-@code{nil}. (New in Gnus 5.10.7)
15901 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
15902 @var{field} and @var{value} can also be Lisp symbols, in that case
15903 they are expanded as specified by the variable
15904 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells,
15905 where the @sc{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @sc{cdr}
15906 contains the associated value. Predefined entries in
15907 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist} include:
15911 Matches the @samp{From}, @samp{Sender} and @samp{Resent-From} fields.
15913 Matches the @samp{To}, @samp{Cc}, @samp{Apparently-To},
15914 @samp{Resent-To} and @samp{Resent-Cc} fields.
15916 Is the union of the @code{from} and @code{to} entries.
15919 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
15920 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
15921 when all this splitting is performed.
15923 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
15924 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
15925 substitutions in the group names), you can say things like:
15928 (any "debian-\\b\\(\\w+\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
15931 In this example, messages sent to @samp{debian-foo@@lists.debian.org}
15932 will be filed in @samp{mail.debian.foo}.
15934 If the string contains the element @samp{\&}, then the previously
15935 matched string will be substituted. Similarly, the elements @samp{\\1}
15936 up to @samp{\\9} will be substituted with the text matched by the
15937 groupings 1 through 9.
15939 @vindex nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded
15940 Where @code{nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded} controls whether the
15941 lowercase of the matched string should be used for the substitution.
15942 Setting it as non-@code{nil} is useful to avoid the creation of multiple
15943 groups when users send to an address using different case
15944 (i.e. mailing-list@@domain vs Mailing-List@@Domain). The default value
15947 @findex nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent
15948 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} is a function which allows you to
15949 split followups into the same groups their parents are in. Sometimes
15950 you can't make splitting rules for all your mail. For example, your
15951 boss might send you personal mail regarding different projects you are
15952 working on, and as you can't tell your boss to put a distinguishing
15953 string into the subject line, you have to resort to manually moving the
15954 messages into the right group. With this function, you only have to do
15955 it once per thread.
15957 To use this feature, you have to set @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates}
15958 and @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} to a non-@code{nil}
15959 value. And then you can include @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}
15960 using the colon feature, like so:
15962 (setq nnmail-treat-duplicates 'warn ; @r{or @code{delete}}
15963 nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids t
15965 '(| (: nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent)
15966 ;; @r{other splits go here}
15970 This feature works as follows: when @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} is
15971 non-@code{nil}, Gnus records the message id of every message it sees
15972 in the file specified by the variable
15973 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, together with the group it is in
15974 (the group is omitted for non-mail messages). When mail splitting is
15975 invoked, the function @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} then looks
15976 at the References (and In-Reply-To) header of each message to split
15977 and searches the file specified by @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}
15978 for the message ids. When it has found a parent, it returns the
15979 corresponding group name unless the group name matches the regexp
15980 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent-ignore-groups}. It is
15981 recommended that you set @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length} to a
15982 somewhat higher number than the default so that the message ids are
15983 still in the cache. (A value of 5000 appears to create a file some
15984 300 kBytes in size.)
15985 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
15986 When @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus
15987 also records the message ids of moved articles, so that the followup
15988 messages goes into the new group.
15990 Also see the variable @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} if you don't
15991 want certain groups to be recorded in the cache. For example, if all
15992 outgoing messages are written to an ``outgoing'' group, you could set
15993 @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} to match that group name.
15994 Otherwise, answers to all your messages would end up in the
15995 ``outgoing'' group.
15998 @node Group Mail Splitting
15999 @subsection Group Mail Splitting
16000 @cindex mail splitting
16001 @cindex group mail splitting
16003 @findex gnus-group-split
16004 If you subscribe to dozens of mailing lists but you don't want to
16005 maintain mail splitting rules manually, group mail splitting is for you.
16006 You just have to set @code{to-list} and/or @code{to-address} in group
16007 parameters or group customization and set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to
16008 @code{gnus-group-split}. This splitting function will scan all groups
16009 for those parameters and split mail accordingly, i.e., messages posted
16010 from or to the addresses specified in the parameters @code{to-list} or
16011 @code{to-address} of a mail group will be stored in that group.
16013 Sometimes, mailing lists have multiple addresses, and you may want mail
16014 splitting to recognize them all: just set the @code{extra-aliases} group
16015 parameter to the list of additional addresses and it's done. If you'd
16016 rather use a regular expression, set @code{split-regexp}.
16018 All these parameters in a group will be used to create an
16019 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split, in which the @var{field} is @samp{any},
16020 the @var{value} is a single regular expression that matches
16021 @code{to-list}, @code{to-address}, all of @code{extra-aliases} and all
16022 matches of @code{split-regexp}, and the @var{split} is the name of the
16023 group. @var{restrict}s are also supported: just set the
16024 @code{split-exclude} parameter to a list of regular expressions.
16026 If you can't get the right split to be generated using all these
16027 parameters, or you just need something fancier, you can set the
16028 parameter @code{split-spec} to an @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split. In
16029 this case, all other aforementioned parameters will be ignored by
16030 @code{gnus-group-split}. In particular, @code{split-spec} may be set to
16031 @code{nil}, in which case the group will be ignored by
16032 @code{gnus-group-split}.
16034 @vindex gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group
16035 @code{gnus-group-split} will do cross-posting on all groups that match,
16036 by defining a single @code{&} fancy split containing one split for each
16037 group. If a message doesn't match any split, it will be stored in the
16038 group named in @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}, unless
16039 some group has @code{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all}, in which case
16040 that group is used as the catch-all group. Even though this variable is
16041 often used just to name a group, it may also be set to an arbitrarily
16042 complex fancy split (after all, a group name is a fancy split), and this
16043 may be useful to split mail that doesn't go to any mailing list to
16044 personal mail folders. Note that this fancy split is added as the last
16045 element of a @code{|} split list that also contains a @code{&} split
16046 with the rules extracted from group parameters.
16048 It's time for an example. Assume the following group parameters have
16053 ((to-address . "bar@@femail.com")
16054 (split-regexp . ".*@@femail\\.com"))
16056 ((to-list . "foo@@nowhere.gov")
16057 (extra-aliases "foo@@localhost" "foo-redist@@home")
16058 (split-exclude "bugs-foo" "rambling-foo")
16059 (admin-address . "foo-request@@nowhere.gov"))
16061 ((split-spec . catch-all))
16064 Setting @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{gnus-group-split} will
16065 behave as if @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been selected and variable
16066 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been set as follows:
16069 (| (& (any "\\(bar@@femail\\.com\\|.*@@femail\\.com\\)" "mail.bar")
16070 (any "\\(foo@@nowhere\\.gov\\|foo@@localhost\\|foo-redist@@home\\)"
16071 - "bugs-foo" - "rambling-foo" "mail.foo"))
16075 @findex gnus-group-split-fancy
16076 If you'd rather not use group splitting for all your mail groups, you
16077 may use it for only some of them, by using @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
16081 (: gnus-group-split-fancy @var{groups} @var{no-crosspost} @var{catch-all})
16084 @var{groups} may be a regular expression or a list of group names whose
16085 parameters will be scanned to generate the output split.
16086 @var{no-crosspost} can be used to disable cross-posting; in this case, a
16087 single @code{|} split will be output. @var{catch-all} is the fall back
16088 fancy split, used like @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}.
16089 If @var{catch-all} is @code{nil}, or if @code{split-regexp} matches the
16090 empty string in any selected group, no catch-all split will be issued.
16091 Otherwise, if some group has @code{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all},
16092 this group will override the value of the @var{catch-all} argument.
16094 @findex gnus-group-split-setup
16095 Unfortunately, scanning all groups and their parameters can be quite
16096 slow, especially considering that it has to be done for every message.
16097 But don't despair! The function @code{gnus-group-split-setup} can be
16098 used to enable @code{gnus-group-split} in a much more efficient way. It
16099 sets @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy} and sets
16100 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} to the split produced by
16101 @code{gnus-group-split-fancy}. Thus, the group parameters are only
16102 scanned once, no matter how many messages are split.
16104 @findex gnus-group-split-update
16105 However, if you change group parameters, you'd have to update
16106 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} manually. You can do it by running
16107 @code{gnus-group-split-update}. If you'd rather have it updated
16108 automatically, just tell @code{gnus-group-split-setup} to do it for
16109 you. For example, add to your @file{~/.gnus.el}:
16112 (gnus-group-split-setup @var{auto-update} @var{catch-all})
16115 If @var{auto-update} is non-@code{nil}, @code{gnus-group-split-update}
16116 will be added to @code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook}, so you won't ever
16117 have to worry about updating @code{nnmail-split-fancy} again. If you
16118 don't omit @var{catch-all} (it's optional, equivalent to @code{nil}),
16119 @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group} will be set to its
16122 @vindex gnus-group-split-updated-hook
16123 Because you may want to change @code{nnmail-split-fancy} after it is set
16124 by @code{gnus-group-split-update}, this function will run
16125 @code{gnus-group-split-updated-hook} just before finishing.
16127 @node Incorporating Old Mail
16128 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
16129 @cindex incorporating old mail
16130 @cindex import old mail
16132 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
16133 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
16134 back ends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
16137 Doing so can be quite easy.
16139 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
16140 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
16141 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
16142 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
16143 your @code{nnml} groups.
16149 Go to the group buffer.
16152 Type @kbd{G f} and give the file name to the mbox file when prompted to create an
16153 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
16156 Type @kbd{SPACE} to enter the newly created group.
16159 Type @kbd{M P b} to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
16160 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
16163 Type @kbd{B r} to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
16164 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
16167 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
16168 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
16169 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
16170 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
16171 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
16173 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
16174 back end to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
16175 using the new mail back end.
16178 @node Expiring Mail
16179 @subsection Expiring Mail
16180 @cindex article expiry
16181 @cindex expiring mail
16183 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
16184 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
16185 different approach to mail reading.
16187 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
16188 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
16189 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
16190 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
16191 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
16192 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
16195 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
16196 articles as @dfn{expirable}. (With the default key bindings, this means
16197 that you have to type @kbd{E}.) This does not mean that the articles
16198 will disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
16199 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
16200 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
16201 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
16202 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
16203 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
16205 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Gnus provides
16206 two features, called ``auto-expire'' and ``total-expire'', that can help you
16207 with this. In a nutshell, ``auto-expire'' means that Gnus hits @kbd{E}
16208 for you when you select an article. And ``total-expire'' means that Gnus
16209 considers all articles as expirable that are read. So, in addition to
16210 the articles marked @samp{E}, also the articles marked @samp{r},
16211 @samp{R}, @samp{O}, @samp{K}, @samp{Y} and so on are considered
16214 When should either auto-expire or total-expire be used? Most people
16215 who are subscribed to mailing lists split each list into its own group
16216 and then turn on auto-expire or total-expire for those groups.
16217 (@xref{Splitting Mail}, for more information on splitting each list
16218 into its own group.)
16220 Which one is better, auto-expire or total-expire? It's not easy to
16221 answer. Generally speaking, auto-expire is probably faster. Another
16222 advantage of auto-expire is that you get more marks to work with: for
16223 the articles that are supposed to stick around, you can still choose
16224 between tick and dormant and read marks. But with total-expire, you
16225 only have dormant and ticked to choose from. The advantage of
16226 total-expire is that it works well with adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive
16227 Scoring}). Auto-expire works with normal scoring but not with adaptive
16230 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
16231 Groups that match the regular expression
16232 @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will have all articles that you
16233 read marked as expirable automatically. All articles marked as
16234 expirable have an @samp{E} in the first column in the summary buffer.
16236 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
16237 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
16238 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
16239 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
16240 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
16242 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
16244 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
16245 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
16246 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
16249 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
16250 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
16251 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
16252 articles expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
16253 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
16255 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
16256 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
16259 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
16260 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
16263 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
16264 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
16266 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
16267 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
16268 don't really mix very well.
16270 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
16271 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
16272 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
16273 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
16276 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
16277 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
16278 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
16279 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
16282 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
16284 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
16286 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
16288 ((string= group "mail.junk")
16290 ((string= group "important")
16296 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
16297 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
16299 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
16300 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
16301 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
16304 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
16305 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
16307 @vindex nnmail-expiry-target
16308 The normal action taken when expiring articles is to delete them.
16309 However, in some circumstances it might make more sense to move them
16310 to other groups instead of deleting them. The variable
16311 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} (and the @code{expiry-target} group
16312 parameter) controls this. The variable supplies a default value for
16313 all groups, which can be overridden for specific groups by the group
16314 parameter. default value is @code{delete}, but this can also be a
16315 string (which should be the name of the group the message should be
16316 moved to), or a function (which will be called in a buffer narrowed to
16317 the message in question, and with the name of the group being moved
16318 from as its parameter) which should return a target---either a group
16319 name or @code{delete}.
16321 Here's an example for specifying a group name:
16323 (setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
16326 @findex nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
16327 @vindex nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
16328 Gnus provides a function @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-target} which will
16329 expire mail to groups according to the variable
16330 @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets}. Here's an example:
16333 (setq nnmail-expiry-target 'nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
16334 nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
16335 '((to-from "boss" "nnfolder:Work")
16336 ("subject" "IMPORTANT" "nnfolder:IMPORTANT.%Y.%b")
16337 ("from" ".*" "nnfolder:Archive-%Y")))
16340 With this setup, any mail that has @code{IMPORTANT} in its Subject
16341 header and was sent in the year @code{YYYY} and month @code{MMM}, will
16342 get expired to the group @code{nnfolder:IMPORTANT.YYYY.MMM}. If its
16343 From or To header contains the string @code{boss}, it will get expired
16344 to @code{nnfolder:Work}. All other mail will get expired to
16345 @code{nnfolder:Archive-YYYY}.
16347 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
16348 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
16349 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
16350 easier for procmail users.
16352 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
16353 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
16354 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
16355 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
16356 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
16357 caution. Even more dangerous is the
16358 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
16359 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
16360 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
16361 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
16362 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
16363 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
16364 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
16367 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
16369 @vindex gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire
16370 If @code{gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire} is non-@code{nil}, user marking
16371 commands will not mark an article as expirable, even if the group has
16372 auto-expire turned on.
16374 @vindex gnus-mark-copied-or-moved-articles-as-expirable
16375 The expirable marks of articles will be removed when copying or moving
16376 them to a group in which auto-expire is not turned on. This is for
16377 preventing articles from being expired unintentionally. On the other
16378 hand, to a group that has turned auto-expire on, the expirable marks of
16379 articles that are copied or moved will not be changed by default. I.e.,
16380 when copying or moving to such a group, articles that were expirable
16381 will be left expirable and ones that were not expirable will not be
16382 marked as expirable. So, even though in auto-expire groups, some
16383 articles will never get expired (unless you read them again). If you
16384 don't side with that behavior that unexpirable articles may be mixed
16385 into auto-expire groups, you can set
16386 @code{gnus-mark-copied-or-moved-articles-as-expirable} to a
16387 non-@code{nil} value. In that case, articles that have been read will
16388 be marked as expirable automatically when being copied or moved to a
16389 group that has auto-expire turned on. The default value is @code{nil}.
16393 @subsection Washing Mail
16394 @cindex mail washing
16395 @cindex list server brain damage
16396 @cindex incoming mail treatment
16398 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
16399 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC 822 doesn't explicitly
16400 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
16401 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
16402 Yes, but RFC 822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
16403 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
16405 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
16406 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
16407 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
16410 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
16411 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
16412 storing the mail to disk. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
16413 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
16416 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
16417 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
16418 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
16419 grand, sweeping gestures. It is called in a buffer that contains all
16420 the new, incoming mail. Functions to be used include:
16423 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
16424 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
16425 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
16426 Emacs running on MS machines.
16430 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
16431 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
16432 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
16433 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
16436 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
16437 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
16438 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
16439 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
16441 (Note that this function works on both the header on the body of all
16442 messages, so it is a potentially dangerous function to use (if a body
16443 of a message contains something that looks like a header line). So
16444 rather than fix the bug, it is of course the right solution to make it
16445 into a feature by documenting it.)
16447 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
16448 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
16449 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
16450 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
16451 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
16452 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
16453 also be a list of regexp. @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} may not contain
16456 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
16457 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
16460 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
16461 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
16464 This can also be done non-destructively with
16465 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}, @xref{Article Hiding}.
16467 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
16468 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
16469 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
16471 @item nnmail-ignore-broken-references
16472 @findex nnmail-ignore-broken-references
16473 @c @findex nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
16476 Some mail user agents (e.g. Eudora and Pegasus) produce broken
16477 @code{References} headers, but correct @code{In-Reply-To} headers. This
16478 function will get rid of the @code{References} header if the headers
16479 contain a line matching the regular expression
16480 @code{nnmail-broken-references-mailers}.
16484 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
16485 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
16486 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
16490 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
16491 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
16492 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
16499 @subsection Duplicates
16501 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
16502 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
16503 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
16504 @cindex duplicate mails
16505 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
16506 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
16507 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
16508 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s---
16509 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
16510 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
16511 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
16512 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
16513 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
16514 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
16515 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
16516 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
16517 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
16519 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
16520 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
16521 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
16522 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
16524 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
16527 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
16528 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
16532 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
16533 '(| ;; @r{Messages duplicates go to a separate group.}
16534 ("gnus-warning" "duplicat\\(e\\|ion\\) of message" "duplicate")
16535 ;; @r{Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.}
16536 (any mail "mail.misc")
16537 ;; @r{Other rules.}
16543 (setq nnmail-split-methods
16544 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:.*duplicate")
16545 ;; @r{Other rules.}
16549 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
16550 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
16551 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
16552 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
16553 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
16556 @node Not Reading Mail
16557 @subsection Not Reading Mail
16559 If you start using any of the mail back ends, they have the annoying
16560 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
16561 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
16563 If you set @code{mail-sources} and @code{nnmail-spool-file} to
16564 @code{nil}, none of the back ends will ever attempt to read incoming
16565 mail, which should help.
16567 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
16568 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
16569 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
16570 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
16571 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
16572 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
16573 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old (pre-Emacs
16574 23) Rmail file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All back ends have
16575 variables called back-end-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
16576 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
16577 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
16579 All the mail back ends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
16580 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
16584 @node Choosing a Mail Back End
16585 @subsection Choosing a Mail Back End
16587 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
16588 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
16589 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
16591 There are six different mail back ends in the standard Gnus, and more
16592 back ends are available separately. The mail back end most people use
16593 (because it is possibly the fastest) is @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail
16597 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
16598 * Babyl:: Babyl was used by older versions of Rmail.
16599 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
16600 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
16601 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
16602 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
16603 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
16607 @node Unix Mail Box
16608 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
16610 @cindex unix mail box
16612 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
16613 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
16614 The @dfn{nnmbox} back end will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
16615 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
16616 which group it belongs in.
16618 Virtual server settings:
16621 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
16622 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
16623 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory. Default is
16626 @item nnmbox-active-file
16627 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
16628 The name of the active file for the mail box. Default is
16629 @file{~/.mbox-active}.
16631 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
16632 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
16633 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
16634 into groups. Default is @code{t}.
16639 @subsubsection Babyl
16642 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
16643 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
16644 The @dfn{nnbabyl} back end will use a Babyl mail box to store mail.
16645 @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each mail article to say which
16646 group it belongs in.
16648 Virtual server settings:
16651 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
16652 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
16653 The name of the Babyl file. The default is @file{~/RMAIL}
16655 @item nnbabyl-active-file
16656 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
16657 The name of the active file for the Babyl file. The default is
16658 @file{~/.rmail-active}
16660 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
16661 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
16662 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail. Default is
16668 @subsubsection Mail Spool
16670 @cindex mail @acronym{NOV} spool
16672 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
16673 format. It should be used with some caution.
16675 @vindex nnml-directory
16676 If you use this back end, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
16677 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
16678 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
16679 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
16681 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
16684 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
16685 in your account, you should not use this back end. As each mail gets its
16686 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
16687 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
16688 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
16689 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
16690 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
16691 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
16693 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest back end when it comes to article
16694 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
16695 @acronym{NOV} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it possibly the
16696 fastest back end when it comes to reading mail.
16698 @cindex self contained nnml servers
16700 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnml}
16701 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
16702 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
16703 proper @code{nnml} server) and have all your marks be preserved. Marks
16704 for a group are usually stored in the @code{.marks} file (but see
16705 @code{nnml-marks-file-name}) within each @code{nnml} group's directory.
16706 Individual @code{nnml} groups are also possible to backup, use @kbd{G m}
16707 to restore the group (after restoring the backup into the nnml
16710 If for some reason you believe your @file{.marks} files are screwed
16711 up, you can just delete them all. Gnus will then correctly regenerate
16712 them next time it starts.
16714 Virtual server settings:
16717 @item nnml-directory
16718 @vindex nnml-directory
16719 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory. The
16720 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default value
16723 @item nnml-active-file
16724 @vindex nnml-active-file
16725 The active file for the @code{nnml} server. The default is
16726 @file{~/Mail/active}.
16728 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
16729 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
16730 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
16731 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}.
16733 @item nnml-get-new-mail
16734 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
16735 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail. The default is
16738 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
16739 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
16740 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @acronym{NOV} files. The
16741 default is @code{nil}.
16743 @item nnml-nov-file-name
16744 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
16745 The name of the @acronym{NOV} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
16747 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
16748 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
16749 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
16751 @item nnml-marks-is-evil
16752 @vindex nnml-marks-is-evil
16753 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
16754 default is @code{nil}.
16756 @item nnml-marks-file-name
16757 @vindex nnml-marks-file-name
16758 The name of the @dfn{marks} files. The default is @file{.marks}.
16760 @item nnml-use-compressed-files
16761 @vindex nnml-use-compressed-files
16762 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will allow using compressed message
16763 files. This requires @code{auto-compression-mode} to be enabled
16764 (@pxref{Compressed Files, ,Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Manual}).
16765 If the value of @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is a string, it is used
16766 as the file extension specifying the compression program. You can set it
16767 to @samp{.bz2} if your Emacs supports it. A value of @code{t} is
16768 equivalent to @samp{.gz}.
16770 @item nnml-compressed-files-size-threshold
16771 @vindex nnml-compressed-files-size-threshold
16772 Default size threshold for compressed message files. Message files with
16773 bodies larger than that many characters will be automatically compressed
16774 if @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is non-@code{nil}.
16778 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
16779 If your @code{nnml} groups and @acronym{NOV} files get totally out of
16780 whack, you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
16781 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
16782 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
16783 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
16784 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
16789 @subsubsection MH Spool
16791 @cindex mh-e mail spool
16793 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
16794 @acronym{NOV} databases and it doesn't keep an active file or marks
16795 file. This makes @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower back end than
16796 @code{nnml}, but it also makes it easier to write procmail scripts
16799 Virtual server settings:
16802 @item nnmh-directory
16803 @vindex nnmh-directory
16804 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory. The
16805 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
16808 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
16809 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
16810 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail. The default is
16814 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
16815 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
16816 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks
16817 they are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
16818 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
16819 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not
16820 have to set this variable to @code{t}. The default is @code{nil}.
16825 @subsubsection Maildir
16829 @code{nnmaildir} stores mail in the maildir format, with each maildir
16830 corresponding to a group in Gnus. This format is documented here:
16831 @uref{http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html} and here:
16832 @uref{http://www.qmail.org/man/man5/maildir.html}. @code{nnmaildir}
16833 also stores extra information in the @file{.nnmaildir/} directory
16836 Maildir format was designed to allow concurrent deliveries and
16837 reading, without needing locks. With other back ends, you would have
16838 your mail delivered to a spool of some kind, and then you would
16839 configure Gnus to split mail from that spool into your groups. You
16840 can still do that with @code{nnmaildir}, but the more common
16841 configuration is to have your mail delivered directly to the maildirs
16842 that appear as group in Gnus.
16844 @code{nnmaildir} is designed to be perfectly reliable: @kbd{C-g} will
16845 never corrupt its data in memory, and @code{SIGKILL} will never
16846 corrupt its data in the filesystem.
16848 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks and @acronym{NOV} data in each
16849 maildir. So you can copy a whole maildir from one Gnus setup to
16850 another, and you will keep your marks.
16852 Virtual server settings:
16856 For each of your @code{nnmaildir} servers (it's very unlikely that
16857 you'd need more than one), you need to create a directory and populate
16858 it with maildirs or symlinks to maildirs (and nothing else; do not
16859 choose a directory already used for other purposes). Each maildir
16860 will be represented in Gnus as a newsgroup on that server; the
16861 filename of the symlink will be the name of the group. Any filenames
16862 in the directory starting with @samp{.} are ignored. The directory is
16863 scanned when you first start Gnus, and each time you type @kbd{g} in
16864 the group buffer; if any maildirs have been removed or added,
16865 @code{nnmaildir} notices at these times.
16867 The value of the @code{directory} parameter should be a Lisp form
16868 which is processed by @code{eval} and @code{expand-file-name} to get
16869 the path of the directory for this server. The form is @code{eval}ed
16870 only when the server is opened; the resulting string is used until the
16871 server is closed. (If you don't know about forms and @code{eval},
16872 don't worry---a simple string will work.) This parameter is not
16873 optional; you must specify it. I don't recommend using
16874 @code{"~/Mail"} or a subdirectory of it; several other parts of Gnus
16875 use that directory by default for various things, and may get confused
16876 if @code{nnmaildir} uses it too. @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} is a typical
16879 @item target-prefix
16880 This should be a Lisp form which is processed by @code{eval} and
16881 @code{expand-file-name}. The form is @code{eval}ed only when the
16882 server is opened; the resulting string is used until the server is
16885 When you create a group on an @code{nnmaildir} server, the maildir is
16886 created with @code{target-prefix} prepended to its name, and a symlink
16887 pointing to that maildir is created, named with the plain group name.
16888 So if @code{directory} is @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} and
16889 @code{target-prefix} is @code{"../maildirs/"}, then when you create
16890 the group @code{foo}, @code{nnmaildir} will create
16891 @file{~/.nnmaildir/../maildirs/foo} as a maildir, and will create
16892 @file{~/.nnmaildir/foo} as a symlink pointing to
16893 @file{../maildirs/foo}.
16895 You can set @code{target-prefix} to a string without any slashes to
16896 create both maildirs and symlinks in the same @code{directory}; in
16897 this case, any maildirs found in @code{directory} whose names start
16898 with @code{target-prefix} will not be listed as groups (but the
16899 symlinks pointing to them will be).
16901 As a special case, if @code{target-prefix} is @code{""} (the default),
16902 then when you create a group, the maildir will be created in
16903 @code{directory} without a corresponding symlink. Beware that you
16904 cannot use @code{gnus-group-delete-group} on such groups without the
16905 @code{force} argument.
16907 @item directory-files
16908 This should be a function with the same interface as
16909 @code{directory-files} (such as @code{directory-files} itself). It is
16910 used to scan the server's @code{directory} for maildirs. This
16911 parameter is optional; the default is
16912 @code{nnheader-directory-files-safe} if
16913 @code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is @code{nil}, and
16914 @code{directory-files} otherwise.
16915 (@code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is checked only once when the
16916 server is opened; if you want to check it each time the directory is
16917 scanned, you'll have to provide your own function that does that.)
16920 If non-@code{nil}, then after scanning for new mail in the group
16921 maildirs themselves as usual, this server will also incorporate mail
16922 the conventional Gnus way, from @code{mail-sources} according to
16923 @code{nnmail-split-methods} or @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. The default
16924 value is @code{nil}.
16926 Do @emph{not} use the same maildir both in @code{mail-sources} and as
16927 an @code{nnmaildir} group. The results might happen to be useful, but
16928 that would be by chance, not by design, and the results might be
16929 different in the future. If your split rules create new groups,
16930 remember to supply a @code{create-directory} server parameter.
16933 @subsubsection Group parameters
16935 @code{nnmaildir} uses several group parameters. It's safe to ignore
16936 all this; the default behavior for @code{nnmaildir} is the same as the
16937 default behavior for other mail back ends: articles are deleted after
16938 one week, etc. Except for the expiry parameters, all this
16939 functionality is unique to @code{nnmaildir}, so you can ignore it if
16940 you're just trying to duplicate the behavior you already have with
16943 If the value of any of these parameters is a vector, the first element
16944 is evaluated as a Lisp form and the result is used, rather than the
16945 original value. If the value is not a vector, the value itself is
16946 evaluated as a Lisp form. (This is why these parameters use names
16947 different from those of other, similar parameters supported by other
16948 back ends: they have different, though similar, meanings.) (For
16949 numbers, strings, @code{nil}, and @code{t}, you can ignore the
16950 @code{eval} business again; for other values, remember to use an extra
16951 quote and wrap the value in a vector when appropriate.)
16955 An integer specifying the minimum age, in seconds, of an article
16956 before it will be expired, or the symbol @code{never} to specify that
16957 articles should never be expired. If this parameter is not set,
16958 @code{nnmaildir} falls back to the usual
16959 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait}(@code{-function}) variables (the
16960 @code{expiry-wait} group parameter overrides @code{nnmail-expiry-wait}
16961 and makes @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} ineffective). If you
16962 wanted a value of 3 days, you could use something like @code{[(* 3 24
16963 60 60)]}; @code{nnmaildir} will evaluate the form and use the result.
16964 An article's age is measured starting from the article file's
16965 modification time. Normally, this is the same as the article's
16966 delivery time, but editing an article makes it younger. Moving an
16967 article (other than via expiry) may also make an article younger.
16970 If this is set to a string such as a full Gnus group name, like
16972 "backend+server.address.string:group.name"
16974 and if it is not the name of the same group that the parameter belongs
16975 to, then articles will be moved to the specified group during expiry
16976 before being deleted. @emph{If this is set to an @code{nnmaildir}
16977 group, the article will be just as old in the destination group as it
16978 was in the source group.} So be careful with @code{expire-age} in the
16979 destination group. If this is set to the name of the same group that
16980 the parameter belongs to, then the article is not expired at all. If
16981 you use the vector form, the first element is evaluated once for each
16982 article. So that form can refer to
16983 @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name}, etc., to decide where to put the
16984 article. @emph{Even if this parameter is not set, @code{nnmaildir}
16985 does not fall back to the @code{expiry-target} group parameter or the
16986 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} variable.}
16989 If this is set to @code{t}, @code{nnmaildir} will treat the articles
16990 in this maildir as read-only. This means: articles are not renamed
16991 from @file{new/} into @file{cur/}; articles are only found in
16992 @file{new/}, not @file{cur/}; articles are never deleted; articles
16993 cannot be edited. @file{new/} is expected to be a symlink to the
16994 @file{new/} directory of another maildir---e.g., a system-wide mailbox
16995 containing a mailing list of common interest. Everything in the
16996 maildir outside @file{new/} is @emph{not} treated as read-only, so for
16997 a shared mailbox, you do still need to set up your own maildir (or
16998 have write permission to the shared mailbox); your maildir just won't
16999 contain extra copies of the articles.
17001 @item directory-files
17002 A function with the same interface as @code{directory-files}. It is
17003 used to scan the directories in the maildir corresponding to this
17004 group to find articles. The default is the function specified by the
17005 server's @code{directory-files} parameter.
17007 @item distrust-Lines:
17008 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmaildir} will always count the lines of an
17009 article, rather than use the @code{Lines:} header field. If
17010 @code{nil}, the header field will be used if present.
17013 A list of mark symbols, such as @code{['(read expire)]}. Whenever
17014 Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for article marks, @code{nnmaildir} will
17015 say that all articles have these marks, regardless of whether the
17016 marks stored in the filesystem say so. This is a proof-of-concept
17017 feature that will probably be removed eventually; it ought to be done
17018 in Gnus proper, or abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
17021 A list of mark symbols, such as @code{['(tick expire)]}. Whenever
17022 Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for article marks, @code{nnmaildir} will
17023 say that no articles have these marks, regardless of whether the marks
17024 stored in the filesystem say so. @code{never-marks} overrides
17025 @code{always-marks}. This is a proof-of-concept feature that will
17026 probably be removed eventually; it ought to be done in Gnus proper, or
17027 abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
17029 @item nov-cache-size
17030 An integer specifying the size of the @acronym{NOV} memory cache. To
17031 speed things up, @code{nnmaildir} keeps @acronym{NOV} data in memory
17032 for a limited number of articles in each group. (This is probably not
17033 worthwhile, and will probably be removed in the future.) This
17034 parameter's value is noticed only the first time a group is seen after
17035 the server is opened---i.e., when you first start Gnus, typically.
17036 The @acronym{NOV} cache is never resized until the server is closed
17037 and reopened. The default is an estimate of the number of articles
17038 that would be displayed in the summary buffer: a count of articles
17039 that are either marked with @code{tick} or not marked with
17040 @code{read}, plus a little extra.
17043 @subsubsection Article identification
17044 Articles are stored in the @file{cur/} subdirectory of each maildir.
17045 Each article file is named like @code{uniq:info}, where @code{uniq}
17046 contains no colons. @code{nnmaildir} ignores, but preserves, the
17047 @code{:info} part. (Other maildir readers typically use this part of
17048 the filename to store marks.) The @code{uniq} part uniquely
17049 identifies the article, and is used in various places in the
17050 @file{.nnmaildir/} subdirectory of the maildir to store information
17051 about the corresponding article. The full pathname of an article is
17052 available in the variable @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name} after you
17053 request the article in the summary buffer.
17055 @subsubsection NOV data
17056 An article identified by @code{uniq} has its @acronym{NOV} data (used
17057 to generate lines in the summary buffer) stored in
17058 @code{.nnmaildir/nov/uniq}. There is no
17059 @code{nnmaildir-generate-nov-databases} function. (There isn't much
17060 need for it---an article's @acronym{NOV} data is updated automatically
17061 when the article or @code{nnmail-extra-headers} has changed.) You can
17062 force @code{nnmaildir} to regenerate the @acronym{NOV} data for a
17063 single article simply by deleting the corresponding @acronym{NOV}
17064 file, but @emph{beware}: this will also cause @code{nnmaildir} to
17065 assign a new article number for this article, which may cause trouble
17066 with @code{seen} marks, the Agent, and the cache.
17068 @subsubsection Article marks
17069 An article identified by @code{uniq} is considered to have the mark
17070 @code{flag} when the file @file{.nnmaildir/marks/flag/uniq} exists.
17071 When Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for a group's marks, @code{nnmaildir}
17072 looks for such files and reports the set of marks it finds. When Gnus
17073 asks @code{nnmaildir} to store a new set of marks, @code{nnmaildir}
17074 creates and deletes the corresponding files as needed. (Actually,
17075 rather than create a new file for each mark, it just creates hard
17076 links to @file{.nnmaildir/markfile}, to save inodes.)
17078 You can invent new marks by creating a new directory in
17079 @file{.nnmaildir/marks/}. You can tar up a maildir and remove it from
17080 your server, untar it later, and keep your marks. You can add and
17081 remove marks yourself by creating and deleting mark files. If you do
17082 this while Gnus is running and your @code{nnmaildir} server is open,
17083 it's best to exit all summary buffers for @code{nnmaildir} groups and
17084 type @kbd{s} in the group buffer first, and to type @kbd{g} or
17085 @kbd{M-g} in the group buffer afterwards. Otherwise, Gnus might not
17086 pick up the changes, and might undo them.
17090 @subsubsection Mail Folders
17092 @cindex mbox folders
17093 @cindex mail folders
17095 @code{nnfolder} is a back end for storing each mail group in a
17096 separate file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format.
17097 @code{nnfolder} will add extra headers to keep track of article
17098 numbers and arrival dates.
17100 @cindex self contained nnfolder servers
17102 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnfolder}
17103 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
17104 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
17105 proper @code{nnfolder} server) and have all your marks be preserved.
17106 Marks for a group are usually stored in a file named as the mbox file
17107 with @code{.mrk} concatenated to it (but see
17108 @code{nnfolder-marks-file-suffix}) within the @code{nnfolder}
17109 directory. Individual @code{nnfolder} groups are also possible to
17110 backup, use @kbd{G m} to restore the group (after restoring the backup
17111 into the @code{nnfolder} directory).
17113 Virtual server settings:
17116 @item nnfolder-directory
17117 @vindex nnfolder-directory
17118 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this
17119 directory. The default is the value of @code{message-directory}
17120 (whose default is @file{~/Mail})
17122 @item nnfolder-active-file
17123 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
17124 The name of the active file. The default is @file{~/Mail/active}.
17126 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
17127 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
17128 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
17129 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}
17131 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
17132 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
17133 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail. The
17134 default is @code{t}
17136 @item nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
17137 @vindex nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
17138 @cindex backup files
17139 Hook run before saving the folders. Note that Emacs does the normal
17140 backup renaming of files even with the @code{nnfolder} buffers. If
17141 you wish to switch this off, you could say something like the
17142 following in your @file{.emacs} file:
17145 (defun turn-off-backup ()
17146 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
17148 (add-hook 'nnfolder-save-buffer-hook 'turn-off-backup)
17151 @item nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
17152 @vindex nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
17153 Hook run in a buffer narrowed to the message that is to be deleted.
17154 This function can be used to copy the message to somewhere else, or to
17155 extract some information from it before removing it.
17157 @item nnfolder-nov-is-evil
17158 @vindex nnfolder-nov-is-evil
17159 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @acronym{NOV} files. The
17160 default is @code{nil}.
17162 @item nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
17163 @vindex nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
17164 The extension for @acronym{NOV} files. The default is @file{.nov}.
17166 @item nnfolder-nov-directory
17167 @vindex nnfolder-nov-directory
17168 The directory where the @acronym{NOV} files should be stored. If
17169 @code{nil}, @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
17171 @item nnfolder-marks-is-evil
17172 @vindex nnfolder-marks-is-evil
17173 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
17174 default is @code{nil}.
17176 @item nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
17177 @vindex nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
17178 The extension for @sc{marks} files. The default is @file{.mrk}.
17180 @item nnfolder-marks-directory
17181 @vindex nnfolder-marks-directory
17182 The directory where the @sc{marks} files should be stored. If
17183 @code{nil}, @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
17188 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
17189 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
17190 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
17191 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
17192 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
17193 @code{nnfolder-directory}. This only works if you use long file names,
17196 @node Comparing Mail Back Ends
17197 @subsubsection Comparing Mail Back Ends
17199 First, just for terminology, the @dfn{back end} is the common word for a
17200 low-level access method---a transport, if you will, by which something
17201 is acquired. The sense is that one's mail has to come from somewhere,
17202 and so selection of a suitable back end is required in order to get that
17203 mail within spitting distance of Gnus.
17205 The same concept exists for Usenet itself: Though access to articles is
17206 typically done by @acronym{NNTP} these days, once upon a midnight dreary, everyone
17207 in the world got at Usenet by running a reader on the machine where the
17208 articles lay (the machine which today we call an @acronym{NNTP} server), and
17209 access was by the reader stepping into the articles' directory spool
17210 area directly. One can still select between either the @code{nntp} or
17211 @code{nnspool} back ends, to select between these methods, if one happens
17212 actually to live on the server (or can see its spool directly, anyway,
17215 The goal in selecting a mail back end is to pick one which
17216 simultaneously represents a suitable way of dealing with the original
17217 format plus leaving mail in a form that is convenient to use in the
17218 future. Here are some high and low points on each:
17223 UNIX systems have historically had a single, very common, and well-
17224 defined format. All messages arrive in a single @dfn{spool file}, and
17225 they are delineated by a line whose regular expression matches
17226 @samp{^From_}. (My notational use of @samp{_} is to indicate a space,
17227 to make it clear in this instance that this is not the RFC-specified
17228 @samp{From:} header.) Because Emacs and therefore Gnus emanate
17229 historically from the Unix environment, it is simplest if one does not
17230 mess a great deal with the original mailbox format, so if one chooses
17231 this back end, Gnus' primary activity in getting mail from the real spool
17232 area to Gnus' preferred directory is simply to copy it, with no
17233 (appreciable) format change in the process. It is the ``dumbest'' way
17234 to move mail into availability in the Gnus environment. This makes it
17235 fast to move into place, but slow to parse, when Gnus has to look at
17240 Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and DEC-20, running operating
17241 systems called TOPS and related things, and the usual (only?) mail
17242 reading environment was a thing called Babyl. I don't know what format
17243 was used for mail landing on the system, but Babyl had its own internal
17244 format to which mail was converted, primarily involving creating a
17245 spool-file-like entity with a scheme for inserting Babyl-specific
17246 headers and status bits above the top of each message in the file.
17247 Rmail was Emacs' first mail reader, it was written by Richard Stallman,
17248 and Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl environment, so he wrote Rmail
17249 to understand the mail files folks already had in existence. Gnus (and
17250 VM, for that matter) continue to support this format because it's
17251 perceived as having some good qualities in those mailer-specific
17252 headers/status bits stuff. Rmail itself still exists as well, of
17253 course, and is still maintained within Emacs. Since Emacs 23, it
17254 uses standard mbox format rather than Babyl.
17256 Both of the above forms leave your mail in a single file on your
17257 file system, and they must parse that entire file each time you take a
17262 @code{nnml} is the back end which smells the most as though you were
17263 actually operating with an @code{nnspool}-accessed Usenet system. (In
17264 fact, I believe @code{nnml} actually derived from @code{nnspool} code,
17265 lo these years ago.) One's mail is taken from the original spool file,
17266 and is then cut up into individual message files, 1:1. It maintains a
17267 Usenet-style active file (analogous to what one finds in an INN- or
17268 CNews-based news system in (for instance) @file{/var/lib/news/active},
17269 or what is returned via the @samp{NNTP LIST} verb) and also creates
17270 @dfn{overview} files for efficient group entry, as has been defined for
17271 @acronym{NNTP} servers for some years now. It is slower in mail-splitting,
17272 due to the creation of lots of files, updates to the @code{nnml} active
17273 file, and additions to overview files on a per-message basis, but it is
17274 extremely fast on access because of what amounts to the indexing support
17275 provided by the active file and overviews.
17277 @code{nnml} costs @dfn{inodes} in a big way; that is, it soaks up the
17278 resource which defines available places in the file system to put new
17279 files. Sysadmins take a dim view of heavy inode occupation within
17280 tight, shared file systems. But if you live on a personal machine where
17281 the file system is your own and space is not at a premium, @code{nnml}
17284 It is also problematic using this back end if you are living in a
17285 FAT16-based Windows world, since much space will be wasted on all these
17290 The Rand MH mail-reading system has been around UNIX systems for a very
17291 long time; it operates by splitting one's spool file of messages into
17292 individual files, but with little or no indexing support---@code{nnmh}
17293 is considered to be semantically equivalent to ``@code{nnml} without
17294 active file or overviews''. This is arguably the worst choice, because
17295 one gets the slowness of individual file creation married to the
17296 slowness of access parsing when learning what's new in one's groups.
17300 Basically the effect of @code{nnfolder} is @code{nnmbox} (the first
17301 method described above) on a per-group basis. That is, @code{nnmbox}
17302 itself puts @emph{all} one's mail in one file; @code{nnfolder} provides a
17303 little bit of optimization to this so that each of one's mail groups has
17304 a Unix mail box file. It's faster than @code{nnmbox} because each group
17305 can be parsed separately, and still provides the simple Unix mail box
17306 format requiring minimal effort in moving the mail around. In addition,
17307 it maintains an ``active'' file making it much faster for Gnus to figure
17308 out how many messages there are in each separate group.
17310 If you have groups that are expected to have a massive amount of
17311 messages, @code{nnfolder} is not the best choice, but if you receive
17312 only a moderate amount of mail, @code{nnfolder} is probably the most
17313 friendly mail back end all over.
17317 For configuring expiry and other things, @code{nnmaildir} uses
17318 incompatible group parameters, slightly different from those of other
17321 @code{nnmaildir} is largely similar to @code{nnml}, with some notable
17322 differences. Each message is stored in a separate file, but the
17323 filename is unrelated to the article number in Gnus. @code{nnmaildir}
17324 also stores the equivalent of @code{nnml}'s overview files in one file
17325 per article, so it uses about twice as many inodes as @code{nnml}. (Use
17326 @code{df -i} to see how plentiful your inode supply is.) If this slows
17327 you down or takes up very much space, consider switching to
17328 @uref{http://www.namesys.com/, ReiserFS} or another non-block-structured
17331 Since maildirs don't require locking for delivery, the maildirs you use
17332 as groups can also be the maildirs your mail is directly delivered to.
17333 This means you can skip Gnus' mail splitting if your mail is already
17334 organized into different mailboxes during delivery. A @code{directory}
17335 entry in @code{mail-sources} would have a similar effect, but would
17336 require one set of mailboxes for spooling deliveries (in mbox format,
17337 thus damaging message bodies), and another set to be used as groups (in
17338 whatever format you like). A maildir has a built-in spool, in the
17339 @code{new/} subdirectory. Beware that currently, mail moved from
17340 @code{new/} to @code{cur/} instead of via mail splitting will not
17341 undergo treatment such as duplicate checking.
17343 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks for a given group in the
17344 corresponding maildir, in a way designed so that it's easy to manipulate
17345 them from outside Gnus. You can tar up a maildir, unpack it somewhere
17346 else, and still have your marks. @code{nnml} also stores marks, but
17347 it's not as easy to work with them from outside Gnus as with
17350 @code{nnmaildir} uses a significant amount of memory to speed things up.
17351 (It keeps in memory some of the things that @code{nnml} stores in files
17352 and that @code{nnmh} repeatedly parses out of message files.) If this
17353 is a problem for you, you can set the @code{nov-cache-size} group
17354 parameter to something small (0 would probably not work, but 1 probably
17355 would) to make it use less memory. This caching will probably be
17356 removed in the future.
17358 Startup is likely to be slower with @code{nnmaildir} than with other
17359 back ends. Everything else is likely to be faster, depending in part
17360 on your file system.
17362 @code{nnmaildir} does not use @code{nnoo}, so you cannot use @code{nnoo}
17363 to write an @code{nnmaildir}-derived back end.
17368 @node Browsing the Web
17369 @section Browsing the Web
17371 @cindex browsing the web
17375 Web-based discussion forums are getting more and more popular. On many
17376 subjects, the web-based forums have become the most important forums,
17377 eclipsing the importance of mailing lists and news groups. The reason
17378 is easy to understand---they are friendly to new users; you just point
17379 and click, and there's the discussion. With mailing lists, you have to
17380 go through a cumbersome subscription procedure, and most people don't
17381 even know what a news group is.
17383 The problem with this scenario is that web browsers are not very good at
17384 being newsreaders. They do not keep track of what articles you've read;
17385 they do not allow you to score on subjects you're interested in; they do
17386 not allow off-line browsing; they require you to click around and drive
17387 you mad in the end.
17389 So---if web browsers suck at reading discussion forums, why not use Gnus
17392 Gnus has been getting a bit of a collection of back ends for providing
17393 interfaces to these sources.
17397 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
17398 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
17399 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
17400 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
17401 * Customizing W3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/W3 from Gnus.
17404 All the web sources require Emacs/W3 and the url library or those
17405 alternatives to work.
17407 The main caveat with all these web sources is that they probably won't
17408 work for a very long time. Gleaning information from the @acronym{HTML} data
17409 is guesswork at best, and when the layout is altered, the Gnus back end
17410 will fail. If you have reasonably new versions of these back ends,
17411 though, you should be ok.
17413 One thing all these Web methods have in common is that the Web sources
17414 are often down, unavailable or just plain too slow to be fun. In those
17415 cases, it makes a lot of sense to let the Gnus Agent (@pxref{Gnus
17416 Unplugged}) handle downloading articles, and then you can read them at
17417 leisure from your local disk. No more World Wide Wait for you.
17419 @node Archiving Mail
17420 @subsection Archiving Mail
17421 @cindex archiving mail
17422 @cindex backup of mail
17424 Some of the back ends, notably @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, and
17425 @code{nnmaildir}, now actually store the article marks with each group.
17426 For these servers, archiving and restoring a group while preserving
17427 marks is fairly simple.
17429 (Preserving the group level and group parameters as well still
17430 requires ritual dancing and sacrifices to the @file{.newsrc.eld} deity
17433 To archive an entire @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir}
17434 server, take a recursive copy of the server directory. There is no need
17435 to shut down Gnus, so archiving may be invoked by @code{cron} or
17436 similar. You restore the data by restoring the directory tree, and
17437 adding a server definition pointing to that directory in Gnus. The
17438 @ref{Article Backlog}, @ref{Asynchronous Fetching} and other things
17439 might interfere with overwriting data, so you may want to shut down Gnus
17440 before you restore the data.
17442 It is also possible to archive individual @code{nnml},
17443 @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir} groups, while preserving marks.
17444 For @code{nnml} or @code{nnmaildir}, you copy all files in the group's
17445 directory. For @code{nnfolder} you need to copy both the base folder
17446 file itself (@file{FOO}, say), and the marks file (@file{FOO.mrk} in
17447 this example). Restoring the group is done with @kbd{G m} from the Group
17448 buffer. The last step makes Gnus notice the new directory.
17449 @code{nnmaildir} notices the new directory automatically, so @kbd{G m}
17450 is unnecessary in that case.
17453 @subsection Web Searches
17458 @cindex Usenet searches
17459 @cindex searching the Usenet
17461 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
17462 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
17463 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
17464 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
17465 searches without having to use a browser.
17467 The @code{nnweb} back end allows an easy interface to the mighty search
17468 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
17469 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
17470 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
17471 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
17473 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
17474 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
17475 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
17476 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
17477 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
17478 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
17479 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
17480 engines (Google, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
17481 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
17482 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
17485 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
17486 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
17487 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'@^etre} is to
17488 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
17489 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
17490 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
17492 You must have the @code{url} and @code{W3} package or those alternatives
17493 (try @code{customize-group} on the @samp{mm-url} variable group)
17494 installed to be able to use @code{nnweb}.
17496 Virtual server variables:
17501 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
17502 are @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}. Note that
17503 @code{dejanews} is an alias to @code{google}.
17506 @vindex nnweb-search
17507 The search string to feed to the search engine.
17509 @item nnweb-max-hits
17510 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
17511 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
17514 @item nnweb-type-definition
17515 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
17516 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
17517 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
17522 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
17526 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
17529 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
17532 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
17536 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
17543 @subsection Ultimate
17545 @cindex Ultimate Bulletin Board
17547 @uref{http://www.ultimatebb.com/, The Ultimate Bulletin Board} is
17548 probably the most popular Web bulletin board system used. It has a
17549 quite regular and nice interface, and it's possible to get the
17550 information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
17552 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnultimate} is to say
17553 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnultimate RET
17554 http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubbcgi/ RET}. (Substitute the @acronym{URL}
17555 (not including @samp{Ultimate.cgi} or the like at the end) for a forum
17556 you're interested in; there's quite a list of them on the Ultimate web
17557 site.) Then subscribe to the groups you're interested in from the
17558 server buffer, and read them from the group buffer.
17560 The following @code{nnultimate} variables can be altered:
17563 @item nnultimate-directory
17564 @vindex nnultimate-directory
17565 The directory where @code{nnultimate} stores its files. The default is@*
17566 @file{~/News/ultimate/}.
17571 @subsection Web Archive
17573 @cindex Web Archive
17575 Some mailing lists only have archives on Web servers, such as
17576 @uref{http://www.egroups.com/} and
17577 @uref{http://www.mail-archive.com/}. It has a quite regular and nice
17578 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
17581 @findex gnus-group-make-warchive-group
17582 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnwarchive} is to say
17583 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{M-x
17584 gnus-group-make-warchive-group RET @var{an_egroup} RET egroups RET
17585 www.egroups.com RET @var{your@@email.address} RET}. (Substitute the
17586 @var{an_egroup} with the mailing list you subscribed, the
17587 @var{your@@email.address} with your email address.), or to browse the
17588 back end by @kbd{B nnwarchive RET mail-archive RET}.
17590 The following @code{nnwarchive} variables can be altered:
17593 @item nnwarchive-directory
17594 @vindex nnwarchive-directory
17595 The directory where @code{nnwarchive} stores its files. The default is@*
17596 @file{~/News/warchive/}.
17598 @item nnwarchive-login
17599 @vindex nnwarchive-login
17600 The account name on the web server.
17602 @item nnwarchive-passwd
17603 @vindex nnwarchive-passwd
17604 The password for your account on the web server.
17612 Some web sites have an RDF Site Summary (@acronym{RSS}).
17613 @acronym{RSS} is a format for summarizing headlines from news related
17614 sites (such as BBC or CNN). But basically anything list-like can be
17615 presented as an @acronym{RSS} feed: weblogs, changelogs or recent
17616 changes to a wiki (e.g. @url{http://cliki.net/recent-changes.rdf}).
17618 @acronym{RSS} has a quite regular and nice interface, and it's
17619 possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
17621 Note: you had better use Emacs which supports the @code{utf-8} coding
17622 system because @acronym{RSS} uses UTF-8 for encoding non-@acronym{ASCII}
17623 text by default. It is also used by default for non-@acronym{ASCII}
17626 @kindex G R (Group)
17627 Use @kbd{G R} from the group buffer to subscribe to a feed---you will be
17628 prompted for the location, the title and the description of the feed.
17629 The title, which allows any characters, will be used for the group name
17630 and the name of the group data file. The description can be omitted.
17632 An easy way to get started with @code{nnrss} is to say something like
17633 the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnrss RET RET y}, then
17634 subscribe to groups.
17636 The @code{nnrss} back end saves the group data file in
17637 @code{nnrss-directory} (see below) for each @code{nnrss} group. File
17638 names containing non-@acronym{ASCII} characters will be encoded by the
17639 coding system specified with the @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system}
17640 variable or other. Also @xref{Non-ASCII Group Names}, for more
17643 The @code{nnrss} back end generates @samp{multipart/alternative}
17644 @acronym{MIME} articles in which each contains a @samp{text/plain} part
17645 and a @samp{text/html} part.
17648 You can also use the following commands to import and export your
17649 subscriptions from a file in @acronym{OPML} format (Outline Processor
17652 @defun nnrss-opml-import file
17653 Prompt for an @acronym{OPML} file, and subscribe to each feed in the
17657 @defun nnrss-opml-export
17658 Write your current @acronym{RSS} subscriptions to a buffer in
17659 @acronym{OPML} format.
17662 The following @code{nnrss} variables can be altered:
17665 @item nnrss-directory
17666 @vindex nnrss-directory
17667 The directory where @code{nnrss} stores its files. The default is
17668 @file{~/News/rss/}.
17670 @item nnrss-file-coding-system
17671 @vindex nnrss-file-coding-system
17672 The coding system used when reading and writing the @code{nnrss} groups
17673 data files. The default is the value of
17674 @code{mm-universal-coding-system} (which defaults to @code{emacs-mule}
17675 in Emacs or @code{escape-quoted} in XEmacs).
17677 @item nnrss-ignore-article-fields
17678 @vindex nnrss-ignore-article-fields
17679 Some feeds update constantly article fields during their publications,
17680 e.g. to indicate the number of comments. However, if there is
17681 a difference between the local article and the distant one, the latter
17682 is considered to be new. To avoid this and discard some fields, set this
17683 variable to the list of fields to be ignored. The default is
17684 @code{'(slash:comments)}.
17686 @item nnrss-use-local
17687 @vindex nnrss-use-local
17688 @findex nnrss-generate-download-script
17689 If you set @code{nnrss-use-local} to @code{t}, @code{nnrss} will read
17690 the feeds from local files in @code{nnrss-directory}. You can use
17691 the command @code{nnrss-generate-download-script} to generate a
17692 download script using @command{wget}.
17694 @item nnrss-wash-html-in-text-plain-parts
17695 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{nnrss} renders text in @samp{text/plain}
17696 parts as @acronym{HTML}. The function specified by the
17697 @code{mm-text-html-renderer} variable (@pxref{Display Customization,
17698 ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}) will be used
17699 to render text. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default, text will
17700 simply be folded. Leave it @code{nil} if you prefer to see
17701 @samp{text/html} parts.
17704 The following code may be helpful, if you want to show the description in
17705 the summary buffer.
17708 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-description-field)
17709 (setq gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-15,15f%]%) %s%uX\n")
17711 (defun gnus-user-format-function-X (header)
17713 (assq nnrss-description-field (mail-header-extra header))))
17714 (if descr (concat "\n\t" (cdr descr)) "")))
17717 The following code may be useful to open an nnrss url directly from the
17721 (require 'browse-url)
17723 (defun browse-nnrss-url (arg)
17725 (let ((url (assq nnrss-url-field
17728 (assq (gnus-summary-article-number)
17729 gnus-newsgroup-data))))))
17732 (browse-url (cdr url))
17733 (gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward 1))
17734 (gnus-summary-scroll-up arg))))
17736 (eval-after-load "gnus"
17737 #'(define-key gnus-summary-mode-map
17738 (kbd "<RET>") 'browse-nnrss-url))
17739 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-url-field)
17742 Even if you have added @samp{text/html} to the
17743 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives} variable (@pxref{Display
17744 Customization, ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME
17745 Manual}) since you don't want to see @acronym{HTML} parts, it might be
17746 more useful especially in @code{nnrss} groups to display
17747 @samp{text/html} parts. Here's an example of setting
17748 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives} as a group parameter (@pxref{Group
17749 Parameters}) in order to display @samp{text/html} parts only in
17750 @code{nnrss} groups:
17753 ;; @r{Set the default value of @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives}.}
17754 (eval-after-load "gnus-sum"
17756 'gnus-newsgroup-variables
17757 '(mm-discouraged-alternatives
17758 . '("text/html" "image/.*"))))
17760 ;; @r{Display @samp{text/html} parts in @code{nnrss} groups.}
17763 '("\\`nnrss:" (mm-discouraged-alternatives nil)))
17767 @node Customizing W3
17768 @subsection Customizing W3
17774 Gnus uses the url library to fetch web pages and Emacs/W3 (or those
17775 alternatives) to display web pages. Emacs/W3 is documented in its own
17776 manual, but there are some things that may be more relevant for Gnus
17779 For instance, a common question is how to make Emacs/W3 follow links
17780 using the @code{browse-url} functions (which will call some external web
17781 browser like Netscape). Here's one way:
17784 (eval-after-load "w3"
17786 (fset 'w3-fetch-orig (symbol-function 'w3-fetch))
17787 (defun w3-fetch (&optional url target)
17788 (interactive (list (w3-read-url-with-default)))
17789 (if (eq major-mode 'gnus-article-mode)
17791 (w3-fetch-orig url target)))))
17794 Put that in your @file{.emacs} file, and hitting links in W3-rendered
17795 @acronym{HTML} in the Gnus article buffers will use @code{browse-url} to
17802 @cindex @acronym{IMAP}
17804 @acronym{IMAP} is a network protocol for reading mail (or news, or @dots{}),
17805 think of it as a modernized @acronym{NNTP}. Connecting to a @acronym{IMAP}
17806 server is much similar to connecting to a news server, you just
17807 specify the network address of the server.
17809 @acronym{IMAP} has two properties. First, @acronym{IMAP} can do
17810 everything that @acronym{POP} can, it can hence be viewed as a
17811 @acronym{POP++}. Secondly, @acronym{IMAP} is a mail storage protocol,
17812 similar to @acronym{NNTP} being a news storage protocol---however,
17813 @acronym{IMAP} offers more features than @acronym{NNTP} because news
17814 is more or less read-only whereas mail is read-write.
17816 If you want to use @acronym{IMAP} as a @acronym{POP++}, use an imap
17817 entry in @code{mail-sources}. With this, Gnus will fetch mails from
17818 the @acronym{IMAP} server and store them on the local disk. This is
17819 not the usage described in this section---@xref{Mail Sources}.
17821 If you want to use @acronym{IMAP} as a mail storage protocol, use an nnimap
17822 entry in @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods}. With this, Gnus will
17823 manipulate mails stored on the @acronym{IMAP} server. This is the kind of
17824 usage explained in this section.
17826 A server configuration in @file{~/.gnus.el} with a few @acronym{IMAP}
17827 servers might look something like the following. (Note that for
17828 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}, you need external programs and libraries,
17832 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
17833 '((nnimap "simpleserver") ; @r{no special configuration}
17834 ; @r{perhaps a ssh port forwarded server:}
17836 (nnimap-address "localhost")
17837 (nnimap-server-port 1430))
17838 ; @r{a UW server running on localhost}
17840 (nnimap-server-port 143)
17841 (nnimap-address "localhost")
17842 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "mail/*")))
17843 ; @r{anonymous public cyrus server:}
17844 (nnimap "cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu"
17845 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous)
17846 (nnimap-list-pattern "archive.*")
17847 (nnimap-stream network))
17848 ; @r{a ssl server on a non-standard port:}
17850 (nnimap-address "vic20.somewhere.com")
17851 (nnimap-server-port 9930)
17852 (nnimap-stream ssl))))
17855 After defining the new server, you can subscribe to groups on the
17856 server using normal Gnus commands such as @kbd{U} in the Group Buffer
17857 (@pxref{Subscription Commands}) or via the Server Buffer
17858 (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
17860 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nnimap}
17865 @item nnimap-address
17866 @vindex nnimap-address
17868 The address of the remote @acronym{IMAP} server. Defaults to the virtual
17869 server name if not specified.
17871 @item nnimap-server-port
17872 @vindex nnimap-server-port
17873 Port on server to contact. Defaults to port 143, or 993 for @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}.
17875 Note that this should be an integer, example server specification:
17878 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
17879 (nnimap-server-port 4711))
17882 @item nnimap-list-pattern
17883 @vindex nnimap-list-pattern
17884 String or list of strings of mailboxes to limit available groups to.
17885 This is used when the server has very many mailboxes and you're only
17886 interested in a few---some servers export your home directory via
17887 @acronym{IMAP}, you'll probably want to limit the mailboxes to those in
17888 @file{~/Mail/*} then.
17890 The string can also be a cons of REFERENCE and the string as above, what
17891 REFERENCE is used for is server specific, but on the University of
17892 Washington server it's a directory that will be concatenated with the
17895 Example server specification:
17898 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
17899 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "Mail/*" "alt.sex.*"
17900 ("~friend/Mail/" . "list/*"))))
17903 @item nnimap-stream
17904 @vindex nnimap-stream
17905 The type of stream used to connect to your server. By default, nnimap
17906 will detect and automatically use all of the below, with the exception
17907 of @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}. (@acronym{IMAP} over
17908 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} is being replaced by STARTTLS, which can
17909 be automatically detected, but it's not widely deployed yet.)
17911 Example server specification:
17914 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
17915 (nnimap-stream ssl))
17918 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-stream} is a symbol!
17922 @dfn{gssapi:} Connect with GSSAPI (usually Kerberos 5). Requires the
17923 @samp{gsasl} or @samp{imtest} program.
17925 @dfn{kerberos4:} Connect with Kerberos 4. Requires the @samp{imtest} program.
17927 @dfn{starttls:} Connect via the STARTTLS extension (similar to
17928 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}). Requires the external library @samp{starttls.el} and program
17931 @dfn{tls:} Connect through @acronym{TLS}. Requires GNUTLS (the program
17932 @samp{gnutls-cli}).
17934 @dfn{ssl:} Connect through @acronym{SSL}. Requires OpenSSL (the program
17935 @samp{openssl}) or SSLeay (@samp{s_client}).
17937 @dfn{shell:} Use a shell command to start @acronym{IMAP} connection.
17939 @dfn{network:} Plain, TCP/IP network connection.
17942 @vindex imap-kerberos4-program
17943 The @samp{imtest} program is shipped with Cyrus IMAPD. If you're
17944 using @samp{imtest} from Cyrus IMAPD < 2.0.14 (which includes version
17945 1.5.x and 1.6.x) you need to frob @code{imap-process-connection-type}
17946 to make @code{imap.el} use a pty instead of a pipe when communicating
17947 with @samp{imtest}. You will then suffer from a line length
17948 restrictions on @acronym{IMAP} commands, which might make Gnus seem to hang
17949 indefinitely if you have many articles in a mailbox. The variable
17950 @code{imap-kerberos4-program} contain parameters to pass to the imtest
17953 For @acronym{TLS} connection, the @code{gnutls-cli} program from GNUTLS is
17954 needed. It is available from
17955 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/}.
17957 @vindex imap-gssapi-program
17958 This parameter specifies a list of command lines that invoke a GSSAPI
17959 authenticated @acronym{IMAP} stream in a subshell. They are tried
17960 sequentially until a connection is made, or the list has been
17961 exhausted. By default, @samp{gsasl} from GNU SASL, available from
17962 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/}, and the @samp{imtest}
17963 program from Cyrus IMAPD (see @code{imap-kerberos4-program}), are
17966 @vindex imap-ssl-program
17967 For @acronym{SSL} connections, the OpenSSL program is available from
17968 @uref{http://www.openssl.org/}. OpenSSL was formerly known as SSLeay,
17969 and nnimap support it too---although the most recent versions of
17970 SSLeay, 0.9.x, are known to have serious bugs making it
17971 useless. Earlier versions, especially 0.8.x, of SSLeay are known to
17972 work. The variable @code{imap-ssl-program} contain parameters to pass
17975 @vindex imap-shell-program
17976 @vindex imap-shell-host
17977 For @acronym{IMAP} connections using the @code{shell} stream, the
17978 variable @code{imap-shell-program} specify what program to call. Make
17979 sure nothing is interfering with the output of the program, e.g., don't
17980 forget to redirect the error output to the void.
17982 @item nnimap-authenticator
17983 @vindex nnimap-authenticator
17985 The authenticator used to connect to the server. By default, nnimap
17986 will use the most secure authenticator your server is capable of.
17988 Example server specification:
17991 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
17992 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous))
17995 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-authenticator} is a symbol!
17999 @dfn{gssapi:} GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5) authentication. Requires
18000 external program @code{gsasl} or @code{imtest}.
18002 @dfn{kerberos4:} Kerberos 4 authentication. Requires external program
18005 @dfn{digest-md5:} Encrypted username/password via DIGEST-MD5. Requires
18006 external library @code{digest-md5.el}.
18008 @dfn{cram-md5:} Encrypted username/password via CRAM-MD5.
18010 @dfn{login:} Plain-text username/password via LOGIN.
18012 @dfn{anonymous:} Login as ``anonymous'', supplying your email address as password.
18015 @item nnimap-expunge-on-close
18017 @vindex nnimap-expunge-on-close
18018 Unlike Parmenides the @acronym{IMAP} designers have decided things that
18019 don't exist actually do exist. More specifically, @acronym{IMAP} has
18020 this concept of marking articles @code{Deleted} which doesn't actually
18021 delete them, and this (marking them @code{Deleted}, that is) is what
18022 nnimap does when you delete an article in Gnus (with @kbd{B DEL} or
18025 Since the articles aren't really removed when we mark them with the
18026 @code{Deleted} flag we'll need a way to actually delete them. Feel like
18027 running in circles yet?
18029 Traditionally, nnimap has removed all articles marked as @code{Deleted}
18030 when closing a mailbox but this is now configurable by this server
18033 The possible options are:
18038 The default behavior, delete all articles marked as ``Deleted'' when
18041 Never actually delete articles. Currently there is no way of showing
18042 the articles marked for deletion in nnimap, but other @acronym{IMAP} clients
18043 may allow you to do this. If you ever want to run the EXPUNGE command
18044 manually, @xref{Expunging mailboxes}.
18046 When closing mailboxes, nnimap will ask if you wish to expunge deleted
18051 @item nnimap-importantize-dormant
18052 @vindex nnimap-importantize-dormant
18054 If non-@code{nil} (the default), marks dormant articles as ticked (as
18055 well), for other @acronym{IMAP} clients. Within Gnus, dormant articles will
18056 naturally still (only) be marked as dormant. This is to make dormant
18057 articles stand out, just like ticked articles, in other @acronym{IMAP}
18058 clients. (In other words, Gnus has two ``Tick'' marks and @acronym{IMAP}
18061 Probably the only reason for frobbing this would be if you're trying
18062 enable per-user persistent dormant flags, using something like:
18065 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-flag-alist)
18066 (format "gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
18067 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-predicate-alist)
18068 (format "KEYWORD gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
18071 In this case, you would not want the per-user dormant flag showing up
18072 as ticked for other users.
18074 @item nnimap-expunge-search-string
18076 @vindex nnimap-expunge-search-string
18077 @cindex expiring @acronym{IMAP} mail
18079 This variable contain the @acronym{IMAP} search command sent to server when
18080 searching for articles eligible for expiring. The default is
18081 @code{"UID %s NOT SINCE %s"}, where the first @code{%s} is replaced by
18082 UID set and the second @code{%s} is replaced by a date.
18084 Probably the only useful value to change this to is
18085 @code{"UID %s NOT SENTSINCE %s"}, which makes nnimap use the Date: in
18086 messages instead of the internal article date. See section 6.4.4 of
18087 RFC 2060 for more information on valid strings.
18089 However, if @code{nnimap-search-uids-not-since-is-evil}
18090 is true, this variable has no effect since the search logic
18091 is reversed, as described below.
18093 @item nnimap-authinfo-file
18094 @vindex nnimap-authinfo-file
18096 A file containing credentials used to log in on servers. The format is
18097 (almost) the same as the @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file. See the
18098 variable @code{nntp-authinfo-file} for exact syntax; also see
18099 @ref{NNTP}. An example of an .authinfo line for an IMAP server, is:
18102 machine students.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis port imap
18105 Note that it should be @code{port imap}, or @code{port 143}, if you
18106 use a @code{nnimap-stream} of @code{tls} or @code{ssl}, even if the
18107 actual port number used is port 993 for secured IMAP. For
18108 convenience, Gnus will accept @code{port imaps} as a synonym of
18111 @item nnimap-need-unselect-to-notice-new-mail
18112 @vindex nnimap-need-unselect-to-notice-new-mail
18114 Unselect mailboxes before looking for new mail in them. Some servers
18115 seem to need this under some circumstances; it was reported that
18118 @item nnimap-nov-is-evil
18119 @vindex nnimap-nov-is-evil
18120 @cindex Courier @acronym{IMAP} server
18121 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
18123 Never generate or use a local @acronym{NOV} database. Defaults to the
18124 value of @code{gnus-agent}.
18126 Using a @acronym{NOV} database usually makes header fetching much
18127 faster, but it uses the @code{UID SEARCH UID} command, which is very
18128 slow on some servers (notably some versions of Courier). Since the Gnus
18129 Agent caches the information in the @acronym{NOV} database without using
18130 the slow command, this variable defaults to true if the Agent is in use,
18131 and false otherwise.
18133 @item nnimap-search-uids-not-since-is-evil
18134 @vindex nnimap-search-uids-not-since-is-evil
18135 @cindex Courier @acronym{IMAP} server
18136 @cindex expiring @acronym{IMAP} mail
18138 Avoid the @code{UID SEARCH UID @var{message numbers} NOT SINCE
18139 @var{date}} command, which is slow on some @acronym{IMAP} servers
18140 (notably, some versions of Courier). Instead, use @code{UID SEARCH SINCE
18141 @var{date}} and prune the list of expirable articles within Gnus.
18143 When Gnus expires your mail (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), it starts with a
18144 list of expirable articles and asks the IMAP server questions like ``Of
18145 these articles, which ones are older than a week?'' While this seems
18146 like a perfectly reasonable question, some IMAP servers take a long time
18147 to answer it, since they seemingly go looking into every old article to
18148 see if it is one of the expirable ones. Curiously, the question ``Of
18149 @emph{all} articles, which ones are newer than a week?'' seems to be
18150 much faster to answer, so setting this variable causes Gnus to ask this
18151 question and figure out the answer to the real question itself.
18153 This problem can really sneak up on you: when you first configure Gnus,
18154 everything works fine, but once you accumulate a couple thousand
18155 messages, you start cursing Gnus for being so slow. On the other hand,
18156 if you get a lot of email within a week, setting this variable will
18157 cause a lot of network traffic between Gnus and the IMAP server.
18159 @item nnimap-logout-timeout
18160 @vindex nnimap-logout-timeout
18162 There is a case where a connection to a @acronym{IMAP} server is unable
18163 to close, when connecting to the server via a certain kind of network,
18164 e.g. @acronym{VPN}. In that case, it will be observed that a connection
18165 between Emacs and the local network looks alive even if the server has
18166 closed a connection for some reason (typically, a timeout).
18167 Consequently, Emacs continues waiting for a response from the server for
18168 the @code{LOGOUT} command that Emacs sent, or hangs in other words. If
18169 you are in such a network, setting this variable to a number of seconds
18170 will be helpful. If it is set, a hung connection will be closed
18171 forcibly, after this number of seconds from the time Emacs sends the
18172 @code{LOGOUT} command. It should not be too small value but too large
18173 value will be inconvenient too. Perhaps the value 1.0 will be a good
18174 candidate but it might be worth trying some other values.
18176 Example server specification:
18179 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
18180 (nnimap-logout-timeout 1.0))
18186 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
18187 * Expiring in IMAP:: Expiring mail with nnimap.
18188 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
18189 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a ``compress mailbox'' button.
18190 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use @acronym{IMAP} namespace in Gnus.
18191 * Debugging IMAP:: What to do when things don't work.
18196 @node Splitting in IMAP
18197 @subsection Splitting in IMAP
18198 @cindex splitting imap mail
18200 Splitting is something Gnus users have loved and used for years, and now
18201 the rest of the world is catching up. Yeah, dream on, not many
18202 @acronym{IMAP} servers have server side splitting and those that have
18203 splitting seem to use some non-standard protocol. This means that
18204 @acronym{IMAP} support for Gnus has to do its own splitting.
18208 (Incidentally, people seem to have been dreaming on, and Sieve has
18209 gaining a market share and is supported by several IMAP servers.
18210 Fortunately, Gnus support it too, @xref{Sieve Commands}.)
18212 Here are the variables of interest:
18216 @item nnimap-split-crosspost
18217 @cindex splitting, crosspost
18219 @vindex nnimap-split-crosspost
18221 If non-@code{nil}, do crossposting if several split methods match the
18222 mail. If @code{nil}, the first match in @code{nnimap-split-rule}
18223 found will be used.
18225 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-crosspost}.
18227 @item nnimap-split-inbox
18228 @cindex splitting, inbox
18230 @vindex nnimap-split-inbox
18232 A string or a list of strings that gives the name(s) of @acronym{IMAP}
18233 mailboxes to split from. Defaults to @code{nil}, which means that
18234 splitting is disabled!
18237 (setq nnimap-split-inbox
18238 '("INBOX" ("~/friend/Mail" . "lists/*") "lists.imap"))
18241 No nnmail equivalent.
18243 @item nnimap-split-rule
18244 @cindex splitting, rules
18245 @vindex nnimap-split-rule
18247 New mail found in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be split according to
18250 This variable contains a list of lists, where the first element in the
18251 sublist gives the name of the @acronym{IMAP} mailbox to move articles
18252 matching the regexp in the second element in the sublist. Got that?
18253 Neither did I, we need examples.
18256 (setq nnimap-split-rule
18258 "^Sender: owner-nnimap@@vic20.globalcom.se")
18259 ("INBOX.junk" "^Subject:.*MAKE MONEY")
18260 ("INBOX.private" "")))
18263 This will put all articles from the nnimap mailing list into mailbox
18264 INBOX.nnimap, all articles containing MAKE MONEY in the Subject: line
18265 into INBOX.junk and everything else in INBOX.private.
18267 The first string may contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by
18268 replace-match to insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For
18272 ("INBOX.lists.\\1" "^Sender: owner-\\([a-z-]+\\)@@")
18275 The first element can also be the symbol @code{junk} to indicate that
18276 matching messages should simply be deleted. Use with care.
18278 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
18279 called with the first element of the rule as the argument, in a buffer
18280 containing the headers of the article. It should return a
18281 non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the mail belongs in that group.
18283 Nnmail users might recollect that the last regexp had to be empty to
18284 match all articles (like in the example above). This is not required in
18285 nnimap. Articles not matching any of the regexps will not be moved out
18286 of your inbox. (This might affect performance if you keep lots of
18287 unread articles in your inbox, since the splitting code would go over
18288 them every time you fetch new mail.)
18290 These rules are processed from the beginning of the alist toward the
18291 end. The first rule to make a match will ``win'', unless you have
18292 crossposting enabled. In that case, all matching rules will ``win''.
18294 This variable can also have a function as its value, the function will
18295 be called with the headers narrowed and should return a group where it
18296 thinks the article should be split to. See @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
18298 The splitting code tries to create mailboxes if it needs to.
18300 To allow for different split rules on different virtual servers, and
18301 even different split rules in different inboxes on the same server,
18302 the syntax of this variable have been extended along the lines of:
18305 (setq nnimap-split-rule
18306 '(("my1server" (".*" (("ding" "ding@@gnus.org")
18307 ("junk" "From:.*Simon"))))
18308 ("my2server" ("INBOX" nnimap-split-fancy))
18309 ("my[34]server" (".*" (("private" "To:.*Simon")
18310 ("junk" my-junk-func))))))
18313 The virtual server name is in fact a regexp, so that the same rules
18314 may apply to several servers. In the example, the servers
18315 @code{my3server} and @code{my4server} both use the same rules.
18316 Similarly, the inbox string is also a regexp. The actual splitting
18317 rules are as before, either a function, or a list with group/regexp or
18318 group/function elements.
18320 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
18322 @item nnimap-split-predicate
18324 @vindex nnimap-split-predicate
18326 Mail matching this predicate in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be
18327 split, it is a string and the default is @samp{UNSEEN UNDELETED}.
18329 This might be useful if you use another @acronym{IMAP} client to read mail in
18330 your inbox but would like Gnus to split all articles in the inbox
18331 regardless of readedness. Then you might change this to
18334 @item nnimap-split-fancy
18335 @cindex splitting, fancy
18336 @findex nnimap-split-fancy
18337 @vindex nnimap-split-fancy
18339 It's possible to set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
18340 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} if you want to use fancy
18341 splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
18343 However, to be able to have different fancy split rules for nnmail and
18344 nnimap back ends you can set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
18345 @code{nnimap-split-fancy} and define the nnimap specific fancy split
18346 rule in @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
18351 (setq nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
18352 nnimap-split-fancy ...)
18355 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
18357 @item nnimap-split-download-body
18358 @findex nnimap-split-download-body
18359 @vindex nnimap-split-download-body
18361 Set to non-@code{nil} to download entire articles during splitting.
18362 This is generally not required, and will slow things down
18363 considerably. You may need it if you want to use an advanced
18364 splitting function that analyzes the body to split the article.
18368 @node Expiring in IMAP
18369 @subsection Expiring in IMAP
18370 @cindex expiring @acronym{IMAP} mail
18372 Even though @code{nnimap} is not a proper @code{nnmail} derived back
18373 end, it supports most features in regular expiring (@pxref{Expiring
18374 Mail}). Unlike splitting in @acronym{IMAP} (@pxref{Splitting in
18375 IMAP}) it does not clone the @code{nnmail} variables (i.e., creating
18376 @var{nnimap-expiry-wait}) but reuse the @code{nnmail} variables. What
18377 follows below are the variables used by the @code{nnimap} expiry
18380 A note on how the expire mark is stored on the @acronym{IMAP} server is
18381 appropriate here as well. The expire mark is translated into a
18382 @code{imap} client specific mark, @code{gnus-expire}, and stored on the
18383 message. This means that likely only Gnus will understand and treat
18384 the @code{gnus-expire} mark properly, although other clients may allow
18385 you to view client specific flags on the message. It also means that
18386 your server must support permanent storage of client specific flags on
18387 messages. Most do, fortunately.
18389 If expiring @acronym{IMAP} mail seems very slow, try setting the server
18390 variable @code{nnimap-search-uids-not-since-is-evil}.
18394 @item nnmail-expiry-wait
18395 @item nnmail-expiry-wait-function
18397 These variables are fully supported. The expire value can be a
18398 number, the symbol @code{immediate} or @code{never}.
18400 @item nnmail-expiry-target
18402 This variable is supported, and internally implemented by calling the
18403 @code{nnmail} functions that handle this. It contains an optimization
18404 that if the destination is a @acronym{IMAP} group on the same server, the
18405 article is copied instead of appended (that is, uploaded again).
18409 @node Editing IMAP ACLs
18410 @subsection Editing IMAP ACLs
18411 @cindex editing imap acls
18412 @cindex Access Control Lists
18413 @cindex Editing @acronym{IMAP} ACLs
18414 @kindex G l (Group)
18415 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-edit-acl
18417 ACL stands for Access Control List. ACLs are used in @acronym{IMAP} for
18418 limiting (or enabling) other users access to your mail boxes. Not all
18419 @acronym{IMAP} servers support this, this function will give an error if it
18422 To edit an ACL for a mailbox, type @kbd{G l}
18423 (@code{gnus-group-edit-nnimap-acl}) and you'll be presented with an ACL
18424 editing window with detailed instructions.
18426 Some possible uses:
18430 Giving ``anyone'' the ``lrs'' rights (lookup, read, keep seen/unseen flags)
18431 on your mailing list mailboxes enables other users on the same server to
18432 follow the list without subscribing to it.
18434 At least with the Cyrus server, you are required to give the user
18435 ``anyone'' posting ("p") capabilities to have ``plussing'' work (that is,
18436 mail sent to user+mailbox@@domain ending up in the @acronym{IMAP} mailbox
18440 @node Expunging mailboxes
18441 @subsection Expunging mailboxes
18445 @cindex manual expunging
18446 @kindex G x (Group)
18447 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-expunge
18449 If you're using the @code{never} setting of @code{nnimap-expunge-on-close},
18450 you may want the option of expunging all deleted articles in a mailbox
18451 manually. This is exactly what @kbd{G x} does.
18453 Currently there is no way of showing deleted articles, you can just
18456 @node A note on namespaces
18457 @subsection A note on namespaces
18458 @cindex IMAP namespace
18461 The @acronym{IMAP} protocol has a concept called namespaces, described
18462 by the following text in the RFC2060:
18465 5.1.2. Mailbox Namespace Naming Convention
18467 By convention, the first hierarchical element of any mailbox name
18468 which begins with "#" identifies the "namespace" of the remainder of
18469 the name. This makes it possible to disambiguate between different
18470 types of mailbox stores, each of which have their own namespaces.
18472 For example, implementations which offer access to USENET
18473 newsgroups MAY use the "#news" namespace to partition the USENET
18474 newsgroup namespace from that of other mailboxes. Thus, the
18475 comp.mail.misc newsgroup would have an mailbox name of
18476 "#news.comp.mail.misc", and the name "comp.mail.misc" could refer
18477 to a different object (e.g. a user's private mailbox).
18480 While there is nothing in this text that warrants concern for the
18481 @acronym{IMAP} implementation in Gnus, some servers use namespace
18482 prefixes in a way that does not work with how Gnus uses mailbox names.
18484 Specifically, University of Washington's @acronym{IMAP} server uses
18485 mailbox names like @code{#driver.mbx/read-mail} which are valid only
18486 in the @sc{create} and @sc{append} commands. After the mailbox is
18487 created (or a messages is appended to a mailbox), it must be accessed
18488 without the namespace prefix, i.e. @code{read-mail}. Since Gnus do
18489 not make it possible for the user to guarantee that user entered
18490 mailbox names will only be used with the CREATE and APPEND commands,
18491 you should simply not use the namespace prefixed mailbox names in
18494 See the UoW IMAPD documentation for the @code{#driver.*/} prefix
18495 for more information on how to use the prefixes. They are a power
18496 tool and should be used only if you are sure what the effects are.
18498 @node Debugging IMAP
18499 @subsection Debugging IMAP
18500 @cindex IMAP debugging
18501 @cindex protocol dump (IMAP)
18503 @acronym{IMAP} is a complex protocol, more so than @acronym{NNTP} or
18504 @acronym{POP3}. Implementation bugs are not unlikely, and we do our
18505 best to fix them right away. If you encounter odd behavior, chances
18506 are that either the server or Gnus is buggy.
18508 If you are familiar with network protocols in general, you will
18509 probably be able to extract some clues from the protocol dump of the
18510 exchanges between Gnus and the server. Even if you are not familiar
18511 with network protocols, when you include the protocol dump in
18512 @acronym{IMAP}-related bug reports you are helping us with data
18513 critical to solving the problem. Therefore, we strongly encourage you
18514 to include the protocol dump when reporting IMAP bugs in Gnus.
18518 Because the protocol dump, when enabled, generates lots of data, it is
18519 disabled by default. You can enable it by setting @code{imap-log} as
18526 This instructs the @code{imap.el} package to log any exchanges with
18527 the server. The log is stored in the buffer @samp{*imap-log*}. Look
18528 for error messages, which sometimes are tagged with the keyword
18529 @code{BAD}---but when submitting a bug, make sure to include all the
18532 @node Other Sources
18533 @section Other Sources
18535 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
18536 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
18540 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
18541 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
18542 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
18543 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
18544 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
18548 @node Directory Groups
18549 @subsection Directory Groups
18551 @cindex directory groups
18553 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
18554 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
18557 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
18558 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
18559 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
18560 back end to read directories. Big deal.
18562 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
18563 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
18564 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
18565 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
18566 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
18568 @code{nndir} will use @acronym{NOV} files if they are present.
18570 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' back end---you can't delete or expire
18571 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
18572 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
18573 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
18576 @node Anything Groups
18577 @subsection Anything Groups
18580 From the @code{nndir} back end (which reads a single spool-like
18581 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
18582 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
18585 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
18586 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
18587 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
18588 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're forgetting.
18589 @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it snoops each
18590 file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e., the first
18591 few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head. If this is
18592 just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g. a C source file),
18593 @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It will use
18594 file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
18597 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
18598 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
18599 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
18600 in the article buffer, just as usual.
18602 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
18603 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
18604 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
18605 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
18607 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
18608 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
18609 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
18610 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
18611 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
18612 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
18613 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
18614 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
18619 @item nneething-map-file-directory
18620 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
18621 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
18622 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
18624 @item nneething-exclude-files
18625 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
18626 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
18627 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
18629 @item nneething-include-files
18630 @vindex nneething-include-files
18631 Regexp saying what files to include in the group. If this variable is
18632 non-@code{nil}, only files matching this regexp will be included.
18634 @item nneething-map-file
18635 @vindex nneething-map-file
18636 Name of the map files.
18640 @node Document Groups
18641 @subsection Document Groups
18643 @cindex documentation group
18646 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
18647 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
18657 The standard Unix mbox file.
18659 @cindex MMDF mail box
18661 The MMDF mail box format.
18664 Several news articles appended into a file.
18666 @cindex rnews batch files
18668 The rnews batch transport format.
18671 Netscape mail boxes.
18674 @acronym{MIME} multipart messages.
18676 @item standard-digest
18677 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
18680 A @acronym{MIME} digest of messages.
18682 @item lanl-gov-announce
18683 Announcement messages from LANL Gov Announce.
18685 @cindex forwarded messages
18686 @item rfc822-forward
18687 A message forwarded according to RFC822.
18690 The Outlook mail box.
18693 The Outlook Express dbx mail box.
18696 A bounce message from the Exim MTA.
18699 A message forwarded according to informal rules.
18702 An RFC934-forwarded message.
18708 A digest of Clarinet brief news items.
18711 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
18717 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
18718 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
18719 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
18722 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
18723 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
18724 group. And that's it.
18726 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
18727 new & spiffy Gnus mail back end, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
18728 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
18729 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
18730 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
18731 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
18732 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
18733 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
18734 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
18735 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
18737 Virtual server variables:
18740 @item nndoc-article-type
18741 @vindex nndoc-article-type
18742 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
18743 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
18744 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts}, @code{standard-digest},
18745 @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs}, @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook},
18746 @code{oe-dbx}, @code{mailman}, and @code{mail-in-mail} or @code{guess}.
18748 @item nndoc-post-type
18749 @vindex nndoc-post-type
18750 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
18751 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
18756 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
18760 @node Document Server Internals
18761 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
18763 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
18764 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
18765 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
18766 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
18768 First, here's an example document type definition:
18772 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
18773 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
18776 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
18777 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
18778 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
18779 types can be defined with very few settings:
18782 @item first-article
18783 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
18784 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
18787 @item article-begin
18788 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
18789 says what the beginning of each article looks like. To do more
18790 complicated things that cannot be dealt with a simple regexp, you can
18791 use @code{article-begin-function} instead of this.
18793 @item article-begin-function
18794 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the beginning
18795 of each article. This setting overrides @code{article-begin}.
18798 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
18799 article. To do more complicated things that cannot be dealt with a
18800 simple regexp, you can use @code{head-begin-function} instead of this.
18802 @item head-begin-function
18803 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
18804 the article. This setting overrides @code{head-begin}.
18807 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
18808 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
18811 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
18812 to @samp{^\n}. To do more complicated things that cannot be dealt with
18813 a simple regexp, you can use @code{body-begin-function} instead of this.
18815 @item body-begin-function
18816 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
18817 of the article. This setting overrides @code{body-begin}.
18820 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article. To do
18821 more complicated things that cannot be dealt with a simple regexp, you
18822 can use @code{body-end-function} instead of this.
18824 @item body-end-function
18825 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
18826 the article. This setting overrides @code{body-end}.
18829 If present, this should match the beginning of the file. All text
18830 before this regexp will be totally ignored.
18833 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
18834 regexp will be totally ignored.
18838 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
18839 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
18840 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
18841 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
18842 something that's palatable for Gnus:
18845 @item prepare-body-function
18846 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
18847 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
18848 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
18850 @item article-transform-function
18851 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
18852 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
18853 body of the article.
18855 @item generate-head-function
18856 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
18857 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
18858 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
18859 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
18861 @item generate-article-function
18862 If present, this function is called to generate an entire article that
18863 Gnus can understand. It is called with the article number as a
18864 parameter when requesting all articles.
18866 @item dissection-function
18867 If present, this function is called to dissect a document by itself,
18868 overriding @code{first-article}, @code{article-begin},
18869 @code{article-begin-function}, @code{head-begin},
18870 @code{head-begin-function}, @code{head-end}, @code{body-begin},
18871 @code{body-begin-function}, @code{body-end}, @code{body-end-function},
18872 @code{file-begin}, and @code{file-end}.
18876 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
18881 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
18882 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
18883 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
18884 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
18885 (head-end . "^ ?$")
18886 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
18887 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
18888 (subtype digest guess))
18891 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
18892 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
18893 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
18894 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
18895 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
18897 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
18898 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first
18899 is the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says
18900 where in the document type definition alist to put this definition.
18901 The alist is traversed sequentially, and
18902 @code{nndoc-@var{type}-type-p} is called for a given type @var{type}.
18903 So @code{nndoc-mmdf-type-p} is called to see whether a document is of
18904 @code{mmdf} type, and so on. These type predicates should return
18905 @code{nil} if the document is not of the correct type; @code{t} if it
18906 is of the correct type; and a number if the document might be of the
18907 correct type. A high number means high probability; a low number
18908 means low probability with @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
18916 In the PC world people often talk about ``offline'' newsreaders. These
18917 are thingies that are combined reader/news transport monstrosities.
18918 With built-in modem programs. Yecchh!
18920 Of course, us Unix Weenie types of human beans use things like
18921 @code{uucp} and, like, @code{nntpd} and set up proper news and mail
18922 transport things like Ghod intended. And then we just use normal
18925 However, it can sometimes be convenient to do something that's a bit
18926 easier on the brain if you have a very slow modem, and you're not really
18927 that interested in doing things properly.
18929 A file format called @sc{soup} has been developed for transporting news
18930 and mail from servers to home machines and back again. It can be a bit
18933 First some terminology:
18938 This is the machine that is connected to the outside world and where you
18939 get news and/or mail from.
18942 This is the machine that you want to do the actual reading and responding
18943 on. It is typically not connected to the rest of the world in any way.
18946 Something that contains messages and/or commands. There are two kinds
18950 @item message packets
18951 These are packets made at the server, and typically contain lots of
18952 messages for you to read. These are called @file{SoupoutX.tgz} by
18953 default, where @var{x} is a number.
18955 @item response packets
18956 These are packets made at the home machine, and typically contains
18957 replies that you've written. These are called @file{SoupinX.tgz} by
18958 default, where @var{x} is a number.
18968 You log in on the server and create a @sc{soup} packet. You can either
18969 use a dedicated @sc{soup} thingie (like the @code{awk} program), or you
18970 can use Gnus to create the packet with its @sc{soup} commands (@kbd{O
18971 s} and/or @kbd{G s b}; and then @kbd{G s p}) (@pxref{SOUP Commands}).
18974 You transfer the packet home. Rail, boat, car or modem will do fine.
18977 You put the packet in your home directory.
18980 You fire up Gnus on your home machine using the @code{nnsoup} back end as
18981 the native or secondary server.
18984 You read articles and mail and answer and followup to the things you
18985 want (@pxref{SOUP Replies}).
18988 You do the @kbd{G s r} command to pack these replies into a @sc{soup}
18992 You transfer this packet to the server.
18995 You use Gnus to mail this packet out with the @kbd{G s s} command.
18998 You then repeat until you die.
19002 So you basically have a bipartite system---you use @code{nnsoup} for
19003 reading and Gnus for packing/sending these @sc{soup} packets.
19006 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
19007 * SOUP Groups:: A back end for reading @sc{soup} packets.
19008 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
19012 @node SOUP Commands
19013 @subsubsection SOUP Commands
19015 These are commands for creating and manipulating @sc{soup} packets.
19019 @kindex G s b (Group)
19020 @findex gnus-group-brew-soup
19021 Pack all unread articles in the current group
19022 (@code{gnus-group-brew-soup}). This command understands the
19023 process/prefix convention.
19026 @kindex G s w (Group)
19027 @findex gnus-soup-save-areas
19028 Save all @sc{soup} data files (@code{gnus-soup-save-areas}).
19031 @kindex G s s (Group)
19032 @findex gnus-soup-send-replies
19033 Send all replies from the replies packet
19034 (@code{gnus-soup-send-replies}).
19037 @kindex G s p (Group)
19038 @findex gnus-soup-pack-packet
19039 Pack all files into a @sc{soup} packet (@code{gnus-soup-pack-packet}).
19042 @kindex G s r (Group)
19043 @findex nnsoup-pack-replies
19044 Pack all replies into a replies packet (@code{nnsoup-pack-replies}).
19047 @kindex O s (Summary)
19048 @findex gnus-soup-add-article
19049 This summary-mode command adds the current article to a @sc{soup} packet
19050 (@code{gnus-soup-add-article}). It understands the process/prefix
19051 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
19056 There are a few variables to customize where Gnus will put all these
19061 @item gnus-soup-directory
19062 @vindex gnus-soup-directory
19063 Directory where Gnus will save intermediate files while composing
19064 @sc{soup} packets. The default is @file{~/SoupBrew/}.
19066 @item gnus-soup-replies-directory
19067 @vindex gnus-soup-replies-directory
19068 This is what Gnus will use as a temporary directory while sending our
19069 reply packets. @file{~/SoupBrew/SoupReplies/} is the default.
19071 @item gnus-soup-prefix-file
19072 @vindex gnus-soup-prefix-file
19073 Name of the file where Gnus stores the last used prefix. The default is
19074 @samp{gnus-prefix}.
19076 @item gnus-soup-packer
19077 @vindex gnus-soup-packer
19078 A format string command for packing a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
19079 @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupout%d.tgz}.
19081 @item gnus-soup-unpacker
19082 @vindex gnus-soup-unpacker
19083 Format string command for unpacking a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
19084 @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
19086 @item gnus-soup-packet-directory
19087 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-directory
19088 Where Gnus will look for reply packets. The default is @file{~/}.
19090 @item gnus-soup-packet-regexp
19091 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-regexp
19092 Regular expression matching @sc{soup} reply packets in
19093 @code{gnus-soup-packet-directory}.
19099 @subsubsection SOUP Groups
19102 @code{nnsoup} is the back end for reading @sc{soup} packets. It will
19103 read incoming packets, unpack them, and put them in a directory where
19104 you can read them at leisure.
19106 These are the variables you can use to customize its behavior:
19110 @item nnsoup-tmp-directory
19111 @vindex nnsoup-tmp-directory
19112 When @code{nnsoup} unpacks a @sc{soup} packet, it does it in this
19113 directory. (@file{/tmp/} by default.)
19115 @item nnsoup-directory
19116 @vindex nnsoup-directory
19117 @code{nnsoup} then moves each message and index file to this directory.
19118 The default is @file{~/SOUP/}.
19120 @item nnsoup-replies-directory
19121 @vindex nnsoup-replies-directory
19122 All replies will be stored in this directory before being packed into a
19123 reply packet. The default is @file{~/SOUP/replies/}.
19125 @item nnsoup-replies-format-type
19126 @vindex nnsoup-replies-format-type
19127 The @sc{soup} format of the replies packets. The default is @samp{?n}
19128 (rnews), and I don't think you should touch that variable. I probably
19129 shouldn't even have documented it. Drats! Too late!
19131 @item nnsoup-replies-index-type
19132 @vindex nnsoup-replies-index-type
19133 The index type of the replies packet. The default is @samp{?n}, which
19134 means ``none''. Don't fiddle with this one either!
19136 @item nnsoup-active-file
19137 @vindex nnsoup-active-file
19138 Where @code{nnsoup} stores lots of information. This is not an ``active
19139 file'' in the @code{nntp} sense; it's an Emacs Lisp file. If you lose
19140 this file or mess it up in any way, you're dead. The default is
19141 @file{~/SOUP/active}.
19143 @item nnsoup-packer
19144 @vindex nnsoup-packer
19145 Format string command for packing a reply @sc{soup} packet. The default
19146 is @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupin%d.tgz}.
19148 @item nnsoup-unpacker
19149 @vindex nnsoup-unpacker
19150 Format string command for unpacking incoming @sc{soup} packets. The
19151 default is @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
19153 @item nnsoup-packet-directory
19154 @vindex nnsoup-packet-directory
19155 Where @code{nnsoup} will look for incoming packets. The default is
19158 @item nnsoup-packet-regexp
19159 @vindex nnsoup-packet-regexp
19160 Regular expression matching incoming @sc{soup} packets. The default is
19163 @item nnsoup-always-save
19164 @vindex nnsoup-always-save
19165 If non-@code{nil}, save the replies buffer after each posted message.
19171 @subsubsection SOUP Replies
19173 Just using @code{nnsoup} won't mean that your postings and mailings end
19174 up in @sc{soup} reply packets automagically. You have to work a bit
19175 more for that to happen.
19177 @findex nnsoup-set-variables
19178 The @code{nnsoup-set-variables} command will set the appropriate
19179 variables to ensure that all your followups and replies end up in the
19182 In specific, this is what it does:
19185 (setq message-send-news-function 'nnsoup-request-post)
19186 (setq message-send-mail-function 'nnsoup-request-mail)
19189 And that's it, really. If you only want news to go into the @sc{soup}
19190 system you just use the first line. If you only want mail to be
19191 @sc{soup}ed you use the second.
19194 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
19195 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
19196 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
19199 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
19200 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
19201 The @code{nngateway} back end provides the interface.
19203 Note that you can't read anything from this back end---it can only be
19209 @item nngateway-address
19210 @vindex nngateway-address
19211 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
19213 @item nngateway-header-transformation
19214 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
19215 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
19216 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
19217 transformation should be called, and defaults to
19218 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
19219 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
19222 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
19223 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
19224 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
19227 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
19230 will get this @code{To} header inserted:
19233 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
19236 The following pre-defined functions exist:
19238 @findex nngateway-simple-header-transformation
19241 @item nngateway-simple-header-transformation
19242 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
19243 @var{newsgroup}@@@code{nngateway-address}.
19245 @findex nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
19247 @item nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
19248 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
19249 @code{nngateway-address}.
19257 (setq gnus-post-method
19259 "mail2news@@replay.com"
19260 (nngateway-header-transformation
19261 nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation)))
19264 So, to use this, simply say something like:
19267 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
19272 @node Combined Groups
19273 @section Combined Groups
19275 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
19279 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
19280 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
19284 @node Virtual Groups
19285 @subsection Virtual Groups
19287 @cindex virtual groups
19288 @cindex merging groups
19290 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
19293 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
19294 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
19295 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
19297 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
19298 regexp to match component groups.
19300 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
19301 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
19302 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it
19303 came. (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be
19304 shown in the virtual group.). To create an empty virtual group, run
19305 @kbd{G V} (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}) in the group buffer
19306 and edit the method regexp with @kbd{M-e}
19307 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method})
19309 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
19310 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
19313 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
19316 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
19317 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
19319 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
19320 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
19321 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
19322 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
19325 "^nntp\\+server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
19328 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
19329 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
19330 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
19332 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
19333 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
19334 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
19335 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
19336 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
19338 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
19339 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
19340 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
19342 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
19343 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} variable is non-@code{nil} (which
19344 is the default), @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread
19345 articles when entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil}
19346 and you read articles in a component group after the virtual group has
19347 been activated, the read articles from the component group will show up
19348 when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this effect if you
19349 have two virtual groups that have a component group in common. If
19350 that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}. Or you can
19351 just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before you enter
19352 it---it'll have much the same effect.
19354 @code{nnvirtual} can have both mail and news groups as component groups.
19355 When responding to articles in @code{nnvirtual} groups, @code{nnvirtual}
19356 has to ask the back end of the component group the article comes from
19357 whether it is a news or mail back end. However, when you do a @kbd{^},
19358 there is typically no sure way for the component back end to know this,
19359 and in that case @code{nnvirtual} tells Gnus that the article came from a
19360 not-news back end. (Just to be on the safe side.)
19362 @kbd{C-c C-n} in the message buffer will insert the @code{Newsgroups}
19363 line from the article you respond to in these cases.
19365 @code{nnvirtual} groups do not inherit anything but articles and marks
19366 from component groups---group parameters, for instance, are not
19370 @node Kibozed Groups
19371 @subsection Kibozed Groups
19375 @dfn{Kibozing} is defined by the @acronym{OED} as ``grepping through
19376 (parts of) the news feed''. @code{nnkiboze} is a back end that will
19377 do this for you. Oh joy! Now you can grind any @acronym{NNTP} server
19378 down to a halt with useless requests! Oh happiness!
19380 @kindex G k (Group)
19381 To create a kibozed group, use the @kbd{G k} command in the group
19384 The address field of the @code{nnkiboze} method is, as with
19385 @code{nnvirtual}, a regexp to match groups to be ``included'' in the
19386 @code{nnkiboze} group. That's where most similarities between
19387 @code{nnkiboze} and @code{nnvirtual} end.
19389 In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an
19390 @code{nnkiboze} group must have a score file to say what articles are
19391 to be included in the group (@pxref{Scoring}).
19393 @kindex M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups
19394 @findex nnkiboze-generate-groups
19395 You must run @kbd{M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups} after creating the
19396 @code{nnkiboze} groups you want to have. This command will take time.
19397 Lots of time. Oodles and oodles of time. Gnus has to fetch the
19398 headers from all the articles in all the component groups and run them
19399 through the scoring process to determine if there are any articles in
19400 the groups that are to be part of the @code{nnkiboze} groups.
19402 Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
19403 regexps. Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
19404 @acronym{NNTP} site may throw you off and never let you back in again.
19405 Stranger things have happened.
19407 @code{nnkiboze} component groups do not have to be alive---they can be dead,
19408 and they can be foreign. No restrictions.
19410 @vindex nnkiboze-directory
19411 The generation of an @code{nnkiboze} group means writing two files in
19412 @code{nnkiboze-directory}, which is @file{~/News/kiboze/} by default.
19413 One contains the @acronym{NOV} header lines for all the articles in
19414 the group, and the other is an additional @file{.newsrc} file to store
19415 information on what groups have been searched through to find
19416 component articles.
19418 Articles marked as read in the @code{nnkiboze} group will have
19419 their @acronym{NOV} lines removed from the @acronym{NOV} file.
19422 @node Email Based Diary
19423 @section Email Based Diary
19425 @cindex email based diary
19428 This section describes a special mail back end called @code{nndiary},
19429 and its companion library @code{gnus-diary}. It is ``special'' in the
19430 sense that it is not meant to be one of the standard alternatives for
19431 reading mail with Gnus. See @ref{Choosing a Mail Back End} for that.
19432 Instead, it is used to treat @emph{some} of your mails in a special way,
19433 namely, as event reminders.
19435 Here is a typical scenario:
19439 You've got a date with Andy Mc Dowell or Bruce Willis (select according
19440 to your sexual preference) in one month. You don't want to forget it.
19442 So you send a ``reminder'' message (actually, a diary one) to yourself.
19444 You forget all about it and keep on getting and reading new mail, as usual.
19446 From time to time, as you type `g' in the group buffer and as the date
19447 is getting closer, the message will pop up again to remind you of your
19448 appointment, just as if it were new and unread.
19450 Read your ``new'' messages, this one included, and start dreaming again
19451 of the night you're gonna have.
19453 Once the date is over (you actually fell asleep just after dinner), the
19454 message will be automatically deleted if it is marked as expirable.
19457 The Gnus Diary back end has the ability to handle regular appointments
19458 (that wouldn't ever be deleted) as well as punctual ones, operates as a
19459 real mail back end and is configurable in many ways. All of this is
19460 explained in the sections below.
19463 * The NNDiary Back End:: Basic setup and usage.
19464 * The Gnus Diary Library:: Utility toolkit on top of nndiary.
19465 * Sending or Not Sending:: A final note on sending diary messages.
19469 @node The NNDiary Back End
19470 @subsection The NNDiary Back End
19472 @cindex the nndiary back end
19474 @code{nndiary} is a back end very similar to @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail
19475 Spool}). Actually, it could appear as a mix of @code{nnml} and
19476 @code{nndraft}. If you know @code{nnml}, you're already familiar with
19477 the message storing scheme of @code{nndiary}: one file per message, one
19478 directory per group.
19480 Before anything, there is one requirement to be able to run
19481 @code{nndiary} properly: you @emph{must} use the group timestamp feature
19482 of Gnus. This adds a timestamp to each group's parameters. @ref{Group
19483 Timestamp} to see how it's done.
19486 * Diary Messages:: What makes a message valid for nndiary.
19487 * Running NNDiary:: NNDiary has two modes of operation.
19488 * Customizing NNDiary:: Bells and whistles.
19491 @node Diary Messages
19492 @subsubsection Diary Messages
19493 @cindex nndiary messages
19494 @cindex nndiary mails
19496 @code{nndiary} messages are just normal ones, except for the mandatory
19497 presence of 7 special headers. These headers are of the form
19498 @code{X-Diary-<something>}, @code{<something>} being one of
19499 @code{Minute}, @code{Hour}, @code{Dom}, @code{Month}, @code{Year},
19500 @code{Time-Zone} and @code{Dow}. @code{Dom} means ``Day of Month'', and
19501 @code{dow} means ``Day of Week''. These headers actually behave like
19502 crontab specifications and define the event date(s):
19506 For all headers except the @code{Time-Zone} one, a header value is
19507 either a star (meaning all possible values), or a list of fields
19508 (separated by a comma).
19510 A field is either an integer, or a range.
19512 A range is two integers separated by a dash.
19514 Possible integer values are 0--59 for @code{Minute}, 0--23 for
19515 @code{Hour}, 1--31 for @code{Dom}, 1--12 for @code{Month}, above 1971
19516 for @code{Year} and 0--6 for @code{Dow} (0 meaning Sunday).
19518 As a special case, a star in either @code{Dom} or @code{Dow} doesn't
19519 mean ``all possible values'', but ``use only the other field''. Note
19520 that if both are star'ed, the use of either one gives the same result.
19522 The @code{Time-Zone} header is special in that it can only have one
19523 value (@code{GMT}, for instance). A star doesn't mean ``all possible
19524 values'' (because it makes no sense), but ``the current local time
19525 zone''. Most of the time, you'll be using a star here. However, for a
19526 list of available time zone values, see the variable
19527 @code{nndiary-headers}.
19530 As a concrete example, here are the diary headers to add to your message
19531 for specifying ``Each Monday and each 1st of month, at 12:00, 20:00,
19532 21:00, 22:00, 23:00 and 24:00, from 1999 to 2010'' (I'll let you find
19537 X-Diary-Hour: 12, 20-24
19540 X-Diary-Year: 1999-2010
19542 X-Diary-Time-Zone: *
19545 @node Running NNDiary
19546 @subsubsection Running NNDiary
19547 @cindex running nndiary
19548 @cindex nndiary operation modes
19550 @code{nndiary} has two modes of operation: ``traditional'' (the default)
19551 and ``autonomous''. In traditional mode, @code{nndiary} does not get new
19552 mail by itself. You have to move (@kbd{B m}) or copy (@kbd{B c}) mails
19553 from your primary mail back end to nndiary groups in order to handle them
19554 as diary messages. In autonomous mode, @code{nndiary} retrieves its own
19555 mail and handles it independently from your primary mail back end.
19557 One should note that Gnus is not inherently designed to allow several
19558 ``master'' mail back ends at the same time. However, this does make
19559 sense with @code{nndiary}: you really want to send and receive diary
19560 messages to your diary groups directly. So, @code{nndiary} supports
19561 being sort of a ``second primary mail back end'' (to my knowledge, it is
19562 the only back end offering this feature). However, there is a limitation
19563 (which I hope to fix some day): respooling doesn't work in autonomous
19566 In order to use @code{nndiary} in autonomous mode, you have several
19571 Allow @code{nndiary} to retrieve new mail by itself. Put the following
19572 line in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
19575 (setq nndiary-get-new-mail t)
19578 You must arrange for diary messages (those containing @code{X-Diary-*}
19579 headers) to be split in a private folder @emph{before} Gnus treat them.
19580 Again, this is needed because Gnus cannot (yet ?) properly handle
19581 multiple primary mail back ends. Getting those messages from a separate
19582 source will compensate this misfeature to some extent.
19584 As an example, here's my procmailrc entry to store diary files in
19585 @file{~/.nndiary} (the default @code{nndiary} mail source file):
19594 Once this is done, you might want to customize the following two options
19595 that affect the diary mail retrieval and splitting processes:
19597 @defvar nndiary-mail-sources
19598 This is the diary-specific replacement for the standard
19599 @code{mail-sources} variable. It obeys the same syntax, and defaults to
19600 @code{(file :path "~/.nndiary")}.
19603 @defvar nndiary-split-methods
19604 This is the diary-specific replacement for the standard
19605 @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable. It obeys the same syntax.
19608 Finally, you may add a permanent @code{nndiary} virtual server
19609 (something like @code{(nndiary "diary")} should do) to your
19610 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods}.
19612 Hopefully, almost everything (see the TODO section in
19613 @file{nndiary.el}) will work as expected when you restart Gnus: in
19614 autonomous mode, typing @kbd{g} and @kbd{M-g} in the group buffer, will
19615 also get your new diary mails and split them according to your
19616 diary-specific rules, @kbd{F} will find your new diary groups etc.
19618 @node Customizing NNDiary
19619 @subsubsection Customizing NNDiary
19620 @cindex customizing nndiary
19621 @cindex nndiary customization
19623 Now that @code{nndiary} is up and running, it's time to customize it.
19624 The custom group is called @code{nndiary} (no, really ?!). You should
19625 browse it to figure out which options you'd like to tweak. The following
19626 two variables are probably the only ones you will want to change:
19628 @defvar nndiary-reminders
19629 This is the list of times when you want to be reminded of your
19630 appointments (e.g. 3 weeks before, then 2 days before, then 1 hour
19631 before and that's it). Remember that ``being reminded'' means that the
19632 diary message will pop up as brand new and unread again when you get new
19636 @defvar nndiary-week-starts-on-monday
19637 Rather self-explanatory. Otherwise, Sunday is assumed (this is the
19642 @node The Gnus Diary Library
19643 @subsection The Gnus Diary Library
19645 @cindex the gnus diary library
19647 Using @code{nndiary} manually (I mean, writing the headers by hand and
19648 so on) would be rather boring. Fortunately, there is a library called
19649 @code{gnus-diary} written on top of @code{nndiary}, that does many
19650 useful things for you.
19652 In order to use it, add the following line to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
19655 (require 'gnus-diary)
19658 Also, you shouldn't use any @code{gnus-user-format-function-[d|D]}
19659 (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}). @code{gnus-diary} provides both of these
19660 (sorry if you used them before).
19664 * Diary Summary Line Format:: A nicer summary buffer line format.
19665 * Diary Articles Sorting:: A nicer way to sort messages.
19666 * Diary Headers Generation:: Not doing it manually.
19667 * Diary Group Parameters:: Not handling them manually.
19670 @node Diary Summary Line Format
19671 @subsubsection Diary Summary Line Format
19672 @cindex diary summary buffer line
19673 @cindex diary summary line format
19675 Displaying diary messages in standard summary line format (usually
19676 something like @samp{From Joe: Subject}) is pretty useless. Most of
19677 the time, you're the one who wrote the message, and you mostly want to
19678 see the event's date.
19680 @code{gnus-diary} provides two supplemental user formats to be used in
19681 summary line formats. @code{D} corresponds to a formatted time string
19682 for the next occurrence of the event (e.g. ``Sat, Sep 22 01, 12:00''),
19683 while @code{d} corresponds to an approximative remaining time until the
19684 next occurrence of the event (e.g. ``in 6 months, 1 week'').
19686 For example, here's how Joe's birthday is displayed in my
19687 @code{nndiary+diary:birthdays} summary buffer (note that the message is
19688 expirable, but will never be deleted, as it specifies a periodic event):
19691 E Sat, Sep 22 01, 12:00: Joe's birthday (in 6 months, 1 week)
19694 In order to get something like the above, you would normally add the
19695 following line to your diary groups'parameters:
19698 (gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z %uD: %(%s%) (%ud)\n")
19701 However, @code{gnus-diary} does it automatically (@pxref{Diary Group
19702 Parameters}). You can however customize the provided summary line format
19703 with the following user options:
19705 @defvar gnus-diary-summary-line-format
19706 Defines the summary line format used for diary groups (@pxref{Summary
19707 Buffer Lines}). @code{gnus-diary} uses it to automatically update the
19708 diary groups'parameters.
19711 @defvar gnus-diary-time-format
19712 Defines the format to display dates in diary summary buffers. This is
19713 used by the @code{D} user format. See the docstring for details.
19716 @defvar gnus-diary-delay-format-function
19717 Defines the format function to use for displaying delays (remaining
19718 times) in diary summary buffers. This is used by the @code{d} user
19719 format. There are currently built-in functions for English and French;
19720 you can also define your own. See the docstring for details.
19723 @node Diary Articles Sorting
19724 @subsubsection Diary Articles Sorting
19725 @cindex diary articles sorting
19726 @cindex diary summary lines sorting
19727 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule
19728 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-schedule
19729 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-schedule
19731 @code{gnus-diary} provides new sorting functions (@pxref{Sorting the
19732 Summary Buffer} ) called @code{gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule},
19733 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-schedule} and
19734 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-schedule}. These functions let you organize
19735 your diary summary buffers from the closest event to the farthest one.
19737 @code{gnus-diary} automatically installs
19738 @code{gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule} as a menu item in the summary
19739 buffer's ``sort'' menu, and the two others as the primary (hence
19740 default) sorting functions in the group parameters (@pxref{Diary Group
19743 @node Diary Headers Generation
19744 @subsubsection Diary Headers Generation
19745 @cindex diary headers generation
19746 @findex gnus-diary-check-message
19748 @code{gnus-diary} provides a function called
19749 @code{gnus-diary-check-message} to help you handle the @code{X-Diary-*}
19750 headers. This function ensures that the current message contains all the
19751 required diary headers, and prompts you for values or corrections if
19754 This function is hooked into the @code{nndiary} back end, so that
19755 moving or copying an article to a diary group will trigger it
19756 automatically. It is also bound to @kbd{C-c C-f d} in
19757 @code{message-mode} and @code{article-edit-mode} in order to ease the
19758 process of converting a usual mail to a diary one.
19760 This function takes a prefix argument which will force prompting of
19761 all diary headers, regardless of their presence or validity. That way,
19762 you can very easily reschedule an already valid diary message, for
19765 @node Diary Group Parameters
19766 @subsubsection Diary Group Parameters
19767 @cindex diary group parameters
19769 When you create a new diary group, or visit one, @code{gnus-diary}
19770 automatically checks your group parameters and if needed, sets the
19771 summary line format to the diary-specific value, installs the
19772 diary-specific sorting functions, and also adds the different
19773 @code{X-Diary-*} headers to the group's posting-style. It is then easier
19774 to send a diary message, because if you use @kbd{C-u a} or @kbd{C-u m}
19775 on a diary group to prepare a message, these headers will be inserted
19776 automatically (although not filled with proper values yet).
19778 @node Sending or Not Sending
19779 @subsection Sending or Not Sending
19781 Well, assuming you've read all of the above, here are two final notes on
19782 mail sending with @code{nndiary}:
19786 @code{nndiary} is a @emph{real} mail back end. You really send real diary
19787 messsages for real. This means for instance that you can give
19788 appointments to anybody (provided they use Gnus and @code{nndiary}) by
19789 sending the diary message to them as well.
19791 However, since @code{nndiary} also has a @code{request-post} method, you
19792 can also use @kbd{C-u a} instead of @kbd{C-u m} on a diary group and the
19793 message won't actually be sent; just stored locally in the group. This
19794 comes in very handy for private appointments.
19797 @node Gnus Unplugged
19798 @section Gnus Unplugged
19803 @cindex Gnus unplugged
19805 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
19806 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
19807 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
19808 read news. Believe it or not.
19810 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
19811 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
19812 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
19813 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
19814 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
19816 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
19817 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
19818 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
19819 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
19820 reading news on a machine.
19822 Setting up Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple. In
19823 fact, you don't have to configure anything as the agent is now enabled
19824 by default (@pxref{Agent Variables, gnus-agent}).
19826 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
19829 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
19830 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
19831 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
19832 * Agent Visuals:: Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
19833 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
19834 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
19835 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
19836 * Agent and flags:: How the Agent maintains flags.
19837 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with @acronym{IMAP}.
19838 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
19839 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
19840 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
19841 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
19842 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
19847 @subsection Agent Basics
19849 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
19851 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
19852 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
19853 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
19854 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
19856 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
19857 connected to the net continuously.
19859 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
19860 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
19862 You know that Gnus gives you all the opportunity you'd ever want for
19863 shooting yourself in the foot. Some people call it flexibility. Gnus
19864 is also customizable to a great extent, which means that the user has a
19865 say on how Gnus behaves. Other newsreaders might unconditionally shoot
19866 you in your foot, but with Gnus, you have a choice!
19868 Gnus is never really in plugged or unplugged state. Rather, it applies
19869 that state to each server individually. This means that some servers
19870 can be plugged while others can be unplugged. Additionally, some
19871 servers can be ignored by the Agent altogether (which means that
19872 they're kinda like plugged always).
19874 So when you unplug the Agent and then wonder why is Gnus opening a
19875 connection to the Net, the next step to do is to look whether all
19876 servers are agentized. If there is an unagentized server, you found
19879 Another thing is the @dfn{offline} state. Sometimes, servers aren't
19880 reachable. When Gnus notices this, it asks you whether you want the
19881 server to be switched to offline state. If you say yes, then the
19882 server will behave somewhat as if it was unplugged, except that Gnus
19883 will ask you whether you want to switch it back online again.
19885 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
19890 @findex gnus-unplugged
19891 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
19892 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
19893 already fetched while in this mode.
19896 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
19897 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
19898 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged} and use @kbd{g} to check for new mail
19899 as usual. To check for new mail in unplugged mode (@pxref{Mail
19900 Source Specifiers}).
19903 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the
19904 news onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press
19905 @kbd{g} to check if there are any new news and then @kbd{J s} to fetch
19906 all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus know which
19907 articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}).
19910 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
19911 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
19912 then you read the news offline.
19915 And then you go to step 2.
19918 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
19924 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
19925 back end, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
19926 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
19927 @kbd{J a} on the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
19928 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}), or @kbd{J r} on automatically
19929 added servers you do not wish to have covered by the Agent. By default,
19930 all @code{nntp} and @code{nnimap} servers in @code{gnus-select-method} and
19931 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} are agentized.
19934 Decide on download policy. It's fairly simple once you decide whether
19935 you are going to use agent categories, topic parameters, and/or group
19936 parameters to implement your policy. If you're new to gnus, it
19937 is probably best to start with a category, @xref{Agent Categories}.
19939 Both topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) and agent categories
19940 (@pxref{Agent Categories}) provide for setting a policy that applies
19941 to multiple groups. Which you use is entirely up to you. Topic
19942 parameters do override categories so, if you mix the two, you'll have
19943 to take that into account. If you have a few groups that deviate from
19944 your policy, you can use group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to
19948 Uhm@dots{} that's it.
19952 @node Agent Categories
19953 @subsection Agent Categories
19955 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
19956 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
19957 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
19958 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
19959 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
19960 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
19961 you're interested in the articles anyway.
19963 One of the more effective methods for controlling what is to be
19964 downloaded is to create a @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all)
19965 groups to this category. Groups that do not belong in any other
19966 category belong to the @code{default} category. Gnus has its own
19967 buffer for creating and managing categories.
19969 If you prefer, you can also use group parameters (@pxref{Group
19970 Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) for an
19971 alternative approach to controlling the agent. The only real
19972 difference is that categories are specific to the agent (so there is
19973 less to learn) while group and topic parameters include the kitchen
19976 Since you can set agent parameters in several different places we have
19977 a rule to decide which source to believe. This rule specifies that
19978 the parameter sources are checked in the following order: group
19979 parameters, topic parameters, agent category, and finally customizable
19980 variables. So you can mix all of these sources to produce a wide range
19981 of behavior, just don't blame me if you don't remember where you put
19985 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
19986 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
19987 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
19991 @node Category Syntax
19992 @subsubsection Category Syntax
19994 A category consists of a name, the list of groups belonging to the
19995 category, and a number of optional parameters that override the
19996 customizable variables. The complete list of agent parameters are
19999 @cindex Agent Parameters
20002 The list of groups that are in this category.
20004 @item agent-predicate
20005 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
20006 are eligible for downloading; and
20009 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
20010 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
20011 score} is not necessarily related to normal scores.)
20013 @item agent-enable-expiration
20014 a boolean indicating whether the agent should expire old articles in
20015 this group. Most groups should be expired to conserve disk space. In
20016 fact, its probably safe to say that the gnus.* hierarchy contains the
20017 only groups that should not be expired.
20019 @item agent-days-until-old
20020 an integer indicating the number of days that the agent should wait
20021 before deciding that a read article is safe to expire.
20023 @item agent-low-score
20024 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-low-score}.
20026 @item agent-high-score
20027 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-high-score}.
20029 @item agent-short-article
20030 an integer that overrides the value of
20031 @code{gnus-agent-short-article}.
20033 @item agent-long-article
20034 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-long-article}.
20036 @item agent-enable-undownloaded-faces
20037 a symbol indicating whether the summary buffer should display
20038 undownloaded articles using the @code{gnus-summary-*-undownloaded-face}
20039 faces. Any symbol other than @code{nil} will enable the use of
20040 undownloaded faces.
20043 The name of a category can not be changed once the category has been
20046 Each category maintains a list of groups that are exclusive members of
20047 that category. The exclusivity rule is automatically enforced, add a
20048 group to a new category and it is automatically removed from its old
20051 A predicate in its simplest form can be a single predicate such as
20052 @code{true} or @code{false}. These two will download every available
20053 article or nothing respectively. In the case of these two special
20054 predicates an additional score rule is superfluous.
20056 Predicates of @code{high} or @code{low} download articles in respect of
20057 their scores in relationship to @code{gnus-agent-high-score} and
20058 @code{gnus-agent-low-score} as described below.
20060 To gain even finer control of what is to be regarded eligible for
20061 download a predicate can consist of a number of predicates with logical
20062 operators sprinkled in between.
20064 Perhaps some examples are in order.
20066 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
20067 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
20073 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
20074 short (for some value of ``short'').
20076 Here's a more complex predicate:
20085 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
20086 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
20089 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
20090 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
20091 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
20093 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
20094 you want to do, you can write your own.
20096 When evaluating each of these predicates, the named constant will be
20097 bound to the value determined by calling
20098 @code{gnus-agent-find-parameter} on the appropriate parameter. For
20099 example, gnus-agent-short-article will be bound to
20100 @code{(gnus-agent-find-parameter group 'agent-short-article)}. This
20101 means that you can specify a predicate in your category then tune that
20102 predicate to individual groups.
20106 True if the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
20107 lines; default 100.
20110 True if the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
20111 lines; default 200.
20114 True if the article has a download score less than
20115 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
20118 True if the article has a download score greater than
20119 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
20122 True if the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
20123 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
20124 checksum and sees whether articles match.
20133 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
20134 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
20135 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
20138 For example, you could decide that you don't want to download articles
20139 that were posted more than a certain number of days ago (e.g. posted
20140 more than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} ago) you might write a function
20141 something along the lines of the following:
20144 (defun my-article-old-p ()
20145 "Say whether an article is old."
20146 (< (time-to-days (date-to-time (mail-header-date gnus-headers)))
20147 (- (time-to-days (current-time)) gnus-agent-expire-days)))
20150 with the predicate then defined as:
20153 (not my-article-old-p)
20156 or you could append your predicate to the predefined
20157 @code{gnus-category-predicate-alist} in your @file{~/.gnus.el} or
20161 (require 'gnus-agent)
20162 (setq gnus-category-predicate-alist
20163 (append gnus-category-predicate-alist
20164 '((old . my-article-old-p))))
20167 and simply specify your predicate as:
20173 If/when using something like the above, be aware that there are many
20174 misconfigured systems/mailers out there and so an article's date is not
20175 always a reliable indication of when it was posted. Hell, some people
20176 just don't give a damn.
20178 The above predicates apply to @emph{all} the groups which belong to the
20179 category. However, if you wish to have a specific predicate for an
20180 individual group within a category, or you're just too lazy to set up a
20181 new category, you can enter a group's individual predicate in its group
20182 parameters like so:
20185 (agent-predicate . short)
20188 This is the group/topic parameter equivalent of the agent category default.
20189 Note that when specifying a single word predicate like this, the
20190 @code{agent-predicate} specification must be in dotted pair notation.
20192 The equivalent of the longer example from above would be:
20195 (agent-predicate or high (and (not low) (not long)))
20198 The outer parenthesis required in the category specification are not
20199 entered here as, not being in dotted pair notation, the value of the
20200 predicate is assumed to be a list.
20203 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
20204 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
20205 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
20206 following headers can be scored on: @code{Subject}, @code{From},
20207 @code{Date}, @code{Message-ID}, @code{References}, @code{Chars},
20208 @code{Lines}, and @code{Xref}.
20210 As with predicates, the specification of the @code{download score rule}
20211 to use in respect of a group can be in either the category definition if
20212 it's to be applicable to all groups in therein, or a group's parameters
20213 if it's to be specific to that group.
20215 In both of these places the @code{download score rule} can take one of
20222 This has the same syntax as a normal Gnus score file except only a
20223 subset of scoring keywords are available as mentioned above.
20229 Category specification
20233 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
20239 Group/Topic Parameter specification
20242 (agent-score ("from"
20243 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
20248 Again, note the omission of the outermost parenthesis here.
20254 These score files must @emph{only} contain the permitted scoring
20255 keywords stated above.
20261 Category specification
20264 ("~/News/agent.SCORE")
20270 ("~/News/agent.SCORE" "~/News/agent.group.SCORE")
20274 Group Parameter specification
20277 (agent-score "~/News/agent.SCORE")
20280 Additional score files can be specified as above. Need I say anything
20285 Use @code{normal} score files
20287 If you don't want to maintain two sets of scoring rules for a group, and
20288 your desired @code{downloading} criteria for a group are the same as your
20289 @code{reading} criteria then you can tell the agent to refer to your
20290 @code{normal} score files when deciding what to download.
20292 These directives in either the category definition or a group's
20293 parameters will cause the agent to read in all the applicable score
20294 files for a group, @emph{filtering out} those sections that do not
20295 relate to one of the permitted subset of scoring keywords.
20299 Category Specification
20306 Group Parameter specification
20309 (agent-score . file)
20314 @node Category Buffer
20315 @subsubsection Category Buffer
20317 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
20318 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
20319 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
20321 The following commands are available in this buffer:
20325 @kindex q (Category)
20326 @findex gnus-category-exit
20327 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
20330 @kindex e (Category)
20331 @findex gnus-category-customize-category
20332 Use a customization buffer to set all of the selected category's
20333 parameters at one time (@code{gnus-category-customize-category}).
20336 @kindex k (Category)
20337 @findex gnus-category-kill
20338 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
20341 @kindex c (Category)
20342 @findex gnus-category-copy
20343 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
20346 @kindex a (Category)
20347 @findex gnus-category-add
20348 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
20351 @kindex p (Category)
20352 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
20353 Edit the predicate of the current category
20354 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
20357 @kindex g (Category)
20358 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
20359 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
20360 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
20363 @kindex s (Category)
20364 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
20365 Edit the download score rule of the current category
20366 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
20369 @kindex l (Category)
20370 @findex gnus-category-list
20371 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
20375 @node Category Variables
20376 @subsubsection Category Variables
20379 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
20380 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
20381 Hook run in category buffers.
20383 @item gnus-category-line-format
20384 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
20385 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
20386 Variables}). Valid elements are:
20390 The name of the category.
20393 The number of groups in the category.
20396 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
20397 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
20398 Format of the category mode line (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}).
20400 @item gnus-agent-short-article
20401 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
20402 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
20404 @item gnus-agent-long-article
20405 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
20406 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
20408 @item gnus-agent-low-score
20409 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
20410 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
20413 @item gnus-agent-high-score
20414 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
20415 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
20418 @item gnus-agent-expire-days
20419 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
20420 The number of days that a @samp{read} article must stay in the agent's
20421 local disk before becoming eligible for expiration (While the name is
20422 the same, this doesn't mean expiring the article on the server. It
20423 just means deleting the local copy of the article). What is also
20424 important to understand is that the counter starts with the time the
20425 article was written to the local disk and not the time the article was
20429 @item gnus-agent-enable-expiration
20430 @vindex gnus-agent-enable-expiration
20431 Determines whether articles in a group are, by default, expired or
20432 retained indefinitely. The default is @code{ENABLE} which means that
20433 you'll have to disable expiration when desired. On the other hand,
20434 you could set this to @code{DISABLE}. In that case, you would then
20435 have to enable expiration in selected groups.
20440 @node Agent Commands
20441 @subsection Agent Commands
20442 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-plugged
20443 @kindex J j (Agent)
20445 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
20446 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged}) command works in all modes, and
20447 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
20451 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
20452 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
20453 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
20459 @node Group Agent Commands
20460 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
20464 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
20465 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
20466 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
20467 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
20470 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
20471 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
20472 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
20475 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
20476 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
20477 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
20478 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
20481 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
20482 @findex gnus-group-send-queue
20483 Send all sendable messages in the queue group
20484 (@code{gnus-group-send-queue}). @xref{Drafts}.
20487 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
20488 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
20489 Add the current group to an Agent category
20490 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}). This command understands the
20491 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
20494 @kindex J r (Agent Group)
20495 @findex gnus-agent-remove-group
20496 Remove the current group from its category, if any
20497 (@code{gnus-agent-remove-group}). This command understands the
20498 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
20501 @kindex J Y (Agent Group)
20502 @findex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
20503 Synchronize flags changed while unplugged with remote server, if any.
20509 @node Summary Agent Commands
20510 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
20514 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
20515 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
20516 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
20519 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
20520 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
20521 Remove the downloading mark from the article
20522 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
20526 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
20527 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
20528 Toggle whether to download the article
20529 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}). The download mark is @samp{%} by
20533 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
20534 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
20535 Mark all articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}) that are neither cached, downloaded, nor downloadable.
20538 @kindex J S (Agent Summary)
20539 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-group
20540 Download all eligible (@pxref{Agent Categories}) articles in this group.
20541 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-group}).
20544 @kindex J s (Agent Summary)
20545 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-series
20546 Download all processable articles in this group.
20547 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-series}).
20550 @kindex J u (Agent Summary)
20551 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group
20552 Download all downloadable articles in the current group
20553 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group}).
20558 @node Server Agent Commands
20559 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
20563 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
20564 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
20565 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
20566 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
20569 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
20570 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
20571 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
20572 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
20577 @node Agent Visuals
20578 @subsection Agent Visuals
20580 If you open a summary while unplugged and, Gnus knows from the group's
20581 active range that there are more articles than the headers currently
20582 stored in the Agent, you may see some articles whose subject looks
20583 something like @samp{[Undownloaded article #####]}. These are
20584 placeholders for the missing headers. Aside from setting a mark,
20585 there is not much that can be done with one of these placeholders.
20586 When Gnus finally gets a chance to fetch the group's headers, the
20587 placeholders will automatically be replaced by the actual headers.
20588 You can configure the summary buffer's maneuvering to skip over the
20589 placeholders if you care (See @code{gnus-auto-goto-ignores}).
20591 While it may be obvious to all, the only headers and articles
20592 available while unplugged are those headers and articles that were
20593 fetched into the Agent while previously plugged. To put it another
20594 way, ``If you forget to fetch something while plugged, you might have a
20595 less than satisfying unplugged session''. For this reason, the Agent
20596 adds two visual effects to your summary buffer. These effects display
20597 the download status of each article so that you always know which
20598 articles will be available when unplugged.
20600 The first visual effect is the @samp{%O} spec. If you customize
20601 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} to include this specifier, you will add
20602 a single character field that indicates an article's download status.
20603 Articles that have been fetched into either the Agent or the Cache,
20604 will display @code{gnus-downloaded-mark} (defaults to @samp{+}). All
20605 other articles will display @code{gnus-undownloaded-mark} (defaults to
20606 @samp{-}). If you open a group that has not been agentized, a space
20607 (@samp{ }) will be displayed.
20609 The second visual effect are the undownloaded faces. The faces, there
20610 are three indicating the article's score (low, normal, high), seem to
20611 result in a love/hate response from many Gnus users. The problem is
20612 that the face selection is controlled by a list of condition tests and
20613 face names (See @code{gnus-summary-highlight}). Each condition is
20614 tested in the order in which it appears in the list so early
20615 conditions have precedence over later conditions. All of this means
20616 that, if you tick an undownloaded article, the article will continue
20617 to be displayed in the undownloaded face rather than the ticked face.
20619 If you use the Agent as a cache (to avoid downloading the same article
20620 each time you visit it or to minimize your connection time), the
20621 undownloaded face will probably seem like a good idea. The reason
20622 being that you do all of our work (marking, reading, deleting) with
20623 downloaded articles so the normal faces always appear. For those
20624 users using the agent to improve online performance by caching the NOV
20625 database (most users since 5.10.2), the undownloaded faces may appear
20626 to be an absolutely horrible idea. The issue being that, since none
20627 of their articles have been fetched into the Agent, all of the
20628 normal faces will be obscured by the undownloaded faces.
20630 If you would like to use the undownloaded faces, you must enable the
20631 undownloaded faces by setting the @code{agent-enable-undownloaded-faces}
20632 group parameter to @code{t}. This parameter, like all other agent
20633 parameters, may be set on an Agent Category (@pxref{Agent Categories}),
20634 a Group Topic (@pxref{Topic Parameters}), or an individual group
20635 (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
20637 The one problem common to all users using the agent is how quickly it
20638 can consume disk space. If you using the agent on many groups, it is
20639 even more difficult to effectively recover disk space. One solution
20640 is the @samp{%F} format available in @code{gnus-group-line-format}.
20641 This format will display the actual disk space used by articles
20642 fetched into both the agent and cache. By knowing which groups use
20643 the most space, users know where to focus their efforts when ``agent
20644 expiring'' articles.
20646 @node Agent as Cache
20647 @subsection Agent as Cache
20649 When Gnus is plugged, it is not efficient to download headers or
20650 articles from the server again, if they are already stored in the
20651 Agent. So, Gnus normally only downloads headers once, and stores them
20652 in the Agent. These headers are later used when generating the summary
20653 buffer, regardless of whether you are plugged or unplugged. Articles
20654 are not cached in the Agent by default though (that would potentially
20655 consume lots of disk space), but if you have already downloaded an
20656 article into the Agent, Gnus will not download the article from the
20657 server again but use the locally stored copy instead.
20659 If you so desire, you can configure the agent (see @code{gnus-agent-cache}
20660 @pxref{Agent Variables}) to always download headers and articles while
20661 plugged. Gnus will almost certainly be slower, but it will be kept
20662 synchronized with the server. That last point probably won't make any
20663 sense if you are using a nntp or nnimap back end.
20666 @subsection Agent Expiry
20668 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
20669 @findex gnus-agent-expire
20670 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire
20671 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire-group
20672 @findex gnus-agent-expire-group
20673 @cindex agent expiry
20674 @cindex Gnus agent expiry
20675 @cindex expiry, in Gnus agent
20677 The Agent back end, @code{nnagent}, doesn't handle expiry. Well, at
20678 least it doesn't handle it like other back ends. Instead, there are
20679 special @code{gnus-agent-expire} and @code{gnus-agent-expire-group}
20680 commands that will expire all read articles that are older than
20681 @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} days. They can be run whenever you feel
20682 that you're running out of space. Neither are particularly fast or
20683 efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to interrupt them (with
20684 @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started one of them.
20686 Note that other functions, e.g. @code{gnus-request-expire-articles},
20687 might run @code{gnus-agent-expire} for you to keep the agent
20688 synchronized with the group.
20690 The agent parameter @code{agent-enable-expiration} may be used to
20691 prevent expiration in selected groups.
20693 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
20694 If @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, the agent
20695 expiration commands will expire all articles---unread, read, ticked
20696 and dormant. If @code{nil} (which is the default), only read articles
20697 are eligible for expiry, and unread, ticked and dormant articles will
20698 be kept indefinitely.
20700 If you find that some articles eligible for expiry are never expired,
20701 perhaps some Gnus Agent files are corrupted. There's are special
20702 commands, @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} and
20703 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group}, to fix possible problems.
20705 @node Agent Regeneration
20706 @subsection Agent Regeneration
20708 @cindex agent regeneration
20709 @cindex Gnus agent regeneration
20710 @cindex regeneration
20712 The local data structures used by @code{nnagent} may become corrupted
20713 due to certain exceptional conditions. When this happens,
20714 @code{nnagent} functionality may degrade or even fail. The solution
20715 to this problem is to repair the local data structures by removing all
20716 internal inconsistencies.
20718 For example, if your connection to your server is lost while
20719 downloaded articles into the agent, the local data structures will not
20720 know about articles successfully downloaded prior to the connection
20721 failure. Running @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} or
20722 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} will update the data structures
20723 such that you don't need to download these articles a second time.
20725 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate
20726 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate
20727 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} will perform
20728 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} on every agentized group. While
20729 you can run @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} in any buffer, it is strongly
20730 recommended that you first close all summary buffers.
20732 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate-group
20733 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate-group
20734 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} uses the local copies
20735 of individual articles to repair the local @acronym{NOV}(header) database. It
20736 then updates the internal data structures that document which articles
20737 are stored locally. An optional argument will mark articles in the
20740 @node Agent and flags
20741 @subsection Agent and flags
20743 The Agent works with any Gnus back end including those, such as
20744 nnimap, that store flags (read, ticked, etc) on the server. Sadly,
20745 the Agent does not actually know which backends keep their flags in
20746 the backend server rather than in @file{.newsrc}. This means that the
20747 Agent, while unplugged or disconnected, will always record all changes
20748 to the flags in its own files.
20750 When you plug back in, Gnus will then check to see if you have any
20751 changed any flags and ask if you wish to synchronize these with the
20752 server. This behavior is customizable by @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags}.
20754 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
20755 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
20756 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, which is
20757 the default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so
20758 ask if you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has
20759 any other value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
20761 If you do not wish to synchronize flags automatically when you
20762 re-connect, you can do it manually with the
20763 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} command that is bound to @kbd{J Y}
20764 in the group buffer.
20766 Technical note: the synchronization algorithm does not work by ``pushing''
20767 all local flags to the server, but rather by incrementally updated the
20768 server view of flags by changing only those flags that were changed by
20769 the user. Thus, if you set one flag on an article, quit the group then
20770 re-select the group and remove the flag; the flag will be set and
20771 removed from the server when you ``synchronize''. The queued flag
20772 operations can be found in the per-server @code{flags} file in the Agent
20773 directory. It's emptied when you synchronize flags.
20775 @node Agent and IMAP
20776 @subsection Agent and IMAP
20778 The Agent works with any Gnus back end, including nnimap. However,
20779 since there are some conceptual differences between @acronym{NNTP} and
20780 @acronym{IMAP}, this section (should) provide you with some information to
20781 make Gnus Agent work smoother as a @acronym{IMAP} Disconnected Mode client.
20783 Some things are currently not implemented in the Agent that you'd might
20784 expect from a disconnected @acronym{IMAP} client, including:
20789 Copying/moving articles into nnimap groups when unplugged.
20792 Creating/deleting nnimap groups when unplugged.
20796 @node Outgoing Messages
20797 @subsection Outgoing Messages
20799 By default, when Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail
20800 and news) are stored in the draft group ``queue'' (@pxref{Drafts}).
20801 You can view them there after posting, and edit them at will.
20803 You can control the circumstances under which outgoing mail is queued
20804 (see @code{gnus-agent-queue-mail}, @pxref{Agent Variables}). Outgoing
20805 news is always queued when Gnus is unplugged, and never otherwise.
20807 You can send the messages either from the draft group with the special
20808 commands available there, or you can use the @kbd{J S} command in the
20809 group buffer to send all the sendable messages in the draft group.
20810 Posting news will only work when Gnus is plugged, but you can send
20813 If sending mail while unplugged does not work for you and you worry
20814 about hitting @kbd{J S} by accident when unplugged, you can have Gnus
20815 ask you to confirm your action (see
20816 @code{gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue}, @pxref{Agent Variables}).
20818 @node Agent Variables
20819 @subsection Agent Variables
20824 Is the agent enabled? The default is @code{t}. When first enabled,
20825 the agent will use @code{gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods} to
20826 automatically mark some back ends as agentized. You may change which
20827 back ends are agentized using the agent commands in the server buffer.
20829 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
20830 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
20833 @item gnus-agent-directory
20834 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
20835 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
20836 @file{~/News/agent/}.
20838 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
20839 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
20840 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
20841 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
20842 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
20845 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
20846 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
20847 Hook run when connecting to the network.
20849 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
20850 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
20851 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
20853 @item gnus-agent-fetched-hook
20854 @vindex gnus-agent-fetched-hook
20855 Hook run when finished fetching articles.
20857 @item gnus-agent-cache
20858 @vindex gnus-agent-cache
20859 Variable to control whether use the locally stored @acronym{NOV} and
20860 articles when plugged, e.g. essentially using the Agent as a cache.
20861 The default is non-@code{nil}, which means to use the Agent as a cache.
20863 @item gnus-agent-go-online
20864 @vindex gnus-agent-go-online
20865 If @code{gnus-agent-go-online} is @code{nil}, the Agent will never
20866 automatically switch offline servers into online status. If it is
20867 @code{ask}, the default, the Agent will ask if you wish to switch
20868 offline servers into online status when you re-connect. If it has any
20869 other value, all offline servers will be automatically switched into
20872 @item gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
20873 @vindex gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
20874 If @code{gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded} is non-@code{nil},
20875 mark articles as unread after downloading. This is usually a safe
20876 thing to do as the newly downloaded article has obviously not been
20877 read. The default is @code{t}.
20879 @item gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
20880 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
20881 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
20882 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, which is
20883 the default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so
20884 ask if you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has
20885 any other value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
20887 @item gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
20888 @vindex gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
20889 If @code{gnus-agent-consider-all-articles} is non-@code{nil}, the
20890 agent will let the agent predicate decide whether articles need to be
20891 downloaded or not, for all articles. When @code{nil}, the default,
20892 the agent will only let the predicate decide whether unread articles
20893 are downloaded or not. If you enable this, you may also want to look
20894 into the agent expiry settings (@pxref{Category Variables}), so that
20895 the agent doesn't download articles which the agent will later expire,
20896 over and over again.
20898 @item gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
20899 @vindex gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
20900 The agent fetches articles into a temporary buffer prior to parsing
20901 them into individual files. To avoid exceeding the max. buffer size,
20902 the agent alternates between fetching and parsing until all articles
20903 have been fetched. @code{gnus-agent-max-fetch-size} provides a size
20904 limit to control how often the cycling occurs. A large value improves
20905 performance. A small value minimizes the time lost should the
20906 connection be lost while fetching (You may need to run
20907 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} to update the group's state.
20908 However, all articles parsed prior to loosing the connection will be
20909 available while unplugged). The default is 10M so it is unusual to
20912 @item gnus-server-unopen-status
20913 @vindex gnus-server-unopen-status
20914 Perhaps not an Agent variable, but closely related to the Agent, this
20915 variable says what will happen if Gnus cannot open a server. If the
20916 Agent is enabled, the default, @code{nil}, makes Gnus ask the user
20917 whether to deny the server or whether to unplug the agent. If the
20918 Agent is disabled, Gnus always simply deny the server. Other choices
20919 for this variable include @code{denied} and @code{offline} the latter
20920 is only valid if the Agent is used.
20922 @item gnus-auto-goto-ignores
20923 @vindex gnus-auto-goto-ignores
20924 Another variable that isn't an Agent variable, yet so closely related
20925 that most will look for it here, this variable tells the summary
20926 buffer how to maneuver around undownloaded (only headers stored in the
20927 agent) and unfetched (neither article nor headers stored) articles.
20929 The valid values are @code{nil} (maneuver to any article),
20930 @code{undownloaded} (maneuvering while unplugged ignores articles that
20931 have not been fetched), @code{always-undownloaded} (maneuvering always
20932 ignores articles that have not been fetched), @code{unfetched}
20933 (maneuvering ignores articles whose headers have not been fetched).
20935 @item gnus-agent-queue-mail
20936 @vindex gnus-agent-queue-mail
20937 When @code{gnus-agent-queue-mail} is @code{always}, Gnus will always
20938 queue mail rather than sending it straight away. When @code{t}, Gnus
20939 will queue mail when unplugged only. When @code{nil}, never queue
20940 mail. The default is @code{t}.
20942 @item gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue
20943 @vindex gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue
20944 When @code{gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue} is non-@code{nil} Gnus will
20945 prompt you to confirm that you really wish to proceed if you hit
20946 @kbd{J S} while unplugged. The default is @code{nil}.
20948 @item gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods
20949 @vindex gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods
20950 If you have never used the Agent before (or more technically, if
20951 @file{~/News/agent/lib/servers} does not exist), Gnus will
20952 automatically agentize a few servers for you. This variable control
20953 which back ends should be auto-agentized. It is typically only useful
20954 to agentize remote back ends. The auto-agentizing has the same effect
20955 as running @kbd{J a} on the servers (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}).
20956 If the file exist, you must manage the servers manually by adding or
20957 removing them, this variable is only applicable the first time you
20958 start Gnus. The default is @samp{(nntp nnimap)}.
20963 @node Example Setup
20964 @subsection Example Setup
20966 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
20967 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
20968 @file{~/.gnus.el} file to get started.
20971 ;; @r{Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over @acronym{NNTP}}
20972 ;; @r{from your ISP's server.}
20973 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.your-isp.com"))
20975 ;; @r{Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from}
20976 ;; @r{your ISP's @acronym{POP} server.}
20977 (setq mail-sources '((pop :server "pop.your-isp.com")))
20979 ;; @r{Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.}
20980 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
20982 ;; @r{Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.}
20983 ;; (gnus-agentize) ; @r{The obsolete setting.}
20984 ;; (setq gnus-agent t) ; @r{Now the default.}
20987 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
20988 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
20991 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
20992 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
20993 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
20994 @acronym{NNTP} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
20995 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
20998 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
20999 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
21000 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
21001 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
21002 back all the killed groups.)
21004 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
21005 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
21006 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
21009 @node Batching Agents
21010 @subsection Batching Agents
21011 @findex gnus-agent-batch
21013 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
21014 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
21015 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
21017 You can run a complete batch command from the command line with the
21018 following incantation:
21022 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null 2>&1
21026 @node Agent Caveats
21027 @subsection Agent Caveats
21029 The Gnus Agent doesn't seem to work like most other offline
21030 newsreaders. Here are some common questions that some imaginary people
21034 @item If I read an article while plugged, do they get entered into the Agent?
21036 @strong{No}. If you want this behavior, add
21037 @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} to
21038 @code{gnus-select-article-hook}.
21040 @item If I read an article while plugged, and the article already exists in
21041 the Agent, will it get downloaded once more?
21043 @strong{No}, unless @code{gnus-agent-cache} is @code{nil}.
21047 In short, when Gnus is unplugged, it only looks into the locally stored
21048 articles; when it's plugged, it talks to your ISP and may also use the
21049 locally stored articles.
21056 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
21057 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
21058 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
21061 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
21062 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
21063 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
21064 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
21065 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
21067 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
21068 before generating the summary buffer.
21070 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
21071 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
21072 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
21074 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
21075 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
21076 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
21077 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
21080 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
21081 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
21082 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
21083 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
21084 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
21085 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
21086 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
21087 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
21088 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
21089 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
21090 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
21091 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
21092 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
21093 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
21094 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
21095 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
21099 @node Summary Score Commands
21100 @section Summary Score Commands
21101 @cindex score commands
21103 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
21104 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
21105 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
21106 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
21107 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
21109 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
21110 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
21111 some other score file (e.g. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
21112 score file the current one.
21114 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
21119 @kindex V s (Summary)
21120 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
21121 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
21124 @kindex V S (Summary)
21125 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
21126 Display the score of the current article
21127 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
21130 @kindex V t (Summary)
21131 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
21132 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
21133 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}). In the @code{*Score Trace*} buffer, you
21134 may type @kbd{e} to edit score file corresponding to the score rule on
21135 current line and @kbd{f} to format (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) the
21136 score file and edit it.
21139 @kindex V w (Summary)
21140 @findex gnus-score-find-favourite-words
21141 List words used in scoring (@code{gnus-score-find-favourite-words}).
21144 @kindex V R (Summary)
21145 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
21146 Run the current summary through the scoring process
21147 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
21148 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
21149 effect you're having.
21152 @kindex V c (Summary)
21153 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
21154 Make a different score file the current
21155 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
21158 @kindex V e (Summary)
21159 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
21160 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
21161 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
21165 @kindex V f (Summary)
21166 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
21167 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
21168 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
21171 @kindex V F (Summary)
21172 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
21173 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
21174 after editing score files.
21177 @kindex V C (Summary)
21178 @findex gnus-score-customize
21179 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
21180 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
21184 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
21189 @kindex V m (Summary)
21190 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
21191 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
21192 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
21195 @kindex V x (Summary)
21196 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
21197 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
21198 expunge all articles below this score
21199 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
21202 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
21203 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
21206 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
21207 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
21211 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
21212 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
21214 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
21215 keys are available:
21219 Score on the author name.
21222 Score on the subject line.
21225 Score on the @code{Xref} line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
21228 Score on the @code{References} line.
21234 Score on the number of lines.
21237 Score on the @code{Message-ID} header.
21240 Score on an ``extra'' header, that is, one of those in gnus-extra-headers,
21241 if your @acronym{NNTP} server tracks additional header data in overviews.
21244 Score on followups---this matches the author name, and adds scores to
21245 the followups to this author. (Using this key leads to the creation of
21246 @file{ADAPT} files.)
21255 Score on thread. (Using this key leads to the creation of @file{ADAPT}
21261 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
21262 what headers you are scoring on.
21274 Substring matching.
21277 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
21306 Greater than number.
21311 The fourth and usually final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e.,
21312 expiring) score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry,
21313 or whether it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score
21318 Temporary score entry.
21321 Permanent score entry.
21324 Immediately scoring.
21328 If you are scoring on `e' (extra) headers, you will then be prompted for
21329 the header name on which you wish to score. This must be a header named
21330 in gnus-extra-headers, and @samp{TAB} completion is available.
21334 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
21335 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
21336 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
21337 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
21339 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
21340 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
21341 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
21342 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
21343 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
21345 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
21346 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
21347 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
21348 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
21349 current score file.
21351 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
21352 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
21353 pretend they are keymaps or not.
21356 @node Group Score Commands
21357 @section Group Score Commands
21358 @cindex group score commands
21360 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
21365 @kindex W e (Group)
21366 @findex gnus-score-edit-all-score
21367 Edit the apply-to-all-groups all.SCORE file. You will be popped into
21368 a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score File Editing}).
21371 @kindex W f (Group)
21372 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
21373 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
21374 all the time. This command will flush the cache
21375 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
21379 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
21381 @findex gnus-batch-score
21382 @cindex batch scoring
21384 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-batch-score
21388 @node Score Variables
21389 @section Score Variables
21390 @cindex score variables
21394 @item gnus-use-scoring
21395 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
21396 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
21397 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
21399 @item gnus-kill-killed
21400 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
21401 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
21402 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
21403 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
21404 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
21405 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
21406 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
21408 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
21409 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
21410 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
21411 initialized from the @env{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
21412 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
21414 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
21415 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
21416 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
21417 (@file{SCORE} by default.)
21419 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
21420 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
21421 @cindex score cache
21422 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
21423 score files. However, this might make your Emacs grow big and
21424 bloated, so this regexp can be used to weed out score files unlikely
21425 to be needed again. It would be a bad idea to deny caching of
21426 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
21427 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
21428 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
21431 @item gnus-save-score
21432 @vindex gnus-save-score
21433 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
21434 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
21435 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
21437 If you do not set this to @code{t}, then manual scores (like those set
21438 with @kbd{V s} (@code{gnus-summary-set-score})) will not be preserved
21439 across group visits.
21441 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
21442 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
21443 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
21444 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
21445 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
21446 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
21447 manually entered data.
21449 @item gnus-summary-default-score
21450 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
21451 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
21453 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
21454 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
21455 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
21456 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
21457 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
21458 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
21460 @item gnus-score-over-mark
21461 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
21462 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
21463 default. Default is @samp{+}.
21465 @item gnus-score-below-mark
21466 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
21467 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
21468 default. Default is @samp{-}.
21470 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
21471 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
21472 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
21473 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
21475 Predefined functions available are:
21478 @item gnus-score-find-single
21479 @findex gnus-score-find-single
21480 Only apply the group's own score file.
21482 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
21483 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
21484 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
21485 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
21486 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
21487 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
21488 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
21489 then a regexp match is done.
21491 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
21492 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
21494 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
21495 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
21496 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
21497 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
21499 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
21500 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
21501 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
21502 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
21503 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE} for each
21507 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all
21508 these functions will be called with the group name as argument, and
21509 all the returned lists of score files will be applied. These
21510 functions can also return lists of lists of score alists directly. In
21511 that case, the functions that return these non-file score alists
21512 should probably be placed before the ``real'' score file functions, to
21513 ensure that the last score file returned is the local score file.
21516 For example, to do hierarchical scoring but use a non-server-specific
21517 overall score file, you could use the value
21519 (list (lambda (group) ("all.SCORE"))
21520 'gnus-score-find-hierarchical)
21523 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
21524 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
21525 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
21526 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
21527 are expired. It's 7 by default.
21529 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
21530 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
21531 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, temporary score entries that have
21532 been triggered (matched) will have their dates updated. (This is how Gnus
21533 controls expiry---all non-matched-entries will become too old while
21534 matched entries will stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this
21535 variable to @code{nil}, even matched entries will grow old and will
21536 have to face that oh-so grim reaper.
21538 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
21539 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
21540 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
21542 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
21543 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
21544 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be
21545 simplified for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
21546 threading---according to the current value of
21547 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions}. If the scoring entry uses
21548 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
21549 simplified in this manner.
21554 @node Score File Format
21555 @section Score File Format
21556 @cindex score file format
21558 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
21559 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
21560 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
21562 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
21566 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
21568 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
21570 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
21572 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
21577 (mark-and-expunge -10)
21581 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
21582 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
21583 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
21584 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
21588 This example demonstrates most score file elements. @xref{Advanced
21589 Scoring}, for a different approach.
21591 Even though this looks much like Lisp code, nothing here is actually
21592 @code{eval}ed. The Lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
21593 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
21595 Six keys are supported by this alist:
21600 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
21601 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
21602 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
21603 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
21604 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
21605 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
21606 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
21607 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
21608 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
21609 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
21610 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
21611 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
21612 to articles that matches these score entries.
21614 Following this key is an arbitrary number of score entries, where each
21615 score entry has one to four elements.
21619 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
21620 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
21624 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
21625 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
21626 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
21627 is successful. If this element is not present, the
21628 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
21629 instead. This is 1000 by default.
21632 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
21633 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
21634 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
21635 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
21636 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
21639 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
21640 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
21641 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
21642 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
21645 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
21646 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
21647 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
21648 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
21649 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
21650 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
21651 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
21652 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
21653 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
21654 instead, if you feel like.
21657 Just as for the standard string overview headers, if you are using
21658 gnus-extra-headers, you can score on these headers' values. In this
21659 case, there is a 5th element in the score entry, being the name of the
21660 header to be scored. The following entry is useful in your
21661 @file{all.SCORE} file in case of spam attacks from a single origin
21662 host, if your @acronym{NNTP} server tracks @samp{NNTP-Posting-Host} in
21666 ("111.222.333.444" -1000 nil s
21667 "NNTP-Posting-Host")
21671 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
21672 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
21674 These predicates are true if
21677 (PREDICATE HEADER MATCH)
21680 evaluates to non-@code{nil}. For instance, the advanced match
21681 @code{("lines" 4 <)} (@pxref{Advanced Scoring}) will result in the
21688 Or to put it another way: When using @code{<} on @code{Lines} with 4 as
21689 the match, we get the score added if the article has less than 4 lines.
21690 (It's easy to get confused and think it's the other way around. But
21691 it's not. I think.)
21693 When matching on @code{Lines}, be careful because some back ends (like
21694 @code{nndir}) do not generate @code{Lines} header, so every article ends
21695 up being marked as having 0 lines. This can lead to strange results if
21696 you happen to lower score of the articles with few lines.
21699 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
21700 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
21701 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
21702 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
21703 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
21704 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
21705 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
21709 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
21710 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
21711 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
21712 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
21713 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
21714 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
21715 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
21716 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
21719 @item Head, Body, All
21720 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
21724 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
21725 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
21726 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
21727 you e.g. increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
21728 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
21729 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
21730 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
21734 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
21735 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an
21736 article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{x}, then you add a @samp{thread}
21737 match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each article that
21738 has @var{x} in its @code{References} header. (These new @samp{thread}
21739 matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching articles.)
21740 This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an entire thread,
21741 even though some articles in the thread may not have complete
21742 @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
21743 undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
21744 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
21748 @cindex score file atoms
21750 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
21751 lower than this number will be marked as read.
21754 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
21755 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
21757 @item mark-and-expunge
21758 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
21759 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
21762 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
21763 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
21764 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
21765 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
21766 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
21769 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
21770 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
21773 @item exclude-files
21774 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
21775 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
21779 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}ed. This element will be
21780 ignored when handling global score files.
21783 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
21784 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
21785 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
21786 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
21789 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
21790 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
21791 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
21792 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
21794 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
21798 (mark-and-expunge -100)
21801 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
21802 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
21803 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{c y}) the
21804 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
21805 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
21807 I.e.---the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where a few
21808 interesting threads which can't be found automatically by ordinary
21809 scoring rules exist.
21812 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
21813 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
21814 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
21815 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
21816 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
21817 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
21818 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
21819 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
21820 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
21821 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
21822 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
21826 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
21827 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
21828 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
21829 file for a number of groups.
21832 @cindex local variables
21833 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(@var{var}
21834 @var{value})} pairs. Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the
21835 current summary buffer, and set to the value specified. This is a
21836 convenient, if somewhat strange, way of setting variables in some
21837 groups if you don't like hooks much. Note that the @var{value} won't
21842 @node Score File Editing
21843 @section Score File Editing
21845 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
21846 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
21847 with a mode for that.
21849 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
21850 additional commands:
21855 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
21856 @findex gnus-score-edit-exit
21857 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
21858 (@code{gnus-score-edit-exit}).
21861 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
21862 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
21863 Insert the current date in numerical format
21864 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
21865 you were wondering.
21868 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
21869 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
21870 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
21871 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
21872 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
21877 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
21879 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
21880 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
21882 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f}, @kbd{V e} and
21883 @kbd{V t} to begin editing score files.
21886 @node Adaptive Scoring
21887 @section Adaptive Scoring
21888 @cindex adaptive scoring
21890 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
21891 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
21892 stupidity, to be precise.
21894 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
21895 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
21896 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
21897 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
21898 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
21899 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
21900 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
21901 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
21902 variable to @code{(word line)}.
21904 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
21905 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
21906 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
21907 might look something like this:
21910 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
21911 '((gnus-unread-mark)
21912 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
21913 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
21914 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
21915 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
21916 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
21917 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
21918 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
21919 (gnus-ancient-mark)
21920 (gnus-low-score-mark)
21921 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
21924 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
21925 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
21926 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
21927 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
21928 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
21929 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
21932 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
21933 will be applied to each article.
21935 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
21936 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{e}) will have a
21937 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
21938 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
21940 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
21941 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
21942 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
21943 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
21945 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
21946 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
21947 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
21948 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
21950 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
21951 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
21952 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
21953 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
21954 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
21955 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
21957 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
21958 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
21959 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
21961 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
21962 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
21963 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
21965 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
21966 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
21967 let you use different rules in different groups.
21969 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
21970 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
21971 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
21974 @vindex gnus-adaptive-pretty-print
21975 Adaptive score files can get huge and are not meant to be edited by
21976 human hands. If @code{gnus-adaptive-pretty-print} is @code{nil} (the
21977 deafult) those files will not be written in a human readable way.
21979 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
21980 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
21981 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
21982 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
21983 the length of the match is less than
21984 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
21985 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
21988 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
21989 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
21990 headers. If you adapt on words, the
21991 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
21992 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
21995 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
21996 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
21997 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
21998 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
21999 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
22002 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
22003 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
22004 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
22005 score with 30 points.
22007 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
22008 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
22009 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
22010 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
22011 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
22013 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit
22014 Some may feel that short words shouldn't count when doing adaptive
22015 scoring. If so, you may set @code{gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit} to
22016 an integer. Words shorter than this number will be ignored. This
22017 variable defaults to @code{nil}.
22019 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
22020 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
22021 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
22022 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
22024 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
22025 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
22026 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
22027 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
22029 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words
22030 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words} is set to @code{t}, gnus
22031 won't adaptively word score any of the words in the group name. Useful
22032 for groups like @samp{comp.editors.emacs}, where most of the subject
22033 lines contain the word @samp{emacs}.
22035 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
22036 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
22037 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
22039 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
22040 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
22041 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
22042 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
22045 @node Home Score File
22046 @section Home Score File
22048 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
22049 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
22050 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
22051 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
22053 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
22054 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
22055 could perhaps use the same home score file.
22057 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
22058 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
22063 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
22067 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
22068 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
22072 A list. The elements in this list can be:
22076 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{file-name})}. If the @var{regexp} matches the
22077 group name, the @var{file-name} will be used as the home score file.
22080 A function. If the function returns non-@code{nil}, the result will
22081 be used as the home score file. The function will be called with the
22082 name of the group as the parameter.
22085 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
22088 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
22093 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
22096 (setq gnus-home-score-file
22097 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
22100 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
22101 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
22103 @findex gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file
22105 (setq gnus-home-score-file
22106 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
22109 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
22110 Other functions include
22113 @item gnus-current-home-score-file
22114 @findex gnus-current-home-score-file
22115 Return the ``current'' regular score file. This will make scoring
22116 commands add entry to the ``innermost'' matching score file.
22120 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
22121 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
22122 their own home score files:
22125 (setq gnus-home-score-file
22126 ;; @r{All groups that match the regexp @code{"\\.emacs"}}
22127 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
22128 ;; @r{All the comp groups in one score file}
22129 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
22132 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
22133 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
22134 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
22135 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
22136 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
22138 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
22139 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
22140 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
22141 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
22142 precedence over this variable.
22145 @node Followups To Yourself
22146 @section Followups To Yourself
22148 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
22149 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
22150 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
22151 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
22152 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
22153 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
22157 @item gnus-score-followup-article
22158 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
22159 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
22162 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
22163 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
22164 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
22168 @vindex message-sent-hook
22169 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
22170 @code{message-sent-hook}, like this:
22172 (add-hook 'message-sent-hook 'gnus-score-followup-thread)
22176 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
22177 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
22181 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
22182 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
22185 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
22186 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
22191 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore\\.no>"
22195 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
22196 is system-dependent.
22199 @node Scoring On Other Headers
22200 @section Scoring On Other Headers
22201 @cindex scoring on other headers
22203 Gnus is quite fast when scoring the ``traditional''
22204 headers---@samp{From}, @samp{Subject} and so on. However, scoring
22205 other headers requires writing a @code{head} scoring rule, which means
22206 that Gnus has to request every single article from the back end to find
22207 matches. This takes a long time in big groups.
22209 @vindex gnus-inhibit-slow-scoring
22210 You can inhibit this slow scoring on headers or body by setting the
22211 variable @code{gnus-inhibit-slow-scoring}. If
22212 @code{gnus-inhibit-slow-scoring} is regexp, slow scoring is inhibited if
22213 the group matches the regexp. If it is t, slow scoring on it is
22214 inhibited for all groups.
22216 Now, there's not much you can do about the slowness for news groups, but for
22217 mail groups, you have greater control. In @ref{To From Newsgroups},
22218 it's explained in greater detail what this mechanism does, but here's
22219 a cookbook example for @code{nnml} on how to allow scoring on the
22220 @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} headers.
22222 Put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
22225 (setq gnus-extra-headers '(To Cc Newsgroups Keywords)
22226 nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
22229 Restart Gnus and rebuild your @code{nnml} overview files with the
22230 @kbd{M-x nnml-generate-nov-databases} command. This will take a long
22231 time if you have much mail.
22233 Now you can score on @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} as ``extra headers'' like
22234 so: @kbd{I e s p To RET <your name> RET}.
22240 @section Scoring Tips
22241 @cindex scoring tips
22247 @cindex scoring crossposts
22248 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
22249 the @code{Xref} header.
22251 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
22254 @item Multiple crossposts
22255 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
22256 more than, say, 3 groups:
22259 ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+"
22263 @item Matching on the body
22264 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
22265 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
22266 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
22267 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
22268 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
22269 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
22270 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
22273 @item Marking as read
22274 You will probably want to mark articles that have scores below a certain
22275 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
22276 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
22280 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
22282 @item Negated character classes
22283 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
22284 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
22285 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
22289 @node Reverse Scoring
22290 @section Reverse Scoring
22291 @cindex reverse scoring
22293 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
22294 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
22295 like this in your score file:
22299 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
22304 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
22305 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
22308 @node Global Score Files
22309 @section Global Score Files
22310 @cindex global score files
22312 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
22313 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
22314 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
22316 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
22317 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
22318 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
22320 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
22321 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
22322 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
22323 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
22324 files are applicable to which group.
22326 To use the score file
22327 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
22328 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory,
22332 (setq gnus-global-score-files
22333 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
22334 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
22337 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
22339 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
22340 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
22341 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
22342 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
22344 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
22345 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
22347 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
22348 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
22349 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
22350 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
22351 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
22352 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
22354 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
22360 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
22362 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
22364 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
22366 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
22367 lowered out of existence.
22369 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
22370 articles completely.
22373 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
22374 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
22375 old articles for a long time.
22378 @dots{} I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
22379 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
22380 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
22381 holding our breath yet?
22385 @section Kill Files
22388 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
22389 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
22390 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
22392 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
22393 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
22394 files into score files.
22396 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
22397 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
22398 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
22399 that isn't a very good idea.
22401 Normal kill files look like this:
22404 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
22405 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
22409 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
22410 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
22412 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
22413 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
22416 Two summary functions for editing a @sc{gnus} kill file:
22421 @kindex M-k (Summary)
22422 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
22423 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
22426 @kindex M-K (Summary)
22427 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
22428 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
22431 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
22436 @kindex M-k (Group)
22437 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
22438 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
22441 @kindex M-K (Group)
22442 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
22443 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
22446 Kill file variables:
22449 @item gnus-kill-file-name
22450 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
22451 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
22452 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
22453 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
22454 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
22455 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
22457 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
22458 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
22459 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
22460 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
22463 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
22464 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
22465 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
22466 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
22467 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
22468 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
22469 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
22470 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
22471 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
22473 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
22474 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
22475 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
22480 @node Converting Kill Files
22481 @section Converting Kill Files
22483 @cindex converting kill files
22485 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
22486 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
22487 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
22490 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Emacs by default.
22491 You can fetch it from the contrib directory of the Gnus distribution or
22493 @uref{http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-various/gnus-kill-to-score.el}.
22495 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
22496 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
22497 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
22501 @node Advanced Scoring
22502 @section Advanced Scoring
22504 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
22505 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
22506 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
22507 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
22508 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
22510 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
22514 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
22515 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
22516 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
22520 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
22521 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
22523 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
22524 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
22525 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
22526 non-@code{nil} value.
22528 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
22529 operator, and various match operators.
22536 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
22537 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
22538 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
22543 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
22544 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
22545 then this operator will return @code{false}.
22550 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
22551 logical negation of the value of its argument.
22555 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
22556 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
22557 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
22558 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
22559 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
22560 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
22561 the ancestry you want to go.
22563 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
22564 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
22565 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
22566 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
22567 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
22570 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
22571 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
22573 Please note that the following examples are score file rules. To
22574 make a complete score file from them, surround them with another pair
22577 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
22578 when he's talking about Gnus:
22583 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
22584 ("subject" "Gnus"))
22591 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
22595 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
22602 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
22603 really don't want to read what he's written:
22607 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
22608 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigil Logge")))
22612 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
22613 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
22614 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
22621 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
22622 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
22623 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
22624 ("body" "white.*socks"))
22628 Suppose you're reading a high volume group and you're only interested
22629 in replies. The plan is to score down all articles that don't have
22630 subject that begin with "Re:", "Fw:" or "Fwd:" and then score up all
22631 parents of articles that have subjects that begin with reply marks.
22634 ((! ("subject" "re:\\|fwd?:" r))
22636 ((1- ("subject" "re:\\|fwd?:" r))
22640 The possibilities are endless.
22642 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
22643 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
22645 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
22646 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
22647 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
22648 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
22649 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
22650 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
22651 @samp{subject}) first.
22653 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
22654 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
22665 Then that means ``score on the from header of the grandparent of the
22666 current article''. An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
22672 ("subject" "Gnus")))
22679 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
22680 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
22685 @section Score Decays
22686 @cindex score decays
22689 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
22690 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
22691 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
22692 use them in any sensible way.
22694 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
22695 @findex gnus-decay-score
22696 @vindex gnus-decay-score-function
22697 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
22698 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
22699 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
22700 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
22701 If @code{gnus-decay-scores} is a regexp, only score files matching this
22702 regexp are treated. E.g. you may set it to @samp{\\.ADAPT\\'} if only
22703 @emph{adaptive} score files should be decayed. The decay itself if
22704 performed by the @code{gnus-decay-score-function} function, which is
22705 @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the definition of that
22709 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
22710 "Decay SCORE according to `gnus-score-decay-constant'
22711 and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
22713 (* (if (< score 0) -1 1)
22715 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
22717 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
22718 (if (and (featurep 'xemacs)
22719 ;; XEmacs' floor can handle only the floating point
22720 ;; number below the half of the maximum integer.
22721 (> (abs n) (lsh -1 -2)))
22723 (car (split-string (number-to-string n) "\\.")))
22727 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
22728 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
22729 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
22730 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
22734 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
22737 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
22740 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
22744 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
22745 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
22746 the new score, which should be an integer.
22748 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
22749 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
22754 @include message.texi
22755 @chapter Emacs MIME
22756 @include emacs-mime.texi
22758 @include sieve.texi
22770 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
22771 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
22772 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
22773 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
22774 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
22775 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
22776 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
22777 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
22778 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
22779 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
22780 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
22781 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
22782 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
22783 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
22784 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
22785 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
22786 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
22787 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
22788 * Thwarting Email Spam:: Simple ways to avoid unsolicited commercial email.
22789 * Spam Package:: A package for filtering and processing spam.
22790 * The Gnus Registry:: A package for tracking messages by Message-ID.
22791 * Other modes:: Interaction with other modes.
22792 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
22796 @node Process/Prefix
22797 @section Process/Prefix
22798 @cindex process/prefix convention
22800 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
22801 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
22803 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
22804 command to be performed on.
22808 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
22809 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
22810 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
22811 with the current one.
22813 @vindex transient-mark-mode
22814 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
22815 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
22817 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
22818 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
22821 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
22822 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
22824 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
22827 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
22828 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
22829 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
22830 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
22832 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
22833 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
22834 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
22835 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
22836 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
22837 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
22838 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
22839 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
22841 Many commands do not use the process/prefix convention. All commands
22842 that do explicitly say so in this manual. To apply the process/prefix
22843 convention to commands that do not use it, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
22844 command. For instance, to mark all the articles in the group as
22845 expirable, you could say @kbd{M P b M-& E}.
22849 @section Interactive
22850 @cindex interaction
22854 @item gnus-novice-user
22855 @vindex gnus-novice-user
22856 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
22857 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
22858 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
22859 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
22862 @item gnus-expert-user
22863 @vindex gnus-expert-user
22864 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
22865 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing,
22866 no matter how strange. For example, quitting Gnus, exiting a group
22867 without an update, catching up with a group, deleting expired
22868 articles, and replying by mail to a news message will not require
22871 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
22872 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
22873 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
22874 is @code{t} by default.
22876 @item gnus-interactive-exit
22877 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
22878 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
22883 @node Symbolic Prefixes
22884 @section Symbolic Prefixes
22885 @cindex symbolic prefixes
22887 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
22888 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four characters forward, and
22889 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
22890 rule of 900 to the current article.
22892 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
22893 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
22894 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
22895 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
22896 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
22897 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
22898 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
22900 @kindex M-i (Summary)
22901 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
22902 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
22903 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
22904 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
22905 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a C-M-u} means ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u}
22906 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b C-M-u} means
22907 ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
22908 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
22910 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
22911 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
22912 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
22914 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
22918 @node Formatting Variables
22919 @section Formatting Variables
22920 @cindex formatting variables
22922 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called
22923 things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
22924 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
22925 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
22926 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
22929 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
22930 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
22931 lots of percentages everywhere.
22934 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
22935 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
22936 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
22937 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
22938 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
22939 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
22940 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
22941 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
22944 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
22945 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
22946 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
22947 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
22948 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
22949 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
22950 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
22951 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
22953 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
22954 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
22956 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
22957 @findex gnus-update-format
22958 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
22959 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
22960 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
22961 examine the resulting Lisp code to be run to generate the line.
22965 @node Formatting Basics
22966 @subsection Formatting Basics
22968 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
22969 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
22970 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
22972 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
22973 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
22974 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
22975 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
22976 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
22979 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
22980 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
22981 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
22982 less than 4 characters wide.
22984 Also Gnus supports some extended format specifications, such as
22985 @samp{%&user-date;}.
22988 @node Mode Line Formatting
22989 @subsection Mode Line Formatting
22991 Mode line formatting variables (e.g.,
22992 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}) follow the same rules as other,
22993 buffer line oriented formatting variables (@pxref{Formatting Basics})
22994 with the following two differences:
22999 There must be no newline (@samp{\n}) at the end.
23002 The special @samp{%%b} spec can be used to display the buffer name.
23003 Well, it's no spec at all, really---@samp{%%} is just a way to quote
23004 @samp{%} to allow it to pass through the formatting machinery unmangled,
23005 so that Emacs receives @samp{%b}, which is something the Emacs mode line
23006 display interprets to mean ``show the buffer name''. For a full list of
23007 mode line specs Emacs understands, see the documentation of the
23008 @code{mode-line-format} variable.
23013 @node Advanced Formatting
23014 @subsection Advanced Formatting
23016 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
23017 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
23018 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
23019 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
23021 These are the valid modifiers:
23026 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
23030 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
23035 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
23038 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
23043 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
23046 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
23049 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
23052 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
23058 "~(form (current-time-string))@@"
23063 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
23064 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
23065 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
23066 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
23067 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
23068 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
23069 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
23071 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
23072 last operation, padding.
23074 If you use lots of these advanced thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets
23075 quite slow. This can be helped enormously by running @kbd{M-x
23076 gnus-compile} when you are satisfied with the look of your lines.
23077 @xref{Compilation}.
23080 @node User-Defined Specs
23081 @subsection User-Defined Specs
23083 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
23084 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
23085 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
23086 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
23087 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
23088 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
23089 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
23090 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
23091 should protect against that.
23093 Also Gnus supports extended user-defined specs, such as @samp{%u&foo;}.
23094 Gnus will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{foo}.
23096 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
23097 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
23098 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
23099 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
23103 @node Formatting Fonts
23104 @subsection Formatting Fonts
23107 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
23108 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
23109 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
23110 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
23111 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
23115 @vindex gnus-face-0
23116 Text inside the @samp{%@{} and @samp{%@}} specifiers will have their
23117 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
23118 default. If you say @samp{%1@{}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
23119 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
23120 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
23121 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
23123 @cindex %<<, %>>, guillemets
23124 @c @cindex %<<, %>>, %«, %», guillemets
23125 @vindex gnus-balloon-face-0
23126 Text inside the @samp{%<<} and @samp{%>>} specifiers will get the
23127 special @code{balloon-help} property set to
23128 @code{gnus-balloon-face-0}. If you say @samp{%1<<}, you'll get
23129 @code{gnus-balloon-face-1} and so on. The @code{gnus-balloon-face-*}
23130 variables should be either strings or symbols naming functions that
23131 return a string. When the mouse passes over text with this property
23132 set, a balloon window will appear and display the string. Please
23133 refer to @ref{Tooltips, ,Tooltips, emacs, The Emacs Manual},
23134 (in GNU Emacs) or the doc string of @code{balloon-help-mode} (in
23135 XEmacs) for more information on this. (For technical reasons, the
23136 guillemets have been approximated as @samp{<<} and @samp{>>} in this
23139 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
23142 ;; @r{Create three face types.}
23143 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
23144 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
23146 ;; @r{We want the article count to be in}
23147 ;; @r{a bold and green face. So we create}
23148 ;; @r{a new face called @code{my-green-bold}.}
23149 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
23150 ;; @r{Set the color.}
23151 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
23152 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
23154 ;; @r{Set the new & fancy format.}
23155 (setq gnus-group-line-format
23156 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
23159 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
23160 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
23162 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
23163 mode-line variables.
23165 @node Positioning Point
23166 @subsection Positioning Point
23168 Gnus usually moves point to a pre-defined place on each line in most
23169 buffers. By default, point move to the first colon character on the
23170 line. You can customize this behavior in three different ways.
23172 You can move the colon character to somewhere else on the line.
23174 @findex gnus-goto-colon
23175 You can redefine the function that moves the point to the colon. The
23176 function is called @code{gnus-goto-colon}.
23178 But perhaps the most convenient way to deal with this, if you don't want
23179 to have a colon in your line, is to use the @samp{%*} specifier. If you
23180 put a @samp{%*} somewhere in your format line definition, Gnus will
23185 @subsection Tabulation
23187 You can usually line up your displays by padding and cutting your
23188 strings. However, when combining various strings of different size, it
23189 can often be more convenient to just output the strings, and then worry
23190 about lining up the following text afterwards.
23192 To do that, Gnus supplies tabulator specs---@samp{%=}. There are two
23193 different types---@dfn{hard tabulators} and @dfn{soft tabulators}.
23195 @samp{%50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
23196 50. If the text is already past column 50, nothing will be inserted.
23197 This is the soft tabulator.
23199 @samp{%-50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
23200 50. If the text is already past column 50, the excess text past column
23201 50 will be removed. This is the hard tabulator.
23204 @node Wide Characters
23205 @subsection Wide Characters
23207 Fixed width fonts in most countries have characters of the same width.
23208 Some countries, however, use Latin characters mixed with wider
23209 characters---most notable East Asian countries.
23211 The problem is that when formatting, Gnus assumes that if a string is 10
23212 characters wide, it'll be 10 Latin characters wide on the screen. In
23213 these countries, that's not true.
23215 @vindex gnus-use-correct-string-widths
23216 To help fix this, you can set @code{gnus-use-correct-string-widths} to
23217 @code{t}. This makes buffer generation slower, but the results will be
23218 prettier. The default value under XEmacs is @code{t} but @code{nil}
23222 @node Window Layout
23223 @section Window Layout
23224 @cindex window layout
23226 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
23228 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
23229 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
23230 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
23231 @code{t} by default.
23233 Setting this variable to @code{nil} kinda works, but there are
23234 glitches. Use at your own peril.
23236 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
23237 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
23238 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
23241 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)
23242 (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4))))
23243 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
23247 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
23248 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
23249 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
23250 possible names is listed below.
23252 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
23253 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example -
23256 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
23260 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
23261 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
23262 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
23263 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
23264 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
23265 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
23266 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
23267 size spec per split.
23269 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
23270 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
23271 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e. is the third or
23272 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
23273 present) gets focus.
23275 Here's a more complicated example:
23278 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
23279 (summary 0.25 point)
23280 (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4))
23284 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
23285 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
23286 occupy, not a percentage.
23288 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
23289 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
23290 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
23291 be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if
23292 @code{gnus-carpal} is @code{nil}, and four buffers if @code{gnus-carpal}
23295 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
23298 (article (horizontal 1.0
23303 (summary 0.25 point)
23308 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
23309 @code{horizontal} thingie?
23311 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
23312 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
23313 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
23314 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
23315 the screen is to be given to this strip.
23317 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
23318 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
23319 lines from the splits.
23321 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
23326 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
23327 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
23328 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
23329 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
23330 buffer = "(" buf-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
23331 size = number | frame-params
23332 buf-name = group | article | summary ...
23336 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
23337 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
23338 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
23339 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
23341 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
23342 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
23343 @cindex window height
23344 @cindex window width
23345 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
23346 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
23347 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
23348 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
23349 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
23350 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
23352 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
23353 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
23354 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
23355 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
23357 @findex gnus-configure-frame
23358 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
23359 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
23360 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
23361 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
23362 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
23363 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
23364 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
23365 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
23366 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
23367 configuration list.
23370 (gnus-configure-frame
23374 (article 0.3 point))
23382 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
23383 @code{frame} split:
23386 (gnus-configure-frame
23389 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
23391 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
23392 (user-position . t)
23393 (left . -1) (top . 1))
23398 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
23399 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
23400 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
23401 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
23402 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
23403 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
23404 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
23405 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
23407 The list of all possible keys for @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} can
23408 be found in its default value.
23410 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
23411 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
23412 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
23416 (message (horizontal 1.0
23417 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
23419 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
23424 One common desire for a multiple frame split is to have a separate frame
23425 for composing mail and news while leaving the original frame intact. To
23426 accomplish that, something like the following can be done:
23431 (if (not (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer))
23432 (car (cdr (assoc 'group gnus-buffer-configuration)))
23433 (car (cdr (assoc 'summary gnus-buffer-configuration))))
23434 (vertical ((user-position . t) (top . 1) (left . 1)
23435 (name . "Message"))
23436 (message 1.0 point))))
23439 @findex gnus-add-configuration
23440 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
23441 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
23442 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
23443 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
23446 (gnus-add-configuration
23447 '(article (vertical 1.0
23449 (summary .25 point)
23453 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
23454 @file{~/.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
23455 Gnus has been loaded.
23457 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
23458 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
23459 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
23460 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
23461 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
23463 If you're using tree displays (@pxref{Tree Display}), and the tree
23464 window is displayed vertically next to another window, you may also want
23465 to fiddle with @code{gnus-tree-minimize-window} to avoid having the
23468 @subsection Example Window Configurations
23472 Narrow left hand side occupied by group buffer. Right hand side split
23473 between summary buffer (top one-sixth) and article buffer (bottom).
23488 (gnus-add-configuration
23491 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
23493 (summary 0.16 point)
23496 (gnus-add-configuration
23499 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
23500 (vertical 1.0 (summary 1.0 point)))))
23506 @node Faces and Fonts
23507 @section Faces and Fonts
23512 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
23513 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
23514 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
23519 @section Compilation
23520 @cindex compilation
23521 @cindex byte-compilation
23523 @findex gnus-compile
23525 Remember all those line format specification variables?
23526 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}, @code{gnus-group-line-format}, and so
23527 on. Now, Gnus will of course heed whatever these variables are, but,
23528 unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down.
23529 (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions
23530 associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of
23533 To help with this, you can run @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} after you've
23534 fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of)
23535 satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and
23536 you'll get top speed again. Gnus will save these compiled specs in the
23537 @file{.newsrc.eld} file. (User-defined functions aren't compiled by
23538 this function, though---you should compile them yourself by sticking
23539 them into the @file{~/.gnus.el} file and byte-compiling that file.)
23543 @section Mode Lines
23546 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
23547 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
23548 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
23549 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
23550 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
23551 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
23552 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
23555 @cindex display-time
23557 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
23558 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
23559 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
23560 to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
23561 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
23562 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
23563 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
23564 additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify
23567 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
23569 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
23570 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
23572 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
23573 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
23574 (length display-time-string)))))
23577 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
23578 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
23579 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
23580 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
23581 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
23584 @node Highlighting and Menus
23585 @section Highlighting and Menus
23587 @cindex highlighting
23590 @vindex gnus-visual
23591 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
23592 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
23593 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
23596 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
23597 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
23600 @item group-highlight
23601 Do highlights in the group buffer.
23602 @item summary-highlight
23603 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
23604 @item article-highlight
23605 Do highlights in the article buffer.
23607 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
23609 Create menus in the group buffer.
23611 Create menus in the summary buffers.
23613 Create menus in the article buffer.
23615 Create menus in the browse buffer.
23617 Create menus in the server buffer.
23619 Create menus in the score buffers.
23621 Create menus in all buffers.
23624 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
23625 buffers, you could say something like:
23628 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
23631 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
23634 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
23637 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
23638 in all Gnus buffers.
23640 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
23643 @item gnus-mouse-face
23644 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
23645 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
23646 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
23650 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
23654 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
23655 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
23656 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
23658 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
23659 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
23660 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
23662 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
23663 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
23664 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
23666 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
23667 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
23668 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
23670 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
23671 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
23672 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
23674 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
23675 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
23676 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
23687 Those new-fangled @dfn{mouse} contraptions is very popular with the
23688 young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things
23689 these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was
23690 using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single
23691 machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah!
23695 @vindex gnus-carpal
23696 Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to
23697 do anything by setting @code{gnus-carpal} to @code{t}. Pretty simple,
23698 really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you.
23703 @item gnus-carpal-mode-hook
23704 @vindex gnus-carpal-mode-hook
23705 Hook run in all carpal mode buffers.
23707 @item gnus-carpal-button-face
23708 @vindex gnus-carpal-button-face
23709 Face used on buttons.
23711 @item gnus-carpal-header-face
23712 @vindex gnus-carpal-header-face
23713 Face used on carpal buffer headers.
23715 @item gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
23716 @vindex gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
23717 Buttons in the group buffer.
23719 @item gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
23720 @vindex gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
23721 Buttons in the summary buffer.
23723 @item gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
23724 @vindex gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
23725 Buttons in the server buffer.
23727 @item gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
23728 @vindex gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
23729 Buttons in the browse buffer.
23732 All the @code{buttons} variables are lists. The elements in these list
23733 are either cons cells where the @code{car} contains a text to be displayed and
23734 the @code{cdr} contains a function symbol, or a simple string.
23742 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
23743 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
23744 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
23745 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
23746 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
23748 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
23749 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
23750 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
23752 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
23753 been idle for thirty minutes:
23756 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
23759 Here's a handler that scans for @acronym{PGP} headers every hour when
23763 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
23766 This @var{time} parameter and that @var{idle} parameter work together
23767 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
23768 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
23770 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
23771 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
23772 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
23773 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
23775 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
23776 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
23777 @var{idle} minutes.
23779 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
23780 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
23783 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
23784 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
23785 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
23787 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
23788 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
23789 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
23790 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
23792 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
23793 your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
23795 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
23797 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
23800 @findex gnus-demon-add-nocem
23801 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
23802 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
23803 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
23804 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
23805 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
23806 @code{gnus-demon-add-nocem}, @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
23807 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
23808 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
23809 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
23810 @file{~/.gnus.el} if you want those abilities.
23812 @findex gnus-demon-init
23813 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
23814 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
23815 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
23816 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
23817 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
23819 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it. Adding
23820 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
23821 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
23830 @dfn{Spamming} is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
23831 Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
23833 Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various anti-spamming
23834 agencies. These agencies usually also send out @dfn{NoCeM} messages.
23835 NoCeM is pronounced ``no see-'em'', and means what the name
23836 implies---these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
23839 What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled anyway?
23840 Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just honor cancels
23841 from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use of the NoCeM
23842 messages, which are distributed in the newsgroups
23843 @samp{news.lists.filters}, @samp{alt.nocem.misc}, etc.
23845 Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
23846 this will make spam disappear.
23848 There are some variables to customize, of course:
23851 @item gnus-use-nocem
23852 @vindex gnus-use-nocem
23853 Set this variable to @code{t} to set the ball rolling. It is @code{nil}
23856 You can also set this variable to a positive number as a group level.
23857 In that case, Gnus scans NoCeM messages when checking new news if this
23858 value is not exceeding a group level that you specify as the prefix
23859 argument to some commands, e.g. @code{gnus},
23860 @code{gnus-group-get-new-news}, etc. Otherwise, Gnus does not scan
23861 NoCeM messages if you specify a group level that is smaller than this
23862 value to those commands. For example, if you use 1 or 2 on the mail
23863 groups and the levels on the news groups remain the default, 3 is the
23866 @item gnus-nocem-groups
23867 @vindex gnus-nocem-groups
23868 Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
23871 ("news.lists.filters" "alt.nocem.misc")
23874 @item gnus-nocem-issuers
23875 @vindex gnus-nocem-issuers
23876 There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
23877 people you want to listen to. The default is:
23881 "alba-nocem@@albasani.net"
23882 "bleachbot@@httrack.com"
23883 "news@@arcor-online.net"
23884 "news@@uni-berlin.de"
23886 "pgpmoose@@killfile.org"
23890 Known despammers that you can put in this list are listed at@*
23891 @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~rosalind/nocemreg/nocemreg.html}.
23893 You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people---just the
23894 ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all NoCeM
23895 messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a @dfn{type}
23896 header that gives the message a (more or less, usually less) rigorous
23897 definition. Common types are @samp{spam}, @samp{spew}, @samp{mmf},
23898 @samp{binary}, and @samp{troll}. To specify this, you have to use
23899 @code{(@var{issuer} @var{conditions} @dots{})} elements in the list.
23900 Each condition is either a string (which is a regexp that matches types
23901 you want to use) or a list on the form @code{(not @var{string})}, where
23902 @var{string} is a regexp that matches types you don't want to use.
23904 For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis except his
23905 @samp{troll} messages, you'd say:
23908 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
23911 On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his @samp{spam} and
23912 @samp{spew} messages, you'd say:
23915 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
23918 The specs are applied left-to-right.
23921 @item gnus-nocem-verifyer
23922 @vindex gnus-nocem-verifyer
23923 @findex gnus-nocem-epg-verify
23925 This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is who she
23926 says she is. This variable defaults to @code{gnus-nocem-epg-verify} if
23927 EasyPG is available, otherwise defaults to @code{pgg-verify}. The
23928 function should return non-@code{nil} if the verification is successful,
23929 otherwise (including the case the NoCeM message was not signed) should
23930 return @code{nil}. If this is too slow and you don't care for
23931 verification (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable to
23934 Formerly the default was @code{mc-verify}, which is a Mailcrypt
23935 function. While you can still use it, you can change it into
23936 @code{gnus-nocem-epg-verify} or @code{pgg-verify} running with GnuPG if
23937 you are willing to add the @acronym{PGP} public keys to GnuPG's keyring.
23939 @item gnus-nocem-directory
23940 @vindex gnus-nocem-directory
23941 This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default is@*
23942 @file{~/News/NoCeM/}.
23944 @item gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
23945 @vindex gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
23946 The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the cache.
23947 The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be faster, but you
23948 might then see old spam.
23950 @item gnus-nocem-check-from
23951 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-from
23952 Non-@code{nil} means check for valid issuers in message bodies.
23953 Otherwise don't bother fetching articles unless their author matches a
23954 valid issuer; that is much faster if you are selective about the
23957 @item gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
23958 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
23959 If non-@code{nil}, the maximum number of articles to check in any NoCeM
23960 group. @code{nil} means no restriction. NoCeM groups can be huge and
23961 very slow to process.
23965 Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many living
23966 (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process will grow
23967 big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most) of your
23968 unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Subscription Commands}).
23975 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
23976 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
23977 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
23979 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
23980 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
23981 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
23982 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
23983 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
23984 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
23985 @code{undo} function.
23987 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
23988 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
23989 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
23990 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
23991 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
23992 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
23993 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
23994 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
23995 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
23996 never be totally undoable.
23998 @findex gnus-undo-mode
23999 @vindex gnus-use-undo
24001 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
24002 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
24003 default. The @kbd{C-M-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo}
24004 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
24008 @node Predicate Specifiers
24009 @section Predicate Specifiers
24010 @cindex predicate specifiers
24012 Some Gnus variables are @dfn{predicate specifiers}. This is a special
24013 form that allows flexible specification of predicates without having
24014 to type all that much.
24016 These specifiers are lists consisting of functions, symbols and lists.
24021 (or gnus-article-unseen-p
24022 gnus-article-unread-p)
24025 The available symbols are @code{or}, @code{and} and @code{not}. The
24026 functions all take one parameter.
24028 @findex gnus-make-predicate
24029 Internally, Gnus calls @code{gnus-make-predicate} on these specifiers
24030 to create a function that can be called. This input parameter to this
24031 function will be passed along to all the functions in the predicate
24036 @section Moderation
24039 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
24040 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
24041 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
24044 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
24048 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
24051 in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
24053 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
24058 You split your incoming mail by matching on
24059 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
24060 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
24063 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
24064 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
24067 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
24068 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
24072 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
24075 (setq gnus-moderated-list
24076 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
24080 @node Fetching a Group
24081 @section Fetching a Group
24082 @cindex fetching a group
24084 @findex gnus-fetch-group
24085 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
24086 group and I don't care whether Gnus has been started or not''. This is
24087 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
24088 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
24089 It takes the group name as a parameter.
24092 @node Image Enhancements
24093 @section Image Enhancements
24095 XEmacs, as well as Emacs 21@footnote{Emacs 21 on MS Windows doesn't
24096 support images, Emacs 22 does.} and up, are able to display pictures and
24097 stuff, so Gnus has taken advantage of that.
24100 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
24101 * Face:: Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
24102 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
24103 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
24104 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
24112 @code{X-Face} headers describe a 48x48 pixel black-and-white (1 bit
24113 depth) image that's supposed to represent the author of the message.
24114 It seems to be supported by an ever-growing number of mail and news
24118 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
24119 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
24120 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
24128 Viewing an @code{X-Face} header either requires an Emacs that has
24129 @samp{compface} support (which most XEmacs versions have), or that you
24130 have suitable conversion or display programs installed. If your Emacs
24131 has image support the default action is to display the face before the
24132 @code{From} header. If there's no native @code{X-Face} support, Gnus
24133 will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using external programs
24134 from the @code{pbmplus} package and friends, see below. For XEmacs it's
24135 faster if XEmacs has been compiled with @code{X-Face} support. The
24136 default action under Emacs without image support is to fork off the
24137 @code{display} program.
24139 On a GNU/Linux system, the @code{display} program is included in the
24140 ImageMagick package. For external conversion programs look for packages
24141 with names like @code{netpbm}, @code{libgr-progs} and @code{compface}.
24142 On Windows, you may use the packages @code{netpbm} and @code{compface}
24143 from @url{http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net}. You need to add the
24144 @code{bin} directory to your @code{PATH} environment variable.
24145 @c In fact only the following DLLs and binaries seem to be required:
24146 @c compface1.dll uncompface.exe libnetpbm10.dll icontopbm.exe
24148 The variable @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} controls which programs
24149 are used to display the @code{X-Face} header. If this variable is a
24150 string, this string will be executed in a sub-shell. If it is a
24151 function, this function will be called with the face as the argument.
24152 If @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which is a regexp) matches the
24153 @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
24155 (Note: @code{x-face} is used in the variable/function names, not
24163 @vindex gnus-x-face
24164 Face to show X-Face. The colors from this face are used as the
24165 foreground and background colors of the displayed X-Faces. The
24166 default colors are black and white.
24168 @item gnus-face-properties-alist
24169 @vindex gnus-face-properties-alist
24170 Alist of image types and properties applied to Face (@pxref{Face}) and
24171 X-Face images. The default value is @code{((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face))
24172 (png . nil))} for Emacs or @code{((xface . (:face gnus-x-face)))} for
24173 XEmacs. Here are examples:
24176 ;; Specify the altitude of Face and X-Face images in the From header.
24177 (setq gnus-face-properties-alist
24178 '((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face :ascent 80))
24179 (png . (:ascent 80))))
24181 ;; Show Face and X-Face images as pressed buttons.
24182 (setq gnus-face-properties-alist
24183 '((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face :relief -2))
24184 (png . (:relief -2))))
24187 @pxref{Image Descriptors, ,Image Descriptors, elisp, The Emacs Lisp
24188 Reference Manual} for the valid properties for various image types.
24189 Currently, @code{pbm} is used for X-Face images and @code{png} is used
24190 for Face images in Emacs. Only the @code{:face} property is effective
24191 on the @code{xface} image type in XEmacs if it is built with the
24192 @samp{libcompface} library.
24195 If you use posting styles, you can use an @code{x-face-file} entry in
24196 @code{gnus-posting-styles}, @xref{Posting Styles}. If you don't, Gnus
24197 provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow easier
24198 insertion of X-Face headers in outgoing messages. You also need the
24199 above mentioned ImageMagick, netpbm or other image conversion packages
24200 (depending the values of the variables below) for these functions.
24202 @findex gnus-random-x-face
24203 @vindex gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command
24204 @vindex gnus-x-face-directory
24205 @code{gnus-random-x-face} goes through all the @samp{pbm} files in
24206 @code{gnus-x-face-directory} and picks one at random, and then
24207 converts it to the X-Face format by using the
24208 @code{gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command} shell command. The
24209 @samp{pbm} files should be 48x48 pixels big. It returns the X-Face
24210 header data as a string.
24212 @findex gnus-insert-random-x-face-header
24213 @code{gnus-insert-random-x-face-header} calls
24214 @code{gnus-random-x-face} and inserts a @samp{X-Face} header with the
24215 randomly generated data.
24217 @findex gnus-x-face-from-file
24218 @vindex gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command
24219 @code{gnus-x-face-from-file} takes a GIF file as the parameter, and then
24220 converts the file to X-Face format by using the
24221 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command} shell command.
24223 Here's how you would typically use the first function. Put something
24224 like the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
24227 (setq message-required-news-headers
24228 (nconc message-required-news-headers
24229 (list '(X-Face . gnus-random-x-face))))
24232 Using the last function would be something like this:
24235 (setq message-required-news-headers
24236 (nconc message-required-news-headers
24237 (list '(X-Face . (lambda ()
24238 (gnus-x-face-from-file
24239 "~/My-face.gif"))))))
24247 @c #### FIXME: faces and x-faces' implementations should really be harmonized.
24249 @code{Face} headers are essentially a funkier version of @code{X-Face}
24250 ones. They describe a 48x48 pixel colored image that's supposed to
24251 represent the author of the message.
24254 @findex gnus-article-display-face
24255 The contents of a @code{Face} header must be a base64 encoded PNG image.
24256 See @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/circus/face/} for the precise
24259 The @code{gnus-face-properties-alist} variable affects the appearance of
24260 displayed Face images. @xref{X-Face}.
24262 Viewing an @code{Face} header requires an Emacs that is able to display
24265 @c (if (featurep 'xemacs)
24267 @c (image-type-available-p 'png))
24269 Gnus provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow
24270 easier insertion of Face headers in outgoing messages.
24272 @findex gnus-convert-png-to-face
24273 @code{gnus-convert-png-to-face} takes a 48x48 PNG image, no longer than
24274 726 bytes long, and converts it to a face.
24276 @findex gnus-face-from-file
24277 @vindex gnus-convert-image-to-face-command
24278 @code{gnus-face-from-file} takes a JPEG file as the parameter, and then
24279 converts the file to Face format by using the
24280 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-face-command} shell command.
24282 Here's how you would typically use this function. Put something like the
24283 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
24286 (setq message-required-news-headers
24287 (nconc message-required-news-headers
24288 (list '(Face . (lambda ()
24289 (gnus-face-from-file "~/face.jpg"))))))
24294 @subsection Smileys
24299 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/BigFace,height=20cm}}
24304 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
24305 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
24307 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
24308 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
24311 (setq gnus-treat-display-smileys t)
24314 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{8-)}, @samp{:-(} and
24315 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
24316 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
24317 text and maps that to file names.
24319 @vindex smiley-regexp-alist
24320 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist}
24321 variable. The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched;
24322 the second element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by
24323 the picture; and the third element is the name of the file to be
24326 The following variables customize the appearance of the smileys:
24331 @vindex smiley-style
24332 Specifies the smiley style. Predefined smiley styles include
24333 @code{low-color} (small 13x14 pixel, three-color images), @code{medium}
24334 (more colorful images, 16x16 pixel), and @code{grayscale} (grayscale
24335 images, 14x14 pixel). The default depends on the height of the default
24338 @item smiley-data-directory
24339 @vindex smiley-data-directory
24340 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files. You shouldn't set this
24341 variable anymore. Customize @code{smiley-style} instead.
24343 @item gnus-smiley-file-types
24344 @vindex gnus-smiley-file-types
24345 List of suffixes on smiley file names to try.
24359 So@dots{} You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
24360 good way to do so. It's also a great way to impress people staring
24361 over your shoulder as you read news.
24363 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
24372 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
24373 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
24374 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
24375 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
24376 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
24377 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
24378 @code{GIF} formats.
24381 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
24382 For instructions on obtaining and installing the picons databases,
24383 point your Web browser at
24384 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}.
24386 If you are using Debian GNU/Linux, saying @samp{apt-get install
24387 picons.*} will install the picons where Gnus can find them.
24389 To enable displaying picons, simply make sure that
24390 @code{gnus-picon-databases} points to the directory containing the
24393 @vindex gnus-picon-style
24394 The variable @code{gnus-picon-style} controls how picons are displayed.
24395 If @code{inline}, the textual representation is replaced. If
24396 @code{right}, picons are added right to the textual representation.
24398 The following variables offer control over where things are located.
24402 @item gnus-picon-databases
24403 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
24404 The location of the picons database. This is a list of directories
24405 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
24406 subdirectories. Defaults to @code{("/usr/lib/picon"
24407 "/usr/local/faces")}.
24409 @item gnus-picon-news-directories
24410 @vindex gnus-picon-news-directories
24411 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
24412 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
24414 @item gnus-picon-user-directories
24415 @vindex gnus-picon-user-directories
24416 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for user
24417 faces. @code{("users" "usenix" "local" "misc")} is the default.
24419 @item gnus-picon-domain-directories
24420 @vindex gnus-picon-domain-directories
24421 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
24422 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
24423 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
24425 @item gnus-picon-file-types
24426 @vindex gnus-picon-file-types
24427 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
24428 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not built-in your Emacs.
24434 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
24437 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
24438 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
24439 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
24440 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
24441 unusual directory structure.
24443 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
24444 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
24445 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
24450 @subsubsection Toolbar
24454 @item gnus-use-toolbar
24455 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
24456 This variable specifies the position to display the toolbar. If
24457 @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If it is non-@code{nil}, it should
24458 be one of the symbols @code{default}, @code{top}, @code{bottom},
24459 @code{right}, and @code{left}. @code{default} means to use the default
24460 toolbar, the rest mean to display the toolbar on the place which those
24461 names show. The default is @code{default}.
24463 @item gnus-toolbar-thickness
24464 @vindex gnus-toolbar-thickness
24465 Cons of the height and the width specifying the thickness of a toolbar.
24466 The height is used for the toolbar displayed on the top or the bottom,
24467 the width is used for the toolbar displayed on the right or the left.
24468 The default is that of the default toolbar.
24470 @item gnus-group-toolbar
24471 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
24472 The toolbar in the group buffer.
24474 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
24475 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
24476 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
24478 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
24479 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
24480 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
24491 @node Fuzzy Matching
24492 @section Fuzzy Matching
24493 @cindex fuzzy matching
24495 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
24496 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
24498 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
24499 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
24500 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
24502 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
24503 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
24504 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
24505 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
24506 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
24509 @node Thwarting Email Spam
24510 @section Thwarting Email Spam
24514 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
24516 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
24517 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
24518 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
24519 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
24520 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
24521 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
24522 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
24523 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
24526 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
24527 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
24528 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
24529 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
24530 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!'')
24531 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
24533 This is annoying. Here's what you can do about it.
24536 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
24537 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
24538 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
24539 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
24542 @node The problem of spam
24543 @subsection The problem of spam
24545 @cindex spam filtering approaches
24546 @cindex filtering approaches, spam
24548 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
24550 First, some background on spam.
24552 If you have access to e-mail, you are familiar with spam (technically
24553 termed @acronym{UCE}, Unsolicited Commercial E-mail). Simply put, it
24554 exists because e-mail delivery is very cheap compared to paper mail,
24555 so only a very small percentage of people need to respond to an UCE to
24556 make it worthwhile to the advertiser. Ironically, one of the most
24557 common spams is the one offering a database of e-mail addresses for
24558 further spamming. Senders of spam are usually called @emph{spammers},
24559 but terms like @emph{vermin}, @emph{scum}, @emph{sociopaths}, and
24560 @emph{morons} are in common use as well.
24562 Spam comes from a wide variety of sources. It is simply impossible to
24563 dispose of all spam without discarding useful messages. A good
24564 example is the TMDA system, which requires senders
24565 unknown to you to confirm themselves as legitimate senders before
24566 their e-mail can reach you. Without getting into the technical side
24567 of TMDA, a downside is clearly that e-mail from legitimate sources may
24568 be discarded if those sources can't or won't confirm themselves
24569 through the TMDA system. Another problem with TMDA is that it
24570 requires its users to have a basic understanding of e-mail delivery
24573 The simplest approach to filtering spam is filtering, at the mail
24574 server or when you sort through incoming mail. If you get 200 spam
24575 messages per day from @samp{random-address@@vmadmin.com}, you block
24576 @samp{vmadmin.com}. If you get 200 messages about @samp{VIAGRA}, you
24577 discard all messages with @samp{VIAGRA} in the message. If you get
24578 lots of spam from Bulgaria, for example, you try to filter all mail
24579 from Bulgarian IPs.
24581 This, unfortunately, is a great way to discard legitimate e-mail. The
24582 risks of blocking a whole country (Bulgaria, Norway, Nigeria, China,
24583 etc.) or even a continent (Asia, Africa, Europe, etc.) from contacting
24584 you should be obvious, so don't do it if you have the choice.
24586 In another instance, the very informative and useful RISKS digest has
24587 been blocked by overzealous mail filters because it @strong{contained}
24588 words that were common in spam messages. Nevertheless, in isolated
24589 cases, with great care, direct filtering of mail can be useful.
24591 Another approach to filtering e-mail is the distributed spam
24592 processing, for instance DCC implements such a system. In essence,
24593 @var{N} systems around the world agree that a machine @var{X} in
24594 Ghana, Estonia, or California is sending out spam e-mail, and these
24595 @var{N} systems enter @var{X} or the spam e-mail from @var{X} into a
24596 database. The criteria for spam detection vary---it may be the number
24597 of messages sent, the content of the messages, and so on. When a user
24598 of the distributed processing system wants to find out if a message is
24599 spam, he consults one of those @var{N} systems.
24601 Distributed spam processing works very well against spammers that send
24602 a large number of messages at once, but it requires the user to set up
24603 fairly complicated checks. There are commercial and free distributed
24604 spam processing systems. Distributed spam processing has its risks as
24605 well. For instance legitimate e-mail senders have been accused of
24606 sending spam, and their web sites and mailing lists have been shut
24607 down for some time because of the incident.
24609 The statistical approach to spam filtering is also popular. It is
24610 based on a statistical analysis of previous spam messages. Usually
24611 the analysis is a simple word frequency count, with perhaps pairs of
24612 words or 3-word combinations thrown into the mix. Statistical
24613 analysis of spam works very well in most of the cases, but it can
24614 classify legitimate e-mail as spam in some cases. It takes time to
24615 run the analysis, the full message must be analyzed, and the user has
24616 to store the database of spam analysis. Statistical analysis on the
24617 server is gaining popularity. This has the advantage of letting the
24618 user Just Read Mail, but has the disadvantage that it's harder to tell
24619 the server that it has misclassified mail.
24621 Fighting spam is not easy, no matter what anyone says. There is no
24622 magic switch that will distinguish Viagra ads from Mom's e-mails.
24623 Even people are having a hard time telling spam apart from non-spam,
24624 because spammers are actively looking to fool us into thinking they
24625 are Mom, essentially. Spamming is irritating, irresponsible, and
24626 idiotic behavior from a bunch of people who think the world owes them
24627 a favor. We hope the following sections will help you in fighting the
24630 @node Anti-Spam Basics
24631 @subsection Anti-Spam Basics
24635 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
24637 One way of dealing with spam is having Gnus split out all spam into a
24638 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
24640 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
24641 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
24642 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
24643 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
24644 sysadmin whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
24645 part of the mail address.)
24648 (setq message-default-news-headers
24649 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
24652 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
24653 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
24657 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
24658 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
24659 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
24664 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
24665 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
24666 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
24667 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
24669 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @acronym{SMTP} server
24670 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
24671 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
24672 thwarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
24673 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
24674 your fancy split rule in this way:
24679 (to "larsi" "misc")
24683 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
24684 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
24685 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
24686 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
24687 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
24689 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
24690 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
24691 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
24692 to non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
24694 Be careful with this approach. Spammers are wise to it.
24698 @subsection SpamAssassin, Vipul's Razor, DCC, etc
24699 @cindex SpamAssassin
24700 @cindex Vipul's Razor
24703 The days where the hints in the previous section were sufficient in
24704 avoiding spam are coming to an end. There are many tools out there
24705 that claim to reduce the amount of spam you get. This section could
24706 easily become outdated fast, as new products replace old, but
24707 fortunately most of these tools seem to have similar interfaces. Even
24708 though this section will use SpamAssassin as an example, it should be
24709 easy to adapt it to most other tools.
24711 Note that this section does not involve the @code{spam.el} package,
24712 which is discussed in the next section. If you don't care for all
24713 the features of @code{spam.el}, you can make do with these simple
24716 If the tool you are using is not installed on the mail server, you
24717 need to invoke it yourself. Ideas on how to use the
24718 @code{:postscript} mail source parameter (@pxref{Mail Source
24719 Specifiers}) follow.
24723 '((file :prescript "formail -bs spamassassin < /var/mail/%u")
24727 "mv %t /tmp/foo; formail -bs spamc < /tmp/foo > %t")))
24730 Once you manage to process your incoming spool somehow, thus making
24731 the mail contain e.g.@: a header indicating it is spam, you are ready to
24732 filter it out. Using normal split methods (@pxref{Splitting Mail}):
24735 (setq nnmail-split-methods '(("spam" "^X-Spam-Flag: YES")
24739 Or using fancy split methods (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
24742 (setq nnmail-split-methods 'nnmail-split-fancy
24743 nnmail-split-fancy '(| ("X-Spam-Flag" "YES" "spam")
24747 Some people might not like the idea of piping the mail through various
24748 programs using a @code{:prescript} (if some program is buggy, you
24749 might lose all mail). If you are one of them, another solution is to
24750 call the external tools during splitting. Example fancy split method:
24753 (setq nnmail-split-fancy '(| (: kevin-spamassassin)
24755 (defun kevin-spamassassin ()
24759 (if (eq 1 (call-process-region (point-min) (point-max)
24760 "spamc" nil nil nil "-c"))
24764 Note that with the nnimap back end, message bodies will not be
24765 downloaded by default. You need to set
24766 @code{nnimap-split-download-body} to @code{t} to do that
24767 (@pxref{Splitting in IMAP}).
24769 That is about it. As some spam is likely to get through anyway, you
24770 might want to have a nifty function to call when you happen to read
24771 spam. And here is the nifty function:
24774 (defun my-gnus-raze-spam ()
24775 "Submit SPAM to Vipul's Razor, then mark it as expirable."
24777 (gnus-summary-save-in-pipe "razor-report -f -d" t)
24778 (gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable 1))
24782 @subsection Hashcash
24785 A novel technique to fight spam is to require senders to do something
24786 costly and demonstrably unique for each message they send. This has
24787 the obvious drawback that you cannot rely on everyone in the world
24788 using this technique, since it is not part of the Internet standards,
24789 but it may be useful in smaller communities.
24791 While the tools in the previous section work well in practice, they
24792 work only because the tools are constantly maintained and updated as
24793 new form of spam appears. This means that a small percentage of spam
24794 will always get through. It also means that somewhere, someone needs
24795 to read lots of spam to update these tools. Hashcash avoids that, but
24796 instead prefers that everyone you contact through e-mail supports the
24797 scheme. You can view the two approaches as pragmatic vs dogmatic.
24798 The approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages, but as
24799 often in the real world, a combination of them is stronger than either
24800 one of them separately.
24803 The ``something costly'' is to burn CPU time, more specifically to
24804 compute a hash collision up to a certain number of bits. The
24805 resulting hashcash cookie is inserted in a @samp{X-Hashcash:} header.
24806 For more details, and for the external application @code{hashcash} you
24807 need to install to use this feature, see
24808 @uref{http://www.hashcash.org/}. Even more information can be found
24809 at @uref{http://www.camram.org/}.
24811 If you wish to generate hashcash for each message you send, you can
24812 customize @code{message-generate-hashcash} (@pxref{Mail Headers, ,Mail
24813 Headers,message, The Message Manual}), as in:
24816 (setq message-generate-hashcash t)
24819 You will need to set up some additional variables as well:
24823 @item hashcash-default-payment
24824 @vindex hashcash-default-payment
24825 This variable indicates the default number of bits the hash collision
24826 should consist of. By default this is 20. Suggested useful values
24829 @item hashcash-payment-alist
24830 @vindex hashcash-payment-alist
24831 Some receivers may require you to spend burn more CPU time than the
24832 default. This variable contains a list of @samp{(@var{addr}
24833 @var{amount})} cells, where @var{addr} is the receiver (email address
24834 or newsgroup) and @var{amount} is the number of bits in the collision
24835 that is needed. It can also contain @samp{(@var{addr} @var{string}
24836 @var{amount})} cells, where the @var{string} is the string to use
24837 (normally the email address or newsgroup name is used).
24839 @item hashcash-path
24840 @vindex hashcash-path
24841 Where the @code{hashcash} binary is installed. This variable should
24842 be automatically set by @code{executable-find}, but if it's @code{nil}
24843 (usually because the @code{hashcash} binary is not in your path)
24844 you'll get a warning when you check hashcash payments and an error
24845 when you generate hashcash payments.
24849 Gnus can verify hashcash cookies, although this can also be done by
24850 hand customized mail filtering scripts. To verify a hashcash cookie
24851 in a message, use the @code{mail-check-payment} function in the
24852 @code{hashcash.el} library. You can also use the @code{spam.el}
24853 package with the @code{spam-use-hashcash} back end to validate hashcash
24854 cookies in incoming mail and filter mail accordingly (@pxref{Anti-spam
24855 Hashcash Payments}).
24858 @section Spam Package
24859 @cindex spam filtering
24862 The Spam package provides Gnus with a centralized mechanism for
24863 detecting and filtering spam. It filters new mail, and processes
24864 messages according to whether they are spam or ham. (@dfn{Ham} is the
24865 name used throughout this manual to indicate non-spam messages.)
24868 * Spam Package Introduction::
24869 * Filtering Incoming Mail::
24870 * Detecting Spam in Groups::
24871 * Spam and Ham Processors::
24872 * Spam Package Configuration Examples::
24874 * Extending the Spam package::
24875 * Spam Statistics Package::
24878 @node Spam Package Introduction
24879 @subsection Spam Package Introduction
24880 @cindex spam filtering
24881 @cindex spam filtering sequence of events
24884 You must read this section to understand how the Spam package works.
24885 Do not skip, speed-read, or glance through this section.
24887 Make sure you read the section on the @code{spam.el} sequence of
24888 events. See @xref{Extending the Spam package}.
24890 @cindex spam-initialize
24891 @vindex spam-use-stat
24892 To use the Spam package, you @strong{must} first run the function
24893 @code{spam-initialize}:
24899 This autoloads @code{spam.el} and installs the various hooks necessary
24900 to let the Spam package do its job. In order to make use of the Spam
24901 package, you have to set up certain group parameters and variables,
24902 which we will describe below. All of the variables controlling the
24903 Spam package can be found in the @samp{spam} customization group.
24905 There are two ``contact points'' between the Spam package and the rest
24906 of Gnus: checking new mail for spam, and leaving a group.
24908 Checking new mail for spam is done in one of two ways: while splitting
24909 incoming mail, or when you enter a group.
24911 The first way, checking for spam while splitting incoming mail, is
24912 suited to mail back ends such as @code{nnml} or @code{nnimap}, where
24913 new mail appears in a single spool file. The Spam package processes
24914 incoming mail, and sends mail considered to be spam to a designated
24915 ``spam'' group. @xref{Filtering Incoming Mail}.
24917 The second way is suited to back ends such as @code{nntp}, which have
24918 no incoming mail spool, or back ends where the server is in charge of
24919 splitting incoming mail. In this case, when you enter a Gnus group,
24920 the unseen or unread messages in that group are checked for spam.
24921 Detected spam messages are marked as spam. @xref{Detecting Spam in
24924 @cindex spam back ends
24925 In either case, you have to tell the Spam package what method to use
24926 to detect spam messages. There are several methods, or @dfn{spam back
24927 ends} (not to be confused with Gnus back ends!) to choose from: spam
24928 ``blacklists'' and ``whitelists'', dictionary-based filters, and so
24929 forth. @xref{Spam Back Ends}.
24931 In the Gnus summary buffer, messages that have been identified as spam
24932 always appear with a @samp{$} symbol.
24934 The Spam package divides Gnus groups into three categories: ham
24935 groups, spam groups, and unclassified groups. You should mark each of
24936 the groups you subscribe to as either a ham group or a spam group,
24937 using the @code{spam-contents} group parameter (@pxref{Group
24938 Parameters}). Spam groups have a special property: when you enter a
24939 spam group, all unseen articles are marked as spam. Thus, mail split
24940 into a spam group is automatically marked as spam.
24942 Identifying spam messages is only half of the Spam package's job. The
24943 second half comes into play whenever you exit a group buffer. At this
24944 point, the Spam package does several things:
24946 First, it calls @dfn{spam and ham processors} to process the articles
24947 according to whether they are spam or ham. There is a pair of spam
24948 and ham processors associated with each spam back end, and what the
24949 processors do depends on the back end. At present, the main role of
24950 spam and ham processors is for dictionary-based spam filters: they add
24951 the contents of the messages in the group to the filter's dictionary,
24952 to improve its ability to detect future spam. The @code{spam-process}
24953 group parameter specifies what spam processors to use. @xref{Spam and
24956 If the spam filter failed to mark a spam message, you can mark it
24957 yourself, so that the message is processed as spam when you exit the
24967 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-spam
24968 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-spam
24969 Mark current article as spam, showing it with the @samp{$} mark
24970 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}).
24974 Similarly, you can unmark an article if it has been erroneously marked
24975 as spam. @xref{Setting Marks}.
24977 Normally, a ham message found in a non-ham group is not processed as
24978 ham---the rationale is that it should be moved into a ham group for
24979 further processing (see below). However, you can force these articles
24980 to be processed as ham by setting
24981 @code{spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups} and
24982 @code{spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups}.
24984 @vindex gnus-ham-process-destinations
24985 @vindex gnus-spam-process-destinations
24986 The second thing that the Spam package does when you exit a group is
24987 to move ham articles out of spam groups, and spam articles out of ham
24988 groups. Ham in a spam group is moved to the group specified by the
24989 variable @code{gnus-ham-process-destinations}, or the group parameter
24990 @code{ham-process-destination}. Spam in a ham group is moved to the
24991 group specified by the variable @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations},
24992 or the group parameter @code{spam-process-destination}. If these
24993 variables are not set, the articles are left in their current group.
24994 If an article cannot be moved (e.g., with a read-only backend such
24995 as @acronym{NNTP}), it is copied.
24997 If an article is moved to another group, it is processed again when
24998 you visit the new group. Normally, this is not a problem, but if you
24999 want each article to be processed only once, load the
25000 @code{gnus-registry.el} package and set the variable
25001 @code{spam-log-to-registry} to @code{t}. @xref{Spam Package
25002 Configuration Examples}.
25004 Normally, spam groups ignore @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations}.
25005 However, if you set @code{spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only} to
25006 @code{nil}, spam will also be moved out of spam groups, depending on
25007 the @code{spam-process-destination} parameter.
25009 The final thing the Spam package does is to mark spam articles as
25010 expired, which is usually the right thing to do.
25012 If all this seems confusing, don't worry. Soon it will be as natural
25013 as typing Lisp one-liners on a neural interface@dots{} err, sorry, that's
25014 50 years in the future yet. Just trust us, it's not so bad.
25016 @node Filtering Incoming Mail
25017 @subsection Filtering Incoming Mail
25018 @cindex spam filtering
25019 @cindex spam filtering incoming mail
25022 To use the Spam package to filter incoming mail, you must first set up
25023 fancy mail splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}. The Spam package
25024 defines a special splitting function that you can add to your fancy
25025 split variable (either @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or
25026 @code{nnimap-split-fancy}, depending on your mail back end):
25032 @vindex spam-split-group
25034 The @code{spam-split} function scans incoming mail according to your
25035 chosen spam back end(s), and sends messages identified as spam to a
25036 spam group. By default, the spam group is a group named @samp{spam},
25037 but you can change this by customizing @code{spam-split-group}. Make
25038 sure the contents of @code{spam-split-group} are an unqualified group
25039 name. For instance, in an @code{nnimap} server @samp{your-server},
25040 the value @samp{spam} means @samp{nnimap+your-server:spam}. The value
25041 @samp{nnimap+server:spam} is therefore wrong---it gives the group
25042 @samp{nnimap+your-server:nnimap+server:spam}.
25044 @code{spam-split} does not modify the contents of messages in any way.
25046 @vindex nnimap-split-download-body
25047 Note for IMAP users: if you use the @code{spam-check-bogofilter},
25048 @code{spam-check-ifile}, and @code{spam-check-stat} spam back ends,
25049 you should also set the variable @code{nnimap-split-download-body}
25050 to @code{t}. These spam back ends are most useful when they can
25051 ``scan'' the full message body. By default, the nnimap back end only
25052 retrieves the message headers; @code{nnimap-split-download-body} tells
25053 it to retrieve the message bodies as well. We don't set this by
25054 default because it will slow @acronym{IMAP} down, and that is not an
25055 appropriate decision to make on behalf of the user. @xref{Splitting
25058 You have to specify one or more spam back ends for @code{spam-split}
25059 to use, by setting the @code{spam-use-*} variables. @xref{Spam Back
25060 Ends}. Normally, @code{spam-split} simply uses all the spam back ends
25061 you enabled in this way. However, you can tell @code{spam-split} to
25062 use only some of them. Why this is useful? Suppose you are using the
25063 @code{spam-use-regex-headers} and @code{spam-use-blackholes} spam back
25064 ends, and the following split rule:
25067 nnimap-split-fancy '(|
25068 (any "ding" "ding")
25070 ;; @r{default mailbox}
25075 The problem is that you want all ding messages to make it to the ding
25076 folder. But that will let obvious spam (for example, spam detected by
25077 SpamAssassin, and @code{spam-use-regex-headers}) through, when it's
25078 sent to the ding list. On the other hand, some messages to the ding
25079 list are from a mail server in the blackhole list, so the invocation
25080 of @code{spam-split} can't be before the ding rule.
25082 The solution is to let SpamAssassin headers supersede ding rules, and
25083 perform the other @code{spam-split} rules (including a second
25084 invocation of the regex-headers check) after the ding rule. This is
25085 done by passing a parameter to @code{spam-split}:
25090 ;; @r{spam detected by @code{spam-use-regex-headers} goes to @samp{regex-spam}}
25091 (: spam-split "regex-spam" 'spam-use-regex-headers)
25092 (any "ding" "ding")
25093 ;; @r{all other spam detected by spam-split goes to @code{spam-split-group}}
25095 ;; @r{default mailbox}
25100 This lets you invoke specific @code{spam-split} checks depending on
25101 your particular needs, and target the results of those checks to a
25102 particular spam group. You don't have to throw all mail into all the
25103 spam tests. Another reason why this is nice is that messages to
25104 mailing lists you have rules for don't have to have resource-intensive
25105 blackhole checks performed on them. You could also specify different
25106 spam checks for your nnmail split vs. your nnimap split. Go crazy.
25108 You should set the @code{spam-use-*} variables for whatever spam back
25109 ends you intend to use. The reason is that when loading
25110 @file{spam.el}, some conditional loading is done depending on what
25111 @code{spam-use-xyz} variables you have set. @xref{Spam Back Ends}.
25113 @c @emph{TODO: spam.el needs to provide a uniform way of training all the
25114 @c statistical databases. Some have that functionality built-in, others
25117 @node Detecting Spam in Groups
25118 @subsection Detecting Spam in Groups
25120 To detect spam when visiting a group, set the group's
25121 @code{spam-autodetect} and @code{spam-autodetect-methods} group
25122 parameters. These are accessible with @kbd{G c} or @kbd{G p}, as
25123 usual (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
25125 You should set the @code{spam-use-*} variables for whatever spam back
25126 ends you intend to use. The reason is that when loading
25127 @file{spam.el}, some conditional loading is done depending on what
25128 @code{spam-use-xyz} variables you have set.
25130 By default, only unseen articles are processed for spam. You can
25131 force Gnus to recheck all messages in the group by setting the
25132 variable @code{spam-autodetect-recheck-messages} to @code{t}.
25134 If you use the @code{spam-autodetect} method of checking for spam, you
25135 can specify different spam detection methods for different groups.
25136 For instance, the @samp{ding} group may have @code{spam-use-BBDB} as
25137 the autodetection method, while the @samp{suspect} group may have the
25138 @code{spam-use-blacklist} and @code{spam-use-bogofilter} methods
25139 enabled. Unlike with @code{spam-split}, you don't have any control
25140 over the @emph{sequence} of checks, but this is probably unimportant.
25142 @node Spam and Ham Processors
25143 @subsection Spam and Ham Processors
25144 @cindex spam filtering
25145 @cindex spam filtering variables
25146 @cindex spam variables
25149 @vindex gnus-spam-process-newsgroups
25150 Spam and ham processors specify special actions to take when you exit
25151 a group buffer. Spam processors act on spam messages, and ham
25152 processors on ham messages. At present, the main role of these
25153 processors is to update the dictionaries of dictionary-based spam back
25154 ends such as Bogofilter (@pxref{Bogofilter}) and the Spam Statistics
25155 package (@pxref{Spam Statistics Filtering}).
25157 The spam and ham processors that apply to each group are determined by
25158 the group's@code{spam-process} group parameter. If this group
25159 parameter is not defined, they are determined by the variable
25160 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups}.
25162 @vindex gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents
25163 Gnus learns from the spam you get. You have to collect your spam in
25164 one or more spam groups, and set or customize the variable
25165 @code{spam-junk-mailgroups} as appropriate. You can also declare
25166 groups to contain spam by setting their group parameter
25167 @code{spam-contents} to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-spam}, or
25168 by customizing the corresponding variable
25169 @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}. The @code{spam-contents} group
25170 parameter and the @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents} variable can
25171 also be used to declare groups as @emph{ham} groups if you set their
25172 classification to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-ham}. If
25173 groups are not classified by means of @code{spam-junk-mailgroups},
25174 @code{spam-contents}, or @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}, they are
25175 considered @emph{unclassified}. All groups are unclassified by
25178 @vindex gnus-spam-mark
25180 In spam groups, all messages are considered to be spam by default:
25181 they get the @samp{$} mark (@code{gnus-spam-mark}) when you enter the
25182 group. If you have seen a message, had it marked as spam, then
25183 unmarked it, it won't be marked as spam when you enter the group
25184 thereafter. You can disable that behavior, so all unread messages
25185 will get the @samp{$} mark, if you set the
25186 @code{spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam} parameter to @code{nil}. You
25187 should remove the @samp{$} mark when you are in the group summary
25188 buffer for every message that is not spam after all. To remove the
25189 @samp{$} mark, you can use @kbd{M-u} to ``unread'' the article, or
25190 @kbd{d} for declaring it read the non-spam way. When you leave a
25191 group, all spam-marked (@samp{$}) articles are sent to a spam
25192 processor which will study them as spam samples.
25194 Messages may also be deleted in various other ways, and unless
25195 @code{ham-marks} group parameter gets overridden below, marks @samp{R}
25196 and @samp{r} for default read or explicit delete, marks @samp{X} and
25197 @samp{K} for automatic or explicit kills, as well as mark @samp{Y} for
25198 low scores, are all considered to be associated with articles which
25199 are not spam. This assumption might be false, in particular if you
25200 use kill files or score files as means for detecting genuine spam, you
25201 should then adjust the @code{ham-marks} group parameter.
25204 You can customize this group or topic parameter to be the list of
25205 marks you want to consider ham. By default, the list contains the
25206 deleted, read, killed, kill-filed, and low-score marks (the idea is
25207 that these articles have been read, but are not spam). It can be
25208 useful to also include the tick mark in the ham marks. It is not
25209 recommended to make the unread mark a ham mark, because it normally
25210 indicates a lack of classification. But you can do it, and we'll be
25215 You can customize this group or topic parameter to be the list of
25216 marks you want to consider spam. By default, the list contains only
25217 the spam mark. It is not recommended to change that, but you can if
25218 you really want to.
25221 When you leave @emph{any} group, regardless of its
25222 @code{spam-contents} classification, all spam-marked articles are sent
25223 to a spam processor, which will study these as spam samples. If you
25224 explicit kill a lot, you might sometimes end up with articles marked
25225 @samp{K} which you never saw, and which might accidentally contain
25226 spam. Best is to make sure that real spam is marked with @samp{$},
25229 @vindex gnus-ham-process-destinations
25230 When you leave a @emph{spam} group, all spam-marked articles are
25231 marked as expired after processing with the spam processor. This is
25232 not done for @emph{unclassified} or @emph{ham} groups. Also, any
25233 @strong{ham} articles in a spam group will be moved to a location
25234 determined by either the @code{ham-process-destination} group
25235 parameter or a match in the @code{gnus-ham-process-destinations}
25236 variable, which is a list of regular expressions matched with group
25237 names (it's easiest to customize this variable with @kbd{M-x
25238 customize-variable @key{RET} gnus-ham-process-destinations}). Each
25239 group name list is a standard Lisp list, if you prefer to customize
25240 the variable manually. If the @code{ham-process-destination}
25241 parameter is not set, ham articles are left in place. If the
25242 @code{spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group} parameter is
25243 set, the ham articles are marked as unread before being moved.
25245 If ham can not be moved---because of a read-only back end such as
25246 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
25248 Note that you can use multiples destinations per group or regular
25249 expression! This enables you to send your ham to a regular mail
25250 group and to a @emph{ham training} group.
25252 When you leave a @emph{ham} group, all ham-marked articles are sent to
25253 a ham processor, which will study these as non-spam samples.
25255 @vindex spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups
25256 By default the variable @code{spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups} is
25257 @code{nil}. Set it to @code{t} if you want ham found in spam groups
25258 to be processed. Normally this is not done, you are expected instead
25259 to send your ham to a ham group and process it there.
25261 @vindex spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups
25262 By default the variable @code{spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups} is
25263 @code{nil}. Set it to @code{t} if you want ham found in non-ham (spam
25264 or unclassified) groups to be processed. Normally this is not done,
25265 you are expected instead to send your ham to a ham group and process
25268 @vindex gnus-spam-process-destinations
25269 When you leave a @emph{ham} or @emph{unclassified} group, all
25270 @strong{spam} articles are moved to a location determined by either
25271 the @code{spam-process-destination} group parameter or a match in the
25272 @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations} variable, which is a list of
25273 regular expressions matched with group names (it's easiest to
25274 customize this variable with @kbd{M-x customize-variable @key{RET}
25275 gnus-spam-process-destinations}). Each group name list is a standard
25276 Lisp list, if you prefer to customize the variable manually. If the
25277 @code{spam-process-destination} parameter is not set, the spam
25278 articles are only expired. The group name is fully qualified, meaning
25279 that if you see @samp{nntp:servername} before the group name in the
25280 group buffer then you need it here as well.
25282 If spam can not be moved---because of a read-only back end such as
25283 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
25285 Note that you can use multiples destinations per group or regular
25286 expression! This enables you to send your spam to multiple @emph{spam
25289 @vindex spam-log-to-registry
25290 The problem with processing ham and spam is that Gnus doesn't track
25291 this processing by default. Enable the @code{spam-log-to-registry}
25292 variable so @code{spam.el} will use @code{gnus-registry.el} to track
25293 what articles have been processed, and avoid processing articles
25294 multiple times. Keep in mind that if you limit the number of registry
25295 entries, this won't work as well as it does without a limit.
25297 @vindex spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam
25298 Set this variable if you want only unseen articles in spam groups to
25299 be marked as spam. By default, it is set. If you set it to
25300 @code{nil}, unread articles will also be marked as spam.
25302 @vindex spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group
25303 Set this variable if you want ham to be unmarked before it is moved
25304 out of the spam group. This is very useful when you use something
25305 like the tick mark @samp{!} to mark ham---the article will be placed
25306 in your @code{ham-process-destination}, unmarked as if it came fresh
25307 from the mail server.
25309 @vindex spam-autodetect-recheck-messages
25310 When autodetecting spam, this variable tells @code{spam.el} whether
25311 only unseen articles or all unread articles should be checked for
25312 spam. It is recommended that you leave it off.
25314 @node Spam Package Configuration Examples
25315 @subsection Spam Package Configuration Examples
25316 @cindex spam filtering
25317 @cindex spam filtering configuration examples
25318 @cindex spam configuration examples
25321 @subsubheading Ted's setup
25323 From Ted Zlatanov <tzz@@lifelogs.com>.
25325 ;; @r{for @code{gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent} and spam autodetection}
25326 ;; @r{see @file{gnus-registry.el} for more information}
25327 (gnus-registry-initialize)
25331 spam-log-to-registry t ; @r{for spam autodetection}
25333 spam-use-regex-headers t ; @r{catch X-Spam-Flag (SpamAssassin)}
25334 ;; @r{all groups with @samp{spam} in the name contain spam}
25335 gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents
25336 '(("spam" gnus-group-spam-classification-spam))
25337 ;; @r{see documentation for these}
25338 spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only nil
25339 spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam t
25340 spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group t
25341 nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
25342 ;; @r{understand what this does before you copy it to your own setup!}
25343 nnimap-split-fancy '(|
25344 ;; @r{trace references to parents and put in their group}
25345 (: gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent)
25346 ;; @r{this will catch server-side SpamAssassin tags}
25347 (: spam-split 'spam-use-regex-headers)
25348 (any "ding" "ding")
25349 ;; @r{note that spam by default will go to @samp{spam}}
25351 ;; @r{default mailbox}
25354 ;; @r{my parameters, set with @kbd{G p}}
25356 ;; @r{all nnml groups, and all nnimap groups except}
25357 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train} and}
25358 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:spam}: any spam goes to nnimap training,}
25359 ;; @r{because it must have been detected manually}
25361 ((spam-process-destination . "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train"))
25363 ;; @r{all @acronym{NNTP} groups}
25364 ;; @r{autodetect spam with the blacklist and ham with the BBDB}
25365 ((spam-autodetect-methods spam-use-blacklist spam-use-BBDB)
25366 ;; @r{send all spam to the training group}
25367 (spam-process-destination . "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train"))
25369 ;; @r{only some @acronym{NNTP} groups, where I want to autodetect spam}
25370 ((spam-autodetect . t))
25372 ;; @r{my nnimap @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:spam} group}
25374 ;; @r{this is a spam group}
25375 ((spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-spam)
25377 ;; @r{any spam (which happens when I enter for all unseen messages,}
25378 ;; @r{because of the @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents} setting above), goes to}
25379 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train} unless I mark it as ham}
25381 (spam-process-destination "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train")
25383 ;; @r{any ham goes to my @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:mail} folder, but}
25384 ;; @r{also to my @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:trainham} folder for training}
25386 (ham-process-destination "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:mail"
25387 "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:trainham")
25388 ;; @r{in this group, only @samp{!} marks are ham}
25390 (gnus-ticked-mark))
25391 ;; @r{remembers senders in the blacklist on the way out---this is}
25392 ;; @r{definitely not needed, it just makes me feel better}
25393 (spam-process (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist)))
25395 ;; @r{Later, on the @acronym{IMAP} server I use the @samp{train} group for training}
25396 ;; @r{SpamAssassin to recognize spam, and the @samp{trainham} group fora}
25397 ;; @r{recognizing ham---but Gnus has nothing to do with it.}
25401 @subsubheading Using @code{spam.el} on an IMAP server with a statistical filter on the server
25402 From Reiner Steib <reiner.steib@@gmx.de>.
25404 My provider has set up bogofilter (in combination with @acronym{DCC}) on
25405 the mail server (@acronym{IMAP}). Recognized spam goes to
25406 @samp{spam.detected}, the rest goes through the normal filter rules,
25407 i.e. to @samp{some.folder} or to @samp{INBOX}. Training on false
25408 positives or negatives is done by copying or moving the article to
25409 @samp{training.ham} or @samp{training.spam} respectively. A cron job on
25410 the server feeds those to bogofilter with the suitable ham or spam
25411 options and deletes them from the @samp{training.ham} and
25412 @samp{training.spam} folders.
25414 With the following entries in @code{gnus-parameters}, @code{spam.el}
25415 does most of the job for me:
25418 ("nnimap:spam\\.detected"
25419 (gnus-article-sort-functions '(gnus-article-sort-by-chars))
25420 (ham-process-destination "nnimap:INBOX" "nnimap:training.ham")
25421 (spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-spam))
25422 ("nnimap:\\(INBOX\\|other-folders\\)"
25423 (spam-process-destination . "nnimap:training.spam")
25424 (spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-ham))
25429 @item @b{The Spam folder:}
25431 In the folder @samp{spam.detected}, I have to check for false positives
25432 (i.e. legitimate mails, that were wrongly judged as spam by
25433 bogofilter or DCC).
25435 Because of the @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-spam} entry, all
25436 messages are marked as spam (with @code{$}). When I find a false
25437 positive, I mark the message with some other ham mark
25438 (@code{ham-marks}, @ref{Spam and Ham Processors}). On group exit,
25439 those messages are copied to both groups, @samp{INBOX} (where I want
25440 to have the article) and @samp{training.ham} (for training bogofilter)
25441 and deleted from the @samp{spam.detected} folder.
25443 The @code{gnus-article-sort-by-chars} entry simplifies detection of
25444 false positives for me. I receive lots of worms (sweN, @dots{}), that all
25445 have a similar size. Grouping them by size (i.e. chars) makes finding
25446 other false positives easier. (Of course worms aren't @i{spam}
25447 (@acronym{UCE}, @acronym{UBE}) strictly speaking. Anyhow, bogofilter is
25448 an excellent tool for filtering those unwanted mails for me.)
25450 @item @b{Ham folders:}
25452 In my ham folders, I just hit @kbd{S x}
25453 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}) whenever I see an unrecognized spam
25454 mail (false negative). On group exit, those messages are moved to
25455 @samp{training.spam}.
25458 @subsubheading Reporting spam articles in Gmane groups with @code{spam-report.el}
25460 From Reiner Steib <reiner.steib@@gmx.de>.
25462 With following entry in @code{gnus-parameters}, @kbd{S x}
25463 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}) marks articles in @code{gmane.*}
25464 groups as spam and reports the to Gmane at group exit:
25468 (spam-process (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane)))
25471 Additionally, I use @code{(setq spam-report-gmane-use-article-number nil)}
25472 because I don't read the groups directly from news.gmane.org, but
25473 through my local news server (leafnode). I.e. the article numbers are
25474 not the same as on news.gmane.org, thus @code{spam-report.el} has to check
25475 the @code{X-Report-Spam} header to find the correct number.
25477 @node Spam Back Ends
25478 @subsection Spam Back Ends
25479 @cindex spam back ends
25481 The spam package offers a variety of back ends for detecting spam.
25482 Each back end defines a set of methods for detecting spam
25483 (@pxref{Filtering Incoming Mail}, @pxref{Detecting Spam in Groups}),
25484 and a pair of spam and ham processors (@pxref{Spam and Ham
25488 * Blacklists and Whitelists::
25489 * BBDB Whitelists::
25490 * Gmane Spam Reporting::
25491 * Anti-spam Hashcash Payments::
25493 * Regular Expressions Header Matching::
25495 * SpamAssassin back end::
25496 * ifile spam filtering::
25497 * Spam Statistics Filtering::
25501 @node Blacklists and Whitelists
25502 @subsubsection Blacklists and Whitelists
25503 @cindex spam filtering
25504 @cindex whitelists, spam filtering
25505 @cindex blacklists, spam filtering
25508 @defvar spam-use-blacklist
25510 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use blacklists when
25511 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are in the blacklist
25512 will be sent to the @code{spam-split-group}. This is an explicit
25513 filter, meaning that it acts only on mail senders @emph{declared} to
25518 @defvar spam-use-whitelist
25520 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists when
25521 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are not in the
25522 whitelist will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
25523 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the whitelist, their
25524 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
25528 @defvar spam-use-whitelist-exclusive
25530 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists as an
25531 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
25532 unless the sender is in the whitelist. Use with care.
25536 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist
25538 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25539 customizing the group parameters or the
25540 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25541 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
25542 spam-marked articles will be added to the blacklist.
25546 Instead of the obsolete
25547 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist}, it is recommended
25548 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-blacklist)}. Everything will work
25549 the same way, we promise.
25553 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-whitelist
25555 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25556 customizing the group parameters or the
25557 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25558 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
25559 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
25564 Instead of the obsolete
25565 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-whitelist}, it is recommended
25566 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-whitelist)}. Everything will work
25567 the same way, we promise.
25571 Blacklists are lists of regular expressions matching addresses you
25572 consider to be spam senders. For instance, to block mail from any
25573 sender at @samp{vmadmin.com}, you can put @samp{vmadmin.com} in your
25574 blacklist. You start out with an empty blacklist. Blacklist entries
25575 use the Emacs regular expression syntax.
25577 Conversely, whitelists tell Gnus what addresses are considered
25578 legitimate. All messages from whitelisted addresses are considered
25579 non-spam. Also see @ref{BBDB Whitelists}. Whitelist entries use the
25580 Emacs regular expression syntax.
25582 The blacklist and whitelist file locations can be customized with the
25583 @code{spam-directory} variable (@file{~/News/spam} by default), or
25584 the @code{spam-whitelist} and @code{spam-blacklist} variables
25585 directly. The whitelist and blacklist files will by default be in the
25586 @code{spam-directory} directory, named @file{whitelist} and
25587 @file{blacklist} respectively.
25589 @node BBDB Whitelists
25590 @subsubsection BBDB Whitelists
25591 @cindex spam filtering
25592 @cindex BBDB whitelists, spam filtering
25593 @cindex BBDB, spam filtering
25596 @defvar spam-use-BBDB
25598 Analogous to @code{spam-use-whitelist} (@pxref{Blacklists and
25599 Whitelists}), but uses the BBDB as the source of whitelisted
25600 addresses, without regular expressions. You must have the BBDB loaded
25601 for @code{spam-use-BBDB} to work properly. Messages whose senders are
25602 not in the BBDB will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
25603 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the BBDB, their
25604 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
25608 @defvar spam-use-BBDB-exclusive
25610 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use the BBDB as an
25611 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
25612 unless the sender is in the BBDB. Use with care. Only sender
25613 addresses in the BBDB will be allowed through; all others will be
25614 classified as spammers.
25616 While @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} @emph{can} be used as an alias
25617 for @code{spam-use-BBDB} as far as @code{spam.el} is concerned, it is
25618 @emph{not} a separate back end. If you set
25619 @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} to t, @emph{all} your BBDB splitting
25624 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-BBDB
25626 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25627 customizing the group parameters or the
25628 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25629 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
25630 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
25635 Instead of the obsolete
25636 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-BBDB}, it is recommended
25637 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-BBDB)}. Everything will work
25638 the same way, we promise.
25642 @node Gmane Spam Reporting
25643 @subsubsection Gmane Spam Reporting
25644 @cindex spam reporting
25645 @cindex Gmane, spam reporting
25646 @cindex Gmane, spam reporting
25649 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane
25651 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25652 customizing the group parameters or the
25653 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25654 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the spam-marked
25655 articles groups will be reported to the Gmane administrators via a
25658 Gmane can be found at @uref{http://gmane.org}.
25662 Instead of the obsolete
25663 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane}, it is recommended
25664 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-gmane)}. Everything will work the
25665 same way, we promise.
25669 @defvar spam-report-gmane-use-article-number
25671 This variable is @code{t} by default. Set it to @code{nil} if you are
25672 running your own news server, for instance, and the local article
25673 numbers don't correspond to the Gmane article numbers. When
25674 @code{spam-report-gmane-use-article-number} is @code{nil},
25675 @code{spam-report.el} will fetch the number from the article headers.
25679 @defvar spam-report-user-mail-address
25681 Mail address exposed in the User-Agent spam reports to Gmane. It allows
25682 the Gmane administrators to contact you in case of misreports. The
25683 default is @code{user-mail-address}.
25687 @node Anti-spam Hashcash Payments
25688 @subsubsection Anti-spam Hashcash Payments
25689 @cindex spam filtering
25690 @cindex hashcash, spam filtering
25693 @defvar spam-use-hashcash
25695 Similar to @code{spam-use-whitelist} (@pxref{Blacklists and
25696 Whitelists}), but uses hashcash tokens for whitelisting messages
25697 instead of the sender address. Messages without a hashcash payment
25698 token will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an explicit
25699 filter, meaning that unless a hashcash token is found, the messages
25700 are not assumed to be spam or ham.
25705 @subsubsection Blackholes
25706 @cindex spam filtering
25707 @cindex blackholes, spam filtering
25710 @defvar spam-use-blackholes
25712 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus consult the
25713 blackhole-type distributed spam processing systems (DCC, for instance)
25714 when you set this option. The variable @code{spam-blackhole-servers}
25715 holds the list of blackhole servers Gnus will consult. The current
25716 list is fairly comprehensive, but make sure to let us know if it
25717 contains outdated servers.
25719 The blackhole check uses the @code{dig.el} package, but you can tell
25720 @code{spam.el} to use @code{dns.el} instead for better performance if
25721 you set @code{spam-use-dig} to @code{nil}. It is not recommended at
25722 this time to set @code{spam-use-dig} to @code{nil} despite the
25723 possible performance improvements, because some users may be unable to
25724 use it, but you can try it and see if it works for you.
25728 @defvar spam-blackhole-servers
25730 The list of servers to consult for blackhole checks.
25734 @defvar spam-blackhole-good-server-regex
25736 A regular expression for IPs that should not be checked against the
25737 blackhole server list. When set to @code{nil}, it has no effect.
25741 @defvar spam-use-dig
25743 Use the @code{dig.el} package instead of the @code{dns.el} package.
25744 The default setting of @code{t} is recommended.
25748 Blackhole checks are done only on incoming mail. There is no spam or
25749 ham processor for blackholes.
25751 @node Regular Expressions Header Matching
25752 @subsubsection Regular Expressions Header Matching
25753 @cindex spam filtering
25754 @cindex regular expressions header matching, spam filtering
25757 @defvar spam-use-regex-headers
25759 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus check the
25760 message headers against lists of regular expressions when you set this
25761 option. The variables @code{spam-regex-headers-spam} and
25762 @code{spam-regex-headers-ham} hold the list of regular expressions.
25763 Gnus will check against the message headers to determine if the
25764 message is spam or ham, respectively.
25768 @defvar spam-regex-headers-spam
25770 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
25771 the message, positively identify it as spam.
25775 @defvar spam-regex-headers-ham
25777 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
25778 the message, positively identify it as ham.
25782 Regular expression header checks are done only on incoming mail.
25783 There is no specific spam or ham processor for regular expressions.
25786 @subsubsection Bogofilter
25787 @cindex spam filtering
25788 @cindex bogofilter, spam filtering
25791 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter
25793 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
25796 With a minimum of care for associating the @samp{$} mark for spam
25797 articles only, Bogofilter training all gets fairly automatic. You
25798 should do this until you get a few hundreds of articles in each
25799 category, spam or not. The command @kbd{S t} in summary mode, either
25800 for debugging or for curiosity, shows the @emph{spamicity} score of
25801 the current article (between 0.0 and 1.0).
25803 Bogofilter determines if a message is spam based on a specific
25804 threshold. That threshold can be customized, consult the Bogofilter
25807 If the @code{bogofilter} executable is not in your path, Bogofilter
25808 processing will be turned off.
25810 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}.
25819 @findex spam-bogofilter-score
25820 Get the Bogofilter spamicity score (@code{spam-bogofilter-score}).
25823 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter-headers
25825 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
25826 speedy Bogofilter, looking only at the message headers. It works
25827 similarly to @code{spam-use-bogofilter}, but the @code{X-Bogosity} header
25828 must be in the message already. Normally you would do this with a
25829 procmail recipe or something similar; consult the Bogofilter
25830 installation documents for details.
25832 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter}.
25836 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter
25837 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25838 customizing the group parameters or the
25839 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25840 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, spam-marked articles
25841 will be added to the Bogofilter spam database.
25845 Instead of the obsolete
25846 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter}, it is recommended
25847 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-bogofilter)}. Everything will work
25848 the same way, we promise.
25851 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter
25852 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25853 customizing the group parameters or the
25854 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25855 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
25856 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the Bogofilter database
25857 of non-spam messages.
25861 Instead of the obsolete
25862 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter}, it is recommended
25863 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-bogofilter)}. Everything will work
25864 the same way, we promise.
25867 @defvar spam-bogofilter-database-directory
25869 This is the directory where Bogofilter will store its databases. It
25870 is not specified by default, so Bogofilter will use its own default
25871 database directory.
25875 The Bogofilter mail classifier is similar to @command{ifile} in intent and
25876 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
25877 @code{spam-use-bogofilter} and @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}
25878 variables to indicate to spam-split that Bogofilter should either be
25879 used, or has already been used on the article. The 0.9.2.1 version of
25880 Bogofilter was used to test this functionality.
25882 @node SpamAssassin back end
25883 @subsubsection SpamAssassin back end
25884 @cindex spam filtering
25885 @cindex spamassassin, spam filtering
25888 @defvar spam-use-spamassassin
25890 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use SpamAssassin.
25892 SpamAssassin assigns a score to each article based on a set of rules
25893 and tests, including a Bayesian filter. The Bayesian filter can be
25894 trained by associating the @samp{$} mark for spam articles. The
25895 spam score can be viewed by using the command @kbd{S t} in summary
25898 If you set this variable, each article will be processed by
25899 SpamAssassin when @code{spam-split} is called. If your mail is
25900 preprocessed by SpamAssassin, and you want to just use the
25901 SpamAssassin headers, set @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers}
25904 You should not enable this if you use
25905 @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers}.
25909 @defvar spam-use-spamassassin-headers
25911 Set this variable if your mail is preprocessed by SpamAssassin and
25912 want @code{spam-split} to split based on the SpamAssassin headers.
25914 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-spamassassin}.
25918 @defvar spam-spamassassin-program
25920 This variable points to the SpamAssassin executable. If you have
25921 @code{spamd} running, you can set this variable to the @code{spamc}
25922 executable for faster processing. See the SpamAssassin documentation
25923 for more information on @code{spamd}/@code{spamc}.
25927 SpamAssassin is a powerful and flexible spam filter that uses a wide
25928 variety of tests to identify spam. A ham and a spam processors are
25929 provided, plus the @code{spam-use-spamassassin} and
25930 @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers} variables to indicate to
25931 spam-split that SpamAssassin should be either used, or has already
25932 been used on the article. The 2.63 version of SpamAssassin was used
25933 to test this functionality.
25935 @node ifile spam filtering
25936 @subsubsection ifile spam filtering
25937 @cindex spam filtering
25938 @cindex ifile, spam filtering
25941 @defvar spam-use-ifile
25943 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use @command{ifile}, a
25944 statistical analyzer similar to Bogofilter.
25948 @defvar spam-ifile-all-categories
25950 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-use-ifile} to give you all
25951 the ifile categories, not just spam/non-spam. If you use this, make
25952 sure you train ifile as described in its documentation.
25956 @defvar spam-ifile-spam-category
25958 This is the category of spam messages as far as ifile is concerned.
25959 The actual string used is irrelevant, but you probably want to leave
25960 the default value of @samp{spam}.
25963 @defvar spam-ifile-database
25965 This is the filename for the ifile database. It is not specified by
25966 default, so ifile will use its own default database name.
25970 The ifile mail classifier is similar to Bogofilter in intent and
25971 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
25972 @code{spam-use-ifile} variable to indicate to spam-split that ifile
25973 should be used. The 1.2.1 version of ifile was used to test this
25976 @node Spam Statistics Filtering
25977 @subsubsection Spam Statistics Filtering
25978 @cindex spam filtering
25979 @cindex spam-stat, spam filtering
25983 This back end uses the Spam Statistics Emacs Lisp package to perform
25984 statistics-based filtering (@pxref{Spam Statistics Package}). Before
25985 using this, you may want to perform some additional steps to
25986 initialize your Spam Statistics dictionary. @xref{Creating a
25987 spam-stat dictionary}.
25989 @defvar spam-use-stat
25993 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-stat
25994 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25995 customizing the group parameters or the
25996 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25997 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the spam-marked
25998 articles will be added to the spam-stat database of spam messages.
26002 Instead of the obsolete
26003 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-stat}, it is recommended
26004 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-stat)}. Everything will work
26005 the same way, we promise.
26008 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-stat
26009 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
26010 customizing the group parameters or the
26011 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
26012 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
26013 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the spam-stat database
26014 of non-spam messages.
26018 Instead of the obsolete
26019 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-stat}, it is recommended
26020 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-stat)}. Everything will work
26021 the same way, we promise.
26024 This enables @code{spam.el} to cooperate with @file{spam-stat.el}.
26025 @file{spam-stat.el} provides an internal (Lisp-only) spam database,
26026 which unlike ifile or Bogofilter does not require external programs.
26027 A spam and a ham processor, and the @code{spam-use-stat} variable for
26028 @code{spam-split} are provided.
26031 @subsubsection Using SpamOracle with Gnus
26032 @cindex spam filtering
26036 An easy way to filter out spam is to use SpamOracle. SpamOracle is an
26037 statistical mail filtering tool written by Xavier Leroy and needs to be
26038 installed separately.
26040 There are several ways to use SpamOracle with Gnus. In all cases, your
26041 mail is piped through SpamOracle in its @emph{mark} mode. SpamOracle will
26042 then enter an @samp{X-Spam} header indicating whether it regards the
26043 mail as a spam mail or not.
26045 One possibility is to run SpamOracle as a @code{:prescript} from the
26046 @xref{Mail Source Specifiers}, (@pxref{SpamAssassin}). This method has
26047 the advantage that the user can see the @emph{X-Spam} headers.
26049 The easiest method is to make @file{spam.el} (@pxref{Spam Package})
26052 @vindex spam-use-spamoracle
26053 To enable SpamOracle usage by @code{spam.el}, set the variable
26054 @code{spam-use-spamoracle} to @code{t} and configure the
26055 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or @code{nnimap-split-fancy}. @xref{Spam
26056 Package}. In this example the @samp{INBOX} of an nnimap server is
26057 filtered using SpamOracle. Mails recognized as spam mails will be
26058 moved to @code{spam-split-group}, @samp{Junk} in this case. Ham
26059 messages stay in @samp{INBOX}:
26062 (setq spam-use-spamoracle t
26063 spam-split-group "Junk"
26064 nnimap-split-inbox '("INBOX")
26065 nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
26066 nnimap-split-fancy '(| (: spam-split) "INBOX"))
26069 @defvar spam-use-spamoracle
26070 Set to @code{t} if you want Gnus to enable spam filtering using
26074 @defvar spam-spamoracle-binary
26075 Gnus uses the SpamOracle binary called @file{spamoracle} found in the
26076 user's PATH. Using the variable @code{spam-spamoracle-binary}, this
26080 @defvar spam-spamoracle-database
26081 By default, SpamOracle uses the file @file{~/.spamoracle.db} as a database to
26082 store its analysis. This is controlled by the variable
26083 @code{spam-spamoracle-database} which defaults to @code{nil}. That means
26084 the default SpamOracle database will be used. In case you want your
26085 database to live somewhere special, set
26086 @code{spam-spamoracle-database} to this path.
26089 SpamOracle employs a statistical algorithm to determine whether a
26090 message is spam or ham. In order to get good results, meaning few
26091 false hits or misses, SpamOracle needs training. SpamOracle learns
26092 the characteristics of your spam mails. Using the @emph{add} mode
26093 (training mode) one has to feed good (ham) and spam mails to
26094 SpamOracle. This can be done by pressing @kbd{|} in the Summary
26095 buffer and pipe the mail to a SpamOracle process or using
26096 @file{spam.el}'s spam- and ham-processors, which is much more
26097 convenient. For a detailed description of spam- and ham-processors,
26098 @xref{Spam Package}.
26100 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-spamoracle
26101 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
26102 customizing the group parameter or the
26103 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is added
26104 to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, spam-marked articles will be
26105 sent to SpamOracle as spam samples.
26109 Instead of the obsolete
26110 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-spamoracle}, it is recommended
26111 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-spamoracle)}. Everything will work
26112 the same way, we promise.
26115 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-spamoracle
26116 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
26117 customizing the group parameter or the
26118 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is added
26119 to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked articles in
26120 @emph{ham} groups will be sent to the SpamOracle as samples of ham
26125 Instead of the obsolete
26126 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-spamoracle}, it is recommended
26127 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-spamoracle)}. Everything will work
26128 the same way, we promise.
26131 @emph{Example:} These are the Group Parameters of a group that has been
26132 classified as a ham group, meaning that it should only contain ham
26135 ((spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-ham)
26136 (spam-process ((ham spam-use-spamoracle)
26137 (spam spam-use-spamoracle))))
26139 For this group the @code{spam-use-spamoracle} is installed for both
26140 ham and spam processing. If the group contains spam message
26141 (e.g. because SpamOracle has not had enough sample messages yet) and
26142 the user marks some messages as spam messages, these messages will be
26143 processed by SpamOracle. The processor sends the messages to
26144 SpamOracle as new samples for spam.
26146 @node Extending the Spam package
26147 @subsection Extending the Spam package
26148 @cindex spam filtering
26149 @cindex spam elisp package, extending
26150 @cindex extending the spam elisp package
26152 Say you want to add a new back end called blackbox. For filtering
26153 incoming mail, provide the following:
26161 (defvar spam-use-blackbox nil
26162 "True if blackbox should be used.")
26165 Write @code{spam-check-blackbox} if Blackbox can check incoming mail.
26167 Write @code{spam-blackbox-register-routine} and
26168 @code{spam-blackbox-unregister-routine} using the bogofilter
26169 register/unregister routines as a start, or other restister/unregister
26170 routines more appropriate to Blackbox, if Blackbox can
26171 register/unregister spam and ham.
26176 The @code{spam-check-blackbox} function should return @samp{nil} or
26177 @code{spam-split-group}, observing the other conventions. See the
26178 existing @code{spam-check-*} functions for examples of what you can
26179 do, and stick to the template unless you fully understand the reasons
26184 For processing spam and ham messages, provide the following:
26191 Note you don't have to provide a spam or a ham processor. Only
26192 provide them if Blackbox supports spam or ham processing.
26194 Also, ham and spam processors are being phased out as single
26195 variables. Instead the form @code{(spam spam-use-blackbox)} or
26196 @code{(ham spam-use-blackbox)} is favored. For now, spam/ham
26197 processor variables are still around but they won't be for long.
26200 (defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox-spam"
26201 "The Blackbox summary exit spam processor.
26202 Only applicable to spam groups.")
26204 (defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox-ham"
26205 "The whitelist summary exit ham processor.
26206 Only applicable to non-spam (unclassified and ham) groups.")
26215 (const :tag "Spam: Blackbox" (spam spam-use-blackbox))
26216 (const :tag "Ham: Blackbox" (ham spam-use-blackbox))
26218 to the @code{spam-process} group parameter in @code{gnus.el}. Make
26219 sure you do it twice, once for the parameter and once for the
26220 variable customization.
26224 (variable-item spam-use-blackbox)
26226 to the @code{spam-autodetect-methods} group parameter in
26227 @code{gnus.el} if Blackbox can check incoming mail for spam contents.
26229 Finally, use the appropriate @code{spam-install-*-backend} function in
26230 @code{spam.el}. Here are the available functions.
26236 @code{spam-install-backend-alias}
26238 This function will simply install an alias for a back end that does
26239 everything like the original back end. It is currently only used to
26240 make @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} act like @code{spam-use-BBDB}.
26243 @code{spam-install-nocheck-backend}
26245 This function installs a back end that has no check function, but can
26246 register/unregister ham or spam. The @code{spam-use-gmane} back end is
26250 @code{spam-install-checkonly-backend}
26252 This function will install a back end that can only check incoming mail
26253 for spam contents. It can't register or unregister messages.
26254 @code{spam-use-blackholes} and @code{spam-use-hashcash} are such
26258 @code{spam-install-statistical-checkonly-backend}
26260 This function installs a statistical back end (one which requires the
26261 full body of a message to check it) that can only check incoming mail
26262 for contents. @code{spam-use-regex-body} is such a filter.
26265 @code{spam-install-statistical-backend}
26267 This function install a statistical back end with incoming checks and
26268 registration/unregistration routines. @code{spam-use-bogofilter} is
26272 @code{spam-install-backend}
26274 This is the most normal back end installation, where a back end that can
26275 check and register/unregister messages is set up without statistical
26276 abilities. The @code{spam-use-BBDB} is such a back end.
26279 @code{spam-install-mover-backend}
26281 Mover back ends are internal to @code{spam.el} and specifically move
26282 articles around when the summary is exited. You will very probably
26283 never install such a back end.
26288 @node Spam Statistics Package
26289 @subsection Spam Statistics Package
26290 @cindex Paul Graham
26291 @cindex Graham, Paul
26292 @cindex naive Bayesian spam filtering
26293 @cindex Bayesian spam filtering, naive
26294 @cindex spam filtering, naive Bayesian
26296 Paul Graham has written an excellent essay about spam filtering using
26297 statistics: @uref{http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html,A Plan for
26298 Spam}. In it he describes the inherent deficiency of rule-based
26299 filtering as used by SpamAssassin, for example: Somebody has to write
26300 the rules, and everybody else has to install these rules. You are
26301 always late. It would be much better, he argues, to filter mail based
26302 on whether it somehow resembles spam or non-spam. One way to measure
26303 this is word distribution. He then goes on to describe a solution
26304 that checks whether a new mail resembles any of your other spam mails
26307 The basic idea is this: Create a two collections of your mail, one
26308 with spam, one with non-spam. Count how often each word appears in
26309 either collection, weight this by the total number of mails in the
26310 collections, and store this information in a dictionary. For every
26311 word in a new mail, determine its probability to belong to a spam or a
26312 non-spam mail. Use the 15 most conspicuous words, compute the total
26313 probability of the mail being spam. If this probability is higher
26314 than a certain threshold, the mail is considered to be spam.
26316 The Spam Statistics package adds support to Gnus for this kind of
26317 filtering. It can be used as one of the back ends of the Spam package
26318 (@pxref{Spam Package}), or by itself.
26320 Before using the Spam Statistics package, you need to set it up.
26321 First, you need two collections of your mail, one with spam, one with
26322 non-spam. Then you need to create a dictionary using these two
26323 collections, and save it. And last but not least, you need to use
26324 this dictionary in your fancy mail splitting rules.
26327 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
26328 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
26329 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
26332 @node Creating a spam-stat dictionary
26333 @subsubsection Creating a spam-stat dictionary
26335 Before you can begin to filter spam based on statistics, you must
26336 create these statistics based on two mail collections, one with spam,
26337 one with non-spam. These statistics are then stored in a dictionary
26338 for later use. In order for these statistics to be meaningful, you
26339 need several hundred emails in both collections.
26341 Gnus currently supports only the nnml back end for automated dictionary
26342 creation. The nnml back end stores all mails in a directory, one file
26343 per mail. Use the following:
26345 @defun spam-stat-process-spam-directory
26346 Create spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every file
26347 is treated as one spam mail.
26350 @defun spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory
26351 Create non-spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every
26352 file is treated as one non-spam mail.
26355 Usually you would call @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory} on a
26356 directory such as @file{~/Mail/mail/spam} (this usually corresponds to
26357 the group @samp{nnml:mail.spam}), and you would call
26358 @code{spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory} on a directory such as
26359 @file{~/Mail/mail/misc} (this usually corresponds to the group
26360 @samp{nnml:mail.misc}).
26362 When you are using @acronym{IMAP}, you won't have the mails available
26363 locally, so that will not work. One solution is to use the Gnus Agent
26364 to cache the articles. Then you can use directories such as
26365 @file{"~/News/agent/nnimap/mail.yourisp.com/personal_spam"} for
26366 @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory}. @xref{Agent as Cache}.
26369 This variable holds the hash-table with all the statistics---the
26370 dictionary we have been talking about. For every word in either
26371 collection, this hash-table stores a vector describing how often the
26372 word appeared in spam and often it appeared in non-spam mails.
26375 If you want to regenerate the statistics from scratch, you need to
26376 reset the dictionary.
26378 @defun spam-stat-reset
26379 Reset the @code{spam-stat} hash-table, deleting all the statistics.
26382 When you are done, you must save the dictionary. The dictionary may
26383 be rather large. If you will not update the dictionary incrementally
26384 (instead, you will recreate it once a month, for example), then you
26385 can reduce the size of the dictionary by deleting all words that did
26386 not appear often enough or that do not clearly belong to only spam or
26387 only non-spam mails.
26389 @defun spam-stat-reduce-size
26390 Reduce the size of the dictionary. Use this only if you do not want
26391 to update the dictionary incrementally.
26394 @defun spam-stat-save
26395 Save the dictionary.
26398 @defvar spam-stat-file
26399 The filename used to store the dictionary. This defaults to
26400 @file{~/.spam-stat.el}.
26403 @node Splitting mail using spam-stat
26404 @subsubsection Splitting mail using spam-stat
26406 This section describes how to use the Spam statistics
26407 @emph{independently} of the @xref{Spam Package}.
26409 First, add the following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
26412 (require 'spam-stat)
26416 This will load the necessary Gnus code, and the dictionary you
26419 Next, you need to adapt your fancy splitting rules: You need to
26420 determine how to use @code{spam-stat}. The following examples are for
26421 the nnml back end. Using the nnimap back end works just as well. Just
26422 use @code{nnimap-split-fancy} instead of @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
26424 In the simplest case, you only have two groups, @samp{mail.misc} and
26425 @samp{mail.spam}. The following expression says that mail is either
26426 spam or it should go into @samp{mail.misc}. If it is spam, then
26427 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will return @samp{mail.spam}.
26430 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
26431 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
26435 @defvar spam-stat-split-fancy-spam-group
26436 The group to use for spam. Default is @samp{mail.spam}.
26439 If you also filter mail with specific subjects into other groups, use
26440 the following expression. Only mails not matching the regular
26441 expression are considered potential spam.
26444 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
26445 `(| ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
26446 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
26450 If you want to filter for spam first, then you must be careful when
26451 creating the dictionary. Note that @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} must
26452 consider both mails in @samp{mail.emacs} and in @samp{mail.misc} as
26453 non-spam, therefore both should be in your collection of non-spam
26454 mails, when creating the dictionary!
26457 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
26458 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
26459 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
26463 You can combine this with traditional filtering. Here, we move all
26464 HTML-only mails into the @samp{mail.spam.filtered} group. Note that since
26465 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will never see them, the mails in
26466 @samp{mail.spam.filtered} should be neither in your collection of spam mails,
26467 nor in your collection of non-spam mails, when creating the
26471 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
26472 `(| ("Content-Type" "text/html" "mail.spam.filtered")
26473 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
26474 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
26479 @node Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
26480 @subsubsection Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
26482 The main interface to using @code{spam-stat}, are the following functions:
26484 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-spam
26485 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new spam mail.
26486 Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
26489 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-no-spam
26490 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new non-spam
26491 mail. Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
26494 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-spam
26495 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be normal
26496 mail but spam. Use this to change the status of a mail that has
26497 already been processed as non-spam.
26500 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-non-spam
26501 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be spam but
26502 normal mail. Use this to change the status of a mail that has already
26503 been processed as spam.
26506 @defun spam-stat-save
26507 Save the hash table to the file. The filename used is stored in the
26508 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
26511 @defun spam-stat-load
26512 Load the hash table from a file. The filename used is stored in the
26513 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
26516 @defun spam-stat-score-word
26517 Return the spam score for a word.
26520 @defun spam-stat-score-buffer
26521 Return the spam score for a buffer.
26524 @defun spam-stat-split-fancy
26525 Use this function for fancy mail splitting. Add the rule @samp{(:
26526 spam-stat-split-fancy)} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
26529 Make sure you load the dictionary before using it. This requires the
26530 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
26533 (require 'spam-stat)
26537 Typical test will involve calls to the following functions:
26540 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
26541 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
26542 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
26543 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
26544 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
26545 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
26546 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
26547 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
26548 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
26549 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
26550 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
26551 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
26552 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
26553 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
26556 Here is how you would create your dictionary:
26559 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
26560 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
26561 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
26562 Repeat for any other non-spam group you need...
26563 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
26564 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
26567 @node The Gnus Registry
26568 @section The Gnus Registry
26573 The Gnus registry is a package that tracks messages by their
26574 Message-ID across all backends. This allows Gnus users to do several
26575 cool things, be the envy of the locals, get free haircuts, and be
26576 experts on world issues. Well, maybe not all of those, but the
26577 features are pretty cool.
26579 Although they will be explained in detail shortly, here's a quick list
26580 of said features in case your attention span is... never mind.
26584 Split messages to their parent
26586 This keeps discussions in the same group. You can use the subject and
26587 the sender in addition to the Message-ID. Several strategies are
26591 Store custom flags and keywords
26593 The registry can store custom flags and keywords for a message. For
26594 instance, you can mark a message ``To-Do'' this way and the flag will
26595 persist whether the message is in the nnimap, nnml, nnmaildir,
26599 Store arbitrary data
26601 Through a simple ELisp API, the registry can remember any data for a
26602 message. A built-in inverse map, when activated, allows quick lookups
26603 of all messages matching a particular set of criteria.
26608 * Fancy splitting to parent::
26609 * Store custom flags and keywords::
26610 * Store arbitrary data::
26616 Fortunately, setting up the Gnus registry is pretty easy:
26619 (setq gnus-registry-max-entries 2500
26620 gnus-registry-use-long-group-names t)
26622 (gnus-registry-initialize)
26625 This adds registry saves to Gnus newsrc saves (which happen on exit
26626 and when you press @kbd{s} from the @code{*Group*} buffer. It also
26627 adds registry calls to article actions in Gnus (copy, move, etc.) so
26628 it's not easy to undo the initialization. See
26629 @code{gnus-registry-initialize} for the gory details.
26631 Here are other settings used by the author of the registry (understand
26632 what they do before you copy them blindly).
26636 gnus-registry-split-strategy 'majority
26637 gnus-registry-ignored-groups '(("nntp" t)
26641 gnus-registry-max-entries 500000
26642 gnus-registry-use-long-group-names t
26643 gnus-registry-track-extra '(sender subject))
26646 They say: keep a lot of messages around, use long group names, track
26647 messages by sender and subject (not just parent Message-ID), and when
26648 the registry splits incoming mail, use a majority rule to decide where
26649 messages should go if there's more than one possibility. In addition,
26650 the registry should ignore messages in groups that match ``nntp'',
26651 ``nnrss'', ``spam'', or ``train.''
26653 You are doubtless impressed by all this, but you ask: ``I am a Gnus
26654 user, I customize to live. Give me more.'' Here you go, these are
26655 the general settings.
26657 @defvar gnus-registry-unfollowed-groups
26658 The groups that will not be followed by
26659 @code{gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent}. They will still be
26660 remembered by the registry. This is a list of regular expressions.
26663 @defvar gnus-registry-ignored-groups
26664 The groups that will not be remembered by the registry. This is a
26665 list of regular expressions, also available through Group/Topic
26666 customization (so you can ignore or keep a specific group or a whole
26670 @defvar gnus-registry-use-long-group-names
26671 Whether the registry will use long group names. It's recommended to
26672 set this to @code{t}, although everything works if you don't. Future
26673 functionality will require it.
26676 @defvar gnus-registry-max-entries
26677 The number (an integer or @code{nil} for unlimited) of entries the
26678 registry will keep.
26681 @defvar gnus-registry-cache-file
26682 The file where the registry will be stored between Gnus sessions.
26685 @node Fancy splitting to parent
26686 @subsection Fancy splitting to parent
26688 Simply put, this lets you put followup e-mail where it belongs.
26690 Every message has a Message-ID, which is unique, and the registry
26691 remembers it. When the message is moved or copied, the registry will
26692 notice this and offer the new group as a choice to the splitting
26695 When a followup is made, usually it mentions the original message's
26696 Message-ID in the headers. The registry knows this and uses that
26697 mention to find the group where the original message lives. You only
26698 have to put a rule like this:
26701 (setq nnimap-my-split-fancy '(|
26703 ;; split to parent: you need this
26704 (: gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent)
26706 ;; other rules, as an example
26712 in your fancy split setup. In addition, you may want to customize the
26713 following variables.
26715 @defvar gnus-registry-track-extra
26716 This is a list of symbols, so it's best to change it from the
26717 Customize interface. By default it's @code{nil}, but you may want to
26718 track @code{subject} and @code{sender} as well when splitting by parent.
26719 It may work for you. It can be annoying if your mail flow is large and
26720 people don't stick to the same groups.
26723 @defvar gnus-registry-split-strategy
26724 This is a symbol, so it's best to change it from the Customize
26725 interface. By default it's @code{nil}, but you may want to set it to
26726 @code{majority} or @code{first} to split by sender or subject based on
26727 the majority of matches or on the first found.
26730 @node Store custom flags and keywords
26731 @subsection Store custom flags and keywords
26733 The registry lets you set custom flags and keywords per message. You
26734 can use the Gnus->Registry Marks menu or the @kbd{M M x} keyboard
26735 shortcuts, where @code{x} is the first letter of the mark's name.
26737 @defvar gnus-registry-marks
26738 The custom marks that the registry can use. You can modify the
26739 default list, if you like. If you do, you'll have to exit Emacs
26740 before they take effect (you can also unload the registry and reload
26741 it or evaluate the specific macros you'll need, but you probably don't
26742 want to bother). Use the Customize interface to modify the list.
26744 By default this list has the @code{Important}, @code{Work},
26745 @code{Personal}, @code{To-Do}, and @code{Later} marks. They all have
26746 keyboard shortcuts like @kbd{M M i} for Important, using the first
26750 @defun gnus-registry-mark-article
26751 Call this function to mark an article with a custom registry mark. It
26752 will offer the available marks for completion.
26755 @node Store arbitrary data
26756 @subsection Store arbitrary data
26758 The registry has a simple API that uses a Message-ID as the key to
26759 store arbitrary data (as long as it can be converted to a list for
26762 @defun gnus-registry-store-extra-entry (id key value)
26763 Store @code{value} in the extra data key @code{key} for message
26767 @defun gnus-registry-delete-extra-entry (id key)
26768 Delete the extra data key @code{key} for message @code{id}.
26771 @defun gnus-registry-fetch-extra (id key)
26772 Get the extra data key @code{key} for message @code{id}.
26775 @defvar gnus-registry-extra-entries-precious
26776 If any extra entries are precious, their presence will make the
26777 registry keep the whole entry forever, even if there are no groups for
26778 the Message-ID and if the size limit of the registry is reached. By
26779 default this is just @code{(marks)} so the custom registry marks are
26784 @section Interaction with other modes
26789 @code{gnus-dired-minor-mode} provides some useful functions for dired
26790 buffers. It is enabled with
26792 (add-hook 'dired-mode-hook 'turn-on-gnus-dired-mode)
26797 @findex gnus-dired-attach
26798 @cindex attachments, selection via dired
26799 Send dired's marked files as an attachment (@code{gnus-dired-attach}).
26800 You will be prompted for a message buffer.
26803 @findex gnus-dired-find-file-mailcap
26804 Visit a file according to the appropriate mailcap entry
26805 (@code{gnus-dired-find-file-mailcap}). With prefix, open file in a new
26809 @findex gnus-dired-print
26810 Print file according to the mailcap entry (@code{gnus-dired-print}). If
26811 there is no print command, print in a PostScript image.
26814 @node Various Various
26815 @section Various Various
26821 @item gnus-home-directory
26822 @vindex gnus-home-directory
26823 All Gnus file and directory variables will be initialized from this
26824 variable, which defaults to @file{~/}.
26826 @item gnus-directory
26827 @vindex gnus-directory
26828 Most Gnus storage file and directory variables will be initialized from
26829 this variable, which defaults to the @env{SAVEDIR} environment
26830 variable, or @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
26832 Note that Gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{~/.gnus.el} file is read.
26833 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
26834 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
26835 @file{~/.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
26837 @item gnus-default-directory
26838 @vindex gnus-default-directory
26839 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
26840 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
26841 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
26842 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
26843 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
26844 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
26847 @vindex gnus-verbose
26848 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
26849 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
26850 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
26851 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
26852 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
26854 @item gnus-verbose-backends
26855 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
26856 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
26857 to the Gnus back ends instead of Gnus proper.
26859 @item gnus-add-timestamp-to-message
26860 @vindex gnus-add-timestamp-to-message
26861 This variable controls whether to add timestamps to messages that are
26862 controlled by @code{gnus-verbose} and @code{gnus-verbose-backends} and
26863 are issued. The default value is @code{nil} which means never to add
26864 timestamp. If it is @code{log}, add timestamps to only the messages
26865 that go into the @samp{*Messages*} buffer (in XEmacs, it is the
26866 @w{@samp{ *Message-Log*}} buffer). If it is neither @code{nil} nor
26867 @code{log}, add timestamps not only to log messages but also to the ones
26868 displayed in the echo area.
26870 @item nnheader-max-head-length
26871 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
26872 When the back ends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
26873 as little as possible. This variable (default 8192) specifies
26874 the absolute max length the back ends will try to read before giving up
26875 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
26876 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
26877 @code{t}, the back ends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
26878 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
26879 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
26881 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
26882 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
26883 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
26884 read when doing the operation described above.
26886 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
26887 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
26889 @cindex invalid characters in file names
26890 @cindex characters in file names
26891 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
26892 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
26893 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
26897 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
26902 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
26903 Windows (phooey) systems.
26905 @item gnus-hidden-properties
26906 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
26907 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
26908 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
26909 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
26911 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
26912 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
26913 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
26914 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
26915 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
26917 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
26918 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
26919 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
26921 @item gnus-invalid-group-regexp
26922 @vindex gnus-invalid-group-regexp
26924 Regexp to match ``invalid'' group names when querying user for a group
26925 name. The default value catches some @strong{really} invalid group
26926 names who could possibly mess up Gnus internally (like allowing
26927 @samp{:} in a group name, which is normally used to delimit method and
26930 @acronym{IMAP} users might want to allow @samp{/} in group names though.
26932 @item gnus-safe-html-newsgroups
26933 @vindex gnus-safe-html-newsgroups
26934 Groups in which links in html articles are considered all safe. The
26935 value may be a regexp matching those groups, a list of group names, or
26936 @code{nil}. This overrides @code{mm-w3m-safe-url-regexp}. The default
26937 value is @code{"\\`nnrss[+:]"}. This is effective only when emacs-w3m
26938 renders html articles, i.e., in the case @code{mm-text-html-renderer} is
26939 set to @code{w3m}. @xref{Display Customization, ,Display Customization,
26940 emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}.
26947 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
26948 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
26950 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
26952 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
26958 Not because of victories @*
26961 but for the common sunshine,@*
26963 the largess of the spring.
26967 but for the day's work done@*
26968 as well as I was able;@*
26969 not for a seat upon the dais@*
26970 but at the common table.@*
26975 @chapter Appendices
26978 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
26979 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
26980 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
26981 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
26982 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
26983 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
26984 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
26985 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
26986 * Frequently Asked Questions:: The Gnus FAQ
26993 @cindex installing under XEmacs
26995 XEmacs is distributed as a collection of packages. You should install
26996 whatever packages the Gnus XEmacs package requires. The current
26997 requirements are @samp{gnus}, @samp{mail-lib}, @samp{xemacs-base},
26998 @samp{eterm}, @samp{sh-script}, @samp{net-utils}, @samp{os-utils},
26999 @samp{dired}, @samp{mh-e}, @samp{sieve}, @samp{ps-print}, @samp{W3},
27000 @samp{pgg}, @samp{mailcrypt}, @samp{ecrypto}, and @samp{sasl}.
27007 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
27008 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
27010 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage,
27011 you can point your (feh!) web browser to
27012 @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/}. This is also the primary
27013 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is
27014 known as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
27016 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
27017 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
27018 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
27019 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
27020 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
27021 appropriate name, don't you think?)
27023 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
27024 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
27025 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
27026 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
27029 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
27030 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
27031 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
27032 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
27033 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
27034 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
27035 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
27036 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
27037 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
27041 @node Gnus Versions
27042 @subsection Gnus Versions
27044 @cindex September Gnus
27046 @cindex Quassia Gnus
27047 @cindex Pterodactyl Gnus
27050 @cindex Gnus versions
27052 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
27053 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
27054 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
27056 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
27057 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
27059 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
27060 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4'' (67 releases).
27062 On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37 releases.
27063 It was released as ``Gnus 5.6'' on March 8th 1998 (46 releases).
27065 Gnus 5.6 begat Pterodactyl Gnus on August 29th 1998 and was released as
27066 ``Gnus 5.8'' (after 99 releases and a CVS repository) on December 3rd
27069 On the 26th of October 2000, Oort Gnus was begun and was released as
27070 Gnus 5.10 on May 1st 2003 (24 releases).
27072 On the January 4th 2004, No Gnus was begun.
27074 On April 19, 2010 Gnus development was moved to Git. See
27075 http://git.gnus.org for details (http://www.gnus.org will be updated
27076 with the information when possible).
27078 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name --
27079 ``(ding) Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'',
27080 ``Pterodactyl Gnus'', ``Oort Gnus'', ``No Gnus'' -- don't panic.
27081 Don't let it know that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly. Whatever
27082 you do, don't run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its reach.
27083 Find a proper released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that instead.
27086 @node Other Gnus Versions
27087 @subsection Other Gnus Versions
27090 In addition to the versions of Gnus which have had their releases
27091 coordinated by Lars, one major development has been Semi-gnus from
27092 Japan. It's based on a library called @acronym{SEMI}, which provides
27093 @acronym{MIME} capabilities.
27095 These Gnusae are based mainly on Gnus 5.6 and Pterodactyl Gnus.
27096 Collectively, they are called ``Semi-gnus'', and different strains are
27097 called T-gnus, ET-gnus, Nana-gnus and Chaos. These provide powerful
27098 @acronym{MIME} and multilingualization things, especially important for
27105 What's the point of Gnus?
27107 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
27108 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
27109 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
27110 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
27111 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
27112 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
27113 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
27114 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
27115 keep track of millions of people who post?
27117 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
27118 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
27119 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
27120 to separate the newsreader from the back ends, Gnus now offers a simple
27121 interface for anybody who wants to write new back ends for fetching mail
27122 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
27123 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
27124 every one of you to explore and invent.
27126 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
27127 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
27130 @node Compatibility
27131 @subsection Compatibility
27133 @cindex compatibility
27134 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
27135 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
27136 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
27141 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
27145 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
27148 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
27151 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
27152 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
27153 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
27154 important variables have their values copied into their global
27155 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
27156 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
27158 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
27159 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
27160 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
27161 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
27162 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
27166 @cindex highlighting
27167 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
27168 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
27169 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
27170 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
27171 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
27172 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
27175 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
27176 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
27177 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
27178 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
27180 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
27181 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
27182 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
27183 to stop doing it the old way.
27185 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
27187 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
27189 @cindex reporting bugs
27191 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
27192 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
27193 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
27195 @vindex gnus-bug-create-help-buffer
27196 If you are in the habit of sending bug reports @emph{very} often, you
27197 may find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
27198 @code{gnus-bug-create-help-buffer} to @code{nil} to avoid having it pop
27203 @subsection Conformity
27205 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
27206 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
27214 There are no known breaches of this standard.
27218 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
27220 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
27221 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
27222 We do have some breaches to this one.
27228 These are considered to be ``vanity headers'', while I consider them
27229 to be consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted
27230 articles coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use
27231 either of those for posting articles. I would not have known that if
27232 it wasn't for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
27237 USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036, based
27238 on Son-of-RFC 1036. They have produced a number of drafts proposing
27239 various changes to the format of news articles. The Gnus towers will
27240 look into implementing the changes when the draft is accepted as an RFC.
27242 @item MIME - RFC 2045-2049 etc
27243 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
27244 All the various @acronym{MIME} RFCs are supported.
27246 @item Disposition Notifications - RFC 2298
27247 Message Mode is able to request notifications from the receiver.
27249 @item PGP - RFC 1991 and RFC 2440
27252 RFC 1991 is the original @acronym{PGP} message specification,
27253 published as an informational RFC. RFC 2440 was the follow-up, now
27254 called Open PGP, and put on the Standards Track. Both document a
27255 non-@acronym{MIME} aware @acronym{PGP} format. Gnus supports both
27256 encoding (signing and encryption) and decoding (verification and
27259 @item PGP/MIME - RFC 2015/3156
27260 RFC 2015 (superseded by 3156 which references RFC 2440 instead of RFC
27261 1991) describes the @acronym{MIME}-wrapping around the RFC 1991/2440 format.
27262 Gnus supports both encoding and decoding.
27264 @item S/MIME - RFC 2633
27265 RFC 2633 describes the @acronym{S/MIME} format.
27267 @item IMAP - RFC 1730/2060, RFC 2195, RFC 2086, RFC 2359, RFC 2595, RFC 1731
27268 RFC 1730 is @acronym{IMAP} version 4, updated somewhat by RFC 2060
27269 (@acronym{IMAP} 4 revision 1). RFC 2195 describes CRAM-MD5
27270 authentication for @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 2086 describes access control
27271 lists (ACLs) for @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 2359 describes a @acronym{IMAP}
27272 protocol enhancement. RFC 2595 describes the proper @acronym{TLS}
27273 integration (STARTTLS) with @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 1731 describes the
27274 GSSAPI/Kerberos4 mechanisms for @acronym{IMAP}.
27278 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
27279 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
27284 @subsection Emacsen
27290 This version of Gnus should work on:
27298 XEmacs 21.4 and up.
27302 This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
27303 that. Not reliably, at least. Older versions of Gnus may work on older
27304 Emacs versions. Particularly, Gnus 5.10.8 should also work on Emacs
27305 20.7 and XEmacs 21.1.
27307 @c No-merge comment: The paragraph added in v5-10 here must not be
27310 @node Gnus Development
27311 @subsection Gnus Development
27313 Gnus is developed in a two-phased cycle. The first phase involves much
27314 discussion on the development mailing list @samp{ding@@gnus.org}, where people
27315 propose changes and new features, post patches and new back ends. This
27316 phase is called the @dfn{alpha} phase, since the Gnusae released in this
27317 phase are @dfn{alpha releases}, or (perhaps more commonly in other
27318 circles) @dfn{snapshots}. During this phase, Gnus is assumed to be
27319 unstable and should not be used by casual users. Gnus alpha releases
27320 have names like ``Oort Gnus'' and ``No Gnus''. @xref{Gnus Versions}.
27322 After futzing around for 10-100 alpha releases, Gnus is declared
27323 @dfn{frozen}, and only bug fixes are applied. Gnus loses the prefix,
27324 and is called things like ``Gnus 5.10.1'' instead. Normal people are
27325 supposed to be able to use these, and these are mostly discussed on the
27326 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} newsgroup. This newgroup is mirrored to the
27327 mailing list @samp{info-gnus-english@@gnu.org} which is carried on Gmane
27328 as @samp{gmane.emacs.gnus.user}. These releases are finally integrated
27332 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
27333 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae,
27334 in particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming}. This is to prevent
27335 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
27336 @xref{Mail Source Customization}.
27338 The division of discussion between the ding mailing list and the Gnus
27339 newsgroup is not purely based on publicity concerns. It's true that
27340 having people write about the horrible things that an alpha Gnus release
27341 can do (sometimes) in a public forum may scare people off, but more
27342 importantly, talking about new experimental features that have been
27343 introduced may confuse casual users. New features are frequently
27344 introduced, fiddled with, and judged to be found wanting, and then
27345 either discarded or totally rewritten. People reading the mailing list
27346 usually keep up with these rapid changes, while people on the newsgroup
27347 can't be assumed to do so.
27349 So if you have problems with or questions about the alpha versions,
27350 direct those to the ding mailing list @samp{ding@@gnus.org}. This list
27351 is also available on Gmane as @samp{gmane.emacs.gnus.general}.
27354 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
27355 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae,
27356 in particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming}. This is to prevent
27357 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
27358 @xref{Mail Source Customization}.
27361 @subsection Contributors
27362 @cindex contributors
27364 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
27365 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
27366 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
27367 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
27368 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
27369 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
27370 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
27371 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
27372 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
27373 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
27375 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for@dots{} oops,
27381 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
27384 Shenghuo Zhu---uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el, webmail.el,
27385 nnwarchive and many, many other things connected with @acronym{MIME} and
27386 other types of en/decoding, as well as general bug fixing, new
27387 functionality and stuff.
27390 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
27391 well as numerous other things).
27394 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
27397 Joe Reiss---creator of the smiley faces.
27400 Justin Sheehy---the @acronym{FAQ} maintainer.
27403 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
27406 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
27407 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
27410 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
27413 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section.
27416 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
27419 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
27422 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and fixes.
27425 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
27428 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
27429 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
27432 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
27435 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
27438 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
27441 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
27445 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
27448 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
27451 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
27454 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
27455 well as autoconf support.
27459 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
27460 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
27462 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
27477 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
27479 Katsumi Yamaoka, @c Yamaoka
27483 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
27493 Alexei V. Barantsev,
27508 Massimo Campostrini,
27513 Jae-you Chung, @c ?
27514 James H. Cloos, Jr.,
27518 Andrew J. Cosgriff,
27521 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
27527 Michael Welsh Duggan,
27532 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
27536 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
27544 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
27546 Michelangelo Grigni,
27550 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
27552 Yoshiki Hayashi, @c Hayashi
27554 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
27562 Fran@,{c}ois Felix Ingrand,
27563 Tatsuya Ichikawa, @c Ichikawa
27564 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
27566 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
27576 Peter Skov Knudsen,
27577 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
27579 Koseki Yoshinori, @c Koseki
27580 Thor Kristoffersen,
27583 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
27601 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
27602 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
27609 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
27614 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
27618 John McClary Prevost,
27624 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
27629 Christian von Roques,
27632 Wolfgang Rupprecht,
27639 Philippe Schnoebelen,
27641 Randal L. Schwartz,
27655 Kiyokazu Suto, @c Suto
27660 Tozawa Akihiko, @c Tozawa
27680 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
27681 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
27682 (550kB and counting).
27684 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
27687 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
27688 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
27692 @subsection New Features
27693 @cindex new features
27696 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
27697 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
27698 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
27699 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
27700 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
27701 * Oort Gnus:: It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10/5.11.
27702 * No Gnus:: Very punny.
27705 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
27706 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
27707 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
27710 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
27712 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
27717 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
27718 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
27721 Local spool and several @acronym{NNTP} servers can be used at once
27722 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
27725 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
27728 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
27729 All the mail back ends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
27730 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
27733 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
27734 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
27735 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
27736 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
27739 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
27740 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
27743 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
27744 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
27745 (@pxref{The Active File}).
27748 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
27749 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
27752 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
27753 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
27754 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
27757 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
27758 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
27759 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
27762 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{~/.gnus.el}) to avoid
27763 cluttering up the @file{.emacs} file.
27766 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
27767 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
27770 You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
27771 results (@pxref{Kibozed Groups}).
27774 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
27775 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
27778 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
27779 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
27782 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
27783 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
27786 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
27789 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
27790 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
27793 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
27794 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
27797 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
27798 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
27801 Gnus can fetch @acronym{FAQ}s and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
27804 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
27805 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
27808 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
27812 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
27816 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
27817 configuration (@pxref{Window Layout}).
27820 You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard
27826 @node September Gnus
27827 @subsubsection September Gnus
27831 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/september,height=20cm}}
27835 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
27840 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
27841 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
27845 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
27846 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
27850 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
27854 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
27855 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
27858 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
27862 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions.
27865 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
27868 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
27871 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
27875 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
27876 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
27879 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
27883 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
27887 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
27891 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
27895 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
27898 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
27899 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
27902 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
27906 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
27907 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
27910 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
27913 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
27914 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
27915 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
27918 Gnus has a new back end (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets
27922 The Gnus cache is much faster.
27925 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
27929 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
27930 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
27933 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
27934 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
27937 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
27938 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
27941 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
27942 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
27943 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
27946 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
27947 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
27950 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
27953 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
27956 All mail back ends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
27959 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
27962 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
27963 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
27966 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Window
27970 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
27973 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}}
27978 Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (@pxref{NoCeM}).
27981 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
27985 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
27988 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
27992 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
27995 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
27998 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
27999 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
28002 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
28003 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
28007 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
28008 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
28011 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
28015 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
28016 buffer to allow easier treatment.
28019 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
28022 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
28026 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
28030 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
28031 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
28034 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
28038 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
28039 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
28042 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
28043 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
28046 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
28050 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
28053 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
28056 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
28062 @subsubsection Red Gnus
28064 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
28068 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/red,height=20cm}}
28075 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
28078 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
28079 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
28082 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
28083 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
28087 Article washing status can be displayed in the
28088 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
28091 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
28094 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
28095 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
28098 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
28102 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
28103 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
28107 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extendable (@pxref{Document
28108 Server Internals}).
28111 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
28115 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
28118 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
28119 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
28122 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
28123 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
28124 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
28127 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
28128 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
28131 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
28132 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
28135 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{C-M-_}
28139 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
28140 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
28143 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
28144 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
28147 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
28151 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
28154 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
28158 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
28159 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
28162 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
28163 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
28166 A new command for reading collections of documents
28167 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{C-M-d}
28168 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
28171 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
28175 A new mail-to-news back end makes it possible to post even when the @acronym{NNTP}
28176 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
28179 A new back end for reading searches from Web search engines
28180 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
28181 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
28184 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
28185 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
28189 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
28193 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
28197 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}}
28202 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
28206 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
28210 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
28211 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
28214 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
28220 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
28222 New features in Gnus 5.6:
28227 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
28228 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added.
28229 @xref{Gnus Unplugged}, for the full story.
28232 The @code{nndraft} back end has returned, but works differently than
28233 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
28234 group, which is created automatically.
28237 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
28241 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-ID's.
28244 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
28245 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
28248 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
28252 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
28255 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
28256 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
28259 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
28262 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. @xref{Symbolic Prefixes}, for
28266 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
28267 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the @file{all.SCORE} file.
28270 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
28271 control over simplification.
28274 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
28277 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
28281 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
28284 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
28287 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
28288 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
28289 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
28292 Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
28293 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
28296 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
28300 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
28301 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
28304 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
28305 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @acronym{NNTP} servers.
28308 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
28312 A history of where mails have been split is available.
28315 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
28318 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
28319 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
28322 A new function for citing in Message has been
28323 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
28326 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
28329 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
28333 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
28334 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
28337 The ``lapsed date'' article header can be kept continually
28338 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
28341 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} back end.
28344 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
28348 @node Pterodactyl Gnus
28349 @subsubsection Pterodactyl Gnus
28351 New features in Gnus 5.8:
28356 The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
28357 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
28359 If you used procmail like in
28362 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
28363 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
28364 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
28365 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
28368 this now has changed to
28372 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
28376 @xref{Mail Source Specifiers}.
28379 Gnus is now a @acronym{MIME}-capable reader. This affects many parts of
28380 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
28383 Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too
28384 many parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
28387 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} can now be a function to be
28388 called to position point.
28391 The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
28392 summary buffers and @acronym{NOV} files.
28395 @code{gnus-article-display-hook} has been removed. Instead, a number
28396 of variables starting with @code{gnus-treat-} have been added.
28399 The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now works in a
28400 subtly different manner.
28403 New web-based back ends have been added: @code{nnslashdot},
28404 @code{nnwarchive} and @code{nnultimate}. nnweb has been revamped,
28405 again, to keep up with ever-changing layouts.
28408 Gnus can now read @acronym{IMAP} mail via @code{nnimap}.
28413 @subsubsection Oort Gnus
28416 New features in Gnus 5.10:
28420 @item Installation changes
28421 @c ***********************
28425 Upgrading from previous (stable) version if you have used Oort.
28427 If you have tried Oort (the unstable Gnus branch leading to this
28428 release) but went back to a stable version, be careful when upgrading to
28429 this version. In particular, you will probably want to remove all
28430 @file{.marks} (nnml) and @file{.mrk} (nnfolder) files, so that flags are
28431 read from your @file{.newsrc.eld} instead of from the
28432 @file{.marks}/@file{.mrk} file where this release store flags. See a
28433 later entry for more information about marks. Note that downgrading
28434 isn't save in general.
28437 Lisp files are now installed in @file{.../site-lisp/gnus/} by default.
28438 It defaulted to @file{.../site-lisp/} formerly. In addition to this,
28439 the new installer issues a warning if other Gnus installations which
28440 will shadow the latest one are detected. You can then remove those
28441 shadows manually or remove them using @code{make
28442 remove-installed-shadows}.
28445 New @file{make.bat} for compiling and installing Gnus under MS Windows
28447 Use @file{make.bat} if you want to install Gnus under MS Windows, the
28448 first argument to the batch-program should be the directory where
28449 @file{xemacs.exe} respectively @file{emacs.exe} is located, if you want
28450 to install Gnus after compiling it, give @file{make.bat} @code{/copy} as
28451 the second parameter.
28453 @file{make.bat} has been rewritten from scratch, it now features
28454 automatic recognition of XEmacs and GNU Emacs, generates
28455 @file{gnus-load.el}, checks if errors occur while compilation and
28456 generation of info files and reports them at the end of the build
28457 process. It now uses @code{makeinfo} if it is available and falls
28458 back to @file{infohack.el} otherwise. @file{make.bat} should now
28459 install all files which are necessary to run Gnus and be generally a
28460 complete replacement for the @code{configure; make; make install}
28461 cycle used under Unix systems.
28463 The new @file{make.bat} makes @file{make-x.bat} and @file{xemacs.mak}
28464 superfluous, so they have been removed.
28467 @file{~/News/overview/} not used.
28469 As a result of the following change, the @file{~/News/overview/}
28470 directory is not used any more. You can safely delete the entire
28473 @c FIXME: `gnus-load' is mentioned in README, which is not included in
28474 @c the repository. We should find a better place for this item.
28476 @code{(require 'gnus-load)}
28478 If you use a stand-alone Gnus distribution, you'd better add
28479 @code{(require 'gnus-load)} into your @file{~/.emacs} after adding the Gnus
28480 lisp directory into load-path.
28482 File @file{gnus-load.el} contains autoload commands, functions and variables,
28483 some of which may not be included in distributions of Emacsen.
28487 @item New packages and libraries within Gnus
28488 @c *****************************************
28493 The revised Gnus @acronym{FAQ} is included in the manual,
28494 @xref{Frequently Asked Questions}.
28497 @acronym{TLS} wrapper shipped with Gnus
28499 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} is now supported in @acronym{IMAP} and
28500 @acronym{NNTP} via @file{tls.el} and GNUTLS. The old
28501 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} support via (external third party)
28502 @file{ssl.el} and OpenSSL still works.
28505 Improved anti-spam features.
28507 Gnus is now able to take out spam from your mail and news streams
28508 using a wide variety of programs and filter rules. Among the supported
28509 methods are RBL blocklists, bogofilter and white/blacklists. Hooks
28510 for easy use of external packages such as SpamAssassin and Hashcash
28511 are also new. @ref{Thwarting Email Spam} and @ref{Spam Package}.
28512 @c FIXME: @xref{Spam Package}?. Should this be under Misc?
28515 Gnus supports server-side mail filtering using Sieve.
28517 Sieve rules can be added as Group Parameters for groups, and the
28518 complete Sieve script is generated using @kbd{D g} from the Group
28519 buffer, and then uploaded to the server using @kbd{C-c C-l} in the
28520 generated Sieve buffer. @xref{Sieve Commands}, and the new Sieve
28521 manual @ref{Top, , Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
28525 @item Changes in group mode
28526 @c ************************
28531 @code{gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group} can be called interactively,
28535 Retrieval of charters and control messages
28537 There are new commands for fetching newsgroup charters (@kbd{H c}) and
28538 control messages (@kbd{H C}).
28541 The new variable @code{gnus-parameters} can be used to set group parameters.
28543 Earlier this was done only via @kbd{G p} (or @kbd{G c}), which stored
28544 the parameters in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}, but via this variable you can
28545 enjoy the powers of customize, and simplified backups since you set the
28546 variable in @file{~/.gnus.el} instead of @file{~/.newsrc.eld}. The
28547 variable maps regular expressions matching group names to group
28550 (setq gnus-parameters
28552 (gnus-show-threads nil)
28553 (gnus-use-scoring nil))
28554 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
28555 (to-group . "\\1"))))
28559 Unread count correct in nnimap groups.
28561 The estimated number of unread articles in the group buffer should now
28562 be correct for nnimap groups. This is achieved by calling
28563 @code{nnimap-fixup-unread-after-getting-new-news} from the
28564 @code{gnus-setup-news-hook} (called on startup) and
28565 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook}. (called after getting new
28566 mail). If you have modified those variables from the default, you may
28567 want to add @code{nnimap-fixup-unread-after-getting-new-news} again. If
28568 you were happy with the estimate and want to save some (minimal) time
28569 when getting new mail, remove the function.
28572 Group names are treated as UTF-8 by default.
28574 This is supposedly what USEFOR wanted to migrate to. See
28575 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist} and
28576 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist} for customization.
28579 @code{gnus-group-charset-alist} and
28580 @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
28582 The regexps in these variables are compared with full group names
28583 instead of real group names in 5.8. Users who customize these
28584 variables should change those regexps accordingly. For example:
28586 ("^han\\>" euc-kr) -> ("\\(^\\|:\\)han\\>" euc-kr)
28590 Old intermediate incoming mail files (@file{Incoming*}) are deleted
28591 after a couple of days, not immediately. @xref{Mail Source
28592 Customization}. (New in Gnus 5.10.10 / Emacs 22.2)
28596 @item Changes in summary and article mode
28597 @c **************************************
28602 @kbd{F} (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}) and @kbd{R}
28603 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}) only yank the text in the
28604 region if the region is active.
28607 In draft groups, @kbd{e} is now bound to @code{gnus-draft-edit-message}.
28608 Use @kbd{B w} for @code{gnus-summary-edit-article} instead.
28613 More buttons for URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links, man
28614 pages and Emacs or Gnus related references. @xref{Article Buttons}. The
28615 variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} can be used to control the
28616 appearance of all article buttons. @xref{Article Button Levels}.
28619 Single-part yenc encoded attachments can be decoded.
28624 The picons code has been reimplemented to work in GNU Emacs---some of
28625 the previous options have been removed or renamed.
28627 Picons are small ``personal icons'' representing users, domain and
28628 newsgroups, which can be displayed in the Article buffer.
28632 If the new option @code{gnus-treat-body-boundary} is non-@code{nil}, a
28633 boundary line is drawn at the end of the headers.
28636 Signed article headers (X-PGP-Sig) can be verified with @kbd{W p}.
28639 The Summary Buffer uses an arrow in the fringe to indicate the current
28640 article. Use @code{(setq gnus-summary-display-arrow nil)} to disable it.
28643 Warn about email replies to news
28645 Do you often find yourself replying to news by email by mistake? Then
28646 the new option @code{gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news} is just the thing for
28650 If the new option @code{gnus-summary-display-while-building} is
28651 non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer is shown and updated as it's being
28655 The new @code{recent} mark @samp{.} indicates newly arrived messages (as
28656 opposed to old but unread messages).
28659 Gnus supports RFC 2369 mailing list headers, and adds a number of
28660 related commands in mailing list groups. @xref{Mailing List}.
28663 The Date header can be displayed in a format that can be read aloud
28664 in English. @xref{Article Date}.
28667 diffs are automatically highlighted in groups matching
28668 @code{mm-uu-diff-groups-regexp}
28671 Better handling of Microsoft citation styles
28673 Gnus now tries to recognize the mangled header block that some Microsoft
28674 mailers use to indicate that the rest of the message is a citation, even
28675 though it is not quoted in any way. The variable
28676 @code{gnus-cite-unsightly-citation-regexp} matches the start of these
28679 The new command @kbd{W Y f}
28680 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article}) allows deuglifying broken
28681 Outlook (Express) articles.
28684 @code{gnus-article-skip-boring}
28686 If you set @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} to @code{t}, then Gnus will
28687 not scroll down to show you a page that contains only boring text,
28688 which by default means cited text and signature. You can customize
28689 what is skippable using @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}.
28691 This feature is especially useful if you read many articles that
28692 consist of a little new content at the top with a long, untrimmed
28693 message cited below.
28696 Smileys (@samp{:-)}, @samp{;-)} etc) are now displayed graphically in
28699 Put @code{(setq gnus-treat-display-smileys nil)} in @file{~/.gnus.el} to
28703 Face headers handling. @xref{Face}.
28706 In the summary buffer, the new command @kbd{/ N} inserts new messages
28707 and @kbd{/ o} inserts old messages.
28710 Gnus decodes morse encoded messages if you press @kbd{W m}.
28713 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}
28715 The default value changed to @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%)
28716 %s\n}. Moreover @code{gnus-extra-headers},
28717 @code{nnmail-extra-headers} and @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses}
28718 changed their default so that the users name will be replaced by the
28719 recipient's name or the group name posting to for @acronym{NNTP}
28723 Deleting of attachments.
28725 The command @code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip} (bound to @kbd{C-o}
28726 on @acronym{MIME} buttons) saves a part and replaces the part with an
28727 external one. @code{gnus-mime-delete-part} (bound to @kbd{d} on
28728 @acronym{MIME} buttons) removes a part. It works only on back ends
28729 that support editing.
28732 @code{gnus-default-charset}
28734 The default value is determined from the
28735 @code{current-language-environment} variable, instead of
28736 @code{iso-8859-1}. Also the @samp{.*} item in
28737 @code{gnus-group-charset-alist} is removed.
28740 Printing capabilities are enhanced.
28742 Gnus supports Muttprint natively with @kbd{O P} from the Summary and
28743 Article buffers. Also, each individual @acronym{MIME} part can be
28744 printed using @kbd{p} on the @acronym{MIME} button.
28747 Extended format specs.
28749 Format spec @samp{%&user-date;} is added into
28750 @code{gnus-summary-line-format-alist}. Also, user defined extended
28751 format specs are supported. The extended format specs look like
28752 @samp{%u&foo;}, which invokes function
28753 @code{gnus-user-format-function-@var{foo}}. Because @samp{&} is used as the
28754 escape character, old user defined format @samp{%u&} is no longer supported.
28757 @kbd{/ *} (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}) is rewritten.
28758 @c FIXME: Was this a user-visible change?
28760 It was aliased to @kbd{Y c}
28761 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}). The new function filters
28762 out other articles.
28765 Some limiting commands accept a @kbd{C-u} prefix to negate the match.
28767 If @kbd{C-u} is used on subject, author or extra headers, i.e., @kbd{/
28768 s}, @kbd{/ a}, and @kbd{/ x}
28769 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-@{subject,author,extra@}}) respectively, the
28770 result will be to display all articles that do not match the expression.
28773 Gnus inlines external parts (message/external).
28777 @item Changes in Message mode and related Gnus features
28778 @c ****************************************************
28785 You can delay the sending of a message with @kbd{C-c C-j} in the Message
28786 buffer. The messages are delivered at specified time. This is useful
28787 for sending yourself reminders. @xref{Delayed Articles}.
28790 If the new option @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is non-@code{nil},
28791 the nnml back end allows compressed message files.
28794 The new option @code{gnus-gcc-mark-as-read} automatically marks
28795 Gcc articles as read.
28798 Externalizing of attachments
28800 If @code{gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments} or
28801 @code{message-fcc-externalize-attachments} is non-@code{nil}, attach
28802 local files as external parts.
28805 The envelope sender address can be customized when using Sendmail.
28806 @xref{Mail Variables, Mail Variables,, message, Message Manual}.
28809 Gnus no longer generate the Sender: header automatically.
28811 Earlier it was generated when the user configurable email address was
28812 different from the Gnus guessed default user address. As the guessing
28813 algorithm is rarely correct these days, and (more controversially) the
28814 only use of the Sender: header was to check if you are entitled to
28815 cancel/supersede news (which is now solved by Cancel Locks instead,
28816 see another entry), generation of the header has been disabled by
28817 default. See the variables @code{message-required-headers},
28818 @code{message-required-news-headers}, and
28819 @code{message-required-mail-headers}.
28822 Features from third party @file{message-utils.el} added to @file{message.el}.
28824 Message now asks if you wish to remove @samp{(was: <old subject>)} from
28825 subject lines (see @code{message-subject-trailing-was-query}). @kbd{C-c
28826 M-m} and @kbd{C-c M-f} inserts markers indicating included text.
28827 @kbd{C-c C-f a} adds a X-No-Archive: header. @kbd{C-c C-f x} inserts
28828 appropriate headers and a note in the body for cross-postings and
28829 followups (see the variables @code{message-cross-post-@var{*}}).
28832 References and X-Draft-From headers are no longer generated when you
28833 start composing messages and @code{message-generate-headers-first} is
28837 Easy inclusion of X-Faces headers. @xref{X-Face}.
28840 Group Carbon Copy (GCC) quoting
28842 To support groups that contains SPC and other weird characters, groups
28843 are quoted before they are placed in the Gcc: header. This means
28844 variables such as @code{gnus-message-archive-group} should no longer
28845 contain quote characters to make groups containing SPC work. Also, if
28846 you are using the string @samp{nnml:foo, nnml:bar} (indicating Gcc
28847 into two groups) you must change it to return the list
28848 @code{("nnml:foo" "nnml:bar")}, otherwise the Gcc: line will be quoted
28849 incorrectly. Note that returning the string @samp{nnml:foo, nnml:bar}
28850 was incorrect earlier, it just didn't generate any problems since it
28851 was inserted directly.
28854 @code{message-insinuate-rmail}
28856 @c FIXME should that not be 'message-user-agent?
28857 Adding @code{(message-insinuate-rmail)} and @code{(setq
28858 mail-user-agent 'gnus-user-agent)} in @file{.emacs} convinces Rmail to
28859 compose, reply and forward messages in message-mode, where you can
28860 enjoy the power of @acronym{MML}.
28863 @code{message-minibuffer-local-map}
28865 The line below enables BBDB in resending a message:
28867 (define-key message-minibuffer-local-map [(tab)]
28868 'bbdb-complete-name)
28872 @code{gnus-posting-styles}
28874 Add a new format of match like
28876 ((header "to" "larsi.*org")
28877 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
28879 The old format like the lines below is obsolete, but still accepted.
28881 (header "to" "larsi.*org"
28882 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
28886 @code{message-ignored-news-headers} and @code{message-ignored-mail-headers}
28888 @samp{X-Draft-From} and @samp{X-Gnus-Agent-Meta-Information} have been
28889 added into these two variables. If you customized those, perhaps you
28890 need add those two headers too.
28893 Gnus supports the ``format=flowed'' (RFC 2646) parameter. On
28894 composing messages, it is enabled by @code{use-hard-newlines}.
28895 Decoding format=flowed was present but not documented in earlier
28899 The option @code{mm-fill-flowed} can be used to disable treatment of
28900 ``format=flowed'' messages. Also, flowed text is disabled when sending
28901 inline PGP signed messages. @xref{Flowed text, , Flowed text,
28902 emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}. (New in Gnus 5.10.7)
28903 @c This entry is also present in the node "No Gnus".
28906 Gnus supports the generation of RFC 2298 Disposition Notification requests.
28908 This is invoked with the @kbd{C-c M-n} key binding from message mode.
28911 Message supports the Importance: (RFC 2156) header.
28913 In the message buffer, @kbd{C-c C-f C-i} or @kbd{C-c C-u} cycles through
28917 Gnus supports Cancel Locks in News.
28919 This means a header @samp{Cancel-Lock} is inserted in news posting. It is
28920 used to determine if you wrote an article or not (for canceling and
28921 superseding). Gnus generates a random password string the first time
28922 you post a message, and saves it in your @file{~/.emacs} using the Custom
28923 system. While the variable is called @code{canlock-password}, it is not
28924 security sensitive data. Publishing your canlock string on the web
28925 will not allow anyone to be able to anything she could not already do.
28926 The behavior can be changed by customizing @code{message-insert-canlock}.
28929 Gnus supports @acronym{PGP} (RFC 1991/2440), @acronym{PGP/MIME} (RFC
28930 2015/3156) and @acronym{S/MIME} (RFC 2630-2633).
28932 It needs an external @acronym{S/MIME} and OpenPGP implementation, but no
28933 additional Lisp libraries. This add several menu items to the
28934 Attachments menu, and @kbd{C-c RET} key bindings, when composing
28935 messages. This also obsoletes @code{gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook}.
28938 @acronym{MML} (Mime compose) prefix changed from @kbd{M-m} to @kbd{C-c
28941 This change was made to avoid conflict with the standard binding of
28942 @code{back-to-indentation}, which is also useful in message mode.
28945 The default for @code{message-forward-show-mml} changed to the symbol
28948 The behavior for the @code{best} value is to show @acronym{MML} (i.e.,
28949 convert to @acronym{MIME}) when appropriate. @acronym{MML} will not be
28950 used when forwarding signed or encrypted messages, as the conversion
28951 invalidate the digital signature.
28954 If @code{auto-compression-mode} is enabled, attachments are automatically
28955 decompressed when activated.
28956 @c FIXME: Does this affect article or message mode?
28959 Support for non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names
28961 Message supports non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names in From:, To: and
28962 Cc: and will query you whether to perform encoding when you try to
28963 send a message. The variable @code{message-use-idna} controls this.
28964 Gnus will also decode non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names in From:, To:
28965 and Cc: when you view a message. The variable @code{gnus-use-idna}
28968 @item You can now drag and drop attachments to the Message buffer.
28969 See @code{mml-dnd-protocol-alist} and @code{mml-dnd-attach-options}.
28970 @xref{MIME, ,MIME, message, Message Manual}.
28971 @c New in 5.10.9 / 5.11 (Emacs 22.1)
28973 @item @code{auto-fill-mode} is enabled by default in Message mode.
28974 See @code{message-fill-column}. @xref{Various Message Variables, ,
28975 Message Headers, message, Message Manual}.
28976 @c New in Gnus 5.10.12 / 5.11 (Emacs 22.3)
28980 @item Changes in back ends
28981 @c ***********************
28985 Gnus can display RSS newsfeeds as a newsgroup. @xref{RSS}.
28988 The nndoc back end now supports mailman digests and exim bounces.
28991 Gnus supports Maildir groups.
28993 Gnus includes a new back end @file{nnmaildir.el}. @xref{Maildir}.
28996 The nnml and nnfolder back ends store marks for each groups.
28998 This makes it possible to take backup of nnml/nnfolder servers/groups
28999 separately of @file{~/.newsrc.eld}, while preserving marks. It also
29000 makes it possible to share articles and marks between users (without
29001 sharing the @file{~/.newsrc.eld} file) within e.g. a department. It
29002 works by storing the marks stored in @file{~/.newsrc.eld} in a per-group
29003 file @file{.marks} (for nnml) and @file{@var{groupname}.mrk} (for
29004 nnfolder, named @var{groupname}). If the nnml/nnfolder is moved to
29005 another machine, Gnus will automatically use the @file{.marks} or
29006 @file{.mrk} file instead of the information in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
29007 The new server variables @code{nnml-marks-is-evil} and
29008 @code{nnfolder-marks-is-evil} can be used to disable this feature.
29018 The menu bar item (in Group and Summary buffer) named ``Misc'' has
29019 been renamed to ``Gnus''.
29022 The menu bar item (in Message mode) named ``@acronym{MML}'' has been
29023 renamed to ``Attachments''. Note that this menu also contains security
29024 related stuff, like signing and encryption (@pxref{Security, Security,,
29025 message, Message Manual}).
29028 The tool bars have been updated to use GNOME icons in Group, Summary and
29029 Message mode. You can also customize the tool bars: @kbd{M-x
29030 customize-apropos RET -tool-bar$} should get you started. This is a new
29031 feature in Gnus 5.10.10. (Only for Emacs, not in XEmacs.)
29033 @item The tool bar icons are now (de)activated correctly
29034 in the group buffer, see the variable @code{gnus-group-update-tool-bar}.
29035 Its default value depends on your Emacs version. This is a new feature
29040 @item Miscellaneous changes
29041 @c ************************
29048 The Gnus Agent has seen a major updated and is now enabled by default,
29049 and all nntp and nnimap servers from @code{gnus-select-method} and
29050 @code{gnus-secondary-select-method} are agentized by default. Earlier
29051 only the server in @code{gnus-select-method} was agentized by the
29052 default, and the agent was disabled by default. When the agent is
29053 enabled, headers are now also retrieved from the Agent cache instead
29054 of the back ends when possible. Earlier this only happened in the
29055 unplugged state. You can enroll or remove servers with @kbd{J a} and
29056 @kbd{J r} in the server buffer. Gnus will not download articles into
29057 the Agent cache, unless you instruct it to do so, though, by using
29058 @kbd{J u} or @kbd{J s} from the Group buffer. You revert to the old
29059 behavior of having the Agent disabled with @code{(setq gnus-agent
29060 nil)}. Note that putting @code{(gnus-agentize)} in @file{~/.gnus.el}
29061 is not needed any more.
29064 Gnus reads the @acronym{NOV} and articles in the Agent if plugged.
29066 If one reads an article while plugged, and the article already exists
29067 in the Agent, it won't get downloaded once more. @code{(setq
29068 gnus-agent-cache nil)} reverts to the old behavior.
29073 @code{gnus-dired-minor-mode} (see @ref{Other modes}) installs key
29074 bindings in dired buffers to send a file as an attachment, open a file
29075 using the appropriate mailcap entry, and print a file using the mailcap
29079 The format spec @code{%C} for positioning point has changed to @code{%*}.
29082 @code{gnus-slave-unplugged}
29084 A new command which starts Gnus offline in slave mode.
29091 @subsubsection No Gnus
29094 New features in No Gnus:
29095 @c FIXME: Gnus 5.12?
29097 @include gnus-news.texi
29103 @section The Manual
29107 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
29108 either @code{texi2dvi}
29110 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
29111 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
29113 to get what you hold in your hands now.
29115 The following conventions have been used:
29120 This is a @samp{string}
29123 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
29126 This is a @file{file}
29129 This is a @code{symbol}
29133 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
29137 (setq flargnoze "yes")
29140 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
29143 (setq flumphel 'yes)
29146 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
29147 ever get them confused.
29151 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
29152 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
29153 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
29154 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
29155 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
29156 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
29157 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
29163 @node On Writing Manuals
29164 @section On Writing Manuals
29166 I guess most manuals are written after-the-fact; documenting a program
29167 that's already there. This is not how this manual is written. When
29168 implementing something, I write the manual entry for that something
29169 straight away. I then see that it's difficult to explain the
29170 functionality, so I write how it's supposed to be, and then I change the
29171 implementation. Writing the documentation and writing the code go hand
29174 This, of course, means that this manual has no, or little, flow. It
29175 documents absolutely everything in Gnus, but often not where you're
29176 looking for it. It is a reference manual, and not a guide to how to get
29179 That would be a totally different book, that should be written using the
29180 reference manual as source material. It would look quite different.
29185 @section Terminology
29187 @cindex terminology
29192 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
29193 News is generally fetched from a nearby @acronym{NNTP} server, and is
29194 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
29195 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
29196 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
29200 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
29201 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
29202 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
29203 not posting, and replying is not following up.
29207 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
29211 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
29216 Gnus considers mail and news to be mostly the same, really. The only
29217 difference is how to access the actual articles. News articles are
29218 commonly fetched via the protocol @acronym{NNTP}, whereas mail
29219 messages could be read from a file on the local disk. The internal
29220 architecture of Gnus thus comprises a ``front end'' and a number of
29221 ``back ends''. Internally, when you enter a group (by hitting
29222 @key{RET}, say), you thereby invoke a function in the front end in
29223 Gnus. The front end then ``talks'' to a back end and says things like
29224 ``Give me the list of articles in the foo group'' or ``Show me article
29227 So a back end mainly defines either a protocol (the @code{nntp} back
29228 end accesses news via @acronym{NNTP}, the @code{nnimap} back end
29229 accesses mail via @acronym{IMAP}) or a file format and directory
29230 layout (the @code{nnspool} back end accesses news via the common
29231 ``spool directory'' format, the @code{nnml} back end access mail via a
29232 file format and directory layout that's quite similar).
29234 Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this is all
29235 done by the back ends. A back end is a collection of functions to
29236 access the articles.
29238 However, sometimes the term ``back end'' is also used where ``server''
29239 would have been more appropriate. And then there is the term ``select
29240 method'' which can mean either. The Gnus terminology can be quite
29245 Gnus will always use one method (and back end) as the @dfn{native}, or
29246 default, way of getting news.
29250 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same time.
29251 These are groups that use non-native non-secondary back ends for getting
29256 Secondary back ends are somewhere half-way between being native and being
29257 foreign, but they mostly act like they are native.
29261 A message that has been posted as news.
29264 @cindex mail message
29265 A message that has been mailed.
29269 A mail message or news article
29273 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.) is
29278 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
29283 A line from the head of an article.
29287 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
29288 collection of @acronym{NOV} lines.
29290 @item @acronym{NOV}
29291 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
29292 @acronym{NOV} stands for News OverView, which is a type of news server
29293 header which provide datas containing the condensed header information
29294 of articles. They are produced by the server itself; in the @code{nntp}
29295 back end Gnus uses the ones that the @acronym{NNTP} server makes, but
29296 Gnus makes them by itself for some backends (in particular, @code{nnml}).
29298 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the back end for the headers of all
29299 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
29300 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
29301 normal @sc{head} format.
29303 The @acronym{NOV} data consist of one or more text lines (@pxref{Text
29304 Lines, ,Motion by Text Lines, elisp, The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual})
29305 where each line has the header information of one article. The header
29306 information is a tab-separated series of the header's contents including
29307 an article number, a subject, an author, a date, a message-id,
29310 Those data enable Gnus to generate summary lines quickly. However, if
29311 the server does not support @acronym{NOV} or you disable it purposely or
29312 for some reason, Gnus will try to generate the header information by
29313 parsing each article's headers one by one. It will take time.
29314 Therefore, it is not usually a good idea to set nn*-nov-is-evil
29315 (@pxref{Slow/Expensive Connection}) to a non-@code{nil} value unless you
29316 know that the server makes wrong @acronym{NOV} data.
29320 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
29321 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
29322 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
29323 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
29324 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
29325 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
29327 @item killed groups
29328 @cindex killed groups
29329 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
29330 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
29332 @item zombie groups
29333 @cindex zombie groups
29334 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
29337 @cindex active file
29338 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
29339 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
29340 is rather large, as you might surmise.
29343 @cindex bogus groups
29344 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
29345 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
29346 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
29349 @cindex activating groups
29350 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
29351 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
29352 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
29356 News servers store their articles locally in one fashion or other.
29357 One old-fashioned storage method is to have just one file per
29358 article. That's called a ``traditional spool''.
29362 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
29364 @item select method
29365 @cindex select method
29366 A structure that specifies the back end, the server and the virtual
29369 @item virtual server
29370 @cindex virtual server
29371 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
29372 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
29373 whole is a virtual server.
29377 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
29378 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
29381 @item ephemeral groups
29382 @cindex ephemeral groups
29383 @cindex temporary groups
29384 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
29385 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
29386 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
29389 @cindex solid groups
29390 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
29391 group buffer are solid groups.
29393 @item sparse articles
29394 @cindex sparse articles
29395 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
29396 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
29400 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
29401 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
29405 @cindex thread root
29406 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
29407 articles in the thread.
29411 An article that has responses.
29415 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
29419 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
29420 specified by RFC 1153.
29423 @cindex splitting, terminology
29424 @cindex mail sorting
29425 @cindex mail filtering (splitting)
29426 The action of sorting your emails according to certain rules. Sometimes
29427 incorrectly called mail filtering.
29433 @node Customization
29434 @section Customization
29435 @cindex general customization
29437 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
29438 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
29439 for some quite common situations.
29442 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
29443 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
29444 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
29445 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
29449 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
29450 @subsection Slow/Expensive Connection
29452 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
29453 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
29454 Gnus has to get from the server.
29458 @item gnus-read-active-file
29459 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
29460 entire active file from the server. This file is often very large. You
29461 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
29462 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
29463 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
29465 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
29466 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
29467 Usually this one must @emph{always} be @code{nil} (which is the
29468 default). If, for example, you wish to not use @acronym{NOV}
29469 (@pxref{Terminology}) with the @code{nntp} back end (@pxref{Crosspost
29470 Handling}), set @code{nntp-nov-is-evil} to a non-@code{nil} value
29471 instead of setting this. But you normally do not need to set
29472 @code{nntp-nov-is-evil} since Gnus by itself will detect whether the
29473 @acronym{NNTP} server supports @acronym{NOV}. Anyway, grabbing article
29474 headers from the @acronym{NNTP} server will not be very fast if you tell
29475 Gnus not to use @acronym{NOV}.
29477 As the variables for the other back ends, there are
29478 @code{nndiary-nov-is-evil}, @code{nndir-nov-is-evil},
29479 @code{nnfolder-nov-is-evil}, @code{nnimap-nov-is-evil},
29480 @code{nnml-nov-is-evil}, @code{nnspool-nov-is-evil}, and
29481 @code{nnwarchive-nov-is-evil}. Note that a non-@code{nil} value for
29482 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} overrides all those variables.@footnote{Although
29483 the back ends @code{nnkiboze}, @code{nnultimate}, and
29484 @code{nnwfm} don't have their own nn*-nov-is-evil.}
29488 @node Slow Terminal Connection
29489 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
29491 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
29492 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
29493 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
29497 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
29498 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
29499 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
29500 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
29501 horizontal and vertical recentering.
29503 @item gnus-visible-headers
29504 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
29505 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
29506 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
29507 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
29509 Use the following to enable all the available hiding features:
29511 (setq gnus-treat-hide-headers 'head
29512 gnus-treat-hide-signature t
29513 gnus-treat-hide-citation t)
29516 @item gnus-use-full-window
29517 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
29518 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
29519 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
29520 want to read them anyway.
29522 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
29523 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
29527 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
29528 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
29529 lines, which might save some time.
29533 @node Little Disk Space
29534 @subsection Little Disk Space
29537 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
29538 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
29542 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
29543 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
29544 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
29545 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
29548 @item gnus-read-newsrc-file
29549 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never read @file{.newsrc}---it will
29550 only read @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
29551 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
29554 @item gnus-save-killed-list
29555 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
29556 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
29557 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
29558 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
29564 @subsection Slow Machine
29565 @cindex slow machine
29567 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
29568 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
29570 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
29571 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
29573 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
29574 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
29575 summary buffer faster. Also @pxref{Slow/Expensive Connection}.
29579 @node Troubleshooting
29580 @section Troubleshooting
29581 @cindex troubleshooting
29583 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
29591 Make sure your computer is switched on.
29594 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
29595 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
29599 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
29601 @samp{No Gnus v0.10} @c Adjust ../Makefile.in if you change this line!
29603 you have the right files loaded. Otherwise you have some old @file{.el}
29604 files lying around. Delete these.
29607 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a
29608 @acronym{FAQ} and a how-to.
29611 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
29612 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
29613 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
29614 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
29615 something like that.
29618 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
29621 @cindex reporting bugs
29623 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
29625 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
29626 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
29627 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
29628 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
29630 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
29631 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
29632 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
29633 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
29636 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
29637 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
29638 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
29639 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
29640 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
29641 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
29643 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
29644 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
29645 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
29649 If you would like to contribute a patch to fix bugs or make
29650 improvements, please produce the patch using @samp{diff -u}.
29653 If you want to debug your problem further before reporting, possibly
29654 in order to solve the problem yourself and send a patch, you can use
29655 edebug. Debugging Lisp code is documented in the Elisp manual
29656 (@pxref{Debugging, , Debugging Lisp Programs, elisp, The GNU Emacs
29657 Lisp Reference Manual}). To get you started with edebug, consider if
29658 you discover some weird behavior when pressing @kbd{c}, the first
29659 step is to do @kbd{C-h k c} and click on the hyperlink (Emacs only) in
29660 the documentation buffer that leads you to the function definition,
29661 then press @kbd{M-x edebug-defun RET} with point inside that function,
29662 return to Gnus and press @kbd{c} to invoke the code. You will be
29663 placed in the lisp buffer and can single step using @kbd{SPC} and
29664 evaluate expressions using @kbd{M-:} or inspect variables using
29665 @kbd{C-h v}, abort execution with @kbd{q}, and resume execution with
29666 @kbd{c} or @kbd{g}.
29671 Sometimes, a problem do not directly generate an elisp error but
29672 manifests itself by causing Gnus to be very slow. In these cases, you
29673 can use @kbd{M-x toggle-debug-on-quit} and press @kbd{C-g} when things are
29674 slow, and then try to analyze the backtrace (repeating the procedure
29675 helps isolating the real problem areas).
29677 A fancier approach is to use the elisp profiler, ELP. The profiler is
29678 (or should be) fully documented elsewhere, but to get you started
29679 there are a few steps that need to be followed. First, instrument the
29680 part of Gnus you are interested in for profiling, e.g. @kbd{M-x
29681 elp-instrument-package RET gnus} or @kbd{M-x elp-instrument-package
29682 RET message}. Then perform the operation that is slow and press
29683 @kbd{M-x elp-results}. You will then see which operations that takes
29684 time, and can debug them further. If the entire operation takes much
29685 longer than the time spent in the slowest function in the profiler
29686 output, you probably profiled the wrong part of Gnus. To reset
29687 profiling statistics, use @kbd{M-x elp-reset-all}. @kbd{M-x
29688 elp-restore-all} is supposed to remove profiling, but given the
29689 complexities and dynamic code generation in Gnus, it might not always
29692 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
29693 @cindex ding mailing list
29694 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
29695 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful. You can also ask on
29696 @email{ding@@gnus.org, the ding mailing list}. Write to
29697 @email{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
29701 @node Gnus Reference Guide
29702 @section Gnus Reference Guide
29704 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
29705 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
29706 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
29707 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
29710 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
29711 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
29712 back ends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
29713 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
29714 and general methods of operation.
29717 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
29718 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
29719 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
29720 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
29721 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
29722 * Group Info:: The group info format.
29723 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
29724 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
29725 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
29729 @node Gnus Utility Functions
29730 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
29731 @cindex Gnus utility functions
29732 @cindex utility functions
29734 @cindex internal variables
29736 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
29737 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
29738 Below is a list of the most common ones.
29742 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
29743 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
29744 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
29746 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
29747 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
29748 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
29750 @item gnus-group-real-name
29751 @findex gnus-group-real-name
29752 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
29755 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
29756 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
29757 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
29758 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
29760 @item gnus-get-info
29761 @findex gnus-get-info
29762 Returns the group info list for @var{group}.
29764 @item gnus-group-unread
29765 @findex gnus-group-unread
29766 The number of unread articles in @var{group}, or @code{t} if that is
29770 @findex gnus-active
29771 The active entry for @var{group}.
29773 @item gnus-set-active
29774 @findex gnus-set-active
29775 Set the active entry for @var{group}.
29777 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
29778 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
29779 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
29782 @item gnus-continuum-version
29783 @findex gnus-continuum-version
29784 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
29785 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
29788 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
29789 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
29790 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
29792 @item gnus-news-group-p
29793 @findex gnus-news-group-p
29794 Says whether @var{group} came from a news back end.
29796 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
29797 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
29798 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
29800 @item gnus-server-to-method
29801 @findex gnus-server-to-method
29802 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
29804 @item gnus-server-equal
29805 @findex gnus-server-equal
29806 Says whether two virtual servers are equal.
29808 @item gnus-group-native-p
29809 @findex gnus-group-native-p
29810 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
29812 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
29813 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
29814 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
29816 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
29817 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
29818 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
29820 @item gnus-group-find-parameter
29821 @findex gnus-group-find-parameter
29822 Returns the parameter list of @var{group}. If given a second parameter,
29823 returns the value of that parameter for @var{group}.
29825 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
29826 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
29827 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
29829 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
29830 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
29831 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
29833 @item gnus-check-backend-function
29834 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
29835 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the back end
29836 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
29839 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
29843 @item gnus-read-method
29844 @findex gnus-read-method
29845 Prompts the user for a select method.
29850 @node Back End Interface
29851 @subsection Back End Interface
29853 Gnus doesn't know anything about @acronym{NNTP}, spools, mail or virtual
29854 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
29855 server is a @dfn{back end} and some @dfn{back end variables}. As examples
29856 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
29857 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
29858 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
29860 When Gnus asks for information from a back end---say @code{nntp}---on
29861 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
29862 function parameters. (If not, the back end should use the ``current''
29863 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
29864 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
29865 been opened, the function should fail.
29867 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
29868 name. Take this example:
29872 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
29873 (nntp-port-number 4324))
29876 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
29877 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
29879 The back ends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
29880 The standard back ends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
29881 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
29883 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
29884 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
29885 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
29887 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
29888 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
29889 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
29890 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
29891 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
29892 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
29895 Some back ends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} back ends, and
29896 some might be said not to be. The latter are back ends that generally
29897 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server''
29898 ---they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
29901 Gnus identifies each message by way of group name and article number. A
29902 few remarks about these article numbers might be useful. First of all,
29903 the numbers are positive integers. Secondly, it is normally not
29904 possible for later articles to ``re-use'' older article numbers without
29905 confusing Gnus. That is, if a group has ever contained a message
29906 numbered 42, then no other message may get that number, or Gnus will get
29907 mightily confused.@footnote{See the function
29908 @code{nnchoke-request-update-info}, @ref{Optional Back End Functions}.}
29909 Third, article numbers must be assigned in order of arrival in the
29910 group; this is not necessarily the same as the date of the message.
29912 The previous paragraph already mentions all the ``hard'' restrictions that
29913 article numbers must fulfill. But it seems that it might be useful to
29914 assign @emph{consecutive} article numbers, for Gnus gets quite confused
29915 if there are holes in the article numbering sequence. However, due to
29916 the ``no-reuse'' restriction, holes cannot be avoided altogether. It's
29917 also useful for the article numbers to start at 1 to avoid running out
29918 of numbers as long as possible.
29920 Note that by convention, back ends are named @code{nnsomething}, but
29921 Gnus also comes with some @code{nnnotbackends}, such as
29922 @file{nnheader.el}, @file{nnmail.el} and @file{nnoo.el}.
29924 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary back end
29927 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
29930 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
29931 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
29932 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
29933 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
29934 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
29935 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
29939 @node Required Back End Functions
29940 @subsubsection Required Back End Functions
29944 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
29946 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
29947 @code{Message-ID}s. Current back ends do not fully support either---only
29948 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most back ends do not support
29949 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
29951 The result data should either be HEADs or @acronym{NOV} lines, and the result
29952 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
29953 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
29954 of HEADs and @acronym{NOV} lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
29956 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching ``extra
29957 headers'', in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
29958 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
29959 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
29960 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the back end finds it
29961 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
29962 number, do maximum fetches.
29964 Here's an example HEAD:
29967 221 1056 Article retrieved.
29968 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
29969 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
29970 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
29971 Subject: Re: Something very droll
29972 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
29973 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
29975 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
29976 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
29977 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
29981 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
29982 these in the data buffer.
29984 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
29988 head = error / valid-head
29989 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
29990 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
29991 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
29992 header = <text> eol
29996 (The version of BNF used here is the one used in RFC822.)
29998 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
29999 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
30003 nov-buffer = *nov-line
30004 nov-line = field 7*8[ <TAB> field ] eol
30005 field = <text except TAB>
30008 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
30012 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
30014 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
30015 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
30017 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The back end
30018 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
30019 server. In fact, it should do so.
30021 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
30022 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
30025 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
30027 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
30028 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
30031 There should be no data returned.
30034 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
30036 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the back end
30037 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that back end
30038 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
30039 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
30041 There should be no data returned.
30044 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
30046 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
30047 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
30048 non-@code{nil} value. This function should under no circumstances
30049 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
30051 There should be no data returned.
30054 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
30056 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
30058 There should be no data returned.
30061 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
30063 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
30064 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
30065 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
30066 it would be nice if that were possible.
30068 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
30069 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
30070 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
30071 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
30072 into its article buffer.
30074 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
30075 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
30076 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
30077 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
30078 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
30079 on successful article retrieval.
30082 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST)
30084 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
30085 making @var{group} the current group.
30087 If @var{fast}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
30090 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
30093 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
30096 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
30097 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
30098 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
30099 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
30100 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
30101 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
30102 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
30103 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader. If the group contains no
30104 articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1 and the
30108 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
30109 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
30110 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
30114 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
30116 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
30117 a no-op on most back ends.
30119 There should be no data returned.
30122 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
30124 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
30127 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
30130 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
30131 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
30134 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
30135 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag. If the group
30136 contains no articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1
30137 and the highest as 0.
30140 active-file = *active-line
30141 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
30143 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
30146 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
30147 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
30148 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
30151 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
30153 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
30154 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
30155 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
30156 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
30157 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
30158 clear if the posting could not be completed.
30160 There should be no result data from this function.
30165 @node Optional Back End Functions
30166 @subsubsection Optional Back End Functions
30170 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
30172 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
30173 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
30174 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
30176 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
30177 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
30178 former is in the same format as the data from
30179 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
30180 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
30183 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
30187 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
30189 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the back end for
30190 alterations. This comes in handy if the back end really carries all
30191 the information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
30192 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
30193 should return a non-@code{nil} value (exceptionally,
30194 @code{nntp-request-update-info} always returns @code{nil} not to waste
30195 the network resources).
30197 There should be no result data from this function.
30200 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
30202 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
30203 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
30204 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
30205 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
30206 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
30207 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
30208 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
30209 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
30211 There should be no result data from this function.
30214 @item (nnchoke-request-set-mark GROUP ACTION &optional SERVER)
30216 Set/remove/add marks on articles. Normally Gnus handles the article
30217 marks (such as read, ticked, expired etc) internally, and store them in
30218 @file{~/.newsrc.eld}. Some back ends (such as @acronym{IMAP}) however carry
30219 all information about the articles on the server, so Gnus need to
30220 propagate the mark information to the server.
30222 @var{action} is a list of mark setting requests, having this format:
30225 (RANGE ACTION MARK)
30228 @var{range} is a range of articles you wish to update marks on.
30229 @var{action} is @code{add} or @code{del}, used to add marks or remove
30230 marks (preserving all marks not mentioned). @var{mark} is a list of
30231 marks; where each mark is a symbol. Currently used marks are
30232 @code{read}, @code{tick}, @code{reply}, @code{expire}, @code{killed},
30233 @code{dormant}, @code{save}, @code{download}, @code{unsend},
30234 @code{forward} and @code{recent}, but your back end should, if
30235 possible, not limit itself to these.
30237 Given contradictory actions, the last action in the list should be the
30238 effective one. That is, if your action contains a request to add the
30239 @code{tick} mark on article 1 and, later in the list, a request to
30240 remove the mark on the same article, the mark should in fact be removed.
30242 An example action list:
30245 (((5 12 30) 'del '(tick))
30246 ((10 . 90) 'add '(read expire))
30247 ((92 94) 'del '(read)))
30250 The function should return a range of articles it wasn't able to set the
30251 mark on (currently not used for anything).
30253 There should be no result data from this function.
30255 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
30257 If the user tries to set a mark that the back end doesn't like, this
30258 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
30259 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
30260 @var{mark}. If the back end doesn't care, it must return the original
30261 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
30263 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
30264 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
30265 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
30268 There should be no result data from this function.
30271 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
30273 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
30274 request that the back end check for incoming articles, in one way or
30275 another. A mail back end will typically read the spool file or query
30276 the @acronym{POP} server when this function is invoked. The
30277 @var{group} doesn't have to be heeded---if the back end decides that
30278 it is too much work just scanning for a single group, it may do a
30279 total scan of all groups. It would be nice, however, to keep things
30280 local if that's practical.
30282 There should be no result data from this function.
30285 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
30287 The result data from this function should be a description of
30291 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
30293 description = <text>
30296 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
30298 The result data from this function should be the description of all
30299 groups available on the server.
30302 description-buffer = *description-line
30306 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
30308 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
30309 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date format
30310 (i.e., the date format used in mail and news headers, and returned by
30311 the function @code{message-make-date} by default). The data should be
30312 in the active buffer format.
30314 It is okay for this function to return ``too many'' groups; some back ends
30315 might find it cheaper to return the full list of groups, rather than
30316 just the new groups. But don't do this for back ends with many groups.
30317 Normally, if the user creates the groups herself, there won't be too
30318 many groups, so @code{nnml} and the like are probably safe. But for
30319 back ends like @code{nntp}, where the groups have been created by the
30320 server, it is quite likely that there can be many groups.
30323 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
30325 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
30327 There should be no return data.
30330 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
30332 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
30333 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
30334 numbers.) It is left up to the back end to decide how old articles
30335 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
30336 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
30339 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
30342 There should be no result data returned.
30345 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM &optional LAST)
30347 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
30348 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
30350 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
30351 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
30352 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
30353 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
30354 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
30355 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
30357 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
30358 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
30361 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
30362 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
30364 There should be no data returned.
30367 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
30369 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
30370 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
30371 this function in short order.
30373 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
30374 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
30376 The group should exist before the back end is asked to accept the
30377 article for that group.
30379 There should be no data returned.
30382 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
30384 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
30385 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
30387 There should be no data returned.
30390 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
30392 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
30393 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
30394 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
30396 There should be no data returned.
30399 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
30401 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
30402 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
30404 There should be no data returned.
30409 @node Error Messaging
30410 @subsubsection Error Messaging
30412 @findex nnheader-report
30413 @findex nnheader-get-report
30414 The back ends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
30415 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
30416 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the back end
30417 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
30418 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
30419 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
30422 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
30424 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
30427 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
30428 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
30429 recently reported message for the back end in question. This function
30430 takes one argument---the server symbol.
30432 Internally, these functions access @var{back-end}@code{-status-string},
30433 so the @code{nnchoke} back end will have its error message stored in
30434 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
30437 @node Writing New Back Ends
30438 @subsubsection Writing New Back Ends
30440 Many back ends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
30441 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
30442 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
30443 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
30444 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
30447 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
30448 back ends when writing new back ends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
30449 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
30451 All the back ends declare their public variables and functions by using a
30452 package called @code{nnoo}.
30454 To inherit functions from other back ends (and allow other back ends to
30455 inherit functions from the current back end), you should use the
30461 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
30462 parameters. For instance:
30465 (nnoo-declare nndir
30469 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
30470 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
30473 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
30474 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
30475 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
30477 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
30478 variables in the parent back ends to map the variable to when executing
30479 a function in those back ends.
30482 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
30483 "Where nndir will look for groups."
30484 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
30487 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
30488 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
30489 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
30491 @item nnoo-define-basics
30492 This macro defines some common functions that almost all back ends should
30496 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
30500 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
30501 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
30502 function as being public so that other back ends can inherit it.
30504 @item nnoo-map-functions
30505 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current back end to
30506 functions from the parent back ends.
30509 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
30510 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
30511 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
30514 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
30515 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
30516 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
30517 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
30520 This macro allows importing functions from back ends. It should be the
30521 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
30522 haven't already been defined.
30528 nnmh-request-newgroups)
30532 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
30533 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
30534 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
30539 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} back end.
30542 ;;; @r{nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus}
30543 ;; @r{Copyright (C) 1995,1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.}
30547 (require 'nnheader)
30551 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
30553 (nnoo-declare nndir
30556 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
30557 "Where nndir will look for groups."
30558 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
30560 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
30561 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
30564 (defvoo nndir-current-group ""
30566 nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
30567 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
30568 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
30570 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
30571 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
30573 ;;; @r{Interface functions.}
30575 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
30577 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
30578 (setq nndir-directory
30579 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
30581 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
30582 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
30583 (push `(nndir-current-group
30584 ,(file-name-nondirectory
30585 (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
30587 (push `(nndir-top-directory
30588 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
30590 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
30592 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
30593 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
30594 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
30595 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
30596 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
30600 nnmh-status-message
30602 nnmh-request-newgroups))
30608 @node Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
30609 @subsubsection Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
30611 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
30612 @findex gnus-declare-backend
30613 Having Gnus start using your new back end is rather easy---you just
30614 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
30615 enter the back end into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
30617 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the back end name and
30618 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
30623 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
30626 The above line would then go in the @file{nnchoke.el} file.
30628 The abilities can be:
30632 This is a mailish back end---followups should (probably) go via mail.
30634 This is a newsish back end---followups should (probably) go via news.
30636 This back end supports both mail and news.
30638 This is neither a post nor mail back end---it's something completely
30641 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
30642 articles and groups.
30644 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
30645 true for almost all back ends.
30646 @item prompt-address
30647 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
30648 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for back ends like
30649 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
30653 @node Mail-like Back Ends
30654 @subsubsection Mail-like Back Ends
30656 One of the things that separate the mail back ends from the rest of the
30657 back ends is the heavy dependence by most of the mail back ends on
30658 common functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the
30659 definition of @code{nnml-request-scan}:
30662 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
30663 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
30664 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
30667 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
30668 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
30671 This function takes four parameters.
30675 This should be a symbol to designate which back end is responsible for
30678 @item exit-function
30679 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
30681 @item temp-directory
30682 Where the temporary files should be stored.
30685 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
30686 performed for one group only.
30689 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{back-end}@code{-save-mail} to
30690 save each article. @var{back-end}@code{-active-number} will be called to
30691 find the article number assigned to this article.
30693 The function also uses the following variables:
30694 @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
30695 this back end); and @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} and
30696 @var{back-end}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
30697 @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
30701 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
30702 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
30706 @node Score File Syntax
30707 @subsection Score File Syntax
30709 Score files are meant to be easily parseable, but yet extremely
30710 mallable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
30711 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
30713 Here's a typical score file:
30717 ("win95" -10000 nil s)
30724 BNF definition of a score file:
30727 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
30728 element = rule / atom
30729 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
30730 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
30731 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
30732 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
30734 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
30735 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
30736 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
30737 date-header = "date"
30738 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
30739 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
30740 score = "nil" / <integer>
30741 date = "nil" / <natural number>
30742 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
30743 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
30744 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
30745 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
30746 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
30747 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
30748 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
30749 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
30750 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
30751 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
30752 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
30753 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
30754 exclude-files / read-only / touched
30755 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
30756 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
30757 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
30758 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
30759 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
30760 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
30761 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
30762 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
30763 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
30764 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
30765 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
30766 eval = "eval" space <form>
30767 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
30770 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
30773 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
30774 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
30775 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
30776 one looong line, then that's ok.
30778 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
30779 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
30783 @subsection Headers
30785 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
30786 corresponds to the @acronym{NOV} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
30787 almost suspect that the author looked at the @acronym{NOV} specification and
30788 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
30790 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
30791 RFC 1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
30792 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
30793 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
30794 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
30795 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
30796 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
30798 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
30799 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
30800 @code{xref}, and @code{extra}. There are macros for accessing and
30801 setting these slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
30802 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
30804 All these slots contain strings, except the @code{extra} slot, which
30805 contains an alist of header/value pairs (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
30811 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
30812 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
30814 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
30815 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
30816 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
30817 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
30819 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
30823 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
30826 is transformed into
30829 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
30832 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
30833 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
30836 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
30839 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
30840 is slightly tricky:
30843 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
30849 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
30852 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
30858 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
30865 and is equal to the previous range.
30867 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
30868 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
30869 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
30873 range = simple-range / normal-range
30874 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
30875 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
30876 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
30877 number *[ " " contents ]
30880 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
30881 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
30882 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
30883 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
30884 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
30889 @subsection Group Info
30891 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
30892 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
30893 describes the group.
30895 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
30896 second is a more complex one:
30899 ("no.group" 5 ((1 . 54324)))
30901 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
30902 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
30904 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
30907 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
30908 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
30909 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
30910 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
30911 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
30912 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
30913 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
30914 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
30915 this section is about.
30917 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
30918 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
30919 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
30921 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
30924 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
30925 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
30926 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
30927 group = quote <string> quote
30928 ralevel = rank / level
30929 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
30930 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
30931 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
30933 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
30934 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
30935 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
30936 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
30939 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
30940 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
30943 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
30944 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
30947 @item gnus-info-group
30948 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
30949 @findex gnus-info-group
30950 @findex gnus-info-set-group
30951 Get/set the group name.
30953 @item gnus-info-rank
30954 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
30955 @findex gnus-info-rank
30956 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
30957 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
30959 @item gnus-info-level
30960 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
30961 @findex gnus-info-level
30962 @findex gnus-info-set-level
30963 Get/set the group level.
30965 @item gnus-info-score
30966 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
30967 @findex gnus-info-score
30968 @findex gnus-info-set-score
30969 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
30971 @item gnus-info-read
30972 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
30973 @findex gnus-info-read
30974 @findex gnus-info-set-read
30975 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
30977 @item gnus-info-marks
30978 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
30979 @findex gnus-info-marks
30980 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
30981 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
30983 @item gnus-info-method
30984 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
30985 @findex gnus-info-method
30986 @findex gnus-info-set-method
30987 Get/set the group select method.
30989 @item gnus-info-params
30990 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
30991 @findex gnus-info-params
30992 @findex gnus-info-set-params
30993 Get/set the group parameters.
30996 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
30997 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
30999 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
31000 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
31001 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
31002 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
31005 @node Extended Interactive
31006 @subsection Extended Interactive
31007 @cindex interactive
31008 @findex gnus-interactive
31010 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
31011 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
31012 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
31015 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
31016 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
31021 The best thing to do would have been to implement
31022 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
31023 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
31024 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
31025 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
31026 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
31027 @code{interactive}.
31029 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
31034 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
31035 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
31039 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
31040 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
31041 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
31044 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
31048 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
31052 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
31058 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
31059 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
31063 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
31064 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
31065 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
31067 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
31068 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
31069 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
31070 Gnus, that's very useful.
31072 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
31073 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
31074 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
31075 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
31076 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
31077 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
31078 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
31079 following function:
31082 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
31086 (,function ,@@args))
31090 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
31091 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
31092 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
31095 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
31096 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
31097 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
31099 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
31100 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
31101 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
31104 @node Various File Formats
31105 @subsection Various File Formats
31108 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
31109 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
31113 @node Active File Format
31114 @subsubsection Active File Format
31116 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
31117 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
31120 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
31123 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
31124 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
31125 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
31126 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
31127 no.general 1000 900 y
31130 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
31133 active = *group-line
31134 group-line = group spc high-number spc low-number spc flag <NEWLINE>
31135 group = <non-white-space string>
31137 high-number = <non-negative integer>
31138 low-number = <positive integer>
31139 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
31142 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
31143 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
31146 @node Newsgroups File Format
31147 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
31149 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
31150 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
31151 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
31154 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
31155 Here's the definition:
31159 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
31160 group = <non-white-space string>
31162 description = <string>
31167 @node Emacs for Heathens
31168 @section Emacs for Heathens
31170 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
31171 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
31172 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{C-M-a}'', ``kill the
31173 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
31174 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
31175 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
31176 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
31180 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
31181 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
31186 @subsection Keystrokes
31190 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
31193 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
31196 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
31197 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
31198 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
31199 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
31200 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
31201 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
31203 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
31204 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
31205 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
31206 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
31207 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
31208 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
31209 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
31211 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
31212 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{C-M-m}
31213 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
31214 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
31215 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
31216 ``Press @kbd{C-M-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
31217 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
31219 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
31220 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
31221 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
31222 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
31223 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
31229 @subsection Emacs Lisp
31231 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
31232 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
31233 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
31234 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
31236 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
31237 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
31238 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
31239 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
31240 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
31241 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
31242 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{~/.gnus.el}
31243 file to customize Gnus. (You can also use the @file{~/.emacs} file, but
31244 in order to set things of Gnus up, it is much better to use the
31245 @file{~/.gnus.el} file, @xref{Startup Files}.)
31247 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
31248 write the following:
31251 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
31254 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
31255 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
31256 you can go and fill your @file{~/.gnus.el} file with lots of these to
31257 change how Gnus works.
31259 If you have put that thing in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file, it will be
31260 read and @code{eval}ed (which is Lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
31261 start Gnus. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
31262 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
31263 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
31265 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
31266 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
31267 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
31271 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
31275 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
31278 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server} to
31279 @samp{nntp.ifi.uio.no}'', that means:
31282 (setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
31285 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
31286 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
31289 @include gnus-faq.texi
31291 @node GNU Free Documentation License
31292 @chapter GNU Free Documentation License
31293 @include doclicense.texi
31311 @c Local Variables:
31313 @c coding: iso-8859-1
31317 arch-tag: c9fa47e7-78ca-4681-bda9-9fef45d1c819