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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.
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 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
699 * Customizing W3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/W3 from Gnus.
703 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
704 * Expiring in IMAP:: Expiring mail with nnimap.
705 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
706 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a ``compress mailbox'' button.
707 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use @acronym{IMAP} namespace in Gnus.
708 * Debugging IMAP:: What to do when things don't work.
712 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
713 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
714 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
715 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
719 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
723 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
727 * The NNDiary Back End:: Basic setup and usage.
728 * The Gnus Diary Library:: Utility toolkit on top of nndiary.
729 * Sending or Not Sending:: A final note on sending diary messages.
733 * Diary Messages:: What makes a message valid for nndiary.
734 * Running NNDiary:: NNDiary has two modes of operation.
735 * Customizing NNDiary:: Bells and whistles.
737 The Gnus Diary Library
739 * Diary Summary Line Format:: A nicer summary buffer line format.
740 * Diary Articles Sorting:: A nicer way to sort messages.
741 * Diary Headers Generation:: Not doing it manually.
742 * Diary Group Parameters:: Not handling them manually.
746 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
747 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
748 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
749 * Agent Visuals:: Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
750 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
751 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
752 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
753 * Agent and flags:: How the Agent maintains flags.
754 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with @acronym{IMAP}.
755 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
756 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
757 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
758 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
759 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
763 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
764 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
765 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
769 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
770 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
771 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
775 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
776 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
777 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
778 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
779 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
780 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
781 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
782 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
783 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
784 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
785 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
786 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
787 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
788 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
789 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
790 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
794 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
795 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
796 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
800 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
801 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
802 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
803 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
804 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
805 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
806 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
807 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
808 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
809 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
810 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
811 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
812 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
813 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
814 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
815 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
816 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
817 * Thwarting Email Spam:: Simple ways to avoid unsolicited commercial email.
818 * Spam Package:: A package for filtering and processing spam.
819 * The Gnus Registry:: A package for tracking messages by Message-ID.
820 * Other modes:: Interaction with other modes.
821 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
825 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
826 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
827 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
828 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
829 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
830 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
831 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
832 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
836 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
837 * Face:: Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
838 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were
840 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
841 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
845 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
846 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
847 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
848 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
852 * Spam Package Introduction::
853 * Filtering Incoming Mail::
854 * Detecting Spam in Groups::
855 * Spam and Ham Processors::
856 * Spam Package Configuration Examples::
858 * Extending the Spam package::
859 * Spam Statistics Package::
861 Spam Statistics Package
863 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
864 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
865 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
869 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
870 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
871 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
872 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
873 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
874 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
875 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
876 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
877 * Frequently Asked Questions:: The Gnus FAQ
881 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
882 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
883 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
884 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
885 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
886 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
887 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
888 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
889 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
893 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
894 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
895 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
896 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
897 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
898 * Oort Gnus:: It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10/5.11.
899 * No Gnus:: Very punny.
903 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
904 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
905 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
906 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
910 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
911 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
912 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
913 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
914 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
915 * Group Info:: The group info format.
916 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
917 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
918 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
922 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
923 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
924 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
925 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
926 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
927 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
931 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
932 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
936 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
937 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
943 @chapter Starting Gnus
946 If you haven't used Emacs much before using Gnus, read @ref{Emacs for
951 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus
952 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
953 your Emacs. If not, you should customize the variable
954 @code{gnus-select-method} as described in @ref{Finding the News}. For a
955 minimal setup for posting should also customize the variables
956 @code{user-full-name} and @code{user-mail-address}.
958 @findex gnus-other-frame
959 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
960 If you want to start Gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
961 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
963 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
964 variables in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file. This file is similar to
965 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when Gnus starts.
967 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
968 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
971 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
972 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
973 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
974 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
975 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
976 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
977 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
978 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
979 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
980 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
984 @node Finding the News
985 @section Finding the News
988 First of all, you should know that there is a special buffer called
989 @code{*Server*} that lists all the servers Gnus knows about. You can
990 press @kbd{^} from the Group buffer to see it. In the Server buffer,
991 you can press @kbd{RET} on a defined server to see all the groups it
992 serves (subscribed or not!). You can also add or delete servers, edit
993 a foreign server's definition, agentize or de-agentize a server, and
994 do many other neat things. @xref{Server Buffer}.
995 @xref{Foreign Groups}. @xref{Agent Basics}.
997 @vindex gnus-select-method
999 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where Gnus should look for
1000 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
1001 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
1002 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
1005 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @acronym{NNTP} server is where
1006 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
1009 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
1012 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
1015 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
1018 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
1019 certainly be much faster. But do not use the local spool if your
1020 server is running Leafnode (which is a simple, standalone private news
1021 server); in this case, use @code{(nntp "localhost")}.
1023 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
1025 @cindex @acronym{NNTP} server
1026 If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
1027 @env{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
1028 Gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
1029 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter.
1030 If that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs
1031 as an @acronym{NNTP} server. That's a long shot, though.
1033 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1034 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
1035 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
1036 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
1038 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
1039 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1040 You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
1041 @acronym{NNTP} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
1042 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), Gnus will let you choose between the servers
1043 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
1044 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this
1045 will set @code{gnus-nntp-server}, which means that if you then @kbd{M-x
1046 gnus} later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same
1049 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
1051 However, if you use one @acronym{NNTP} server regularly and are just
1052 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
1053 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
1054 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
1055 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
1056 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
1058 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
1060 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
1061 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
1062 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
1063 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
1064 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
1065 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
1068 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} back end to read your mail,
1069 you would typically set this variable to
1072 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
1075 Note: the @acronym{NNTP} back end stores marks in marks files
1076 (@pxref{NNTP marks}). This feature makes it easy to share marks between
1077 several Gnus installations, but may slow down things a bit when fetching
1078 new articles. @xref{NNTP marks}, for more information.
1081 @node The First Time
1082 @section The First Time
1083 @cindex first time usage
1085 If no startup files exist (@pxref{Startup Files}), Gnus will try to
1086 determine what groups should be subscribed by default.
1088 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
1089 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, Gnus
1090 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
1091 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
1094 Since she hasn't, Gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
1095 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
1096 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
1098 You'll also be subscribed to the Gnus documentation group, which should
1099 help you with most common problems.
1101 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, Gnus will just
1102 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
1106 @node The Server is Down
1107 @section The Server is Down
1108 @cindex server errors
1110 If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some
1111 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
1112 the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.
1114 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
1115 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
1116 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
1117 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
1118 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
1119 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
1120 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
1122 @findex gnus-no-server
1123 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
1125 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
1126 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
1127 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start Gnus. That might come in handy
1128 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
1129 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
1130 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
1131 levels.) Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1135 @section Slave Gnusae
1138 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the
1139 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
1140 are using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers),
1141 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
1143 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
1144 @file{.newsrc} file.
1146 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the Gnus
1147 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
1148 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
1149 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
1150 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
1151 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
1152 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
1155 Anyway, you start one Gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
1156 however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with
1157 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
1158 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
1159 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus
1160 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
1161 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
1162 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
1164 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
1165 information in the normal (i.e., master) @file{.newsrc} file.
1167 If the @file{.newsrc*} files have not been saved in the master when the
1168 slave starts, you may be prompted as to whether to read an auto-save
1169 file. If you answer ``yes'', the unsaved changes to the master will be
1170 incorporated into the slave. If you answer ``no'', the slave may see some
1171 messages as unread that have been read in the master.
1178 @cindex subscription
1180 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
1181 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
1182 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
1183 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
1184 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
1185 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
1186 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
1187 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the back ends for new groups even
1188 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1191 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
1192 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
1193 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
1197 @node Checking New Groups
1198 @subsection Checking New Groups
1200 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
1201 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
1202 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
1203 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, Gnus will ask the
1204 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
1205 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
1206 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
1207 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
1208 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
1209 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
1211 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
1212 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
1213 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
1214 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
1215 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
1216 work. I could write a function to make Gnus guess whether the server
1217 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
1218 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
1219 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
1220 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
1221 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
1223 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will
1224 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
1225 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
1226 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
1227 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
1228 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
1231 @node Subscription Methods
1232 @subsection Subscription Methods
1234 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
1235 What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
1236 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
1238 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
1239 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
1241 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
1245 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
1246 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
1247 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
1248 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
1249 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
1251 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
1252 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
1253 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
1254 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
1256 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1257 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1258 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
1260 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1261 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1262 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
1263 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
1264 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
1265 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its
1266 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
1267 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
1268 up. Or something like that.
1270 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
1271 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
1272 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask
1273 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
1274 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
1276 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
1277 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
1278 Kill all new groups.
1280 @item gnus-subscribe-topics
1281 @vindex gnus-subscribe-topics
1282 Put the groups into the topic that has a matching @code{subscribe} topic
1283 parameter (@pxref{Topic Parameters}). For instance, a @code{subscribe}
1284 topic parameter that looks like
1290 will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under
1293 If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the
1298 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
1299 A closely related variable is
1300 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
1301 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you in a
1302 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
1303 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
1306 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
1307 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
1308 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
1309 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
1312 @node Filtering New Groups
1313 @subsection Filtering New Groups
1315 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
1316 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
1317 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
1320 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
1323 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
1324 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
1325 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
1326 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
1327 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
1328 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
1329 subscribing these groups.
1330 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
1331 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
1333 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
1334 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
1335 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
1336 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
1337 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
1338 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
1339 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
1340 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
1342 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
1343 Yet another variable that meddles here is
1344 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
1345 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous,
1346 but I thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is
1347 more meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is
1348 used more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new
1349 groups that come from mail back ends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
1350 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, @code{nnmh}, and @code{nnmaildir})
1351 subscribed. If you don't like that, just set this variable to
1354 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
1355 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
1358 @node Changing Servers
1359 @section Changing Servers
1360 @cindex changing servers
1362 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another.
1363 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
1364 very flaky and you want to use another.
1366 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
1367 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
1371 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
1372 @acronym{NNTP} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
1373 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
1374 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
1377 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1378 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1379 You can use the @kbd{M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups}
1380 command to clear out all data that you have on your native groups.
1383 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data
1384 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
1385 Clear the data from the current group only---nix out marks and the
1386 list of read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
1388 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
1389 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
1390 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
1391 @code{gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} will ask you if you want
1392 to have it done automatically; for @code{gnus-group-clear-data}, you
1393 can use @kbd{M-x gnus-cache-move-cache} (but beware, it will move the
1394 cache for all groups).
1398 @section Startup Files
1399 @cindex startup files
1404 Most common Unix news readers use a shared startup file called
1405 @file{.newsrc}. This file contains all the information about what
1406 groups are subscribed, and which articles in these groups have been
1409 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
1410 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
1411 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
1412 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
1413 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
1414 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
1415 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
1417 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
1418 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
1419 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
1420 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
1421 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
1422 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
1424 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
1425 @vindex gnus-read-newsrc-file
1426 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
1427 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
1428 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster.
1429 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
1430 Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting
1431 @code{gnus-read-newsrc-file} to @code{nil} makes Gnus ignore the
1432 @file{.newsrc} file and any @file{.newsrc-SERVER} files, which can be
1433 convenient if you use a different news reader occasionally, and you
1434 want to read a different subset of the available groups with that
1437 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
1438 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
1439 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
1440 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
1441 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
1442 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
1443 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
1444 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
1445 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
1446 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
1447 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
1448 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
1450 @vindex gnus-startup-file
1451 @vindex gnus-backup-startup-file
1452 @vindex version-control
1453 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
1454 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
1455 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
1456 If you want version control for this file, set
1457 @code{gnus-backup-startup-file}. It respects the same values as the
1458 @code{version-control} variable.
1460 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
1461 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
1462 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
1463 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
1464 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
1465 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
1466 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
1467 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
1468 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
1469 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
1472 (defun turn-off-backup ()
1473 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
1475 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1476 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1479 @vindex gnus-init-file
1480 @vindex gnus-site-init-file
1481 When Gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
1482 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus-init} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
1483 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
1484 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
1485 @file{site-init} files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
1486 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
1487 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
1488 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
1489 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order). If Emacs was invoked with
1490 the @option{-q} or @option{--no-init-file} options (@pxref{Initial
1491 Options, ,Initial Options, emacs, The Emacs Manual}), Gnus doesn't read
1492 @code{gnus-init-file}.
1497 @cindex dribble file
1500 Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles,
1501 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
1502 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
1503 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
1504 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
1507 If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
1508 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
1511 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
1512 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, Gnus won't create and
1513 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
1515 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
1516 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
1517 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, Gnus will dribble
1518 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
1519 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
1520 file permissions as the @file{.newsrc} file.
1522 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
1523 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
1524 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
1527 @node The Active File
1528 @section The Active File
1530 @cindex ignored groups
1532 When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
1533 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
1534 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
1536 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
1537 Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the
1538 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
1539 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make Gnus
1540 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
1541 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
1542 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
1545 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
1546 @c if you set it to anything else.
1548 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
1550 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
1551 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
1552 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
1554 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
1555 you actually subscribe to.
1557 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
1558 variable to @code{nil} will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At
1559 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow Gnus down
1560 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
1562 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
1563 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
1564 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
1565 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
1566 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
1567 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
1569 Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for
1570 instance) do not support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group}. For these
1571 servers, @code{nil} is probably the most efficient value for this
1574 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will ask for group info in total
1575 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
1576 @acronym{NNTP} server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
1577 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
1578 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
1579 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
1581 If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three
1582 different values for this variable and see what works best for you.
1584 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
1585 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1587 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1588 secondary select methods.
1591 @node Startup Variables
1592 @section Startup Variables
1596 @item gnus-load-hook
1597 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1598 A hook run while Gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1599 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1600 times you start Gnus.
1602 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1603 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1604 A hook called as the first thing when Gnus is started.
1606 @item gnus-startup-hook
1607 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1608 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1610 @item gnus-started-hook
1611 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1612 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1615 @item gnus-setup-news-hook
1616 @vindex gnus-setup-news-hook
1617 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1618 generating the group buffer.
1620 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1621 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1622 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1623 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1624 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1625 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1626 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1627 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1629 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1630 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1631 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1632 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1633 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1634 @file{~/.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @file{.emacs} instead.
1636 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1637 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1638 Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.
1640 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1641 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1642 If non-@code{nil}, play the Gnus jingle at startup.
1644 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1645 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1646 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1647 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1649 @item gnus-use-backend-marks
1650 @vindex gnus-use-backend-marks
1651 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will store article marks both in the
1652 @file{.newsrc.eld} file and in the backends. This will slow down
1653 group operation some.
1659 @chapter Group Buffer
1660 @cindex group buffer
1662 @c Alex Schroeder suggests to rearrange this as follows:
1664 @c <kensanata> ok, just save it for reference. I'll go to bed in a minute.
1665 @c 1. Selecting a Group, 2. (new) Finding a Group, 3. Group Levels,
1666 @c 4. Subscription Commands, 5. Group Maneuvering, 6. Group Data,
1667 @c 7. Group Score, 8. Group Buffer Format
1668 @c <kensanata> Group Levels should have more information on levels 5 to 9. I
1669 @c suggest to split the 4th paragraph ("Gnus considers groups...") as follows:
1670 @c <kensanata> First, "Gnus considers groups... (default 9)."
1671 @c <kensanata> New, a table summarizing what levels 1 to 9 mean.
1672 @c <kensanata> Third, "Gnus treats subscribed ... reasons of efficiency"
1673 @c <kensanata> Then expand the next paragraph or add some more to it.
1674 @c This short one sentence explains levels 1 and 2, therefore I understand
1675 @c that I should keep important news at 3 and boring news at 4.
1676 @c Say so! Then go on to explain why I should bother with levels 6 to 9.
1677 @c Maybe keep those that you don't want to read temporarily at 6,
1678 @c those that you never want to read at 8, those that offend your
1679 @c human rights at 9...
1682 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1683 is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1684 long as Gnus is active.
1688 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1689 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group,height=9cm}}
1690 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1691 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1692 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1693 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1694 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1695 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1701 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1702 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1703 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1704 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1705 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1706 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1707 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1708 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1709 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1710 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1711 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1712 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1713 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1714 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1715 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1716 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1717 * Non-ASCII Group Names:: Accessing groups of non-English names.
1718 * Searching:: Mail search engines.
1719 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1723 @node Group Buffer Format
1724 @section Group Buffer Format
1727 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1728 * Group Mode Line Specification:: The group buffer mode line.
1729 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1732 You can customize the Group Mode tool bar, see @kbd{M-x
1733 customize-apropos RET gnus-group-tool-bar}. This feature is only
1736 The tool bar icons are now (de)activated correctly depending on the
1737 cursor position. Therefore, moving around in the Group Buffer is
1738 slower. You can disable this via the variable
1739 @code{gnus-group-update-tool-bar}. Its default value depends on your
1742 @node Group Line Specification
1743 @subsection Group Line Specification
1744 @cindex group buffer format
1746 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1747 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1749 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1752 25: news.announce.newusers
1753 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1758 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1759 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1760 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1761 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1763 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1764 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1765 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1766 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1767 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1768 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1770 @samp{%M%S%5y:%B%(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1772 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1773 the colon after performing an operation. @xref{Positioning
1774 Point}. Nothing else is required---not even the group name. All
1775 displayed text is just window dressing, and is never examined by Gnus.
1776 Gnus stores all real information it needs using text properties.
1778 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1779 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1780 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1782 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1787 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1790 Whether the group is subscribed.
1793 Level of subscribedness.
1796 Number of unread articles.
1799 Number of dormant articles.
1802 Number of ticked articles.
1805 Number of read articles.
1808 Number of unseen articles.
1811 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1812 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1814 Gnus uses this estimation because the @acronym{NNTP} protocol provides
1815 efficient access to @var{max-number} and @var{min-number} but getting
1816 the true unread message count is not possible efficiently. For
1817 hysterical raisins, even the mail back ends, where the true number of
1818 unread messages might be available efficiently, use the same limited
1819 interface. To remove this restriction from Gnus means that the back
1820 end interface has to be changed, which is not an easy job.
1822 The nnml backend (@pxref{Mail Spool}) has a feature called ``group
1823 compaction'' which circumvents this deficiency: the idea is to
1824 renumber all articles from 1, removing all gaps between numbers, hence
1825 getting a correct total count. Other backends may support this in the
1826 future. In order to keep your total article count relatively up to
1827 date, you might want to compact your groups (or even directly your
1828 server) from time to time. @xref{Misc Group Stuff}, @xref{Server Commands}.
1831 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1834 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1843 Group comment (@pxref{Group Parameters}) or group name if there is no
1844 comment element in the group parameters.
1847 Newsgroup description. You need to read the group descriptions
1848 before these will appear, and to do that, you either have to set
1849 @code{gnus-read-active-file} or use the group buffer @kbd{M-d}
1853 @samp{m} if moderated.
1856 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1862 If the summary buffer for the group is open or not.
1868 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1872 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1875 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1876 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1877 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1878 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1879 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.e.gnus}.
1882 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1884 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1888 @samp{#} (@code{gnus-process-mark}) if the group is process marked.
1891 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1895 The disk space used by the articles fetched by both the cache and
1896 agent. The value is automatically scaled to bytes(B), kilobytes(K),
1897 megabytes(M), or gigabytes(G) to minimize the column width. A format
1898 of %7F is sufficient for a fixed-width column.
1901 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1902 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1903 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1904 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1905 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1906 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1911 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1912 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1913 group, or a bogus native group.
1916 @node Group Mode Line Specification
1917 @subsection Group Mode Line Specification
1918 @cindex group mode line
1920 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1921 The mode line can be changed by setting
1922 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1923 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1927 The native news server.
1929 The native select method.
1933 @node Group Highlighting
1934 @subsection Group Highlighting
1935 @cindex highlighting
1936 @cindex group highlighting
1938 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1939 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1940 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1941 that look like @code{(@var{form} . @var{face})}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1942 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1944 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1948 (cond (window-system
1949 (setq custom-background-mode 'light)
1950 (defface my-group-face-1
1951 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face")
1952 (defface my-group-face-2
1953 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t)))
1954 "Second group face")
1955 (defface my-group-face-3
1956 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face")
1957 (defface my-group-face-4
1958 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face")
1959 (defface my-group-face-5
1960 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face")))
1962 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1963 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1964 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1965 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1966 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1967 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1970 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1972 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1979 The number of unread articles in the group.
1983 Whether the group is a mail group.
1985 The level of the group.
1987 The score of the group.
1989 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1991 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather,
1992 @var{max-number} minus @var{min-number} plus one.
1994 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
1995 topic being inserted.
1998 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
1999 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal Gnus
2000 functions for snarfing info on the group.
2002 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
2003 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
2004 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
2005 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
2008 @node Group Maneuvering
2009 @section Group Maneuvering
2010 @cindex group movement
2012 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
2013 expected, hopefully.
2019 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
2020 Go to the next group that has unread articles
2021 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
2027 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
2028 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
2029 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
2033 @findex gnus-group-next-group
2034 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
2038 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
2039 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
2043 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
2044 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
2045 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
2049 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
2050 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
2051 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
2054 Three commands for jumping to groups:
2060 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
2061 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
2062 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
2067 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
2068 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
2069 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
2073 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
2074 Jump to the first group with unread articles
2075 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
2078 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
2079 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
2080 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
2081 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
2084 @vindex gnus-summary-next-group-on-exit
2085 If @code{gnus-summary-next-group-on-exit} is @code{t}, when a summary is
2086 exited, the point in the group buffer is moved to the next unread group.
2087 Otherwise, the point is set to the group just exited. The default is
2090 @node Selecting a Group
2091 @section Selecting a Group
2092 @cindex group selection
2097 @kindex SPACE (Group)
2098 @findex gnus-group-read-group
2099 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
2100 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
2101 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
2102 this command, Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
2103 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{n}, @var{n}
2104 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{n} is
2105 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{n} newest articles, if @var{n} is
2106 negative, Gnus fetches the @code{abs(@var{n})} oldest articles.
2108 Thus, @kbd{SPC} enters the group normally, @kbd{C-u SPC} offers old
2109 articles, @kbd{C-u 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 newest articles, and @kbd{C-u
2110 - 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 oldest ones.
2112 When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type
2113 @kbd{M-g} to fetch new articles, or @kbd{C-u M-g} to also show the old
2118 @findex gnus-group-select-group
2119 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
2120 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
2121 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
2122 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
2126 @kindex M-RET (Group)
2127 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
2128 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
2129 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
2130 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
2131 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
2132 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
2133 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), Gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
2134 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
2135 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
2138 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
2139 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
2140 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
2141 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
2142 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
2145 @kindex C-M-RET (Group)
2146 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
2147 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
2148 doing any processing of its contents
2149 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
2150 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
2151 manner will have no permanent effects.
2155 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
2156 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should
2157 consider to be a big group. If it is @code{nil}, no groups are
2158 considered big. The default value is 200. If the group has more
2159 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, Gnus will query the user
2160 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many
2161 articles should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a
2162 negative number (@var{-n}), the @var{n} oldest articles will be
2163 fetched. If it is positive, the @var{n} articles that have arrived
2164 most recently will be fetched.
2166 @vindex gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup
2167 @code{gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup} is the same as
2168 @code{gnus-large-newsgroup}, but is only used for ephemeral
2171 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-maximum-articles
2172 In groups in some news servers, there might be a big gap between a few
2173 very old articles that will never be expired and the recent ones. In
2174 such a case, the server will return the data like @code{(1 . 30000000)}
2175 for the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, for example. Even if there
2176 are actually only the articles 1-10 and 29999900-30000000, Gnus doesn't
2177 know it at first and prepares for getting 30000000 articles. However,
2178 it will consume hundreds megabytes of memories and might make Emacs get
2179 stuck as the case may be. If you use such news servers, set the
2180 variable @code{gnus-newsgroup-maximum-articles} to a positive number.
2181 The value means that Gnus ignores articles other than this number of the
2182 latest ones in every group. For instance, the value 10000 makes Gnus
2183 get only the articles 29990001-30000000 (if the latest article number is
2184 30000000 in a group). Note that setting this variable to a number might
2185 prevent you from reading very old articles. The default value of the
2186 variable @code{gnus-newsgroup-maximum-articles} is @code{nil}, which
2187 means Gnus never ignores old articles.
2189 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
2190 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
2191 @vindex gnus-auto-select-subject
2192 If @code{gnus-auto-select-first} is non-@code{nil}, select an article
2193 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
2194 Which article this is controlled by the
2195 @code{gnus-auto-select-subject} variable. Valid values for this
2201 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article.
2204 Place point on the subject line of the first article.
2207 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article.
2209 @item unseen-or-unread
2210 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article, and if
2211 there is no such article, place point on the subject line of the first
2215 Place point on the subject line of the highest-scored unread article.
2219 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function
2220 will be called to place point on a subject line.
2222 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
2223 binary group with Huge articles) you can set the
2224 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} variable to @code{nil} in
2225 @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
2229 @node Subscription Commands
2230 @section Subscription Commands
2231 @cindex subscription
2239 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
2240 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
2241 Toggle subscription to the current group
2242 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2248 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
2249 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
2250 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
2251 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
2257 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
2258 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
2259 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
2265 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
2266 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
2269 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2270 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2271 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
2272 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
2273 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
2279 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
2280 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
2284 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
2285 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
2288 @kindex S C-k (Group)
2289 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
2290 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
2291 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
2292 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
2293 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
2294 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
2295 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
2296 @file{.newsrc} file.
2300 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
2310 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
2311 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
2312 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
2313 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
2314 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
2315 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
2320 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
2321 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
2322 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
2326 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
2327 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
2328 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
2330 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2331 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2332 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2333 If you have switched from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another, all your marks
2334 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
2335 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
2342 @section Group Levels
2346 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
2347 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
2348 can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
2349 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
2350 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
2352 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
2358 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
2359 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
2360 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
2361 prompted for a level.
2364 @vindex gnus-level-killed
2365 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
2366 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
2367 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
2368 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
2369 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
2370 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
2371 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
2372 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
2373 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
2374 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
2375 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
2376 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
2377 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
2378 reasons of efficiency.
2380 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
2381 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
2383 Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to
2384 understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you
2385 subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting @kbd{L} you can have it show
2386 empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type @kbd{l} to
2387 go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed
2388 groups are hidden, in a way.
2390 Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they
2391 are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and
2392 unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for
2393 information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie
2394 and killed groups. Normally, you use @kbd{C-k} to kill the groups you
2395 aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.
2397 Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when
2398 a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie
2399 group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups,
2400 but you can type @kbd{A z} to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe
2401 the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (@kbd{A k} shows a
2402 list of killed groups.)
2404 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
2405 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
2406 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
2408 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
2409 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
2410 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
2411 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
2412 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
2413 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
2414 relevant valid ranges.
2416 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
2417 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
2418 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
2419 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
2420 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
2421 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
2424 If this variable is @code{best}, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the
2425 one with the best level.
2427 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
2428 All groups with a level less than or equal to
2429 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
2432 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
2433 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
2434 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
2435 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
2438 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
2439 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
2440 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
2441 use this level as the ``work'' level.
2443 @vindex gnus-activate-level
2444 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
2445 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
2446 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
2447 to 5. The default is 6.
2451 @section Group Score
2456 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
2457 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
2458 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
2461 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can have Gnus assign a score
2462 to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort
2463 the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on
2464 score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is
2465 called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has
2466 a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score
2467 of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the
2468 least significant part.))
2470 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
2471 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
2472 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
2473 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
2474 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
2475 action after each summary exit, you can add
2476 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
2477 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
2478 slow things down somewhat.
2481 @node Marking Groups
2482 @section Marking Groups
2483 @cindex marking groups
2485 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
2486 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
2487 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
2488 bidding on those groups.
2490 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
2491 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
2492 with the process mark and then execute the command.
2500 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
2501 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
2507 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
2508 Remove the mark from the current group
2509 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
2513 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
2514 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
2518 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
2519 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
2523 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
2524 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
2528 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
2529 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
2530 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
2533 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
2535 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
2536 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
2537 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
2538 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
2539 the command to be executed.
2542 @node Foreign Groups
2543 @section Foreign Groups
2544 @cindex foreign groups
2546 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
2547 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
2548 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
2549 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
2552 Changes from the group editing commands are stored in
2553 @file{~/.newsrc.eld} (@code{gnus-startup-file}). An alternative is the
2554 variable @code{gnus-parameters}, @xref{Group Parameters}.
2560 @findex gnus-group-make-group
2561 @cindex making groups
2562 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
2563 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
2564 to subscribe to @acronym{NNTP} groups (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
2568 @findex gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group
2569 Make an ephemeral group (@code{gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group}). Gnus
2570 will prompt you for a name, a method and an @dfn{address}.
2574 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
2575 @cindex renaming groups
2576 Rename the current group to something else
2577 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
2578 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
2584 @findex gnus-group-customize
2585 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
2589 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
2590 @cindex renaming groups
2591 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
2592 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
2596 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
2597 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
2598 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
2602 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
2603 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
2604 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
2608 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
2610 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
2611 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
2616 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
2617 Make the Gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
2621 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
2623 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
2624 @code{nneething} back end (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
2625 @xref{Anything Groups}.
2629 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
2630 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
2632 Make a group based on some file or other
2633 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2634 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
2635 Currently supported types are @code{mbox}, @code{babyl},
2636 @code{digest}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward},
2637 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts},
2638 @code{standard-digest}, @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs},
2639 @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook}, @code{oe-dbx}, and @code{mailman}. If
2640 you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file
2641 type. @xref{Document Groups}.
2645 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
2646 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
2647 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
2648 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
2652 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
2656 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
2657 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2658 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
2659 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
2660 include @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}.
2661 @xref{Web Searches}.
2663 If you use the @code{google} search engine, you can limit the search
2664 to a particular group by using a match string like
2665 @samp{shaving group:alt.sysadmin.recovery}.
2669 @findex gnus-group-make-rss-group
2670 Make a group based on an @acronym{RSS} feed
2671 (@code{gnus-group-make-rss-group}). You will be prompted for an URL.
2675 @kindex G DEL (Group)
2676 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
2677 This function will delete the current group
2678 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
2679 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
2680 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
2681 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
2682 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} groups), though.
2686 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
2687 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
2688 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
2692 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
2693 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
2694 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
2697 @xref{Select Methods}, for more information on the various select
2700 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
2701 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
2702 Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
2703 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
2704 groups from different @acronym{NNTP} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
2705 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
2709 The following commands create ephemeral groups. They can be called not
2710 only from the Group buffer, but in any Gnus buffer.
2713 @item gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group
2714 @findex gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group
2715 @vindex gnus-gmane-group-download-format
2716 Read an ephemeral group on Gmane.org. The articles are downloaded via
2717 HTTP using the URL specified by @code{gnus-gmane-group-download-format}.
2718 Gnus will prompt you for a group name, the start article number and an
2721 @item gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group-url
2722 @findex gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group-url
2723 This command is similar to @code{gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group}, but
2724 the group name and the article number and range are constructed from a
2725 given @acronym{URL}. Supported @acronym{URL} formats include e.g.
2726 @url{http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.foo.bar/12300/focus=12399},
2727 @url{http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.foo.bar/12345/},
2728 @url{http://article.gmane.org/gmane.foo.bar/12345/},
2729 @url{http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.foo.bar/12345/}, and
2730 @url{http://news.gmane.org/group/gmane.foo.bar/thread=12345}.
2732 @item gnus-read-ephemeral-emacs-bug-group
2733 @findex gnus-read-ephemeral-emacs-bug-group
2734 Read an Emacs bug report in an ephemeral group. Gnus will prompt for a
2735 bug number. The default is the number at point. The @acronym{URL} is
2736 specified in @code{gnus-bug-group-download-format-alist}.
2738 @item gnus-read-ephemeral-debian-bug-group
2739 @findex gnus-read-ephemeral-debian-bug-group
2740 Read a Debian bug report in an ephemeral group. Analog to
2741 @code{gnus-read-ephemeral-emacs-bug-group}.
2744 Some of these command are also useful for article buttons, @xref{Article
2752 '("#\\([0-9]+\\)\\>" 1
2753 (string-match "\\<emacs\\>" (or gnus-newsgroup-name ""))
2754 gnus-read-ephemeral-emacs-bug-group 1))
2758 @node Group Parameters
2759 @section Group Parameters
2760 @cindex group parameters
2762 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
2764 Use the @kbd{G p} or the @kbd{G c} command to edit group parameters of a
2765 group. (@kbd{G p} presents you with a Lisp-based interface, @kbd{G c}
2766 presents you with a Customize-like interface. The latter helps avoid
2767 silly Lisp errors.) You might also be interested in reading about topic
2768 parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}).
2769 Additionally, you can set group parameters via the
2770 @code{gnus-parameters} variable, see below.
2772 Here's an example group parameter list:
2775 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2779 We see that each element consists of a ``dotted pair''---the thing before
2780 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2781 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2782 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2784 Some parameters have correspondent customizable variables, each of which
2785 is an alist of regexps and values.
2787 The following group parameters can be used:
2792 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2795 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2798 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2799 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2800 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2801 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2802 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2804 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2805 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2806 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2807 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2808 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2809 list address instead.
2811 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-address-alist}.
2815 Address used when doing @kbd{a} in that group.
2818 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2821 It is totally ignored
2822 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2823 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2825 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2826 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2827 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2828 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2829 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2831 @findex gnus-mailing-list-mode
2832 @cindex mail list groups
2833 If this variable is set, @code{gnus-mailing-list-mode} is turned on when
2834 entering summary buffer.
2836 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-list-alist}.
2841 @cindex Mail-Followup-To
2842 @findex gnus-find-subscribed-addresses
2843 If this parameter is set to @code{t}, Gnus will consider the
2844 to-address and to-list parameters for this group as addresses of
2845 mailing lists you are subscribed to. Giving Gnus this information is
2846 (only) a first step in getting it to generate correct Mail-Followup-To
2847 headers for your posts to these lists. The second step is to put the
2848 following in your @file{.gnus.el}
2851 (setq message-subscribed-address-functions
2852 '(gnus-find-subscribed-addresses))
2855 @xref{Mailing Lists, ,Mailing Lists, message, The Message Manual}, for
2856 a complete treatment of available MFT support.
2860 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2861 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2862 of whether it has any unread articles.
2864 This parameter cannot be set via @code{gnus-parameters}. See
2865 @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} as an alternative.
2867 @item broken-reply-to
2868 @cindex broken-reply-to
2869 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2870 headers in this group are to be ignored, and for the header to be hidden
2871 if @code{reply-to} is part of @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}. This
2872 can be useful if you're reading a mailing list group where the listserv
2873 has inserted @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv
2874 itself. That is broken behavior. So there!
2878 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2879 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2883 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, Gnus
2884 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2885 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2890 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2891 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2892 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2893 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2894 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2895 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2896 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
2898 @strong{Caveat}: Adding @code{(gcc-self . t)} to the parameter list of
2899 @code{nntp} groups (or the like) isn't valid. An @code{nntp} server
2900 doesn't accept articles.
2904 @cindex expiring mail
2905 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2906 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2907 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2909 See also @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups}.
2912 @cindex total-expire
2913 @cindex expiring mail
2914 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2915 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2916 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2917 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2920 See also @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups}.
2924 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2925 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2926 @code{(expiry-wait . 10)}, this value will override any
2927 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function}
2928 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}) when expiring expirable messages. The value
2929 can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or the
2930 symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2933 @cindex expiry-target
2934 Where expired messages end up. This parameter overrides
2935 @code{nnmail-expiry-target}.
2938 @cindex score file group parameter
2939 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2940 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2941 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2944 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2945 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2946 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2947 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2950 @cindex admin-address
2951 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2952 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2953 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2954 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2958 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2959 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2963 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2966 Display the last @var{integer} articles in the group. This is the same as
2967 entering the group with @kbd{C-u @var{integer}}.
2970 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2974 Display articles that satisfy a predicate.
2976 Here are some examples:
2980 Display only unread articles.
2983 Display everything except expirable articles.
2985 @item [and (not reply) (not expire)]
2986 Display everything except expirable and articles you've already
2990 The available operators are @code{not}, @code{and} and @code{or}.
2991 Predicates include @code{tick}, @code{unsend}, @code{undownload},
2992 @code{unread}, @code{dormant}, @code{expire}, @code{reply},
2993 @code{killed}, @code{bookmark}, @code{score}, @code{save},
2994 @code{cache}, @code{forward}, @code{unseen} and @code{recent}.
2998 The @code{display} parameter works by limiting the summary buffer to
2999 the subset specified. You can pop the limit by using the @kbd{/ w}
3000 command (@pxref{Limiting}).
3004 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")} are
3005 arbitrary comments on the group. You can display comments in the
3006 group line (@pxref{Group Line Specification}).
3010 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
3011 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
3012 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
3014 See also @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}.
3016 @item ignored-charsets
3017 @cindex ignored-charset
3018 Elements that look like @code{(ignored-charsets x-unknown iso-8859-1)}
3019 will make @code{iso-8859-1} and @code{x-unknown} ignored; that is, the
3020 default charset will be used for decoding articles.
3022 See also @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
3025 @cindex posting-style
3026 You can store additional posting style information for this group
3027 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
3028 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
3029 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
3030 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
3032 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
3033 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
3034 like this in the group parameters:
3039 ("X-My-Header" "Funky Value")
3040 (signature "Funky Signature"))
3043 If you're using topics to organize your group buffer
3044 (@pxref{Group Topics}), note that posting styles can also be set in
3045 the topics parameters. Posting styles in topic parameters apply to all
3046 groups in this topic. More precisely, the posting-style settings for a
3047 group result from the hierarchical merging of all posting-style
3048 entries in the parameters of this group and all the topics it belongs
3054 If it is set, the value is used as the method for posting message
3055 instead of @code{gnus-post-method}.
3059 If it is set, and the setting of @code{mail-sources} includes a
3060 @code{group} mail source (@pxref{Mail Sources}), the value is a
3061 mail source for this group.
3065 An item like @code{(banner . @var{regexp})} causes any part of an article
3066 that matches the regular expression @var{regexp} to be stripped. Instead of
3067 @var{regexp}, you can also use the symbol @code{signature} which strips the
3068 last signature or any of the elements of the alist
3069 @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}.
3073 This parameter contains a Sieve test that should match incoming mail
3074 that should be placed in this group. From this group parameter, a
3075 Sieve @samp{IF} control structure is generated, having the test as the
3076 condition and @samp{fileinto "group.name";} as the body.
3078 For example, if the @samp{INBOX.list.sieve} group has the @code{(sieve
3079 address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com")} group parameter, when
3080 translating the group parameter into a Sieve script (@pxref{Sieve
3081 Commands}) the following Sieve code is generated:
3084 if address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com" @{
3085 fileinto "INBOX.list.sieve";
3089 To generate tests for multiple email-addresses use a group parameter
3090 like @code{(sieve address "sender" ("name@@one.org" else@@two.org"))}.
3091 When generating a sieve script (@pxref{Sieve Commands}) Sieve code
3092 like the following is generated:
3095 if address "sender" ["name@@one.org", "else@@two.org"] @{
3096 fileinto "INBOX.list.sieve";
3100 See @pxref{Sieve Commands} for commands and variables that might be of
3101 interest in relation to the sieve parameter.
3103 The Sieve language is described in RFC 3028. @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve,
3104 Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
3106 @item (agent parameters)
3107 If the agent has been enabled, you can set any of the its parameters
3108 to control the behavior of the agent in individual groups. See Agent
3109 Parameters in @ref{Category Syntax}. Most users will choose to set
3110 agent parameters in either an agent category or group topic to
3111 minimize the configuration effort.
3113 @item (@var{variable} @var{form})
3114 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
3115 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
3116 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
3117 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
3118 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
3119 @code{eval}ed there.
3121 Note that this feature sets the variable locally to the summary buffer
3122 if and only if @var{variable} has been bound as a variable. Otherwise,
3123 only evaluating the form will take place. So, you may want to bind the
3124 variable in advance using @code{defvar} or other if the result of the
3125 form needs to be set to it.
3127 But some variables are evaluated in the article buffer, or in the
3128 message buffer (of a reply or followup or otherwise newly created
3129 message). As a workaround, it might help to add the variable in
3130 question to @code{gnus-newsgroup-variables}. @xref{Various Summary
3131 Stuff}. So if you want to set @code{message-from-style} via the group
3132 parameters, then you may need the following statement elsewhere in your
3133 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
3136 (add-to-list 'gnus-newsgroup-variables 'message-from-style)
3139 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
3140 A use for this feature is to remove a mailing list identifier tag in
3141 the subject fields of articles. E.g. if the news group
3144 nntp+news.gnus.org:gmane.text.docbook.apps
3147 has the tag @samp{DOC-BOOK-APPS:} in the subject of all articles, this
3148 tag can be removed from the article subjects in the summary buffer for
3149 the group by putting @code{(gnus-list-identifiers "DOCBOOK-APPS:")}
3150 into the group parameters for the group.
3152 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function. If you want to
3153 hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put something like
3154 @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that group. If
3155 @code{dummy-variable} has been bound (see above), it will be set to the
3156 (meaningless) result of the @code{(ding)} form.
3158 Alternatively, since the VARIABLE becomes local to the group, this
3159 pattern can be used to temporarily change a hook. For example, if the
3160 following is added to a group parameter
3163 (gnus-summary-prepared-hook
3164 '(lambda nil (local-set-key "d" (local-key-binding "n"))))
3167 when the group is entered, the 'd' key will not mark the article as
3172 @vindex gnus-parameters
3173 Group parameters can be set via the @code{gnus-parameters} variable too.
3174 But some variables, such as @code{visible}, have no effect (For this
3175 case see @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} as an alternative.).
3179 (setq gnus-parameters
3181 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3182 (gnus-use-scoring nil)
3183 (gnus-summary-line-format
3184 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%d:%ub%-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
3188 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
3192 (gnus-use-scoring t))
3196 (broken-reply-to . t))))
3199 String value of parameters will be subjected to regexp substitution, as
3200 the @code{to-group} example shows.
3202 @vindex gnus-parameters-case-fold-search
3203 By default, whether comparing the group name and one of those regexps
3204 specified in @code{gnus-parameters} is done in a case-sensitive manner
3205 or a case-insensitive manner depends on the value of
3206 @code{case-fold-search} at the time when the comparison is done. The
3207 value of @code{case-fold-search} is typically @code{t}; it means, for
3208 example, the element @code{("INBOX\\.FOO" (total-expire . t))} might be
3209 applied to both the @samp{INBOX.FOO} group and the @samp{INBOX.foo}
3210 group. If you want to make those regexps always case-sensitive, set the
3211 value of the @code{gnus-parameters-case-fold-search} variable to
3212 @code{nil}. Otherwise, set it to @code{t} if you want to compare them
3213 always in a case-insensitive manner.
3215 You can define different sorting to different groups via
3216 @code{gnus-parameters}. Here is an example to sort an @acronym{NNTP}
3217 group by reverse date to see the latest news at the top and an
3218 @acronym{RSS} group by subject. In this example, the first group is the
3219 Debian daily news group @code{gmane.linux.debian.user.news} from
3220 news.gmane.org. The @acronym{RSS} group corresponds to the Debian
3221 weekly news RSS feed
3222 @url{http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main.en.rdf},
3228 '(("nntp.*gmane\\.debian\\.user\\.news"
3229 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3230 (gnus-article-sort-functions '((not gnus-article-sort-by-date)))
3231 (gnus-use-adaptive-scoring nil)
3232 (gnus-use-scoring nil))
3234 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3235 (gnus-article-sort-functions 'gnus-article-sort-by-subject)
3236 (gnus-use-adaptive-scoring nil)
3237 (gnus-use-scoring t)
3238 (gnus-score-find-score-files-function 'gnus-score-find-single)
3239 (gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%d %I%(%[ %s %]%)\n"))))
3243 @node Listing Groups
3244 @section Listing Groups
3245 @cindex group listing
3247 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
3255 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
3256 List all groups that have unread articles
3257 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
3258 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
3259 only lists groups of level five (i.e.,
3260 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
3267 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
3268 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
3269 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
3270 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
3271 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
3272 unsubscribed groups).
3276 @findex gnus-group-list-level
3277 List all unread groups on a specific level
3278 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
3279 with no unread articles.
3283 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
3284 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
3285 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
3286 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
3291 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
3292 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
3296 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
3297 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
3298 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
3302 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
3303 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
3307 @findex gnus-group-list-active
3308 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
3309 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
3310 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
3311 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
3312 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
3313 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
3314 Take the output with some grains of salt.
3318 @findex gnus-group-apropos
3319 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
3320 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
3324 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
3325 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
3326 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
3330 @findex gnus-group-list-cached
3331 List all groups with cached articles (@code{gnus-group-list-cached}).
3335 @findex gnus-group-list-dormant
3336 List all groups with dormant articles (@code{gnus-group-list-dormant}).
3340 @findex gnus-group-list-limit
3341 List groups limited within the current selection
3342 (@code{gnus-group-list-limit}).
3346 @findex gnus-group-list-flush
3347 Flush groups from the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-flush}).
3351 @findex gnus-group-list-plus
3352 List groups plus the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-plus}).
3356 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3357 @cindex visible group parameter
3358 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
3359 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
3360 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
3361 get the same effect.
3363 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
3364 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
3365 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
3366 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
3367 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
3370 @node Sorting Groups
3371 @section Sorting Groups
3372 @cindex sorting groups
3374 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
3375 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
3376 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
3377 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
3378 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
3379 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
3384 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3385 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3386 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
3388 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3389 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3390 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
3392 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
3393 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
3394 Sort by group level.
3396 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
3397 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
3398 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
3400 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3401 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3402 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
3403 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
3405 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3406 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3407 Sort by number of unread articles.
3409 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
3410 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
3411 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
3413 @item gnus-group-sort-by-server
3414 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-server
3415 Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.
3420 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
3421 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
3425 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
3426 some sorting criteria:
3430 @kindex G S a (Group)
3431 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3432 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
3433 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3436 @kindex G S u (Group)
3437 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
3438 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
3439 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3442 @kindex G S l (Group)
3443 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
3444 Sort the group buffer by group level
3445 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
3448 @kindex G S v (Group)
3449 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
3450 Sort the group buffer by group score
3451 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3454 @kindex G S r (Group)
3455 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
3456 Sort the group buffer by group rank
3457 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3460 @kindex G S m (Group)
3461 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
3462 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by back end name@*
3463 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
3466 @kindex G S n (Group)
3467 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name
3468 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3469 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name}).
3473 All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention
3474 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3476 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
3477 commands will sort in reverse order.
3479 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
3483 @kindex G P a (Group)
3484 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
3485 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
3486 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
3489 @kindex G P u (Group)
3490 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
3491 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
3492 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
3495 @kindex G P l (Group)
3496 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
3497 Sort the groups by group level
3498 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
3501 @kindex G P v (Group)
3502 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
3503 Sort the groups by group score
3504 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3507 @kindex G P r (Group)
3508 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
3509 Sort the groups by group rank
3510 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3513 @kindex G P m (Group)
3514 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
3515 Sort the groups alphabetically by back end name@*
3516 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
3519 @kindex G P n (Group)
3520 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name
3521 Sort the groups alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3522 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name}).
3525 @kindex G P s (Group)
3526 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups
3527 Sort the groups according to @code{gnus-group-sort-function}.
3531 And finally, note that you can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} to manually
3535 @node Group Maintenance
3536 @section Group Maintenance
3537 @cindex bogus groups
3542 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
3543 Find bogus groups and delete them
3544 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
3548 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
3549 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
3550 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
3551 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
3552 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
3556 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
3557 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
3558 @cindex expiring mail
3559 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
3560 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}). That is, delete
3561 all expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
3562 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3565 @kindex C-c C-M-x (Group)
3566 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
3567 @cindex expiring mail
3568 Run all expirable articles in all groups through the expiry process
3569 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
3574 @node Browse Foreign Server
3575 @section Browse Foreign Server
3576 @cindex foreign servers
3577 @cindex browsing servers
3582 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
3583 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
3584 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
3585 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
3588 @findex gnus-browse-mode
3589 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
3590 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
3591 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
3593 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
3598 @findex gnus-group-next-group
3599 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
3603 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
3604 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
3607 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
3608 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
3609 Enter the current group and display the first article
3610 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
3613 @kindex RET (Browse)
3614 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
3615 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
3619 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
3620 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
3621 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
3627 @findex gnus-browse-exit
3628 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
3632 @findex gnus-browse-describe-group
3633 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-browse-describe-group}).
3637 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
3638 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
3639 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
3644 @section Exiting Gnus
3645 @cindex exiting Gnus
3647 Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.
3652 @findex gnus-group-suspend
3653 Suspend Gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit Gnus,
3654 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
3655 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
3659 @findex gnus-group-exit
3660 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
3661 Quit Gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
3665 @findex gnus-group-quit
3666 Quit Gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
3667 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
3670 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
3671 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
3672 @vindex gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook
3673 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend Gnus and
3674 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit Gnus, while
3675 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
3681 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
3682 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
3683 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
3689 @section Group Topics
3692 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
3693 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
3694 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
3695 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
3696 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
3697 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
3701 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
3702 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group-topic,height=9cm}}
3713 2: alt.religion.emacs
3716 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3718 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3719 13: comp.sources.unix
3722 @findex gnus-topic-mode
3724 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
3725 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
3726 is a toggling command.)
3728 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
3729 dum@dots{} Nice tune, that@dots{} la la la@dots{} What, you're back?
3730 Yes, and now press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed
3731 under @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?
3734 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
3735 the hook for the group mode. Put the following line in your
3736 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
3739 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
3743 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
3744 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
3745 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
3746 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
3747 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
3751 @node Topic Commands
3752 @subsection Topic Commands
3753 @cindex topic commands
3755 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
3756 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
3757 definitions slightly.
3759 In general, the following kinds of operations are possible on topics.
3760 First of all, you want to create topics. Secondly, you want to put
3761 groups in topics and to move them around until you have an order you
3762 like. The third kind of operation is to show/hide parts of the whole
3763 shebang. You might want to hide a topic including its subtopics and
3764 groups, to get a better overview of the other groups.
3766 Here is a list of the basic keys that you might need to set up topics
3773 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
3774 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
3775 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
3779 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
3781 @findex gnus-topic-indent
3782 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3783 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
3784 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
3787 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
3788 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
3789 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3790 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
3794 The following two keys can be used to move groups and topics around.
3795 They work like the well-known cut and paste. @kbd{C-k} is like cut and
3796 @kbd{C-y} is like paste. Of course, this being Emacs, we use the terms
3797 kill and yank rather than cut and paste.
3803 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
3804 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
3805 topic will be removed along with the topic.
3809 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
3810 Yank the previously killed group or topic
3811 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
3814 So, to move a topic to the beginning of the list of topics, just hit
3815 @kbd{C-k} on it. This is like the ``cut'' part of cut and paste. Then,
3816 move the cursor to the beginning of the buffer (just below the ``Gnus''
3817 topic) and hit @kbd{C-y}. This is like the ``paste'' part of cut and
3818 paste. Like I said -- E-Z.
3820 You can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} on groups as well as on topics. So
3821 you can move topics around as well as groups.
3825 After setting up the topics the way you like them, you might wish to
3826 hide a topic, or to show it again. That's why we have the following
3833 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
3835 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
3836 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
3837 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
3838 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
3839 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
3840 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
3844 Now for a list of other commands, in no particular order.
3850 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
3851 Move the current group to some other topic
3852 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3853 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3857 @findex gnus-topic-jump-to-topic
3858 Go to a topic (@code{gnus-topic-jump-to-topic}).
3862 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
3863 Copy the current group to some other topic
3864 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3865 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3869 @findex gnus-topic-hide-topic
3870 Hide the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-hide-topic}). If given
3871 a prefix, hide the topic permanently.
3875 @findex gnus-topic-show-topic
3876 Show the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-show-topic}). If given
3877 a prefix, show the topic permanently.
3881 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
3882 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
3883 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
3884 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
3885 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
3886 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
3887 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
3890 This command uses the process/prefix convention
3891 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3895 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
3896 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3897 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
3901 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
3902 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3903 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
3907 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
3908 Toggle hiding empty topics
3909 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
3913 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
3914 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
3915 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3916 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3919 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
3920 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
3921 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
3922 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3923 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3926 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
3927 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
3928 @cindex expiring mail
3929 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the
3930 expiry process (if any)
3931 (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}). (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3935 @findex gnus-topic-rename
3936 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
3939 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
3940 @findex gnus-topic-delete
3941 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
3945 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
3946 List all groups that Gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
3947 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
3950 @kindex T M-n (Topic)
3951 @findex gnus-topic-goto-next-topic
3952 Go to the next topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-next-topic}).
3955 @kindex T M-p (Topic)
3956 @findex gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic
3957 Go to the previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic}).
3961 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
3962 @cindex group parameters
3963 @cindex topic parameters
3965 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
3966 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
3971 @node Topic Variables
3972 @subsection Topic Variables
3973 @cindex topic variables
3975 The previous section told you how to tell Gnus which topics to display.
3976 This section explains how to tell Gnus what to display about each topic.
3978 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
3979 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
3980 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3993 Number of groups in the topic.
3995 Number of unread articles in the topic.
3997 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
4000 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
4001 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
4002 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
4005 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
4006 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
4008 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
4009 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
4010 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
4014 @subsection Topic Sorting
4015 @cindex topic sorting
4017 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
4023 @kindex T S a (Topic)
4024 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
4025 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
4026 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
4029 @kindex T S u (Topic)
4030 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
4031 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
4032 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
4035 @kindex T S l (Topic)
4036 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
4037 Sort the current topic by group level
4038 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
4041 @kindex T S v (Topic)
4042 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
4043 Sort the current topic by group score
4044 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
4047 @kindex T S r (Topic)
4048 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
4049 Sort the current topic by group rank
4050 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
4053 @kindex T S m (Topic)
4054 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
4055 Sort the current topic alphabetically by back end name
4056 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
4059 @kindex T S e (Topic)
4060 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server
4061 Sort the current topic alphabetically by server name
4062 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server}).
4065 @kindex T S s (Topic)
4066 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups
4067 Sort the current topic according to the function(s) given by the
4068 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable
4069 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups}).
4073 When given a prefix argument, all these commands will sort in reverse
4074 order. @xref{Sorting Groups}, for more information about group
4078 @node Topic Topology
4079 @subsection Topic Topology
4080 @cindex topic topology
4083 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
4090 2: alt.religion.emacs
4093 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
4095 8: comp.binaries.fractals
4096 13: comp.sources.unix
4100 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
4101 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
4102 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
4107 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
4108 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
4112 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
4113 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
4114 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
4115 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
4116 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
4117 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
4119 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
4120 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
4121 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
4124 @node Topic Parameters
4125 @subsection Topic Parameters
4126 @cindex topic parameters
4128 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent
4129 (and ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid
4130 topic parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}). When the agent is
4131 enabled, all agent parameters (See Agent Parameters in @ref{Category
4132 Syntax}) are also valid topic parameters.
4134 In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic
4139 When subscribing new groups by topic (@pxref{Subscription Methods}), the
4140 @code{subscribe} topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its
4141 value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that
4144 @item subscribe-level
4145 When subscribing new groups by topic (see the @code{subscribe} parameter),
4146 the group will be subscribed with the level specified in the
4147 @code{subscribe-level} instead of @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}.
4151 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
4152 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
4153 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
4154 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
4161 2: alt.religion.emacs
4165 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
4167 8: comp.binaries.fractals
4168 13: comp.sources.unix
4173 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
4174 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
4175 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
4176 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
4177 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
4178 . "religion.SCORE")}.
4180 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
4181 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
4182 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
4183 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
4184 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
4186 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
4187 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
4188 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
4189 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
4190 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
4191 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
4192 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
4193 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
4196 @node Non-ASCII Group Names
4197 @section Accessing groups of non-English names
4198 @cindex non-ascii group names
4200 There are some news servers that provide groups of which the names are
4201 expressed with their native languages in the world. For instance, in a
4202 certain news server there are some newsgroups of which the names are
4203 spelled in Chinese, where people are talking in Chinese. You can, of
4204 course, subscribe to such news groups using Gnus. Currently Gnus
4205 supports non-@acronym{ASCII} group names not only with the @code{nntp}
4206 back end but also with the @code{nnml} back end and the @code{nnrss}
4209 Every such group name is encoded by a certain charset in the server
4210 side (in an @acronym{NNTP} server its administrator determines the
4211 charset, but for groups in the other back ends it is determined by you).
4212 Gnus has to display the decoded ones for you in the group buffer and the
4213 article buffer, and needs to use the encoded ones when communicating
4214 with servers. However, Gnus doesn't know what charset is used for each
4215 non-@acronym{ASCII} group name. The following two variables are just
4216 the ones for telling Gnus what charset should be used for each group:
4219 @item gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4220 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4221 An alist of select methods and charsets. The default value is
4222 @code{nil}. The names of groups in the server specified by that select
4223 method are all supposed to use the corresponding charset. For example:
4226 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4227 '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))
4230 Charsets specified for groups with this variable are preferred to the
4231 ones specified for the same groups with the
4232 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist} variable (see below).
4234 A select method can be very long, like:
4238 (nntp-address "news.gmane.org")
4239 (nntp-end-of-line "\n")
4240 (nntp-open-connection-function
4241 nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet)
4242 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
4243 (nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
4244 ("-C" "-t" "-e" "none"))
4245 (nntp-via-address @dots{}))
4248 In that case, you can truncate it into @code{(nntp "gmane")} in this
4249 variable. That is, it is enough to contain only the back end name and
4252 @item gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4253 @cindex UTF-8 group names
4254 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4255 An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names.
4256 @code{((".*" . utf-8))} is the default value if UTF-8 is supported,
4257 otherwise the default is @code{nil}. For example:
4260 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4261 '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)
4265 Note that this variable is ignored if the match is made with
4266 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist}.
4269 Those two variables are used also to determine the charset for encoding
4270 and decoding non-@acronym{ASCII} group names that are in the back ends
4271 other than @code{nntp}. It means that it is you who determine it. If
4272 you do nothing, the charset used for group names in those back ends will
4273 all be @code{utf-8} because of the last element of
4274 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist}.
4276 There is one more important variable for non-@acronym{ASCII} group
4280 @item nnmail-pathname-coding-system
4281 @vindex nnmail-pathname-coding-system
4282 The value of this variable should be a coding system or @code{nil}. The
4283 default is @code{nil} in Emacs, or is the aliasee of the coding system
4284 named @code{file-name} (a certain coding system of which an alias is
4285 @code{file-name}) in XEmacs.
4287 The @code{nnml} back end, the @code{nnrss} back end, the @acronym{NNTP}
4288 marks feature (@pxref{NNTP marks}), the agent, and the cache use
4289 non-@acronym{ASCII} group names in those files and directories. This
4290 variable overrides the value of @code{file-name-coding-system} which
4291 specifies the coding system used when encoding and decoding those file
4292 names and directory names.
4294 In XEmacs (with the @code{mule} feature), @code{file-name-coding-system}
4295 is the only means to specify the coding system used to encode and decode
4296 file names. On the other hand, Emacs uses the value of
4297 @code{default-file-name-coding-system} if @code{file-name-coding-system}
4298 is @code{nil} or it is bound to the value of
4299 @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system} which is @code{nil}.
4301 Normally the value of @code{default-file-name-coding-system} in Emacs or
4302 @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system} in XEmacs is initialized according
4303 to the locale, so you will need to do nothing if the value is suitable
4304 to encode and decode non-@acronym{ASCII} group names.
4306 The value of this variable (or @code{default-file-name-coding-system})
4307 does not necessarily need to be the same value that is determined by
4308 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist} and
4309 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist}.
4311 If @code{default-file-name-coding-system} or this variable is
4312 initialized by default to @code{iso-latin-1} for example, although you
4313 want to subscribe to the groups spelled in Chinese, that is the most
4314 typical case where you have to customize
4315 @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system}. The @code{utf-8} coding system is
4316 a good candidate for it. Otherwise, you may change the locale in your
4317 system so that @code{default-file-name-coding-system} or this variable
4318 may be initialized to an appropriate value.
4321 Note that when you copy or move articles from a non-@acronym{ASCII}
4322 group to another group, the charset used to encode and decode group
4323 names should be the same in both groups. Otherwise the Newsgroups
4324 header will be displayed incorrectly in the article buffer.
4331 * nnir:: Searching on IMAP, with swish, namazu, etc.
4332 * nnmairix:: Searching maildir, MH or mbox with Mairix.
4337 FIXME: This node is a stub.
4339 FIXME: Add a brief overview of Gnus search capabilities. A brief
4340 comparison of nnir, nnmairix, contrib/gnus-namazu would be nice
4343 FIXME: Explain difference to @ref{Searching for Articles}, add reference
4349 FIXME: As a first step, convert the commentary of @file{nnir} to texi.
4353 @subsection nnmairix
4357 This paragraph describes how to set up mairix and the back end
4358 @code{nnmairix} for indexing and searching your mail from within
4359 Gnus. Additionally, you can create permanent ``smart'' groups which are
4360 bound to mairix searches and are automatically updated.
4363 * About mairix:: About the mairix mail search engine
4364 * nnmairix requirements:: What you will need for using nnmairix
4365 * What nnmairix does:: What does nnmairix actually do?
4366 * Setting up mairix:: Set up your mairix installation
4367 * Configuring nnmairix:: Set up the nnmairix back end
4368 * nnmairix keyboard shortcuts:: List of available keyboard shortcuts
4369 * Propagating marks:: How to propagate marks from nnmairix groups
4370 * nnmairix tips and tricks:: Some tips, tricks and examples
4371 * nnmairix caveats:: Some more stuff you might want to know
4374 @c FIXME: The markup in this section might need improvement.
4375 @c E.g. adding @samp, @var, @file, @command, etc.
4376 @c Cf. (info "(texinfo)Indicating")
4379 @subsubsection About mairix
4381 Mairix is a tool for indexing and searching words in locally stored
4382 mail. It was written by Richard Curnow and is licensed under the
4383 GPL. Mairix comes with most popular GNU/Linux distributions, but it also
4384 runs under Windows (with cygwin), Mac OS X and Solaris. The homepage can
4386 @uref{http://www.rpcurnow.force9.co.uk/mairix/index.html}
4388 Though mairix might not be as flexible as other search tools like
4389 swish++ or namazu, which you can use via the @code{nnir} back end, it
4390 has the prime advantage of being incredibly fast. On current systems, it
4391 can easily search through headers and message bodies of thousands and
4392 thousands of mails in well under a second. Building the database
4393 necessary for searching might take a minute or two, but only has to be
4394 done once fully. Afterwards, the updates are done incrementally and
4395 therefore are really fast, too. Additionally, mairix is very easy to set
4398 For maximum speed though, mairix should be used with mails stored in
4399 @code{Maildir} or @code{MH} format (this includes the @code{nnml} back
4400 end), although it also works with mbox. Mairix presents the search
4401 results by populating a @emph{virtual} maildir/MH folder with symlinks
4402 which point to the ``real'' message files (if mbox is used, copies are
4403 made). Since mairix already presents search results in such a virtual
4404 mail folder, it is very well suited for using it as an external program
4405 for creating @emph{smart} mail folders, which represent certain mail
4408 @node nnmairix requirements
4409 @subsubsection nnmairix requirements
4411 Mairix searches local mail---that means, mairix absolutely must have
4412 direct access to your mail folders. If your mail resides on another
4413 server (e.g. an @acronym{IMAP} server) and you happen to have shell
4414 access, @code{nnmairix} supports running mairix remotely, e.g. via ssh.
4416 Additionally, @code{nnmairix} only supports the following Gnus back
4417 ends: @code{nnml}, @code{nnmaildir}, and @code{nnimap}. You must use
4418 one of these back ends for using @code{nnmairix}. Other back ends, like
4419 @code{nnmbox}, @code{nnfolder} or @code{nnmh}, won't work.
4421 If you absolutely must use mbox and still want to use @code{nnmairix},
4422 you can set up a local @acronym{IMAP} server, which you then access via
4423 @code{nnimap}. This is a rather massive setup for accessing some mbox
4424 files, so just change to MH or Maildir already... However, if you're
4425 really, really passionate about using mbox, you might want to look into
4426 the package @file{mairix.el}, which comes with Emacs 23.
4428 @node What nnmairix does
4429 @subsubsection What nnmairix does
4431 The back end @code{nnmairix} enables you to call mairix from within Gnus,
4432 either to query mairix with a search term or to update the
4433 database. While visiting a message in the summary buffer, you can use
4434 several pre-defined shortcuts for calling mairix, e.g. to quickly
4435 search for all mails from the sender of the current message or to
4436 display the whole thread associated with the message, even if the
4437 mails are in different folders.
4439 Additionally, you can create permanent @code{nnmairix} groups which are bound
4440 to certain mairix searches. This way, you can easily create a group
4441 containing mails from a certain sender, with a certain subject line or
4442 even for one specific thread based on the Message-ID. If you check for
4443 new mail in these folders (e.g. by pressing @kbd{g} or @kbd{M-g}), they
4444 automatically update themselves by calling mairix.
4446 You might ask why you need @code{nnmairix} at all, since mairix already
4447 creates the group, populates it with links to the mails so that you can
4448 then access it with Gnus, right? Well, this @emph{might} work, but often
4449 does not---at least not without problems. Most probably you will get
4450 strange article counts, and sometimes you might see mails which Gnus
4451 claims have already been canceled and are inaccessible. This is due to
4452 the fact that Gnus isn't really amused when things are happening behind
4453 its back. Another problem can be the mail back end itself, e.g. if you
4454 use mairix with an @acronym{IMAP} server (I had Dovecot complaining
4455 about corrupt index files when mairix changed the contents of the search
4456 group). Using @code{nnmairix} should circumvent these problems.
4458 @code{nnmairix} is not really a mail back end---it's actually more like
4459 a wrapper, sitting between a ``real'' mail back end where mairix stores
4460 the searches and the Gnus front end. You can choose between three
4461 different mail back ends for the mairix folders: @code{nnml},
4462 @code{nnmaildir} or @code{nnimap}. @code{nnmairix} will call the mairix
4463 binary so that the search results are stored in folders named
4464 @code{zz_mairix-<NAME>-<NUMBER>} on this mail back end, but it will
4465 present these folders in the Gnus front end only with @code{<NAME>}.
4466 You can use an existing mail back end where you already store your mail,
4467 but if you're uncomfortable with @code{nnmairix} creating new mail
4468 groups alongside your other mail, you can also create e.g. a new
4469 @code{nnmaildir} or @code{nnml} server exclusively for mairix, but then
4470 make sure those servers do not accidentally receive your new mail
4471 (@pxref{nnmairix caveats}). A special case exists if you want to use
4472 mairix remotely on an IMAP server with @code{nnimap}---here the mairix
4473 folders and your other mail must be on the same @code{nnimap} back end.
4475 @node Setting up mairix
4476 @subsubsection Setting up mairix
4478 First: create a backup of your mail folders (@pxref{nnmairix caveats}).
4480 Setting up mairix is easy: simply create a @file{.mairixrc} file with
4481 (at least) the following entries:
4484 # Your Maildir/MH base folder
4488 This is the base folder for your mails. All the following directories
4489 are relative to this base folder. If you want to use @code{nnmairix}
4490 with @code{nnimap}, this base directory has to point to the mail
4491 directory where the @acronym{IMAP} server stores the mail folders!
4494 maildir= ... your maildir folders which should be indexed ...
4495 mh= ... your nnml/mh folders which should be indexed ...
4496 mbox = ... your mbox files which should be indexed ...
4499 This specifies all your mail folders and mbox files (relative to the
4500 base directory!) you want to index with mairix. Note that the
4501 @code{nnml} back end saves mails in MH format, so you have to put those
4502 directories in the @code{mh} line. See the example at the end of this
4503 section and mairixrc's man-page for further details.
4509 @vindex nnmairix-group-prefix
4510 This should make sure that you don't accidentally index the mairix
4511 search results. You can change the prefix of these folders with the
4512 variable @code{nnmairix-group-prefix}.
4515 mformat= ... 'maildir' or 'mh' ...
4516 database= ... location of database file ...
4519 The @code{format} setting specifies the output format for the mairix
4520 search folder. Set this to @code{mh} if you want to access search results
4521 with @code{nnml}. Otherwise choose @code{maildir}.
4523 To summarize, here is my shortened @file{.mairixrc} file as an example:
4527 maildir=.personal:.work:.logcheck:.sent
4528 mh=../Mail/nnml/*...
4529 mbox=../mboxmail/mailarchive_year*
4532 database=~/.mairixdatabase
4535 In this case, the base directory is @file{~/Maildir}, where all my Maildir
4536 folders are stored. As you can see, the folders are separated by
4537 colons. If you wonder why every folder begins with a dot: this is
4538 because I use Dovecot as @acronym{IMAP} server, which again uses
4539 @code{Maildir++} folders. For testing nnmairix, I also have some
4540 @code{nnml} mail, which is saved in @file{~/Mail/nnml}. Since this has
4541 to be specified relative to the @code{base} directory, the @code{../Mail}
4542 notation is needed. Note that the line ends in @code{*...}, which means
4543 to recursively scan all files under this directory. Without the three
4544 dots, the wildcard @code{*} will not work recursively. I also have some
4545 old mbox files with archived mail lying around in @file{~/mboxmail}.
4546 The other lines should be obvious.
4548 See the man page for @code{mairixrc} for details and further options,
4549 especially regarding wildcard usage, which may be a little different
4550 than you are used to.
4552 Now simply call @code{mairix} to create the index for the first time.
4553 Note that this may take a few minutes, but every following index will do
4554 the updates incrementally and hence is very fast.
4556 @node Configuring nnmairix
4557 @subsubsection Configuring nnmairix
4559 In group mode, type @kbd{G b c}
4560 (@code{nnmairix-create-server-and-default-group}). This will ask you for all
4561 necessary information and create a @code{nnmairix} server as a foreign
4562 server. You will have to specify the following:
4567 The @strong{name} of the @code{nnmairix} server---choose whatever you
4571 The name of the @strong{back end server} where mairix should store its
4572 searches. This must be a full server name, like @code{nnml:mymail}.
4573 Just hit @kbd{TAB} to see the available servers. Currently, servers
4574 which are accessed through @code{nnmaildir}, @code{nnimap} and
4575 @code{nnml} are supported. As explained above, for locally stored
4576 mails, this can be an existing server where you store your mails.
4577 However, you can also create e.g. a new @code{nnmaildir} or @code{nnml}
4578 server exclusively for @code{nnmairix} in your secondary select methods
4579 (@pxref{Finding the News}). If you use a secondary @code{nnml} server
4580 just for mairix, make sure that you explicitly set the server variable
4581 @code{nnml-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}, or you might loose mail
4582 (@pxref{nnmairix caveats}). If you want to use mairix remotely on an
4583 @acronym{IMAP} server, you have to choose the corresponding
4584 @code{nnimap} server here.
4587 @vindex nnmairix-mairix-search-options
4588 The @strong{command} to call the mairix binary. This will usually just
4589 be @code{mairix}, but you can also choose something like @code{ssh
4590 SERVER mairix} if you want to call mairix remotely, e.g. on your
4591 @acronym{IMAP} server. If you want to add some default options to
4592 mairix, you could do this here, but better use the variable
4593 @code{nnmairix-mairix-search-options} instead.
4596 The name of the @strong{default search group}. This will be the group
4597 where all temporary mairix searches are stored, i.e. all searches which
4598 are not bound to permanent @code{nnmairix} groups. Choose whatever you
4602 If the mail back end is @code{nnimap} or @code{nnmaildir}, you will be
4603 asked if you work with @strong{Maildir++}, i.e. with hidden maildir
4604 folders (=beginning with a dot). For example, you have to answer
4605 @samp{yes} here if you work with the Dovecot @acronym{IMAP}
4606 server. Otherwise, you should answer @samp{no} here.
4610 @node nnmairix keyboard shortcuts
4611 @subsubsection nnmairix keyboard shortcuts
4618 @kindex G b c (Group)
4619 @findex nnmairix-create-server-and-default-group
4620 Creates @code{nnmairix} server and default search group for this server
4621 (@code{nnmairix-create-server-and-default-group}). You should have done
4622 this by now (@pxref{Configuring nnmairix}).
4625 @kindex G b s (Group)
4626 @findex nnmairix-search
4627 Prompts for query which is then sent to the mairix binary. Search
4628 results are put into the default search group which is automatically
4629 displayed (@code{nnmairix-search}).
4632 @kindex G b m (Group)
4633 @findex nnmairix-widget-search
4634 Allows you to create a mairix search or a permanent group more
4635 comfortably using graphical widgets, similar to a customization
4636 group. Just try it to see how it works (@code{nnmairix-widget-search}).
4639 @kindex G b i (Group)
4640 @findex nnmairix-search-interactive
4641 Another command for creating a mairix query more comfortably, but uses
4642 only the minibuffer (@code{nnmairix-search-interactive}).
4645 @kindex G b g (Group)
4646 @findex nnmairix-create-search-group
4647 Creates a permanent group which is associated with a search query
4648 (@code{nnmairix-create-search-group}). The @code{nnmairix} back end
4649 automatically calls mairix when you update this group with @kbd{g} or
4653 @kindex G b q (Group)
4654 @findex nnmairix-group-change-query-this-group
4655 Changes the search query for the @code{nnmairix} group under cursor
4656 (@code{nnmairix-group-change-query-this-group}).
4659 @kindex G b t (Group)
4660 @findex nnmairix-group-toggle-threads-this-group
4661 Toggles the 'threads' parameter for the @code{nnmairix} group under cursor,
4662 i.e. if you want see the whole threads of the found messages
4663 (@code{nnmairix-group-toggle-threads-this-group}).
4666 @kindex G b u (Group)
4667 @findex nnmairix-update-database
4668 @vindex nnmairix-mairix-update-options
4669 Calls mairix binary for updating the database
4670 (@code{nnmairix-update-database}). The default parameters are @code{-F}
4671 and @code{-Q} for making this as fast as possible (see variable
4672 @code{nnmairix-mairix-update-options} for defining these default
4676 @kindex G b r (Group)
4677 @findex nnmairix-group-toggle-readmarks-this-group
4678 Keep articles in this @code{nnmairix} group always read or unread, or leave the
4679 marks unchanged (@code{nnmairix-group-toggle-readmarks-this-group}).
4682 @kindex G b d (Group)
4683 @findex nnmairix-group-delete-recreate-this-group
4684 Recreate @code{nnmairix} group on the ``real'' mail back end
4685 (@code{nnmairix-group-delete-recreate-this-group}). You can do this if
4686 you always get wrong article counts with a @code{nnmairix} group.
4689 @kindex G b a (Group)
4690 @findex nnmairix-group-toggle-allowfast-this-group
4691 Toggles the @code{allow-fast} parameters for group under cursor
4692 (@code{nnmairix-group-toggle-allowfast-this-group}). The default
4693 behavior of @code{nnmairix} is to do a mairix search every time you
4694 update or enter the group. With the @code{allow-fast} parameter set,
4695 mairix will only be called when you explicitly update the group, but not
4696 upon entering. This makes entering the group faster, but it may also
4697 lead to dangling symlinks if something changed between updating and
4698 entering the group which is not yet in the mairix database.
4701 @kindex G b p (Group)
4702 @findex nnmairix-group-toggle-propmarks-this-group
4703 Toggle marks propagation for this group
4704 (@code{nnmairix-group-toggle-propmarks-this-group}). (@pxref{Propagating
4708 @kindex G b o (Group)
4709 @findex nnmairix-propagate-marks
4710 Manually propagate marks (@code{nnmairix-propagate-marks}); needed only when
4711 @code{nnmairix-propagate-marks-upon-close} is set to @code{nil}.
4720 @kindex $ m (Summary)
4721 @findex nnmairix-widget-search-from-this-article
4722 Allows you to create a mairix query or group based on the current
4723 message using graphical widgets (same as @code{nnmairix-widget-search})
4724 (@code{nnmairix-widget-search-from-this-article}).
4727 @kindex $ g (Summary)
4728 @findex nnmairix-create-search-group-from-message
4729 Interactively creates a new search group with query based on the current
4730 message, but uses the minibuffer instead of graphical widgets
4731 (@code{nnmairix-create-search-group-from-message}).
4734 @kindex $ t (Summary)
4735 @findex nnmairix-search-thread-this-article
4736 Searches thread for the current article
4737 (@code{nnmairix-search-thread-this-article}). This is effectively a
4738 shortcut for calling @code{nnmairix-search} with @samp{m:msgid} of the
4739 current article and enabled threads.
4742 @kindex $ f (Summary)
4743 @findex nnmairix-search-from-this-article
4744 Searches all messages from sender of the current article
4745 (@code{nnmairix-search-from-this-article}). This is a shortcut for
4746 calling @code{nnmairix-search} with @samp{f:From}.
4749 @kindex $ o (Summary)
4750 @findex nnmairix-goto-original-article
4751 (Only in @code{nnmairix} groups!) Tries determine the group this article
4752 originally came from and displays the article in this group, so that
4753 e.g. replying to this article the correct posting styles/group
4754 parameters are applied (@code{nnmairix-goto-original-article}). This
4755 function will use the registry if available, but can also parse the
4756 article file name as a fallback method.
4759 @kindex $ u (Summary)
4760 @findex nnmairix-remove-tick-mark-original-article
4761 Remove possibly existing tick mark from original article
4762 (@code{nnmairix-remove-tick-mark-original-article}). (@pxref{nnmairix
4767 @node Propagating marks
4768 @subsubsection Propagating marks
4770 First of: you really need a patched mairix binary for using the marks
4771 propagation feature efficiently. Otherwise, you would have to update
4772 the mairix database all the time. You can get the patch at
4774 @uref{http://www.randomsample.de/mairix-maildir-patch.tar}
4776 You need the mairix v0.21 source code for this patch; everything else
4777 is explained in the accompanied readme file. If you don't want to use
4778 marks propagation, you don't have to apply these patches, but they also
4779 fix some annoyances regarding changing maildir flags, so it might still
4782 With the patched mairix binary, you can use @code{nnmairix} as an
4783 alternative to mail splitting (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}). For
4784 example, instead of splitting all mails from @samp{david@@foobar.com}
4785 into a group, you can simply create a search group with the query
4786 @samp{f:david@@foobar.com}. This is actually what ``smart folders'' are
4787 all about: simply put everything in one mail folder and dynamically
4788 create searches instead of splitting. This is more flexible, since you
4789 can dynamically change your folders any time you want to. This also
4790 implies that you will usually read your mails in the @code{nnmairix}
4791 groups instead of your ``real'' mail groups.
4793 There is one problem, though: say you got a new mail from
4794 @samp{david@@foobar.com}; it will now show up in two groups, the
4795 ``real'' group (your INBOX, for example) and in the @code{nnmairix}
4796 search group (provided you have updated the mairix database). Now you
4797 enter the @code{nnmairix} group and read the mail. The mail will be
4798 marked as read, but only in the @code{nnmairix} group---in the ``real''
4799 mail group it will be still shown as unread.
4801 You could now catch up the mail group (@pxref{Group Data}), but this is
4802 tedious and error prone, since you may overlook mails you don't have
4803 created @code{nnmairix} groups for. Of course, you could first use
4804 @code{nnmairix-goto-original-article} (@pxref{nnmairix keyboard
4805 shortcuts}) and then read the mail in the original group, but that's
4806 even more cumbersome.
4808 Clearly, the easiest way would be if marks could somehow be
4809 automatically set for the original article. This is exactly what
4810 @emph{marks propagation} is about.
4812 Marks propagation is deactivated by default. You can activate it for a
4813 certain @code{nnmairix} group with
4814 @code{nnmairix-group-toggle-propmarks-this-group} (bound to @kbd{G b
4815 p}). This function will warn you if you try to use it with your default
4816 search group; the reason is that the default search group is used for
4817 temporary searches, and it's easy to accidentally propagate marks from
4818 this group. However, you can ignore this warning if you really want to.
4820 With marks propagation enabled, all the marks you set in a @code{nnmairix}
4821 group should now be propagated to the original article. For example,
4822 you can now tick an article (by default with @kbd{!}) and this mark should
4823 magically be set for the original article, too.
4825 A few more remarks which you may or may not want to know:
4827 @vindex nnmairix-propagate-marks-upon-close
4828 Marks will not be set immediately, but only upon closing a group. This
4829 not only makes marks propagation faster, it also avoids problems with
4830 dangling symlinks when dealing with maildir files (since changing flags
4831 will change the file name). You can also control when to propagate marks
4832 via @code{nnmairix-propagate-marks-upon-close} (see the doc-string for
4835 Obviously, @code{nnmairix} will have to look up the original group for every
4836 article you want to set marks for. If available, @code{nnmairix} will first use
4837 the registry for determining the original group. The registry is very
4838 fast, hence you should really, really enable the registry when using
4839 marks propagation. If you don't have to worry about RAM and disc space,
4840 set @code{gnus-registry-max-entries} to a large enough value; to be on
4841 the safe side, choose roughly the amount of mails you index with mairix.
4843 @vindex nnmairix-only-use-registry
4844 If you don't want to use the registry or the registry hasn't seen the
4845 original article yet, @code{nnmairix} will use an additional mairix
4846 search for determining the file name of the article. This, of course, is
4847 way slower than the registry---if you set hundreds or even thousands of
4848 marks this way, it might take some time. You can avoid this situation by
4849 setting @code{nnmairix-only-use-registry} to t.
4851 Maybe you also want to propagate marks the other way round, i.e. if you
4852 tick an article in a "real" mail group, you'd like to have the same
4853 article in a @code{nnmairix} group ticked, too. For several good
4854 reasons, this can only be done efficiently if you use maildir. To
4855 immediately contradict myself, let me mention that it WON'T work with
4856 @code{nnmaildir}, since @code{nnmaildir} stores the marks externally and
4857 not in the file name. Therefore, propagating marks to @code{nnmairix}
4858 groups will usually only work if you use an IMAP server which uses
4859 maildir as its file format.
4861 @vindex nnmairix-propagate-marks-to-nnmairix-groups
4862 If you work with this setup, just set
4863 @code{nnmairix-propagate-marks-to-nnmairix-groups} to @code{t} and see what
4864 happens. If you don't like what you see, just set it to @code{nil} again. One
4865 problem might be that you get a wrong number of unread articles; this
4866 usually happens when you delete or expire articles in the original
4867 groups. When this happens, you can recreate the @code{nnmairix} group on the
4868 back end using @kbd{G b d}.
4870 @node nnmairix tips and tricks
4871 @subsubsection nnmairix tips and tricks
4877 @findex nnmairix-update-groups
4878 I put all my important mail groups at group level 1. The mairix groups
4879 have group level 5, so they do not get checked at start up (@pxref{Group
4882 I use the following to check for mails:
4885 (defun my-check-mail-mairix-update (level)
4887 ;; if no prefix given, set level=1
4888 (gnus-group-get-new-news (or level 1))
4889 (nnmairix-update-groups "mairixsearch" t t)
4890 (gnus-group-list-groups))
4892 (define-key gnus-group-mode-map "g" 'my-check-mail-mairix-update)
4895 Instead of @samp{"mairixsearch"} use the name of your @code{nnmairix}
4896 server. See the doc string for @code{nnmairix-update-groups} for
4900 Example: search group for ticked articles
4902 For example, you can create a group for all ticked articles, where the
4903 articles always stay unread:
4905 Hit @kbd{G b g}, enter group name (e.g. @samp{important}), use
4906 @samp{F:f} as query and do not include threads.
4908 Now activate marks propagation for this group by using @kbd{G b p}. Then
4909 activate the always-unread feature by using @kbd{G b r} twice.
4911 So far so good---but how do you remove the tick marks in the @code{nnmairix}
4912 group? There are two options: You may simply use
4913 @code{nnmairix-remove-tick-mark-original-article} (bound to @kbd{$ u}) to remove
4914 tick marks from the original article. The other possibility is to set
4915 @code{nnmairix-propagate-marks-to-nnmairix-groups} to @code{t}, but see the above
4916 comments about this option. If it works for you, the tick marks should
4917 also exist in the @code{nnmairix} group and you can remove them as usual,
4918 e.g. by marking an article as read.
4920 When you have removed a tick mark from the original article, this
4921 article should vanish from the @code{nnmairix} group after you have updated the
4922 mairix database and updated the group. Fortunately, there is a function
4923 for doing exactly that: @code{nnmairix-update-groups}. See the previous code
4924 snippet and the doc string for details.
4927 Dealing with auto-subscription of mail groups
4929 As described before, all @code{nnmairix} groups are in fact stored on
4930 the mail back end in the form @samp{zz_mairix-<NAME>-<NUMBER>}. You can
4931 see them when you enter the back end server in the server buffer. You
4932 should not subscribe these groups! Unfortunately, these groups will
4933 usually get @emph{auto-subscribed} when you use @code{nnmaildir} or
4934 @code{nnml}, i.e. you will suddenly see groups of the form
4935 @samp{zz_mairix*} pop up in your group buffer. If this happens to you,
4936 simply kill these groups with C-k. For avoiding this, turn off
4937 auto-subscription completely by setting the variable
4938 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups} to @code{nil} (@pxref{Filtering New
4939 Groups}), or if you like to keep this feature use the following kludge
4940 for turning it off for all groups beginning with @samp{zz_}:
4943 (setq gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
4944 "^\\(nnml\\|nnfolder\\|nnmbox\\|nnmh\\|nnbabyl\\|nnmaildir\\).*:\\([^z]\\|z$\\|\\z[^z]\\|zz$\\|zz[^_]\\|zz_$\\).*")
4949 @node nnmairix caveats
4950 @subsubsection nnmairix caveats
4954 You can create a secondary @code{nnml} server just for nnmairix, but then
4955 you have to explicitly set the corresponding server variable
4956 @code{nnml-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}. Otherwise, new mail might get
4957 put into this secondary server (and would never show up again). Here's
4958 an example server definition:
4961 (nnml "mairix" (nnml-directory "mairix") (nnml-get-new-mail nil))
4964 (The @code{nnmaildir} back end also has a server variabe
4965 @code{get-new-mail}, but its default value is @code{nil}, so you don't
4966 have to explicitly set it if you use a @code{nnmaildir} server just for
4970 If you use the Gnus registry: don't use the registry with
4971 @code{nnmairix} groups (put them in
4972 @code{gnus-registry-unfollowed-groups}). Be @emph{extra careful} if
4973 you use @code{gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent}; mails which are
4974 split into @code{nnmairix} groups are usually gone for good as soon as
4975 you check the group for new mail (yes, it has happened to me...).
4978 Therefore: @emph{Never ever} put ``real'' mails into @code{nnmairix}
4979 groups (you shouldn't be able to, anyway).
4982 If you use the Gnus agent (@pxref{Gnus Unplugged}): don't agentize
4983 @code{nnmairix} groups (though I have no idea what happens if you do).
4986 mairix does only support us-ascii characters.
4989 @code{nnmairix} uses a rather brute force method to force Gnus to
4990 completely reread the group on the mail back end after mairix was
4991 called---it simply deletes and re-creates the group on the mail
4992 back end. So far, this has worked for me without any problems, and I
4993 don't see how @code{nnmairix} could delete other mail groups than its
4994 own, but anyway: you really should have a backup of your mail
4998 All necessary information is stored in the group parameters
4999 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). This has the advantage that no active file
5000 is needed, but also implies that when you kill a @code{nnmairix} group,
5001 it is gone for good.
5004 @findex nnmairix-purge-old-groups
5005 If you create and kill a lot of @code{nnmairix} groups, the
5006 ``zz_mairix-*'' groups will accumulate on the mail back end server. To
5007 delete old groups which are no longer needed, call
5008 @code{nnmairix-purge-old-groups}. Note that this assumes that you don't
5009 save any ``real'' mail in folders of the form
5010 @code{zz_mairix-<NAME>-<NUMBER>}. You can change the prefix of
5011 @code{nnmairix} groups by changing the variable
5012 @code{nnmairix-group-prefix}.
5015 The following only applies if you @emph{don't} use the mentioned patch
5016 for mairix (@pxref{Propagating marks}):
5018 A problem can occur when using @code{nnmairix} with maildir folders and
5019 comes with the fact that maildir stores mail flags like @samp{Seen} or
5020 @samp{Replied} by appending chars @samp{S} and @samp{R} to the message
5021 file name, respectively. This implies that currently you would have to
5022 update the mairix database not only when new mail arrives, but also when
5023 mail flags are changing. The same applies to new mails which are indexed
5024 while they are still in the @samp{new} folder but then get moved to
5025 @samp{cur} when Gnus has seen the mail. If you don't update the database
5026 after this has happened, a mairix query can lead to symlinks pointing to
5027 non-existing files. In Gnus, these messages will usually appear with
5028 ``(none)'' entries in the header and can't be accessed. If this happens
5029 to you, using @kbd{G b u} and updating the group will usually fix this.
5033 @node Misc Group Stuff
5034 @section Misc Group Stuff
5037 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
5038 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
5039 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
5040 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
5041 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
5048 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Group)
5049 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
5050 command or better use it as a prefix key. For example:
5053 (define-key gnus-group-mode-map (kbd "v j d")
5056 (gnus-group-jump-to-group "nndraft:drafts")))
5059 On keys reserved for users in Emacs and on keybindings in general
5060 @xref{Keymaps, Keymaps, , emacs, The Emacs Editor}.
5064 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
5065 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
5066 @xref{Server Buffer}.
5070 @findex gnus-group-post-news
5071 Start composing a message (a news by default)
5072 (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a prefix, post to the group
5073 under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
5074 Contrary to what the name of this function suggests, the prepared
5075 article might be a mail instead of a news, if a mail group is specified
5076 with the prefix argument. @xref{Composing Messages}.
5080 @findex gnus-group-mail
5081 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}). If given a prefix,
5082 use the posting style of the group under the point. If the prefix is 1,
5083 prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
5084 @xref{Composing Messages}.
5088 @findex gnus-group-news
5089 Start composing a news (@code{gnus-group-news}). If given a prefix,
5090 post to the group under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt
5091 for group to post to. @xref{Composing Messages}.
5093 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
5094 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
5095 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
5096 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
5097 for this to work though.
5101 @findex gnus-group-compact-group
5103 Compact the group under point (@code{gnus-group-compact-group}).
5104 Currently implemented only in nnml (@pxref{Mail Spool}). This removes
5105 gaps between article numbers, hence getting a correct total article
5110 Variables for the group buffer:
5114 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
5115 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
5116 is called after the group buffer has been
5119 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
5120 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
5121 is called after the group buffer is
5122 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
5125 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
5126 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
5127 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
5128 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
5130 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
5131 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
5132 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
5133 whether they are empty or not.
5137 @node Scanning New Messages
5138 @subsection Scanning New Messages
5139 @cindex new messages
5140 @cindex scanning new news
5146 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
5147 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
5148 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
5149 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
5150 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
5151 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
5156 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
5157 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
5158 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
5159 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
5160 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
5161 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
5162 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
5164 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
5165 @cindex activating groups
5167 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
5168 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
5173 @findex gnus-group-restart
5174 Restart Gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
5175 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
5176 Gnus variables, and then starts Gnus all over again.
5180 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
5181 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
5183 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
5184 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
5188 @node Group Information
5189 @subsection Group Information
5190 @cindex group information
5191 @cindex information on groups
5198 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
5199 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
5202 Try to fetch the @acronym{FAQ} for the current group
5203 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the @acronym{FAQ}
5204 from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on
5205 a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
5206 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
5207 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be
5208 used for fetching the file.
5210 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, Gnus will attempt to go
5211 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
5215 @findex gnus-group-fetch-control
5216 @vindex gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url
5217 @cindex control message
5218 Fetch the control messages for the group from the archive at
5219 @code{ftp.isc.org} (@code{gnus-group-fetch-control}). Query for a
5220 group if given a prefix argument.
5222 If @code{gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url} is non-@code{nil},
5223 Gnus will open the control messages in a browser using
5224 @code{browse-url}. Otherwise they are fetched using @code{ange-ftp}
5225 and displayed in an ephemeral group.
5227 Note that the control messages are compressed. To use this command
5228 you need to turn on @code{auto-compression-mode} (@pxref{Compressed
5229 Files, ,Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Manual}).
5233 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
5235 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
5236 @cindex describing groups
5237 @cindex group description
5238 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
5239 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
5240 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
5244 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
5245 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
5246 prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
5253 @findex gnus-version
5254 Display current Gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
5258 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
5259 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
5262 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
5265 @findex gnus-info-find-node
5266 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
5270 @node Group Timestamp
5271 @subsection Group Timestamp
5273 @cindex group timestamps
5275 It can be convenient to let Gnus keep track of when you last read a
5276 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
5277 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
5280 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
5283 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
5285 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
5286 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
5289 (setq gnus-group-line-format
5290 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
5293 This will result in lines looking like:
5296 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
5297 0: custom 19961002T012713
5300 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
5301 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
5305 (setq gnus-group-line-format
5306 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
5309 If you would like greater control of the time format, you can use a
5310 user-defined format spec. Something like the following should do the
5314 (setq gnus-group-line-format
5315 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %ud\n")
5316 (defun gnus-user-format-function-d (headers)
5317 (let ((time (gnus-group-timestamp gnus-tmp-group)))
5319 (format-time-string "%b %d %H:%M" time)
5325 @subsection File Commands
5326 @cindex file commands
5332 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
5333 @vindex gnus-init-file
5334 @cindex reading init file
5335 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
5336 @file{~/.gnus.el}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
5340 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
5341 @cindex saving .newsrc
5342 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
5343 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
5344 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
5347 @c @kindex Z (Group)
5348 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
5349 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
5354 @node Sieve Commands
5355 @subsection Sieve Commands
5356 @cindex group sieve commands
5358 Sieve is a server-side mail filtering language. In Gnus you can use
5359 the @code{sieve} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to specify
5360 sieve rules that should apply to each group. Gnus provides two
5361 commands to translate all these group parameters into a proper Sieve
5362 script that can be transfered to the server somehow.
5364 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
5365 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-start
5366 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-end
5367 The generated Sieve script is placed in @code{gnus-sieve-file} (by
5368 default @file{~/.sieve}). The Sieve code that Gnus generate is placed
5369 between two delimiters, @code{gnus-sieve-region-start} and
5370 @code{gnus-sieve-region-end}, so you may write additional Sieve code
5371 outside these delimiters that will not be removed the next time you
5372 regenerate the Sieve script.
5374 @vindex gnus-sieve-crosspost
5375 The variable @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} controls how the Sieve script
5376 is generated. If it is non-@code{nil} (the default) articles is
5377 placed in all groups that have matching rules, otherwise the article
5378 is only placed in the group with the first matching rule. For
5379 example, the group parameter @samp{(sieve address "sender"
5380 "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu")} will generate the following piece of Sieve
5381 code if @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is @code{nil}. (When
5382 @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is non-@code{nil}, it looks the same
5383 except that the line containing the call to @code{stop} is removed.)
5386 if address "sender" "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu" @{
5387 fileinto "INBOX.ding";
5392 @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve, Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
5398 @findex gnus-sieve-generate
5399 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
5400 @cindex generating sieve script
5401 Regenerate a Sieve script from the @code{sieve} group parameters and
5402 put you into the @code{gnus-sieve-file} without saving it.
5406 @findex gnus-sieve-update
5407 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
5408 @cindex updating sieve script
5409 Regenerates the Gnus managed part of @code{gnus-sieve-file} using the
5410 @code{sieve} group parameters, save the file and upload it to the
5411 server using the @code{sieveshell} program.
5416 @node Summary Buffer
5417 @chapter Summary Buffer
5418 @cindex summary buffer
5420 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
5421 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
5423 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
5424 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
5426 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
5428 You can customize the Summary Mode tool bar, see @kbd{M-x
5429 customize-apropos RET gnus-summary-tool-bar}. This feature is only
5433 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Summary)
5434 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
5435 command or better use it as a prefix key. For example:
5437 (define-key gnus-summary-mode-map (kbd "v -") "LrS") ;; lower subthread
5441 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
5442 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
5443 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
5444 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
5445 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
5446 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
5447 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
5448 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
5449 * Threading:: How threads are made.
5450 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
5451 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
5452 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
5453 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
5454 * Sticky Articles:: Article buffers that are not reused.
5455 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
5456 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
5457 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
5458 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
5459 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
5460 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
5461 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
5462 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
5463 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
5464 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
5465 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
5466 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
5467 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
5468 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
5469 or reselecting the current group.
5470 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
5471 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
5472 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
5473 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
5477 @node Summary Buffer Format
5478 @section Summary Buffer Format
5479 @cindex summary buffer format
5483 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
5484 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary,width=7.5cm}}
5485 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-article,width=7.5cm}}}
5491 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
5492 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
5493 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
5494 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
5497 @findex mail-extract-address-components
5498 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
5499 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
5500 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
5501 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
5502 @code{From} header. Two pre-defined functions exist:
5503 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
5504 fast, and too simplistic solution; and
5505 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works very nicely, but is
5506 slower. The default function will return the wrong answer in 5% of the
5507 cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the other function instead:
5510 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
5511 'mail-extract-address-components)
5514 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
5515 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
5516 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
5517 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
5520 @node Summary Buffer Lines
5521 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
5523 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
5524 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
5525 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
5526 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
5527 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
5529 There should always be a colon or a point position marker on the line;
5530 the cursor always moves to the point position marker or the colon after
5531 performing an operation. (Of course, Gnus wouldn't be Gnus if it wasn't
5532 possible to change this. Just write a new function
5533 @code{gnus-goto-colon} which does whatever you like with the cursor.)
5534 @xref{Positioning Point}.
5536 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n}.
5538 The following format specification characters and extended format
5539 specification(s) are understood:
5545 Subject string. List identifiers stripped,
5546 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. @xref{Article Hiding}.
5548 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
5549 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
5550 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
5552 Full @code{From} header.
5554 The name (from the @code{From} header).
5556 The name, @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header (@pxref{To
5559 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
5560 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
5561 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
5562 may be more thorough.
5564 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
5567 Number of lines in the article.
5569 Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported
5570 in some methods (like nnfolder).
5572 Pretty-printed version of the number of characters in the article;
5573 for example, @samp{1.2k} or @samp{0.4M}.
5575 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
5577 A complex trn-style thread tree, showing response-connecting trace
5578 lines. A thread could be drawn like this:
5591 You can customize the appearance with the following options. Note
5592 that it is possible to make the thread display look really neat by
5593 replacing the default @acronym{ASCII} characters with graphic
5594 line-drawing glyphs.
5596 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
5597 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
5598 Used for the root of a thread. If @code{nil}, use subject
5599 instead. The default is @samp{> }.
5601 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
5602 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
5603 Used for the false root of a thread (@pxref{Loose Threads}). If
5604 @code{nil}, use subject instead. The default is @samp{> }.
5606 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
5607 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
5608 Used for a thread with just one message. If @code{nil}, use subject
5609 instead. The default is @samp{}.
5611 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
5612 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
5613 Used for drawing a vertical line. The default is @samp{| }.
5615 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
5616 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
5617 Used for indenting. The default is @samp{ }.
5619 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
5620 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
5621 Used for a leaf with brothers. The default is @samp{+-> }.
5623 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
5624 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
5625 Used for a leaf without brothers. The default is @samp{\-> }
5630 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
5631 pushes everything after it off the screen).
5633 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
5634 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
5636 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
5637 for adopted articles.
5639 One space for each thread level.
5641 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
5643 Unread. @xref{Read Articles}.
5646 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
5647 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
5648 or has been saved. @xref{Other Marks}.
5651 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
5653 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
5654 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
5655 default level. If the difference between
5656 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
5657 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
5665 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
5667 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
5673 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
5674 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
5676 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
5677 article has any children.
5683 Desired cursor position (instead of after first colon).
5685 Age sensitive date format. Various date format is defined in
5686 @code{gnus-user-date-format-alist}.
5688 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
5689 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
5690 @code{gnus-user-format-function-@var{x}}, where @var{x} is the letter
5691 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
5692 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
5693 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
5696 Text between @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} will be highlighted with
5697 @code{gnus-mouse-face} when the mouse point is placed inside the area.
5698 There can only be one such area.
5700 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
5701 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will
5702 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
5703 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
5704 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
5705 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
5707 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
5708 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
5710 This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
5713 @node To From Newsgroups
5714 @subsection To From Newsgroups
5718 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
5719 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
5720 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
5721 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
5722 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
5726 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
5727 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
5728 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
5732 (setq gnus-extra-headers
5733 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
5736 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
5737 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
5740 @findex gnus-extra-header
5741 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
5742 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
5743 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
5746 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
5750 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
5751 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
5752 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
5753 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
5754 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
5755 headers are used instead.
5757 To distinguish regular articles from those where the @code{From} field
5758 has been swapped, a string is prefixed to the @code{To} or
5759 @code{Newsgroups} header in the summary line. By default the string is
5760 @samp{-> } for @code{To} and @samp{=> } for @code{Newsgroups}, you can
5761 customize these strings with @code{gnus-summary-to-prefix} and
5762 @code{gnus-summary-newsgroup-prefix}.
5766 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
5767 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
5768 to include extra headers when generating overview (@acronym{NOV}) files.
5769 If you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after
5770 changing this variable, by entering the server buffer using @kbd{^},
5771 and then @kbd{g} on the appropriate mail server (e.g. nnml) to cause
5774 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
5775 You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the
5776 @code{%n} spec to the @code{%f} spec in the
5777 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable.
5779 In summary, you'd typically put something like the following in
5783 (setq gnus-extra-headers
5785 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
5786 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
5787 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
5788 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
5792 (The values listed above are the default values in Gnus. Alter them
5795 A note for news server administrators, or for users who wish to try to
5796 convince their news server administrator to provide some additional
5799 The above is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
5800 the @acronym{NOV} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
5801 nntp admin to add (in the usual implementation, notably INN):
5807 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
5808 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
5811 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
5812 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
5814 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
5815 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
5816 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
5817 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
5819 Here are the elements you can play with:
5825 Unprefixed group name.
5827 Current article number.
5829 Current article score.
5833 Number of unread articles in this group.
5835 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
5838 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
5839 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
5840 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
5841 and no unselected ones.
5843 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
5844 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
5846 Subject of the current article.
5848 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
5850 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
5852 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
5854 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
5856 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
5858 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
5862 @node Summary Highlighting
5863 @subsection Summary Highlighting
5867 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
5868 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
5869 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
5870 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
5871 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
5873 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
5874 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
5875 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
5876 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
5878 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
5879 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
5880 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
5881 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
5883 @item gnus-summary-highlight
5884 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
5885 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
5886 list where the elements are of the format @code{(@var{form}
5887 . @var{face})}. If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be
5888 italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable
5891 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
5892 ((> score default) . bold))
5894 As you may have guessed, if @var{form} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
5895 @var{face} will be applied to the line.
5899 @node Summary Maneuvering
5900 @section Summary Maneuvering
5901 @cindex summary movement
5903 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
5904 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
5906 None of these commands select articles.
5911 @kindex M-n (Summary)
5912 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
5913 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
5914 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
5915 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
5919 @kindex M-p (Summary)
5920 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
5921 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
5922 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
5923 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
5926 @kindex G g (Summary)
5927 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
5928 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
5929 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
5932 If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
5933 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
5934 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
5935 to the group buffer.
5937 Variables related to summary movement:
5941 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
5942 @item gnus-auto-select-next
5943 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
5944 no more unread articles after the current one, Gnus will offer to go to
5945 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
5946 empty, Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
5947 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, Gnus will select the
5948 next group with unread articles. As a special case, if this variable
5949 is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the next group without asking for
5950 confirmation. If this variable is @code{almost-quietly}, the same
5951 will happen only if you are located on the last article in the group.
5952 Finally, if this variable is @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n}
5953 command will go to the next group without confirmation. Also
5954 @pxref{Group Levels}.
5956 @item gnus-auto-select-same
5957 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
5958 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
5959 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
5960 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
5961 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
5962 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
5964 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
5966 @item gnus-summary-check-current
5967 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
5968 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
5969 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
5970 Instead, they will choose the current article.
5972 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
5973 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
5974 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
5975 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
5976 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
5977 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
5978 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
5979 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
5982 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
5983 the given number of lines from the top.
5985 @item gnus-summary-stop-at-end-of-message
5986 @vindex gnus-summary-stop-at-end-of-message
5987 If non-@code{nil}, don't go to the next article when hitting
5988 @kbd{SPC}, and you're at the end of the article.
5993 @node Choosing Articles
5994 @section Choosing Articles
5995 @cindex selecting articles
5998 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
5999 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
6003 @node Choosing Commands
6004 @subsection Choosing Commands
6006 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
6007 and they all select and display an article.
6009 If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see
6010 @ref{Exiting the Summary Buffer}.
6014 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
6015 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
6016 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
6017 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
6019 If you have an article window open already and you press @kbd{SPACE}
6020 again, the article will be scrolled. This lets you conveniently
6021 @kbd{SPACE} through an entire newsgroup. @xref{Paging the Article}.
6026 @kindex G n (Summary)
6027 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
6028 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
6029 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
6034 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
6035 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
6036 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
6041 @kindex G N (Summary)
6042 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
6043 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
6048 @kindex G P (Summary)
6049 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
6050 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
6053 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
6054 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
6055 Go to the next article with the same subject
6056 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
6059 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
6060 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
6061 Go to the previous article with the same subject
6062 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
6066 @kindex G f (Summary)
6068 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
6069 Go to the first unread article
6070 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
6074 @kindex G b (Summary)
6076 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
6077 Go to the unread article with the highest score
6078 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}). If given a prefix argument,
6079 go to the first unread article that has a score over the default score.
6084 @kindex G l (Summary)
6085 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
6086 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
6089 @kindex G o (Summary)
6090 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
6092 @cindex article history
6093 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
6094 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
6095 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
6096 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
6097 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
6098 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
6103 @kindex G j (Summary)
6104 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
6105 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
6106 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
6111 @node Choosing Variables
6112 @subsection Choosing Variables
6114 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
6117 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
6118 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
6119 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
6120 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
6121 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
6122 the server and display it in the article buffer.
6124 @item gnus-select-article-hook
6125 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
6126 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. The default is
6127 @code{nil}. If you would like each article to be saved in the Agent as
6128 you read it, putting @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} on this
6131 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
6132 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
6133 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
6134 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
6135 @findex gnus-unread-mark
6136 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
6137 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
6138 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
6139 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-read-mark}. The only
6140 articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
6141 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
6142 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
6143 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
6144 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
6149 @node Paging the Article
6150 @section Scrolling the Article
6151 @cindex article scrolling
6156 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
6157 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
6158 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
6159 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
6160 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
6162 @vindex gnus-article-boring-faces
6163 @vindex gnus-article-skip-boring
6164 If @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} is non-@code{nil} and the rest of
6165 the article consists only of citations and signature, then it will be
6166 skipped; the next article will be shown instead. You can customize
6167 what is considered uninteresting with
6168 @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}. You can manually view the article's
6169 pages, no matter how boring, using @kbd{C-M-v}.
6172 @kindex DEL (Summary)
6173 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
6174 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
6177 @kindex RET (Summary)
6178 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
6179 Scroll the current article one line forward
6180 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
6183 @kindex M-RET (Summary)
6184 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-down
6185 Scroll the current article one line backward
6186 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-down}).
6190 @kindex A g (Summary)
6192 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
6193 @vindex gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
6194 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
6195 given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the
6196 article treatment functions. This will give you a ``raw'' article, just
6197 the way it came from the server.
6199 @cindex charset, view article with different charset
6200 If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual charset stuff.
6201 @kbd{C-u 0 g cn-gb-2312 RET} will decode the message as if it were
6202 encoded in the @code{cn-gb-2312} charset. If you have
6205 (setq gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
6210 then you can say @kbd{C-u 1 g} to get the same effect.
6215 @kindex A < (Summary)
6216 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
6217 Scroll to the beginning of the article
6218 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
6223 @kindex A > (Summary)
6224 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
6225 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
6229 @kindex A s (Summary)
6231 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
6232 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
6233 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
6237 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
6238 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
6243 @node Reply Followup and Post
6244 @section Reply, Followup and Post
6247 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
6248 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
6249 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
6250 * Canceling and Superseding::
6254 @node Summary Mail Commands
6255 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
6257 @cindex composing mail
6259 Commands for composing a mail message:
6265 @kindex S r (Summary)
6267 @findex gnus-summary-reply
6268 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
6269 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
6270 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
6271 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
6276 @kindex S R (Summary)
6277 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
6278 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
6279 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
6280 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
6281 command uses the process/prefix convention.
6284 @kindex S w (Summary)
6285 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
6286 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
6287 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
6288 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
6289 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers. If @code{Mail-Followup-To} is
6290 present, that's used instead.
6293 @kindex S W (Summary)
6294 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
6295 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
6296 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
6297 the process/prefix convention, but only uses the headers from the
6298 first article to determine the recipients.
6301 @kindex S v (Summary)
6302 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply
6303 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article
6304 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{very wide reply} is a reply
6305 that goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
6306 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers in all the process/prefixed
6307 articles. This command uses the process/prefix convention.
6310 @kindex S V (Summary)
6311 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original
6312 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article and include the
6313 original message (@code{gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original}). This
6314 command uses the process/prefix convention.
6317 @kindex S B r (Summary)
6318 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to
6319 Mail a reply to the author of the current article but ignore the
6320 @code{Reply-To} field (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to}).
6321 If you need this because a mailing list incorrectly sets a
6322 @code{Reply-To} header pointing to the list, you probably want to set
6323 the @code{broken-reply-to} group parameter instead, so things will work
6324 correctly. @xref{Group Parameters}.
6327 @kindex S B R (Summary)
6328 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original
6329 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
6330 original message but ignore the @code{Reply-To} field
6331 (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original}).
6335 @kindex S o m (Summary)
6336 @kindex C-c C-f (Summary)
6337 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
6338 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
6339 Forward the current article to some other person
6340 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If no prefix is given, the message
6341 is forwarded according to the value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime})
6342 and (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
6343 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
6344 as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
6345 forward as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
6346 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
6347 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
6348 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME}
6354 @kindex S m (Summary)
6355 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
6356 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
6357 Prepare a mail (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}). By default, use
6358 the posting style of the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
6359 If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
6362 @kindex S i (Summary)
6363 @findex gnus-summary-news-other-window
6364 Prepare a news (@code{gnus-summary-news-other-window}). By default,
6365 post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that. If the
6366 prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
6368 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
6369 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
6370 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
6371 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
6372 for this to work though.
6375 @kindex S D b (Summary)
6376 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
6377 @cindex bouncing mail
6378 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
6379 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
6380 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
6381 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
6382 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
6383 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, Gnus will try to fetch
6384 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
6385 very well fail, though.
6388 @kindex S D r (Summary)
6389 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
6390 Not to be confused with the previous command,
6391 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
6392 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
6393 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
6394 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
6395 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
6396 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
6397 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
6399 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
6400 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
6401 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
6402 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
6403 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muss sein!
6405 This command understands the process/prefix convention
6406 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
6409 @kindex S D e (Summary)
6410 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message-edit
6412 Like the previous command, but will allow you to edit the message as
6413 if it were a new message before resending.
6416 @kindex S O m (Summary)
6417 @findex gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward
6418 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
6419 result using mail (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command
6420 uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
6423 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
6424 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
6425 @cindex crossposting
6426 @cindex excessive crossposting
6427 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
6428 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
6430 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
6431 This command is provided as a way to fight back against the current
6432 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
6433 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
6434 command understands the process/prefix convention
6435 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
6439 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
6440 Manual}, for more information.
6443 @node Summary Post Commands
6444 @subsection Summary Post Commands
6446 @cindex composing news
6448 Commands for posting a news article:
6454 @kindex S p (Summary)
6455 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
6456 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
6457 Prepare for posting an article (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}). By
6458 default, post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
6459 If the prefix is 1, prompt for another group instead.
6464 @kindex S f (Summary)
6465 @findex gnus-summary-followup
6466 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
6467 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
6471 @kindex S F (Summary)
6473 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
6474 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
6475 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
6476 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
6477 process/prefix convention.
6480 @kindex S n (Summary)
6481 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
6482 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
6483 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
6486 @kindex S N (Summary)
6487 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original
6488 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
6489 message through mail and include the original message
6490 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
6491 the process/prefix convention.
6494 @kindex S o p (Summary)
6495 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
6496 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
6497 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}).
6498 If no prefix is given, the message is forwarded according to the value
6499 of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}) and
6500 (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
6501 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
6502 as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
6503 forward as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
6504 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
6505 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
6506 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section.
6509 @kindex S O p (Summary)
6510 @findex gnus-uu-digest-post-forward
6512 @cindex making digests
6513 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
6514 (@code{gnus-uu-digest-post-forward}). This command uses the
6515 process/prefix convention.
6518 @kindex S u (Summary)
6519 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
6520 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
6521 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
6522 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
6525 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
6526 Manual}, for more information.
6529 @node Summary Message Commands
6530 @subsection Summary Message Commands
6534 @kindex S y (Summary)
6535 @findex gnus-summary-yank-message
6536 Yank the current article into an already existing Message composition
6537 buffer (@code{gnus-summary-yank-message}). This command prompts for
6538 what message buffer you want to yank into, and understands the
6539 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
6544 @node Canceling and Superseding
6545 @subsection Canceling Articles
6546 @cindex canceling articles
6547 @cindex superseding articles
6549 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
6550 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
6552 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
6554 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
6556 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
6557 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
6558 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
6559 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
6560 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
6561 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
6563 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
6564 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
6567 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when canceling. If you
6568 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
6569 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
6571 Gnus ensures that only you can cancel your own messages using a
6572 @code{Cancel-Lock} header (@pxref{Canceling News, Canceling News, ,
6573 message, Message Manual}).
6575 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
6576 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
6577 your original article.
6579 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
6581 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
6582 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
6583 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
6586 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
6587 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
6588 have posted almost the same article twice.
6590 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
6591 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
6592 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
6593 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
6594 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
6595 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
6596 header by substituting one of those words for the word
6597 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
6598 you would do normally. The previous article will be
6599 canceled/superseded.
6601 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
6603 @node Delayed Articles
6604 @section Delayed Articles
6605 @cindex delayed sending
6606 @cindex send delayed
6608 Sometimes, you might wish to delay the sending of a message. For
6609 example, you might wish to arrange for a message to turn up just in time
6610 to remind your about the birthday of your Significant Other. For this,
6611 there is the @code{gnus-delay} package. Setup is simple:
6614 (gnus-delay-initialize)
6617 @findex gnus-delay-article
6618 Normally, to send a message you use the @kbd{C-c C-c} command from
6619 Message mode. To delay a message, use @kbd{C-c C-j}
6620 (@code{gnus-delay-article}) instead. This will ask you for how long the
6621 message should be delayed. Possible answers are:
6625 A time span. Consists of an integer and a letter. For example,
6626 @code{42d} means to delay for 42 days. Available letters are @code{m}
6627 (minutes), @code{h} (hours), @code{d} (days), @code{w} (weeks), @code{M}
6628 (months) and @code{Y} (years).
6631 A specific date. Looks like @code{YYYY-MM-DD}. The message will be
6632 delayed until that day, at a specific time (eight o'clock by default).
6633 See also @code{gnus-delay-default-hour}.
6636 A specific time of day. Given in @code{hh:mm} format, 24h, no am/pm
6637 stuff. The deadline will be at that time today, except if that time has
6638 already passed, then it's at the given time tomorrow. So if it's ten
6639 o'clock in the morning and you specify @code{11:15}, then the deadline
6640 is one hour and fifteen minutes hence. But if you specify @code{9:20},
6641 that means a time tomorrow.
6644 The action of the @code{gnus-delay-article} command is influenced by a
6645 couple of variables:
6648 @item gnus-delay-default-hour
6649 @vindex gnus-delay-default-hour
6650 When you specify a specific date, the message will be due on that hour
6651 on the given date. Possible values are integers 0 through 23.
6653 @item gnus-delay-default-delay
6654 @vindex gnus-delay-default-delay
6655 This is a string and gives the default delay. It can be of any of the
6656 formats described above.
6658 @item gnus-delay-group
6659 @vindex gnus-delay-group
6660 Delayed articles will be kept in this group on the drafts server until
6661 they are due. You probably don't need to change this. The default
6662 value is @code{"delayed"}.
6664 @item gnus-delay-header
6665 @vindex gnus-delay-header
6666 The deadline for each article will be stored in a header. This variable
6667 is a string and gives the header name. You probably don't need to
6668 change this. The default value is @code{"X-Gnus-Delayed"}.
6671 The way delaying works is like this: when you use the
6672 @code{gnus-delay-article} command, you give a certain delay. Gnus
6673 calculates the deadline of the message and stores it in the
6674 @code{X-Gnus-Delayed} header and puts the message in the
6675 @code{nndraft:delayed} group.
6677 @findex gnus-delay-send-queue
6678 And whenever you get new news, Gnus looks through the group for articles
6679 which are due and sends them. It uses the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue}
6680 function for this. By default, this function is added to the hook
6681 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But of course, you can change this.
6682 Maybe you want to use the demon to send drafts? Just tell the demon to
6683 execute the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} function.
6686 @item gnus-delay-initialize
6687 @findex gnus-delay-initialize
6688 By default, this function installs @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} in
6689 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But it accepts the optional second
6690 argument @code{no-check}. If it is non-@code{nil},
6691 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is not changed. The optional first
6692 argument is ignored.
6694 For example, @code{(gnus-delay-initialize nil t)} means to do nothing.
6695 Presumably, you want to use the demon for sending due delayed articles.
6696 Just don't forget to set that up :-)
6699 When delaying an article with @kbd{C-c C-j}, Message mode will
6700 automatically add a @code{"Date"} header with the current time. In
6701 many cases you probably want the @code{"Date"} header to reflect the
6702 time the message is sent instead. To do this, you have to delete
6703 @code{Date} from @code{message-draft-headers}.
6706 @node Marking Articles
6707 @section Marking Articles
6708 @cindex article marking
6709 @cindex article ticking
6712 There are several marks you can set on an article.
6714 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
6715 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
6716 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
6718 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
6721 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks.
6725 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
6726 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
6727 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
6728 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
6729 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
6730 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
6734 @node Unread Articles
6735 @subsection Unread Articles
6737 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
6742 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
6743 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
6745 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
6746 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
6747 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
6748 tick it. However, articles can be expired (from news servers by the
6749 news server software, Gnus itself never expires ticked messages), so if
6750 you want to keep an article forever, you'll have to make it persistent
6751 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
6754 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
6755 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
6757 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
6758 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
6759 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
6760 Otherwise (except for the visibility issue), they are just like ticked
6764 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
6765 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
6767 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
6772 @subsection Read Articles
6773 @cindex expirable mark
6775 All the following marks mark articles as read.
6780 @vindex gnus-del-mark
6781 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
6782 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
6785 @vindex gnus-read-mark
6786 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
6789 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
6790 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
6791 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
6794 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
6795 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
6798 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
6799 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
6802 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
6803 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
6806 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
6807 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
6810 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
6811 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
6814 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
6815 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
6819 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
6820 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
6821 (@code{gnus-duplicate-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
6825 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
6826 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
6828 One more special mark, though:
6832 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
6833 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
6835 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
6836 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
6837 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
6838 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by Gnus at
6844 @subsection Other Marks
6845 @cindex process mark
6848 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
6854 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
6855 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
6856 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
6857 in the article, and Gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
6858 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}.
6861 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
6862 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
6863 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
6864 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
6867 @vindex gnus-forwarded-mark
6868 All articles that you have forwarded will be marked with an @samp{F} in
6869 the second column (@code{gnus-forwarded-mark}).
6872 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
6873 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
6874 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}.
6877 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
6878 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
6879 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
6880 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
6883 @vindex gnus-recent-mark
6884 Articles that according to the server haven't been shown to the user
6885 before are marked with a @samp{N} in the second column
6886 (@code{gnus-recent-mark}). Note that not all servers support this
6887 mark, in which case it simply never appears. Compare with
6888 @code{gnus-unseen-mark}.
6891 @vindex gnus-unseen-mark
6892 Articles that haven't been seen before in Gnus by the user are marked
6893 with a @samp{.} in the second column (@code{gnus-unseen-mark}).
6894 Compare with @code{gnus-recent-mark}.
6897 @vindex gnus-downloaded-mark
6898 When using the Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}), articles may be
6899 downloaded for unplugged (offline) viewing. If you are using the
6900 @samp{%O} spec, these articles get the @samp{+} mark in that spec.
6901 (The variable @code{gnus-downloaded-mark} controls which character to
6905 @vindex gnus-undownloaded-mark
6906 When using the Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}), some articles might
6907 not have been downloaded. Such articles cannot be viewed while you
6908 are unplugged (offline). If you are using the @samp{%O} spec, these
6909 articles get the @samp{-} mark in that spec. (The variable
6910 @code{gnus-undownloaded-mark} controls which character to use.)
6913 @vindex gnus-downloadable-mark
6914 The Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}) downloads some articles
6915 automatically, but it is also possible to explicitly mark articles for
6916 download, even if they would not be downloaded automatically. Such
6917 explicitly-marked articles get the @samp{%} mark in the first column.
6918 (The variable @code{gnus-downloadable-mark} controls which character to
6922 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
6923 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
6924 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
6925 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
6926 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
6929 @vindex gnus-process-mark
6930 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
6931 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
6932 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
6933 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
6934 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
6938 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
6939 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
6940 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
6942 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
6943 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
6944 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
6948 @subsection Setting Marks
6949 @cindex setting marks
6951 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
6956 @kindex M c (Summary)
6957 @kindex M-u (Summary)
6958 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
6959 @cindex mark as unread
6960 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
6961 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
6967 @kindex M t (Summary)
6968 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
6969 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
6970 @xref{Article Caching}.
6975 @kindex M ? (Summary)
6976 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
6977 Mark the current article as dormant
6978 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}.
6982 @kindex M d (Summary)
6984 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
6985 Mark the current article as read
6986 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
6990 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
6991 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
6992 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
6997 @kindex M k (Summary)
6998 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
6999 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
7000 and then select the next unread article
7001 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
7005 @kindex M K (Summary)
7006 @kindex C-k (Summary)
7007 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
7008 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
7009 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
7012 @kindex M C (Summary)
7013 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
7014 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
7015 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
7018 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
7019 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
7020 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
7021 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
7024 @kindex M H (Summary)
7025 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
7026 Catchup the current group to point (before the point)
7027 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
7030 @kindex M h (Summary)
7031 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-from-here
7032 Catchup the current group from point (after the point)
7033 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-from-here}).
7036 @kindex C-w (Summary)
7037 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
7038 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
7039 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
7042 @kindex M V k (Summary)
7043 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
7044 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
7045 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
7049 @kindex M e (Summary)
7051 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
7052 Mark the current article as expirable
7053 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
7056 @kindex M b (Summary)
7057 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
7058 Set a bookmark in the current article
7059 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
7062 @kindex M B (Summary)
7063 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
7064 Remove the bookmark from the current article
7065 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
7068 @kindex M V c (Summary)
7069 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
7070 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
7071 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
7074 @kindex M V u (Summary)
7075 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
7076 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
7077 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
7080 @kindex M V m (Summary)
7081 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
7082 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
7083 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
7084 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
7087 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
7088 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
7089 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
7090 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
7091 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
7092 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
7093 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
7094 The default is @code{t}.
7097 @node Generic Marking Commands
7098 @subsection Generic Marking Commands
7100 Some people would like the command that ticks an article (@kbd{!}) go to
7101 the next article. Others would like it to go to the next unread
7102 article. Yet others would like it to stay on the current article. And
7103 even though I haven't heard of anybody wanting it to go to the
7104 previous (unread) article, I'm sure there are people that want that as
7107 Multiply these five behaviors with five different marking commands, and
7108 you get a potentially complex set of variable to control what each
7111 To sidestep that mess, Gnus provides commands that do all these
7112 different things. They can be found on the @kbd{M M} map in the summary
7113 buffer. Type @kbd{M M C-h} to see them all---there are too many of them
7114 to list in this manual.
7116 While you can use these commands directly, most users would prefer
7117 altering the summary mode keymap. For instance, if you would like the
7118 @kbd{!} command to go to the next article instead of the next unread
7119 article, you could say something like:
7123 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'my-alter-summary-map)
7124 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
7125 (local-set-key "!" 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-ticked-next))
7133 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
7134 (local-set-key "!" "MM!n"))
7138 @node Setting Process Marks
7139 @subsection Setting Process Marks
7140 @cindex setting process marks
7142 Process marks are displayed as @code{#} in the summary buffer, and are
7143 used for marking articles in such a way that other commands will
7144 process these articles. For instance, if you process mark four
7145 articles and then use the @kbd{*} command, Gnus will enter these four
7146 articles into the cache. For more information,
7147 @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
7154 @kindex M P p (Summary)
7155 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
7156 Mark the current article with the process mark
7157 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
7158 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
7162 @kindex M P u (Summary)
7163 @kindex M-# (Summary)
7164 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
7165 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
7168 @kindex M P U (Summary)
7169 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
7170 Remove the process mark from all articles
7171 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
7174 @kindex M P i (Summary)
7175 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
7176 Invert the list of process marked articles
7177 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
7180 @kindex M P R (Summary)
7181 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
7182 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
7183 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
7186 @kindex M P G (Summary)
7187 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp
7188 Unmark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
7189 expression (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp}).
7192 @kindex M P r (Summary)
7193 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
7194 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
7197 @kindex M P g (Summary)
7198 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-region
7199 Unmark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-region}).
7202 @kindex M P t (Summary)
7203 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
7204 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
7205 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
7208 @kindex M P T (Summary)
7209 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
7210 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
7211 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
7214 @kindex M P v (Summary)
7215 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
7216 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
7217 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
7220 @kindex M P s (Summary)
7221 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
7222 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
7225 @kindex M P S (Summary)
7226 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
7227 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
7228 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
7231 @kindex M P a (Summary)
7232 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
7233 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}).
7236 @kindex M P b (Summary)
7237 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
7238 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
7239 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
7242 @kindex M P k (Summary)
7243 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
7244 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
7245 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
7248 @kindex M P y (Summary)
7249 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
7250 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
7251 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
7254 @kindex M P w (Summary)
7255 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
7256 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
7257 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
7261 Also see the @kbd{&} command in @ref{Searching for Articles}, for how to
7262 set process marks based on article body contents.
7269 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
7270 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
7271 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
7274 Limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched from
7275 the servers. These commands don't query the server for additional
7282 @kindex / / (Summary)
7283 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
7284 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
7285 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}). If given a prefix, exclude
7289 @kindex / a (Summary)
7290 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
7291 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
7292 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}). If given a prefix, exclude
7296 @kindex / R (Summary)
7297 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-recipient
7298 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some recipient
7299 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-recipient}). If given a prefix, exclude
7303 @kindex / A (Summary)
7304 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-address
7305 Limit the summary buffer to articles in which contents of From, To or Cc
7306 header match a given address (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-address}). If
7307 given a prefix, exclude matching articles.
7310 @kindex / S (Summary)
7311 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-singletons
7312 Limit the summary buffer to articles that aren't part of any displayed
7313 threads (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-singletons}). If given a prefix,
7314 limit to articles that are part of displayed threads.
7317 @kindex / x (Summary)
7318 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-extra
7319 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match one of the ``extra''
7320 headers (@pxref{To From Newsgroups})
7321 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-extra}). If given a prefix, exclude
7326 @kindex / u (Summary)
7328 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
7329 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
7330 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
7331 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
7332 dormant articles will also be excluded.
7335 @kindex / m (Summary)
7336 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
7337 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have been marked
7338 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
7341 @kindex / t (Summary)
7342 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
7343 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
7344 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-age}). If given a prefix, limit to
7345 articles younger than that number of days.
7348 @kindex / n (Summary)
7349 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
7350 With prefix @samp{n}, limit the summary buffer to the next @samp{n}
7351 articles. If not given a prefix, use the process marked articles
7352 instead. (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}).
7355 @kindex / w (Summary)
7356 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
7357 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
7358 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
7362 @kindex / . (Summary)
7363 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen
7364 Limit the summary buffer to the unseen articles
7365 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen}).
7368 @kindex / v (Summary)
7369 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
7370 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
7371 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
7374 @kindex / p (Summary)
7375 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate
7376 Limit the summary buffer to articles that satisfy the @code{display}
7377 group parameter predicate
7378 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate}). @xref{Group
7379 Parameters}, for more on this predicate.
7382 @kindex / r (Summary)
7383 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-replied
7384 Limit the summary buffer to replied articles
7385 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-replied}). If given a prefix, exclude
7390 @kindex M S (Summary)
7391 @kindex / E (Summary)
7392 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
7393 Include all expunged articles in the limit
7394 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
7397 @kindex / D (Summary)
7398 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
7399 Include all dormant articles in the limit
7400 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
7403 @kindex / * (Summary)
7404 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
7405 Include all cached articles in the limit
7406 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
7409 @kindex / d (Summary)
7410 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
7411 Exclude all dormant articles from the limit
7412 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
7415 @kindex / M (Summary)
7416 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks
7417 Exclude all marked articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks}).
7420 @kindex / T (Summary)
7421 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
7422 Include all the articles in the current thread in the limit.
7425 @kindex / c (Summary)
7426 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
7427 Exclude all dormant articles that have no children from the limit@*
7428 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
7431 @kindex / C (Summary)
7432 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
7433 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
7434 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
7435 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
7438 @kindex / b (Summary)
7439 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-bodies
7440 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have bodies that match a
7441 certain regexp (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-bodies}). If given a
7442 prefix, reverse the limit. This command is quite slow since it
7443 requires selecting each article to find the matches.
7446 @kindex / h (Summary)
7447 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-headers
7448 Like the previous command, only limit to headers instead
7449 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-headers}).
7454 The following commands aren't limiting commands, but use the @kbd{/}
7459 @kindex / N (Summary)
7460 @findex gnus-summary-insert-new-articles
7461 Insert all new articles in the summary buffer. It scans for new emails
7462 if @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} is non-@code{nil}.
7465 @kindex / o (Summary)
7466 @findex gnus-summary-insert-old-articles
7467 Insert all old articles in the summary buffer. If given a numbered
7468 prefix, fetch this number of articles.
7476 @cindex article threading
7478 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
7479 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
7480 hierarchical fashion.
7482 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
7483 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
7484 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
7485 or simply missing. Weird news propagation exacerbates the problem,
7486 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
7487 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
7488 @ref{Customizing Threading}.
7490 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
7494 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
7497 A tree-like article structure.
7500 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
7503 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
7504 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
7505 summary buffer. We then typically have many sub-threads that really
7506 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
7507 called loose threads.
7509 @item thread gathering
7510 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
7512 @item sparse threads
7513 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
7514 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
7520 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
7521 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
7525 @node Customizing Threading
7526 @subsection Customizing Threading
7527 @cindex customizing threading
7530 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
7531 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
7532 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
7533 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
7538 @subsubsection Loose Threads
7541 @cindex loose threads
7544 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
7545 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
7546 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
7547 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
7548 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
7549 read or killed the root in a previous session.
7551 When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
7552 something. This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
7553 There are four possible values:
7557 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
7558 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-adopt,width=7.5cm}}
7559 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-empty,width=7.5cm}}}
7560 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-none,width=7.5cm}}}
7561 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-dummy,width=7.5cm}}}
7566 @cindex adopting articles
7571 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
7572 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
7573 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
7574 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
7577 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
7578 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root-always
7579 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
7580 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
7581 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
7582 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
7583 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
7584 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
7585 If you want all threads to have a dummy root, even the non-gathered
7586 ones, set @code{gnus-summary-make-false-root-always} to @code{t}.
7589 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
7590 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
7591 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
7595 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
7596 display them after one another.
7599 Don't gather loose threads.
7602 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
7603 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
7604 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
7605 variable is @code{nil}, Gnus requires an exact match between the
7606 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
7607 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
7608 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
7609 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
7610 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
7611 variable to a really low number, you'll find that Gnus will gather
7612 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
7614 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
7615 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, Gnus will
7616 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
7619 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
7620 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
7621 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
7622 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
7623 simplification is used.
7625 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
7626 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
7627 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
7628 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
7630 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
7632 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
7638 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
7639 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
7640 "answer" "reference" "announce"
7641 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
7646 (mapconcat 'identity
7647 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
7649 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
7652 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
7655 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
7656 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
7657 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
7658 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
7659 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
7660 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
7662 Useful functions to put in this list include:
7665 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
7666 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
7667 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
7669 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
7670 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
7673 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
7674 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
7675 Remove excessive whitespace.
7677 @item gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
7678 @findex gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
7679 Remove all whitespace.
7682 You may also write your own functions, of course.
7685 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
7686 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
7687 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
7688 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
7689 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
7690 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
7691 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
7692 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
7694 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7695 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7696 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
7697 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
7698 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
7699 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
7700 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
7701 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
7702 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
7706 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
7707 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
7708 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
7709 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
7711 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
7712 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
7713 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
7716 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
7720 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7721 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7727 @node Filling In Threads
7728 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
7731 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
7732 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
7733 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
7734 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you would
7735 like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still connect as
7736 many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable to
7737 @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than that
7738 number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case, fetching
7739 old headers only works if the back end you are using carries overview
7740 files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool},
7741 @code{nnml}, and @code{nnmaildir}. Also remember that if the root of
7742 the thread has been expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can
7745 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
7746 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
7747 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
7749 The server has to support @acronym{NOV} for any of this to work.
7751 @cindex Gmane, gnus-fetch-old-headers
7752 This feature can seriously impact performance it ignores all locally
7753 cached header entries. Setting it to @code{t} for groups for a server
7754 that doesn't expire articles (such as news.gmane.org), leads to very
7755 slow summary generation.
7757 @item gnus-fetch-old-ephemeral-headers
7758 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-ephemeral-headers
7759 Same as @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}, but only used for ephemeral
7762 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
7763 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
7764 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
7765 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
7766 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
7767 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
7768 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where Gnus guesses that an article
7769 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
7770 lines. If you select a gap, Gnus will try to fetch the article in
7771 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, Gnus will display all these
7772 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
7773 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, Gnus won't cut
7774 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
7775 @code{nil} by default.
7777 @item gnus-read-all-available-headers
7778 @vindex gnus-read-all-available-headers
7779 This is a rather obscure variable that few will find useful. It's
7780 intended for those non-news newsgroups where the back end has to fetch
7781 quite a lot to present the summary buffer, and where it's impossible to
7782 go back to parents of articles. This is mostly the case in the
7785 If you don't use those, then it's safe to leave this as the default
7786 @code{nil}. If you want to use this variable, it should be a regexp
7787 that matches the group name, or @code{t} for all groups.
7792 @node More Threading
7793 @subsubsection More Threading
7796 @item gnus-show-threads
7797 @vindex gnus-show-threads
7798 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
7799 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
7800 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
7801 slower and more awkward.
7803 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
7804 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
7805 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
7808 This can also be a predicate specifier (@pxref{Predicate Specifiers}).
7809 Available predicates are @code{gnus-article-unread-p} and
7810 @code{gnus-article-unseen-p}.
7815 (setq gnus-thread-hide-subtree
7816 '(or gnus-article-unread-p
7817 gnus-article-unseen-p))
7820 (It's a pretty nonsensical example, since all unseen articles are also
7821 unread, but you get my drift.)
7824 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
7825 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
7826 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
7827 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
7828 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
7829 threads are expunged.
7831 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
7832 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
7833 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
7836 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
7837 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
7838 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
7839 this variable is non-@code{nil}, which is the default, the subject
7840 change is ignored. If it is @code{nil}, a change in the subject will
7841 result in a new thread.
7843 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
7844 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
7845 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
7848 @item gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
7849 @vindex gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
7850 Sometimes, particularly with mailing lists, the order in which mails
7851 arrive locally is not necessarily the same as the order in which they
7852 arrived on the mailing list. Consequently, when sorting sub-threads
7853 using the default @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number}, responses can end
7854 up appearing before the article to which they are responding to.
7855 Setting this variable to an alternate value
7856 (e.g. @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}), in a group's parameters or in an
7857 appropriate hook (e.g. @code{gnus-summary-generate-hook}) can produce a
7858 more logical sub-thread ordering in such instances.
7863 @node Low-Level Threading
7864 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
7868 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
7869 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
7870 Hook run before parsing any headers.
7872 @item gnus-alter-header-function
7873 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
7874 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
7875 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
7876 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
7877 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
7878 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
7879 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
7880 meaningful. Here's one example:
7883 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
7885 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
7886 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
7888 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
7890 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
7897 @node Thread Commands
7898 @subsection Thread Commands
7899 @cindex thread commands
7905 @kindex T k (Summary)
7906 @kindex C-M-k (Summary)
7907 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
7908 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
7909 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
7910 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
7915 @kindex T l (Summary)
7916 @kindex C-M-l (Summary)
7917 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
7918 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
7919 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
7922 @kindex T i (Summary)
7923 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
7924 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
7925 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
7928 @kindex T # (Summary)
7929 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
7930 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
7931 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
7934 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
7935 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
7936 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
7937 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
7940 @kindex T T (Summary)
7941 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
7942 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
7945 @kindex T s (Summary)
7946 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
7947 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any@*
7948 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
7951 @kindex T h (Summary)
7952 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
7953 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
7956 @kindex T S (Summary)
7957 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
7958 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
7961 @kindex T H (Summary)
7962 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
7963 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
7966 @kindex T t (Summary)
7967 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
7968 Re-thread the current article's thread
7969 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
7970 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
7973 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
7974 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
7975 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
7976 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
7979 @kindex T M-^ (Summary)
7980 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-children
7981 Make the current article the parent of the marked articles
7982 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-children}).
7986 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
7987 understand the numeric prefix.
7992 @kindex T n (Summary)
7994 @kindex C-M-n (Summary)
7996 @kindex M-down (Summary)
7997 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
7998 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
8001 @kindex T p (Summary)
8003 @kindex C-M-p (Summary)
8005 @kindex M-up (Summary)
8006 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
8007 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
8010 @kindex T d (Summary)
8011 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
8012 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
8015 @kindex T u (Summary)
8016 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
8017 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
8020 @kindex T o (Summary)
8021 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
8022 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
8025 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
8026 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
8027 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
8028 a command like @kbd{T k} (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
8029 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
8030 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
8031 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
8032 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
8033 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
8034 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
8035 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
8036 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
8040 @node Sorting the Summary Buffer
8041 @section Sorting the Summary Buffer
8043 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
8044 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
8045 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
8046 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
8047 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
8048 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-recipient
8049 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
8050 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-random
8051 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
8052 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number
8053 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date
8054 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
8055 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which can be either a single
8056 function, a list of functions, or a list containing functions and
8057 @code{(not some-function)} elements.
8059 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
8060 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
8061 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-recipient},
8062 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
8063 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date},
8064 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score},
8065 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number},
8066 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date},
8067 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-random} and
8068 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
8070 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
8071 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
8072 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread.
8074 If you use more than one function, the primary sort key should be the
8075 last function in the list. You should probably always include
8076 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
8077 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
8078 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
8079 ascending article order.
8081 If you would like to sort by reverse score, then by subject, and finally
8082 by number, you could do something like:
8085 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
8086 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
8087 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
8088 (not gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score)))
8091 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
8092 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
8093 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
8094 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
8095 which the articles arrived.
8097 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
8101 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
8102 '((not gnus-thread-sort-by-number)
8103 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
8106 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
8107 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
8108 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
8109 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
8112 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
8113 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
8114 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-most-recent-date
8115 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
8116 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
8117 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
8118 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-random
8119 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
8120 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-most-recent-number
8121 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or
8122 other, you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions}
8123 variable. It is very similar to the
8124 @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that it uses slightly
8125 different functions for article comparison. Available sorting
8126 predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
8127 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author},
8128 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date},
8129 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-random}, and
8130 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
8132 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
8136 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
8137 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
8138 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
8141 You can define group specific sorting via @code{gnus-parameters},
8142 @xref{Group Parameters}.
8145 @node Asynchronous Fetching
8146 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
8147 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
8148 @cindex article pre-fetch
8151 If you read your news from an @acronym{NNTP} server that's far away, the
8152 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
8153 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
8154 article appears. Why can't Gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
8155 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
8157 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
8158 article fetching, especially the way Gnus does it.
8160 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
8161 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
8162 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
8163 article 3, but since Gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
8164 connection is blocked.
8166 To avoid these situations, Gnus will open two (count 'em two)
8167 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
8168 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
8169 extra connection takes some time, so Gnus startup will be slower.
8171 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
8172 the link between your machine and the @acronym{NNTP} server will become more
8173 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
8174 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
8177 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing@dots{} unless
8180 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
8181 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
8182 happen automatically.
8184 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
8185 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
8186 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
8187 that when you read an article in the group, the back end will pre-fetch
8188 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the back end will
8189 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
8190 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
8192 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
8193 @findex gnus-async-unread-p
8194 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
8195 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p}
8196 variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This
8197 function should return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is
8198 to be pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-unread-p}, which
8199 returns @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an
8200 article data structure as the only parameter.
8202 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter
8203 than 100 lines, you could say something like:
8206 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
8207 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
8208 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
8209 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
8212 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
8215 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
8216 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down Gnus too much.
8217 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
8219 @vindex gnus-async-post-fetch-function
8220 @findex gnus-html-prefetch-images
8221 After an article has been prefetched, this
8222 @code{gnus-async-post-fetch-function} will be called. The buffer will
8223 be narrowed to the region of the article that was fetched. A useful
8224 value would be @code{gnus-html-prefetch-images}, which will prefetch
8225 and store images referenced in the article, so that you don't have to
8226 wait for them to be fetched when you read the article. This is useful
8227 for @acronym{HTML} messages that have external images.
8229 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
8230 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
8231 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
8232 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
8236 Remove articles when they are read.
8239 Remove articles when exiting the group.
8242 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
8244 @c @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
8245 @c If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
8246 @c from the next group.
8249 @node Article Caching
8250 @section Article Caching
8251 @cindex article caching
8254 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @acronym{NNTP} connection, you may
8255 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
8256 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
8257 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
8258 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
8260 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
8262 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
8263 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
8264 @vindex gnus-use-cache
8265 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
8266 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
8267 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
8268 cache is flat or hierarchical is controlled by the
8269 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
8271 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
8272 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
8273 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
8274 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
8275 as dormant, and don't worry.
8277 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
8279 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
8280 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
8281 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
8282 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
8283 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
8284 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
8285 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
8286 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
8287 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
8288 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
8290 @findex gnus-jog-cache
8291 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
8292 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
8293 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
8294 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
8295 command if 1) your connection to the @acronym{NNTP} server is really, really,
8296 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
8297 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
8298 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
8299 not then be downloaded by this command.
8301 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
8302 @vindex gnus-cacheable-groups
8303 It is likely that you do not want caching on all groups. For instance,
8304 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
8305 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
8306 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.
8308 To limit the caching, you could set @code{gnus-cacheable-groups} to a
8309 regexp of groups to cache, @samp{^nntp} for instance, or set the
8310 @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to @samp{^nnml}, for instance.
8311 Both variables are @code{nil} by default. If a group matches both
8312 variables, the group is not cached.
8314 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
8315 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
8316 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
8317 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
8318 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
8319 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, Gnus
8320 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
8321 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @acronym{NOV}
8322 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
8325 @findex gnus-cache-move-cache
8326 @code{gnus-cache-move-cache} will move your whole
8327 @code{gnus-cache-directory} to some other location. You get asked to
8328 where, isn't that cool?
8330 @node Persistent Articles
8331 @section Persistent Articles
8332 @cindex persistent articles
8334 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
8335 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
8336 useful in my opinion.
8338 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
8339 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
8340 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
8341 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
8342 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
8343 the expiry going on at the news server.
8345 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
8346 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
8347 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
8353 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
8354 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
8357 @kindex M-* (Summary)
8358 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
8359 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
8360 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
8364 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
8366 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
8367 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
8368 interested in persistent articles:
8371 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
8374 @node Sticky Articles
8375 @section Sticky Articles
8376 @cindex sticky articles
8378 When you select an article the current article buffer will be reused
8379 according to the value of the variable
8380 @code{gnus-single-article-buffer}. If its value is non-@code{nil} (the
8381 default) all articles reuse the same article buffer. Else each group
8382 has its own article buffer.
8384 This implies that it's not possible to have more than one article buffer
8385 in a group at a time. But sometimes you might want to display all the
8386 latest emails from your mother, your father, your aunt, your uncle and
8387 your 17 cousins to coordinate the next christmas party.
8389 That's where sticky articles come in handy. A sticky article buffer
8390 basically is a normal article buffer, but it won't be reused when you
8391 select another article. You can make an article sticky with:
8395 @kindex A S (Summary)
8396 @findex gnus-sticky-article
8397 Make the current article sticky. If a prefix arg is given, ask for a
8398 name for this sticky article buffer.
8401 To close a sticky article buffer you can use these commands:
8407 Puts this sticky article buffer at the end of the list of all buffers.
8411 @findex gnus-kill-sticky-article-buffer
8412 Kills this sticky article buffer.
8415 To kill all sticky article buffers you can use:
8417 @defun gnus-kill-sticky-article-buffers ARG
8418 Kill all sticky article buffers.
8419 If a prefix ARG is given, ask for confirmation.
8422 @node Article Backlog
8423 @section Article Backlog
8425 @cindex article backlog
8427 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
8428 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
8429 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where Gnus will buffer
8430 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
8431 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
8432 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
8433 that, turning the backlog on will slow Gnus down a little bit, and
8434 increase memory usage some.
8436 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
8437 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, Gnus will store
8438 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
8439 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, Gnus will store
8440 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
8441 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
8442 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
8444 The default value is 20.
8447 @node Saving Articles
8448 @section Saving Articles
8449 @cindex saving articles
8451 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
8452 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
8453 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
8454 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
8455 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
8457 For the commands listed here, the target is a file. If you want to
8458 save to a group, see the @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article})
8459 command (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
8461 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
8462 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will not delete
8463 unwanted headers before saving the article.
8465 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
8466 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
8467 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
8468 deleted before saving.
8474 @kindex O o (Summary)
8476 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
8477 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
8478 Save the current article using the default article saver
8479 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
8482 @kindex O m (Summary)
8483 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
8484 Save the current article in a Unix mail box (mbox) file
8485 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
8488 @kindex O r (Summary)
8489 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
8490 Save the current article in Rmail format
8491 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}). This is mbox since Emacs 23,
8492 Babyl in older versions.
8495 @kindex O f (Summary)
8496 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
8497 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
8498 Save the current article in plain file format
8499 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
8502 @kindex O F (Summary)
8503 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
8504 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
8505 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
8508 @kindex O b (Summary)
8509 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
8510 Save the current article body in plain file format
8511 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
8514 @kindex O h (Summary)
8515 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
8516 Save the current article in mh folder format
8517 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
8520 @kindex O v (Summary)
8521 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
8522 Save the current article in a VM folder
8523 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
8527 @kindex O p (Summary)
8529 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
8530 @vindex gnus-summary-pipe-output-default-command
8531 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
8532 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
8533 If given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), include the
8534 complete headers in the piped output. The symbolic prefix @code{r} is
8535 special; it lets this command pipe a raw article including all headers.
8536 The @code{gnus-summary-pipe-output-default-command} variable can be set
8537 to a string containing the default command and options (default
8541 @kindex O P (Summary)
8542 @findex gnus-summary-muttprint
8543 @vindex gnus-summary-muttprint-program
8544 Save the current article into muttprint. That is, print it using the
8545 external program @uref{http://muttprint.sourceforge.net/,
8546 Muttprint}. The program name and options to use is controlled by the
8547 variable @code{gnus-summary-muttprint-program}.
8548 (@code{gnus-summary-muttprint}).
8552 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
8553 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
8554 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
8555 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
8556 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
8557 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
8558 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
8559 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
8560 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
8561 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
8562 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
8563 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
8567 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
8568 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
8569 Gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the eight ready-made
8570 functions below, or you can create your own.
8574 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
8575 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
8576 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
8577 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
8578 This is the default format, that used by the Rmail package. Since Emacs
8579 23, Rmail uses standard mbox format. Before this, it used the
8580 @dfn{Babyl} format. Accordingly, this command writes mbox format since
8581 Emacs 23, unless appending to an existing Babyl file. In older versions
8582 of Emacs, it always uses Babyl format. Uses the function in the
8583 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
8584 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
8586 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
8587 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
8588 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
8589 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
8590 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
8591 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
8593 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
8594 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
8595 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
8596 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
8597 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
8598 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
8599 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
8601 @item gnus-summary-write-to-file
8602 @findex gnus-summary-write-to-file
8603 Write the article straight to an ordinary file. The file is
8604 overwritten if it exists. Uses the function in the
8605 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
8606 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
8608 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
8609 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
8610 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
8611 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
8612 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
8614 @item gnus-summary-write-body-to-file
8615 @findex gnus-summary-write-body-to-file
8616 Write the article body straight to an ordinary file. The file is
8617 overwritten if it exists. Uses the function in the
8618 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
8619 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
8621 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
8622 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
8623 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
8624 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
8625 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
8628 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
8629 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
8630 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
8631 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
8632 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
8634 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
8635 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
8636 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
8637 reader to use this setting.
8639 @item gnus-summary-save-in-pipe
8640 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-pipe
8641 Pipe the article to a shell command. This function takes optional two
8642 arguments COMMAND and RAW. Valid values for COMMAND include:
8646 The executable command name and possibly arguments.
8648 You will be prompted for the command in the minibuffer.
8649 @item the symbol @code{default}@*
8650 It will be replaced with the command which the variable
8651 @code{gnus-summary-pipe-output-default-command} holds or the command
8652 last used for saving.
8655 Non-@code{nil} value for RAW overrides @code{:decode} and
8656 @code{:headers} properties (see below) and the raw article including all
8657 headers will be piped.
8660 The symbol of each function may have the following properties:
8664 The value non-@code{nil} means save decoded articles. This is
8665 meaningful only with @code{gnus-summary-save-in-file},
8666 @code{gnus-summary-save-body-in-file},
8667 @code{gnus-summary-write-to-file},
8668 @code{gnus-summary-write-body-to-file}, and
8669 @code{gnus-summary-save-in-pipe}.
8672 The value specifies an alternative function which appends, not
8673 overwrites, articles to a file. This implies that when saving many
8674 articles at a time, @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} is bound to
8675 @code{t} and all articles are saved in a single file. This is
8676 meaningful only with @code{gnus-summary-write-to-file} and
8677 @code{gnus-summary-write-body-to-file}.
8680 The value specifies the symbol of a variable of which the value
8681 specifies headers to be saved. If it is omitted,
8682 @code{gnus-save-all-headers} and @code{gnus-saved-headers} control what
8683 headers should be saved.
8686 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
8687 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
8688 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
8689 @env{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
8692 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
8693 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
8694 available functions that generate names:
8698 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
8699 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
8700 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
8702 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
8703 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
8704 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
8706 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
8707 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
8708 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
8710 @item gnus-plain-save-name
8711 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
8712 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
8714 @item gnus-sender-save-name
8715 @findex gnus-sender-save-name
8716 File names like @file{~/News/larsi}.
8719 @vindex gnus-split-methods
8720 You can have Gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
8721 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
8722 save articles related to Gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
8723 related to VM in @file{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
8727 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
8728 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
8729 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
8730 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
8733 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
8734 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
8735 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
8736 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
8737 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
8738 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
8739 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
8740 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
8741 called returns a string or a list of strings.
8743 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
8744 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
8745 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
8746 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
8748 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
8749 means that Gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
8750 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
8753 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
8754 lots of mail groups called things like
8755 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
8756 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
8757 following will do just that:
8760 (defun my-save-name (group)
8761 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
8762 (substring group (match-end 0))))
8764 (setq gnus-split-methods
8765 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
8770 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
8771 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
8772 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
8773 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
8774 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
8775 all the files in the top level directory
8776 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
8777 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
8778 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
8779 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
8781 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
8782 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
8783 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
8784 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
8785 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
8788 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
8792 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; @r{to get a hierarchy}
8793 (setq gnus-default-article-saver
8794 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; @r{no encoding}
8797 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
8798 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
8799 the top level directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
8800 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
8803 @node Decoding Articles
8804 @section Decoding Articles
8805 @cindex decoding articles
8807 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
8808 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
8811 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
8812 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
8813 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
8814 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
8815 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
8816 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
8820 @cindex article series
8821 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
8822 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
8823 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
8824 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
8825 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
8827 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
8828 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
8829 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
8831 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, Gnus
8832 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
8833 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
8835 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
8836 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
8837 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
8840 @node Uuencoded Articles
8841 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
8843 @cindex uuencoded articles
8848 @kindex X u (Summary)
8849 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
8850 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
8851 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
8854 @kindex X U (Summary)
8855 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
8856 Uudecodes and saves the current series
8857 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
8860 @kindex X v u (Summary)
8861 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
8862 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
8865 @kindex X v U (Summary)
8866 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
8867 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
8868 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
8872 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
8873 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
8874 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
8875 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
8876 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
8878 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
8879 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
8880 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
8881 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
8884 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
8885 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
8886 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
8887 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
8888 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
8889 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
8893 @node Shell Archives
8894 @subsection Shell Archives
8896 @cindex shell archives
8897 @cindex shared articles
8899 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
8900 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
8901 some commands to deal with these:
8906 @kindex X s (Summary)
8907 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
8908 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
8911 @kindex X S (Summary)
8912 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
8913 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
8916 @kindex X v s (Summary)
8917 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
8918 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
8921 @kindex X v S (Summary)
8922 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
8923 Unshars, views and saves the current series
8924 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
8928 @node PostScript Files
8929 @subsection PostScript Files
8935 @kindex X p (Summary)
8936 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
8937 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
8940 @kindex X P (Summary)
8941 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
8942 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
8943 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
8946 @kindex X v p (Summary)
8947 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
8948 View the current PostScript series
8949 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
8952 @kindex X v P (Summary)
8953 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
8954 View and save the current PostScript series
8955 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
8960 @subsection Other Files
8964 @kindex X o (Summary)
8965 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
8966 Save the current series
8967 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
8970 @kindex X b (Summary)
8971 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
8972 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
8973 doesn't really work yet.
8976 @kindex X Y (Summary)
8977 @findex gnus-uu-decode-yenc
8978 yEnc-decode the current series and save it (@code{gnus-uu-decode-yenc}).
8982 @node Decoding Variables
8983 @subsection Decoding Variables
8985 Adjective, not verb.
8988 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
8989 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
8990 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
8994 @node Rule Variables
8995 @subsubsection Rule Variables
8996 @cindex rule variables
8998 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
8999 variables are of the form
9002 (list '(regexp1 command2)
9009 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
9010 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
9012 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
9013 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @file{.au} sound file, you could
9016 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
9017 (list '("\\\\.au$" "sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio")))
9020 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
9021 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
9022 This variable is consulted if Gnus couldn't make any matches from the
9023 user and default view rules.
9025 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
9026 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
9027 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
9032 @node Other Decode Variables
9033 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
9036 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
9038 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
9039 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
9040 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
9041 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
9042 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
9046 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
9047 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
9050 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
9051 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
9052 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
9055 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
9056 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
9057 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
9058 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
9059 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
9062 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
9063 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
9064 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
9066 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
9067 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
9068 Files with a @acronym{MIME} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
9069 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
9070 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @acronym{MIME} package (yet), so this is slightly
9073 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
9074 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
9075 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
9077 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
9078 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
9079 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
9080 looking for files to display.
9082 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
9083 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
9084 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
9087 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
9088 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
9089 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
9092 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
9093 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
9094 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
9097 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
9098 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
9099 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
9102 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
9103 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
9104 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
9105 decoded articles as unread.
9107 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
9108 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
9109 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
9110 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
9112 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
9113 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
9114 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
9116 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
9117 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
9119 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
9120 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @acronym{MIME}
9121 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
9122 @code{metamail} for viewing.
9124 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
9125 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
9126 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
9127 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
9128 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
9129 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC 1153---no easy way
9130 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
9131 simply dropped them.
9136 @node Uuencoding and Posting
9137 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
9141 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
9142 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
9143 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
9144 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
9145 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
9146 for you when you post the article.
9148 @item gnus-uu-post-length
9149 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
9150 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
9151 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
9153 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
9154 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
9155 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
9156 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
9157 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
9158 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
9159 think that counts@dots{}) Default is @code{nil}.
9161 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
9162 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
9163 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
9164 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
9165 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
9166 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
9167 Default is @code{t}.
9173 @subsection Viewing Files
9174 @cindex viewing files
9175 @cindex pseudo-articles
9177 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, Gnus will attempt
9178 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
9179 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
9180 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, Gnus will
9181 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
9182 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
9183 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
9185 Finally, Gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
9186 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
9187 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
9188 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
9190 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
9191 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
9192 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
9194 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
9195 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
9196 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
9197 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
9198 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
9200 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
9201 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
9202 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
9203 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
9204 a list of parameters to that command.
9206 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
9207 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
9208 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
9210 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
9211 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
9212 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
9215 @node Article Treatment
9216 @section Article Treatment
9218 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
9219 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
9220 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
9221 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
9222 these articles easier.
9225 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
9226 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
9227 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
9228 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
9229 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
9230 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
9231 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
9232 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
9233 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
9234 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
9235 * Article Miscellanea:: Various other stuff.
9239 @node Article Highlighting
9240 @subsection Article Highlighting
9241 @cindex highlighting
9243 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
9244 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
9249 @kindex W H a (Summary)
9250 @findex gnus-article-highlight
9251 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
9252 Do much highlighting of the current article
9253 (@code{gnus-article-highlight}). This function highlights header, cited
9254 text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.
9257 @kindex W H h (Summary)
9258 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
9259 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
9260 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
9261 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
9262 variable, which is a list where each element has the form
9263 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{name} @var{content})}.
9264 @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
9265 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
9266 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
9267 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
9268 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
9271 @kindex W H c (Summary)
9272 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
9273 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
9275 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
9278 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
9280 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
9281 If the article size in bytes is bigger than this variable (which is
9282 25000 by default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
9284 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
9285 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
9286 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
9288 @item gnus-cite-face-list
9289 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
9290 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
9291 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
9292 Gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
9293 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
9295 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
9296 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
9297 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
9299 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
9300 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
9301 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
9303 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
9304 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
9305 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
9306 that it's a citation.
9308 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
9309 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
9310 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
9312 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
9313 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
9314 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
9316 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
9317 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
9318 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
9319 cited text belonging to the attribution.
9321 @item gnus-cite-ignore-quoted-from
9322 @vindex gnus-cite-ignore-quoted-from
9323 If non-@code{nil}, no citation highlighting will be performed on lines
9324 beginning with @samp{>From }. Those lines may have been quoted by MTAs
9325 in order not to mix up with the envelope From line. The default value
9332 @kindex W H s (Summary)
9333 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
9334 @vindex gnus-signature-face
9335 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
9336 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
9337 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
9338 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
9339 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
9344 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to highlight articles automatically.
9347 @node Article Fontisizing
9348 @subsection Article Fontisizing
9350 @cindex article emphasis
9352 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
9353 @kindex W e (Summary)
9354 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
9355 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*} or @samp{/this/}. Gnus can make
9356 this look nicer by running the article through the @kbd{W e}
9357 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
9359 @vindex gnus-emphasis-alist
9360 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
9361 @code{gnus-emphasis-alist} variable. This is an alist where the first
9362 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
9363 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
9364 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
9365 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
9366 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
9370 (setq gnus-emphasis-alist
9371 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
9372 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
9381 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
9382 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
9383 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
9384 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
9385 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
9386 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
9387 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
9388 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
9389 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
9390 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
9391 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
9392 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
9393 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
9395 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
9396 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
9397 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
9401 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
9404 @vindex gnus-group-highlight-words-alist
9406 If you want to highlight arbitrary words, you can use the
9407 @code{gnus-group-highlight-words-alist} variable, which uses the same
9408 syntax as @code{gnus-emphasis-alist}. The @code{highlight-words} group
9409 parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) can also be used.
9411 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to fontize articles automatically.
9414 @node Article Hiding
9415 @subsection Article Hiding
9416 @cindex article hiding
9418 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
9419 too much cruft in most articles.
9424 @kindex W W a (Summary)
9425 @findex gnus-article-hide
9426 Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
9427 (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}). In particular, this function will hide
9428 headers, @acronym{PGP}, cited text and the signature.
9431 @kindex W W h (Summary)
9432 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
9433 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}). @xref{Hiding
9437 @kindex W W b (Summary)
9438 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
9439 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
9440 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
9443 @kindex W W s (Summary)
9444 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
9445 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
9449 @kindex W W l (Summary)
9450 @findex gnus-article-hide-list-identifiers
9451 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
9452 Strip list identifiers specified in @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. These
9453 are strings some mailing list servers add to the beginning of all
9454 @code{Subject} headers---for example, @samp{[zebra 4711]}. Any leading
9455 @samp{Re: } is skipped before stripping. @code{gnus-list-identifiers}
9456 may not contain @code{\\(..\\)}.
9460 @item gnus-list-identifiers
9461 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
9462 A regular expression that matches list identifiers to be removed from
9463 subject. This can also be a list of regular expressions.
9468 @kindex W W P (Summary)
9469 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
9470 Hide @acronym{PEM} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
9471 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
9474 @kindex W W B (Summary)
9475 @findex gnus-article-strip-banner
9476 @vindex gnus-article-banner-alist
9477 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
9480 @cindex stripping advertisements
9481 @cindex advertisements
9482 Strip the banner specified by the @code{banner} group parameter
9483 (@code{gnus-article-strip-banner}). This is mainly used to hide those
9484 annoying banners and/or signatures that some mailing lists and moderated
9485 groups adds to all the messages. The way to use this function is to add
9486 the @code{banner} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to the
9487 group you want banners stripped from. The parameter either be a string,
9488 which will be interpreted as a regular expression matching text to be
9489 removed, or the symbol @code{signature}, meaning that the (last)
9490 signature should be removed, or other symbol, meaning that the
9491 corresponding regular expression in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist} is
9494 Regardless of a group, you can hide things like advertisements only when
9495 the sender of an article has a certain mail address specified in
9496 @code{gnus-article-address-banner-alist}.
9500 @item gnus-article-address-banner-alist
9501 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
9502 Alist of mail addresses and banners. Each element has the form
9503 @code{(@var{address} . @var{banner})}, where @var{address} is a regexp
9504 matching a mail address in the From header, @var{banner} is one of a
9505 symbol @code{signature}, an item in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist},
9506 a regexp and @code{nil}. If @var{address} matches author's mail
9507 address, it will remove things like advertisements. For example, if a
9508 sender has the mail address @samp{hail@@yoo-hoo.co.jp} and there is a
9509 banner something like @samp{Do You Yoo-hoo!?} in all articles he
9510 sends, you can use the following element to remove them:
9513 ("@@yoo-hoo\\.co\\.jp\\'" .
9514 "\n_+\nDo You Yoo-hoo!\\?\n.*\n.*\n")
9520 @kindex W W c (Summary)
9521 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
9522 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
9523 customizing the hiding:
9527 @item gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
9528 @itemx gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
9529 @vindex gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
9530 @vindex gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
9531 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
9532 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
9533 by these format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
9538 Starting point of the hidden text.
9540 Ending point of the hidden text.
9542 Number of characters in the hidden region.
9544 Number of lines of hidden text.
9547 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
9548 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
9549 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave
9550 shown. This can also be a cons cell with the number of lines at the top
9551 and bottom of the text, respectively, to remain visible.
9556 @kindex W W C-c (Summary)
9557 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe
9559 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe}) depending on the
9560 following two variables:
9563 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
9564 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
9565 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
9566 50), hide the cited text.
9568 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
9569 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
9570 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
9575 @kindex W W C (Summary)
9576 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
9577 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
9578 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
9579 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
9580 have happen automatically (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
9584 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
9585 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
9586 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
9588 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
9589 citation customization.
9591 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to hide article elements
9595 @node Article Washing
9596 @subsection Article Washing
9598 @cindex article washing
9600 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
9601 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
9603 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
9604 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
9607 @xref{Customizing Articles}, if you want to change how Gnus displays
9608 articles by default.
9613 This is not really washing, it's sort of the opposite of washing. If
9614 you type this, you see the article exactly as it exists on disk or on
9618 Force redisplaying of the current article
9619 (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). This is also not really washing.
9620 If you type this, you see the article without any previously applied
9621 interactive Washing functions but with all default treatments
9622 (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
9625 @kindex W l (Summary)
9626 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
9627 Remove page breaks from the current article
9628 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}). @xref{Misc Article}, for page
9632 @kindex W r (Summary)
9633 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
9634 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
9635 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
9636 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
9637 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
9638 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
9640 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
9641 positions in the alphabet, e. g. @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
9642 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
9643 is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
9646 @kindex W m (Summary)
9647 @findex gnus-summary-morse-message
9648 Morse decode the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-morse-message}).
9651 @kindex W i (Summary)
9652 @findex gnus-summary-idna-message
9653 Decode IDNA encoded domain names in the current articles. IDNA
9654 encoded domain names looks like @samp{xn--bar}. If a string remain
9655 unencoded after running invoking this, it is likely an invalid IDNA
9656 string (@samp{xn--bar} is invalid). You must have GNU Libidn
9657 (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/}) installed for this command
9662 @kindex W t (Summary)
9664 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
9665 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
9666 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
9669 @kindex W v (Summary)
9670 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-headers
9671 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
9672 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-headers}).
9675 @kindex W o (Summary)
9676 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
9677 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
9680 @kindex W d (Summary)
9681 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
9682 @vindex gnus-article-dumbquotes-map
9684 @cindex M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s
9686 Treat M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s according to
9687 @code{gnus-article-dumbquotes-map}
9688 (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}). Note that this function guesses
9689 whether a character is a sm*rtq**t* or not, so it should only be used
9692 Sm*rtq**t*s are M****s***'s unilateral extension to the character map in
9693 an attempt to provide more quoting characters. If you see something
9694 like @code{\222} or @code{\264} where you're expecting some kind of
9695 apostrophe or quotation mark, then try this wash.
9698 @kindex W Y f (Summary)
9699 @findex gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article
9700 @cindex Outlook Express
9701 Full deuglify of broken Outlook (Express) articles: Treat dumbquotes,
9702 unwrap lines, repair attribution and rearrange citation.
9703 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article}).
9706 @kindex W Y u (Summary)
9707 @findex gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines
9708 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min
9709 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max
9710 Unwrap lines that appear to be wrapped citation lines. You can control
9711 what lines will be unwrapped by frobbing
9712 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min} and
9713 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max}, indicating the minimum and
9714 maximum length of an unwrapped citation line.
9715 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines}).
9718 @kindex W Y a (Summary)
9719 @findex gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution
9720 Repair a broken attribution line.@*
9721 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution}).
9724 @kindex W Y c (Summary)
9725 @findex gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation
9726 Repair broken citations by rearranging the text.
9727 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation}).
9730 @kindex W w (Summary)
9731 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
9732 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}).
9734 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
9738 @kindex W Q (Summary)
9739 @findex gnus-article-fill-long-lines
9740 Fill long lines (@code{gnus-article-fill-long-lines}).
9743 @kindex W C (Summary)
9744 @findex gnus-article-capitalize-sentences
9745 Capitalize the first word in each sentence
9746 (@code{gnus-article-capitalize-sentences}).
9749 @kindex W c (Summary)
9750 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
9751 Translate CRLF pairs (i. e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines) into LF
9752 (this takes care of DOS line endings), and then translate any remaining
9753 CRs into LF (this takes care of Mac line endings)
9754 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
9757 @kindex W q (Summary)
9758 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
9759 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
9760 Quoted-Printable is one common @acronym{MIME} encoding employed when
9761 sending non-@acronym{ASCII} (i.e., 8-bit) articles. It typically
9762 makes strings like @samp{d@'ej@`a vu} look like @samp{d=E9j=E0 vu},
9763 which doesn't look very readable to me. Note that this is usually
9764 done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
9765 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding
9766 has been done. If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
9769 @kindex W 6 (Summary)
9770 @findex gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable
9771 Treat base64 (@code{gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable}). Base64 is
9772 one common @acronym{MIME} encoding employed when sending
9773 non-@acronym{ASCII} (i.e., 8-bit) articles. Note that this is
9774 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
9775 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding
9776 has been done. If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
9779 @kindex W Z (Summary)
9780 @findex gnus-article-decode-HZ
9781 Treat HZ or HZP (@code{gnus-article-decode-HZ}). HZ (or HZP) is one
9782 common encoding employed when sending Chinese articles. It typically
9783 makes strings look like @samp{~@{<:Ky2;S@{#,NpJ)l6HK!#~@}}.
9786 @kindex W A (Summary)
9787 @findex gnus-article-treat-ansi-sequences
9788 @cindex @acronym{ANSI} control sequences
9789 Translate @acronym{ANSI} SGR control sequences into overlays or
9790 extents (@code{gnus-article-treat-ansi-sequences}). @acronym{ANSI}
9791 sequences are used in some Chinese hierarchies for highlighting.
9794 @kindex W u (Summary)
9795 @findex gnus-article-unsplit-urls
9796 Remove newlines from within URLs. Some mailers insert newlines into
9797 outgoing email messages to keep lines short. This reformatting can
9798 split long URLs onto multiple lines. Repair those URLs by removing
9799 the newlines (@code{gnus-article-unsplit-urls}).
9802 @kindex W h (Summary)
9803 @findex gnus-article-wash-html
9804 Treat @acronym{HTML} (@code{gnus-article-wash-html}). Note that this is
9805 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
9806 @code{Content-Type} header that says that the message is @acronym{HTML}.
9808 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for. If it is a number,
9809 the charset defined in @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist}
9810 (@pxref{Paging the Article}) will be used.
9812 @vindex gnus-article-wash-function
9813 The default is to use the function specified by
9814 @code{mm-text-html-renderer} (@pxref{Display Customization, ,Display
9815 Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}) to convert the
9816 @acronym{HTML}, but this is controlled by the
9817 @code{gnus-article-wash-function} variable. Pre-defined functions you
9821 @item gnus-article-html
9822 Use Gnus rendered based on w3m.
9828 Use @uref{http://emacs-w3m.namazu.org/, emacs-w3m}.
9830 @item w3m-standalone
9831 Use @uref{http://w3m.sourceforge.net/, w3m}.
9834 Use @uref{http://links.sf.net/, Links}.
9837 Use @uref{http://lynx.isc.org/, Lynx}.
9840 Use html2text---a simple @acronym{HTML} converter included with Gnus.
9845 @kindex W b (Summary)
9846 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
9847 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
9848 @xref{Article Buttons}.
9851 @kindex W B (Summary)
9852 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
9853 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
9854 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
9857 @kindex W p (Summary)
9858 @findex gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig
9859 Verify a signed control message
9860 (@code{gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig}). Control messages such as
9861 @code{newgroup} and @code{checkgroups} are usually signed by the
9862 hierarchy maintainer. You need to add the @acronym{PGP} public key of
9863 the maintainer to your keyring to verify the
9864 message.@footnote{@acronym{PGP} keys for many hierarchies are
9865 available at @uref{ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README.html}}
9868 @kindex W s (Summary)
9869 @findex gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt
9870 Verify a signed (@acronym{PGP}, @acronym{PGP/MIME} or
9871 @acronym{S/MIME}) message
9872 (@code{gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt}). @xref{Security}.
9875 @kindex W a (Summary)
9876 @findex gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body
9877 Strip headers like the @code{X-No-Archive} header from the beginning of
9878 article bodies (@code{gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body}).
9881 @kindex W E l (Summary)
9882 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
9883 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
9884 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
9887 @kindex W E m (Summary)
9888 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
9889 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
9890 lines with a single empty line.
9891 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
9894 @kindex W E t (Summary)
9895 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
9896 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
9897 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
9900 @kindex W E a (Summary)
9901 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
9902 Do all the three commands above
9903 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
9906 @kindex W E A (Summary)
9907 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
9908 Remove all blank lines
9909 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
9912 @kindex W E s (Summary)
9913 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
9914 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
9915 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
9918 @kindex W E e (Summary)
9919 @findex gnus-article-strip-trailing-space
9920 Remove all white space from the end of all lines of the article
9921 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-trailing-space}).
9925 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to wash articles automatically.
9928 @node Article Header
9929 @subsection Article Header
9931 These commands perform various transformations of article header.
9936 @kindex W G u (Summary)
9937 @findex gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers
9938 Unfold folded header lines (@code{gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers}).
9941 @kindex W G n (Summary)
9942 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups
9943 Fold the @code{Newsgroups} and @code{Followup-To} headers
9944 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups}).
9947 @kindex W G f (Summary)
9948 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-headers
9949 Fold all the message headers
9950 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-headers}).
9953 @kindex W E w (Summary)
9954 @findex gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace
9955 Remove excessive whitespace from all headers
9956 (@code{gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace}).
9961 @node Article Buttons
9962 @subsection Article Buttons
9965 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
9966 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
9967 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
9968 button on these references.
9970 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
9971 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
9972 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links, man pages and
9973 Emacs or Gnus related references. This is controlled by two variables,
9974 one that handles article bodies and one that handles article heads:
9978 @item gnus-button-alist
9979 @vindex gnus-button-alist
9980 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
9983 (@var{regexp} @var{button-par} @var{use-p} @var{function} @var{data-par})
9989 All text that match this regular expression (case insensitive) will be
9990 considered an external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches
9991 embedded URLs: @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}. This can also be a
9992 variable containing a regexp, useful variables to use include
9993 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp} and @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp}.
9996 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
9997 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
9998 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
10001 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
10002 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
10003 avoid false matches. Often variables named
10004 @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} are used here, @xref{Article Button
10005 Levels}, but any other form may be used too.
10007 @c @code{use-p} is @code{eval}ed only if @code{regexp} matches.
10010 This function will be called when you click on this button.
10013 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
10014 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
10018 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
10021 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
10024 @item gnus-header-button-alist
10025 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
10026 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
10027 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
10028 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
10031 (@var{header} @var{regexp} @var{button-par} @var{use-p} @var{function} @var{data-par})
10034 @var{header} is a regular expression.
10037 @subsubsection Related variables and functions
10040 @item gnus-button-@var{*}-level
10041 @xref{Article Button Levels}.
10043 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-browse-level
10045 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
10046 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
10047 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
10048 default values of the variables above.
10050 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-man-level
10052 @item gnus-button-man-handler
10053 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
10054 The function to use for displaying man pages. It must take at least one
10055 argument with a string naming the man page.
10057 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-message-level
10059 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
10060 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
10061 Regular expression that matches a message ID or a mail address.
10063 @item gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
10064 @vindex gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
10065 This variable determines what to do when the button on a string as
10066 @samp{foo123@@bar.invalid} is pushed. Strings like this can be either a
10067 message ID or a mail address. If it is one of the symbols @code{mid} or
10068 @code{mail}, Gnus will always assume that the string is a message ID or
10069 a mail address, respectively. If this variable is set to the symbol
10070 @code{ask}, always query the user what to do. If it is a function, this
10071 function will be called with the string as its only argument. The
10072 function must return @code{mid}, @code{mail}, @code{invalid} or
10073 @code{ask}. The default value is the function
10074 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
10076 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
10077 @findex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
10078 Function that guesses whether its argument is a message ID or a mail
10079 address. Returns @code{mid} if it's a message IDs, @code{mail} if
10080 it's a mail address, @code{ask} if unsure and @code{invalid} if the
10083 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
10084 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
10085 An alist of @code{(RATE . REGEXP)} pairs used by the function
10086 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
10088 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-tex-level
10090 @item gnus-button-ctan-handler
10091 @findex gnus-button-ctan-handler
10092 The function to use for displaying CTAN links. It must take one
10093 argument, the string naming the URL.
10095 @item gnus-ctan-url
10096 @vindex gnus-ctan-url
10097 Top directory of a CTAN (Comprehensive TeX Archive Network) archive used
10098 by @code{gnus-button-ctan-handler}.
10102 @item gnus-article-button-face
10103 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
10104 Face used on buttons.
10106 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
10107 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
10108 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
10112 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to buttonize articles automatically.
10115 @node Article Button Levels
10116 @subsection Article button levels
10117 @cindex button levels
10118 The higher the value of the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level},
10119 the more buttons will appear. If the level is zero, no corresponding
10120 buttons are displayed. With the default value (which is 5) you should
10121 already see quite a lot of buttons. With higher levels, you will see
10122 more buttons, but you may also get more false positives. To avoid them,
10123 you can set the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} local to
10124 specific groups (@pxref{Group Parameters}). Here's an example for the
10125 variable @code{gnus-parameters}:
10128 ;; @r{increase @code{gnus-button-*-level} in some groups:}
10129 (setq gnus-parameters
10130 '(("\\<\\(emacs\\|gnus\\)\\>" (gnus-button-emacs-level 10))
10131 ("\\<unix\\>" (gnus-button-man-level 10))
10132 ("\\<tex\\>" (gnus-button-tex-level 10))))
10137 @item gnus-button-browse-level
10138 @vindex gnus-button-browse-level
10139 Controls the display of references to message IDs, mail addresses and
10140 news URLs. Related variables and functions include
10141 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp}, @code{browse-url}, and
10142 @code{browse-url-browser-function}.
10144 @item gnus-button-emacs-level
10145 @vindex gnus-button-emacs-level
10146 Controls the display of Emacs or Gnus references. Related functions are
10147 @code{gnus-button-handle-custom},
10148 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-function},
10149 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-variable},
10150 @code{gnus-button-handle-symbol},
10151 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-key},
10152 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos},
10153 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-command},
10154 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-variable},
10155 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-documentation}, and
10156 @code{gnus-button-handle-library}.
10158 @item gnus-button-man-level
10159 @vindex gnus-button-man-level
10160 Controls the display of references to (Unix) man pages.
10161 See @code{gnus-button-man-handler}.
10163 @item gnus-button-message-level
10164 @vindex gnus-button-message-level
10165 Controls the display of message IDs, mail addresses and news URLs.
10166 Related variables and functions include
10167 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp},
10168 @code{gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail},
10169 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}, and
10170 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist}.
10172 @item gnus-button-tex-level
10173 @vindex gnus-button-tex-level
10174 Controls the display of references to @TeX{} or LaTeX stuff, e.g. for CTAN
10175 URLs. See the variables @code{gnus-ctan-url},
10176 @code{gnus-button-ctan-handler},
10177 @code{gnus-button-ctan-directory-regexp}, and
10178 @code{gnus-button-handle-ctan-bogus-regexp}.
10184 @subsection Article Date
10186 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
10187 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
10188 when the article was sent.
10193 @kindex W T u (Summary)
10194 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
10195 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
10196 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
10199 @kindex W T i (Summary)
10200 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
10202 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
10203 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
10206 @kindex W T l (Summary)
10207 @findex gnus-article-date-local
10208 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
10211 @kindex W T p (Summary)
10212 @findex gnus-article-date-english
10213 Display the date in a format that's easily pronounceable in English
10214 (@code{gnus-article-date-english}).
10217 @kindex W T s (Summary)
10218 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
10219 @findex gnus-article-date-user
10220 @findex format-time-string
10221 Display the date using a user-defined format
10222 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
10223 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
10224 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
10225 for a list of possible format specs.
10228 @kindex W T e (Summary)
10229 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
10230 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
10231 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
10232 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
10233 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). It looks something like:
10236 X-Sent: 6 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes, 8 seconds ago
10239 @vindex gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header
10240 The value of @code{gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header} determines
10241 whether this header will just be added below the old Date one, or will
10244 An advantage of using Gnus to read mail is that it converts simple bugs
10245 into wonderful absurdities.
10247 If you want to have this line updated continually, you can put
10250 (gnus-start-date-timer)
10253 in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file, or you can run it off of some hook. If
10254 you want to stop the timer, you can use the @code{gnus-stop-date-timer}
10258 @kindex W T o (Summary)
10259 @findex gnus-article-date-original
10260 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
10261 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
10262 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
10263 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
10264 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
10268 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to display the date in your
10269 preferred format automatically.
10272 @node Article Display
10273 @subsection Article Display
10278 These commands add various frivolous display gimmicks to the article
10279 buffer in Emacs versions that support them.
10281 @code{X-Face} headers are small black-and-white images supplied by the
10282 message headers (@pxref{X-Face}).
10284 @code{Face} headers are small colored images supplied by the message
10285 headers (@pxref{Face}).
10287 Smileys are those little @samp{:-)} symbols that people like to litter
10288 their messages with (@pxref{Smileys}).
10290 Picons, on the other hand, reside on your own system, and Gnus will
10291 try to match the headers to what you have (@pxref{Picons}).
10293 All these functions are toggles---if the elements already exist,
10294 they'll be removed.
10298 @kindex W D x (Summary)
10299 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
10300 Display an @code{X-Face} in the @code{From} header.
10301 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}).
10304 @kindex W D d (Summary)
10305 @findex gnus-article-display-face
10306 Display a @code{Face} in the @code{From} header.
10307 (@code{gnus-article-display-face}).
10310 @kindex W D s (Summary)
10311 @findex gnus-treat-smiley
10312 Display smileys (@code{gnus-treat-smiley}).
10315 @kindex W D f (Summary)
10316 @findex gnus-treat-from-picon
10317 Piconify the @code{From} header (@code{gnus-treat-from-picon}).
10320 @kindex W D m (Summary)
10321 @findex gnus-treat-mail-picon
10322 Piconify all mail headers (i. e., @code{Cc}, @code{To})
10323 (@code{gnus-treat-mail-picon}).
10326 @kindex W D n (Summary)
10327 @findex gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon
10328 Piconify all news headers (i. e., @code{Newsgroups} and
10329 @code{Followup-To}) (@code{gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon}).
10332 @kindex W D D (Summary)
10333 @findex gnus-article-remove-images
10334 Remove all images from the article buffer
10335 (@code{gnus-article-remove-images}).
10338 @kindex W D W (Summary)
10339 @findex gnus-html-show-images
10340 If you're reading an @acronym{HTML} article rendered with
10341 @code{gnus-article-html}, then you can insert any blocked images in
10342 the buffer with this command.
10343 (@code{gnus-html-show-images}).
10349 @node Article Signature
10350 @subsection Article Signature
10352 @cindex article signature
10354 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
10355 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
10356 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
10357 that says what is to be considered a signature is
10358 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
10359 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
10360 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
10361 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
10362 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
10365 (setq gnus-signature-separator
10366 '("^-- $" ; @r{The standard}
10367 "^-- *$" ; @r{A common mangling}
10368 "^-------*$" ; @r{Many people just use a looong}
10369 ; @r{line of dashes. Shame!}
10370 "^ *--------*$" ; @r{Double-shame!}
10371 "^________*$" ; @r{Underscores are also popular}
10372 "^========*$")) ; @r{Pervert!}
10375 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
10378 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
10379 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
10380 signature when displaying articles.
10384 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
10387 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
10390 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
10391 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
10393 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
10394 in question is not a signature.
10397 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
10398 listed above. Here's an example:
10401 (setq gnus-signature-limit
10402 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
10405 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
10406 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
10407 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
10408 signature after all.
10411 @node Article Miscellanea
10412 @subsection Article Miscellanea
10416 @kindex A t (Summary)
10417 @findex gnus-article-babel
10418 Translate the article from one language to another
10419 (@code{gnus-article-babel}).
10424 @node MIME Commands
10425 @section MIME Commands
10426 @cindex MIME decoding
10427 @cindex attachments
10428 @cindex viewing attachments
10430 The following commands all understand the numerical prefix. For
10431 instance, @kbd{3 K v} means ``view the third @acronym{MIME} part''.
10436 @kindex b (Summary)
10437 @kindex K v (Summary)
10438 View the @acronym{MIME} part.
10441 @kindex K o (Summary)
10442 Save the @acronym{MIME} part.
10445 @kindex K O (Summary)
10446 Prompt for a file name, then save the @acronym{MIME} part and strip it
10447 from the article. The stripped @acronym{MIME} object will be referred
10448 via the message/external-body @acronym{MIME} type.
10451 @kindex K r (Summary)
10452 Replace the @acronym{MIME} part with an external body.
10455 @kindex K d (Summary)
10456 Delete the @acronym{MIME} part and add some information about the
10460 @kindex K c (Summary)
10461 Copy the @acronym{MIME} part.
10464 @kindex K e (Summary)
10465 View the @acronym{MIME} part externally.
10468 @kindex K i (Summary)
10469 View the @acronym{MIME} part internally.
10472 @kindex K | (Summary)
10473 Pipe the @acronym{MIME} part to an external command.
10476 The rest of these @acronym{MIME} commands do not use the numerical prefix in
10481 @kindex K H (Summary)
10482 @findex gnus-article-browse-html-article
10483 View @samp{text/html} parts of the current article with a WWW browser.
10484 Inline images embedded in a message using the @code{cid} scheme, as they
10485 are generally considered to be safe, will be processed properly. The
10486 message header is added to the beginning of every @acronym{HTML} part
10487 unless the prefix argument is given.
10489 Warning: Spammers use links to images (using the @code{http} scheme) in
10490 @acronym{HTML} articles to verify whether you have read the message. As
10491 this command passes the @acronym{HTML} content to the browser without
10492 eliminating these ``web bugs'' you should only use it for mails from
10495 If you always want to display @acronym{HTML} parts in the browser, set
10496 @code{mm-text-html-renderer} to @code{nil}.
10498 This command creates temporary files to pass @acronym{HTML} contents
10499 including images if any to the browser, and deletes them when exiting
10500 the group (if you want).
10503 @kindex K b (Summary)
10504 Make all the @acronym{MIME} parts have buttons in front of them. This is
10505 mostly useful if you wish to save (or perform other actions) on inlined
10509 @kindex K m (Summary)
10510 @findex gnus-summary-repair-multipart
10511 Some multipart messages are transmitted with missing or faulty headers.
10512 This command will attempt to ``repair'' these messages so that they can
10513 be viewed in a more pleasant manner
10514 (@code{gnus-summary-repair-multipart}).
10517 @kindex X m (Summary)
10518 @findex gnus-summary-save-parts
10519 Save all parts matching a @acronym{MIME} type to a directory
10520 (@code{gnus-summary-save-parts}). Understands the process/prefix
10521 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
10524 @kindex M-t (Summary)
10525 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized
10526 Toggle the buttonized display of the article buffer
10527 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized}).
10530 @kindex W M w (Summary)
10531 @findex gnus-article-decode-mime-words
10532 Decode RFC 2047-encoded words in the article headers
10533 (@code{gnus-article-decode-mime-words}).
10536 @kindex W M c (Summary)
10537 @findex gnus-article-decode-charset
10538 Decode encoded article bodies as well as charsets
10539 (@code{gnus-article-decode-charset}).
10541 This command looks in the @code{Content-Type} header to determine the
10542 charset. If there is no such header in the article, you can give it a
10543 prefix, which will prompt for the charset to decode as. In regional
10544 groups where people post using some common encoding (but do not
10545 include @acronym{MIME} headers), you can set the @code{charset} group/topic
10546 parameter to the required charset (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
10549 @kindex W M v (Summary)
10550 @findex gnus-mime-view-all-parts
10551 View all the @acronym{MIME} parts in the current article
10552 (@code{gnus-mime-view-all-parts}).
10556 Relevant variables:
10559 @item gnus-ignored-mime-types
10560 @vindex gnus-ignored-mime-types
10561 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
10562 this list will be completely ignored by Gnus. The default value is
10565 To have all Vcards be ignored, you'd say something like this:
10568 (setq gnus-ignored-mime-types
10572 @item gnus-article-loose-mime
10573 @vindex gnus-article-loose-mime
10574 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus won't require the @samp{MIME-Version} header
10575 before interpreting the message as a @acronym{MIME} message. This helps
10576 when reading messages from certain broken mail user agents. The
10577 default is @code{t}.
10579 @item gnus-article-emulate-mime
10580 @vindex gnus-article-emulate-mime
10583 There are other, non-@acronym{MIME} encoding methods used. The most common
10584 is @samp{uuencode}, but yEncode is also getting to be popular. If
10585 this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will look in message bodies to
10586 see if it finds these encodings, and if so, it'll run them through the
10587 Gnus @acronym{MIME} machinery. The default is @code{t}. Only
10588 single-part yEnc encoded attachments can be decoded. There's no support
10589 for encoding in Gnus.
10591 @item gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
10592 @vindex gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
10593 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
10594 this list won't have @acronym{MIME} buttons inserted unless they aren't
10595 displayed or this variable is overridden by
10596 @code{gnus-buttonized-mime-types}. The default value is
10597 @code{(".*/.*")}. This variable is only used when
10598 @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing} is @code{nil}.
10600 @item gnus-buttonized-mime-types
10601 @vindex gnus-buttonized-mime-types
10602 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
10603 this list will have @acronym{MIME} buttons inserted unless they aren't
10604 displayed. This variable overrides
10605 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types}. The default value is @code{nil}.
10606 This variable is only used when @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing}
10609 To see e.g. security buttons but no other buttons, you could set this
10610 variable to @code{("multipart/signed")} and leave
10611 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types} at the default value.
10613 You could also add @code{"multipart/alternative"} to this list to
10614 display radio buttons that allow you to choose one of two media types
10615 those mails include. See also @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives}
10616 (@pxref{Display Customization, ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The
10617 Emacs MIME Manual}).
10619 @item gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
10620 @vindex gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
10621 If this is non-@code{nil}, then all @acronym{MIME} parts get buttons. The
10622 default value is @code{nil}.
10624 @item gnus-article-mime-part-function
10625 @vindex gnus-article-mime-part-function
10626 For each @acronym{MIME} part, this function will be called with the @acronym{MIME}
10627 handle as the parameter. The function is meant to be used to allow
10628 users to gather information from the article (e. g., add Vcard info to
10629 the bbdb database) or to do actions based on parts (e. g., automatically
10630 save all jpegs into some directory).
10632 Here's an example function the does the latter:
10635 (defun my-save-all-jpeg-parts (handle)
10636 (when (equal (car (mm-handle-type handle)) "image/jpeg")
10638 (insert (mm-get-part handle))
10639 (write-region (point-min) (point-max)
10640 (read-file-name "Save jpeg to: ")))))
10641 (setq gnus-article-mime-part-function
10642 'my-save-all-jpeg-parts)
10645 @vindex gnus-mime-multipart-functions
10646 @item gnus-mime-multipart-functions
10647 Alist of @acronym{MIME} multipart types and functions to handle them.
10649 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed
10650 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed
10651 Display "multipart/alternative" parts as "multipart/mixed".
10653 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed
10654 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed
10655 Display "multipart/related" parts as "multipart/mixed".
10657 If displaying @samp{text/html} is discouraged, see
10658 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives}, images or other material inside a
10659 "multipart/related" part might be overlooked when this variable is
10660 @code{nil}. @ref{Display Customization, Display Customization, ,
10661 emacs-mime, Emacs-Mime Manual}.
10663 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-as-mixed
10664 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-as-mixed
10665 Display "multipart" parts as "multipart/mixed". If @code{t}, it
10666 overrides @code{nil} values of
10667 @code{gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed} and
10668 @code{gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed}.
10670 @vindex mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
10671 @item mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
10672 List of functions used for rewriting file names of @acronym{MIME} parts.
10673 Each function takes a file name as input and returns a file name.
10675 Ready-made functions include@*
10676 @code{mm-file-name-delete-whitespace},
10677 @code{mm-file-name-trim-whitespace},
10678 @code{mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace}, and
10679 @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace}. The later uses the value of
10680 the variable @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace} to replace each
10681 whitespace character in a file name with that string; default value
10682 is @code{"_"} (a single underscore).
10683 @findex mm-file-name-delete-whitespace
10684 @findex mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
10685 @findex mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
10686 @findex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
10687 @vindex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
10689 The standard functions @code{capitalize}, @code{downcase},
10690 @code{upcase}, and @code{upcase-initials} may be useful, too.
10692 Everybody knows that whitespace characters in file names are evil,
10693 except those who don't know. If you receive lots of attachments from
10694 such unenlightened users, you can make live easier by adding
10697 (setq mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
10698 '(mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
10699 mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
10700 mm-file-name-replace-whitespace))
10704 to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
10713 People use different charsets, and we have @acronym{MIME} to let us know what
10714 charsets they use. Or rather, we wish we had. Many people use
10715 newsreaders and mailers that do not understand or use @acronym{MIME}, and
10716 just send out messages without saying what character sets they use. To
10717 help a bit with this, some local news hierarchies have policies that say
10718 what character set is the default. For instance, the @samp{fj}
10719 hierarchy uses @code{iso-2022-jp}.
10721 @vindex gnus-group-charset-alist
10722 This knowledge is encoded in the @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}
10723 variable, which is an alist of regexps (use the first item to match full
10724 group names) and default charsets to be used when reading these groups.
10726 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets
10727 In addition, some people do use soi-disant @acronym{MIME}-aware agents that
10728 aren't. These blithely mark messages as being in @code{iso-8859-1}
10729 even if they really are in @code{koi-8}. To help here, the
10730 @code{gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets} variable can be used. The
10731 charsets that are listed here will be ignored. The variable can be
10732 set on a group-by-group basis using the group parameters (@pxref{Group
10733 Parameters}). The default value is @code{(unknown-8bit x-unknown)},
10734 which includes values some agents insist on having in there.
10736 @vindex gnus-group-posting-charset-alist
10737 When posting, @code{gnus-group-posting-charset-alist} is used to
10738 determine which charsets should not be encoded using the @acronym{MIME}
10739 encodings. For instance, some hierarchies discourage using
10740 quoted-printable header encoding.
10742 This variable is an alist of regexps and permitted unencoded charsets
10743 for posting. Each element of the alist has the form @code{(}@var{test
10744 header body-list}@code{)}, where:
10748 is either a regular expression matching the newsgroup header or a
10751 is the charset which may be left unencoded in the header (@code{nil}
10752 means encode all charsets),
10754 is a list of charsets which may be encoded using 8bit content-transfer
10755 encoding in the body, or one of the special values @code{nil} (always
10756 encode using quoted-printable) or @code{t} (always use 8bit).
10763 @cindex coding system aliases
10764 @cindex preferred charset
10766 @xref{Encoding Customization, , Encoding Customization, emacs-mime,
10767 The Emacs MIME Manual}, for additional variables that control which
10768 MIME charsets are used when sending messages.
10770 Other charset tricks that may be useful, although not Gnus-specific:
10772 If there are several @acronym{MIME} charsets that encode the same Emacs
10773 charset, you can choose what charset to use by saying the following:
10776 (put-charset-property 'cyrillic-iso8859-5
10777 'preferred-coding-system 'koi8-r)
10780 This means that Russian will be encoded using @code{koi8-r} instead of
10781 the default @code{iso-8859-5} @acronym{MIME} charset.
10783 If you want to read messages in @code{koi8-u}, you can cheat and say
10786 (define-coding-system-alias 'koi8-u 'koi8-r)
10789 This will almost do the right thing.
10791 And finally, to read charsets like @code{windows-1251}, you can say
10795 (codepage-setup 1251)
10796 (define-coding-system-alias 'windows-1251 'cp1251)
10800 @node Article Commands
10801 @section Article Commands
10808 @kindex A P (Summary)
10809 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
10810 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
10811 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
10812 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will
10813 be run just before printing the buffer. An alternative way to print
10814 article is to use Muttprint (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
10819 @node Summary Sorting
10820 @section Summary Sorting
10821 @cindex summary sorting
10823 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
10824 can't really see why you'd want that.
10829 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
10830 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
10831 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
10833 @item C-c C-s C-m C-n
10834 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
10835 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-most-recent-number
10836 Sort by most recent article number
10837 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-most-recent-number}).
10840 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
10841 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
10842 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
10845 @kindex C-c C-s C-t (Summary)
10846 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-recipient
10847 Sort by recipient (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-recipient}).
10850 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
10851 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
10852 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
10855 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
10856 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
10857 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
10859 @item C-c C-s C-m C-d
10860 @kindex C-c C-s C-m C-d (Summary)
10861 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-most-recent-date
10862 Sort by most recent date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-most-recent-date}).
10865 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
10866 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
10867 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
10870 @kindex C-c C-s C-c (Summary)
10871 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-chars
10872 Sort by article length (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-chars}).
10875 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
10876 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
10877 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
10880 @kindex C-c C-s C-r (Summary)
10881 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-random
10882 Randomize (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-random}).
10885 @kindex C-c C-s C-o (Summary)
10886 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-original
10887 Sort using the default sorting method
10888 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-original}).
10891 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
10892 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
10893 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
10894 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
10895 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
10898 If a prefix argument if given, the sort order is reversed.
10901 @node Finding the Parent
10902 @section Finding the Parent
10903 @cindex parent articles
10904 @cindex referring articles
10908 @kindex ^ (Summary)
10909 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
10910 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
10911 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
10912 if the current group is fetched by @acronym{NNTP}, the parent hasn't expired
10913 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
10914 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
10915 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
10916 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
10917 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
10919 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
10920 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
10921 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, Gnus will fetch the parent, the
10922 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
10923 @kbd{-3 ^}, Gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
10926 @item A R (Summary)
10927 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
10928 @kindex A R (Summary)
10929 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
10930 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
10932 @item A T (Summary)
10933 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
10934 @kindex A T (Summary)
10935 Display the full thread where the current article appears
10936 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
10937 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
10938 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
10939 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
10940 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
10941 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
10943 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
10944 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i. e.,
10945 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
10946 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
10947 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
10948 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
10950 @item M-^ (Summary)
10951 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
10952 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
10954 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
10955 You can also ask Gnus for an arbitrary article, no matter what group it
10956 belongs to. @kbd{M-^} (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you
10957 for a @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read
10958 thingies that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}.
10959 You have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
10961 Gnus looks for the @code{Message-ID} in the headers that have already
10962 been fetched, but also tries all the select methods specified by
10963 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} if it is not found.
10966 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
10967 If the group you are reading is located on a back end that does not
10968 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
10969 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @acronym{NNTP} method. It
10970 would, perhaps, be best if the @acronym{NNTP} server you consult is the one
10971 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
10974 It can also be a list of select methods, as well as the special symbol
10975 @code{current}, which means to use the current select method. If it
10976 is a list, Gnus will try all the methods in the list until it finds a
10979 Here's an example setting that will first try the current method, and
10980 then ask Google if that fails:
10983 (setq gnus-refer-article-method
10985 (nnweb "google" (nnweb-type google))))
10988 Most of the mail back ends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but
10989 do not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox},
10990 @code{nnbabyl}, @code{nnmaildir}, @code{nnml}, are able to locate
10991 articles from any groups, while @code{nnfolder}, and @code{nnimap} are
10992 only able to locate articles that have been posted to the current
10993 group. (Anything else would be too time consuming.) @code{nnmh} does
10994 not support this at all.
10997 @node Alternative Approaches
10998 @section Alternative Approaches
11000 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
11001 Gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
11004 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
11005 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
11009 @node Pick and Read
11010 @subsection Pick and Read
11011 @cindex pick and read
11013 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
11014 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
11015 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
11016 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
11018 @findex gnus-pick-mode
11019 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
11020 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
11021 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
11022 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
11023 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
11025 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
11030 @findex gnus-pick-article-or-thread
11031 Pick the article or thread on the current line
11032 (@code{gnus-pick-article-or-thread}). If the variable
11033 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key selects the
11034 entire thread when used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise,
11035 it selects just the article. If given a numerical prefix, go to that
11036 thread or article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
11037 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
11040 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
11041 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
11042 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
11043 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
11047 @findex gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread.
11048 Unpick the thread or article
11049 (@code{gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread}). If the variable
11050 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key unpicks the
11051 thread if used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise it unpicks
11052 just the article. You can give this key a numerical prefix to unpick
11053 the thread or article at that line.
11057 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
11058 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
11059 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
11060 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
11061 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
11062 will still be visible when you are reading.
11066 All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
11067 pick-mode, with the exception of @kbd{u}. However @kbd{!} is available
11068 which is mapped to the same function
11069 @code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}.
11071 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
11074 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
11077 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
11078 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
11080 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
11081 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
11082 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
11084 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
11085 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
11086 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
11087 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
11088 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
11089 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
11090 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
11093 @node Binary Groups
11094 @subsection Binary Groups
11095 @cindex binary groups
11097 @findex gnus-binary-mode
11098 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
11099 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
11100 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
11101 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
11102 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
11103 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
11106 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
11107 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
11108 command, when you have turned on this mode
11109 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
11111 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
11112 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
11116 @section Tree Display
11119 @vindex gnus-use-trees
11120 If you don't like the normal Gnus summary display, you might try setting
11121 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
11122 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
11123 in the tree buffer.
11125 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
11128 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
11129 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
11130 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
11132 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
11133 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
11134 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers (@pxref{Mode
11135 Line Formatting}). The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list
11136 of valid specs, @pxref{Summary Buffer Mode Line}.
11138 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
11139 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
11140 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
11141 default is @code{modeline}.
11143 @item gnus-tree-line-format
11144 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
11145 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
11146 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
11147 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
11148 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
11149 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
11155 The name of the poster.
11157 The @code{From} header.
11159 The number of the article.
11161 The opening bracket.
11163 The closing bracket.
11168 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
11170 Variables related to the display are:
11173 @item gnus-tree-brackets
11174 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
11175 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
11176 ``sparse'' articles. The format is
11178 ((@var{real-open} . @var{real-close})
11179 (@var{sparse-open} . @var{sparse-close})
11180 (@var{dummy-open} . @var{dummy-close}))
11182 and the default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
11184 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
11185 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
11186 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
11187 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
11191 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
11192 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
11193 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will try to keep the tree
11194 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other Gnus
11195 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
11196 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
11197 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
11198 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
11199 other windows displayed next to it.
11201 You may also wish to add the following hook to keep the window minimized
11205 (add-hook 'gnus-configure-windows-hook
11206 'gnus-tree-perhaps-minimize)
11209 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
11210 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
11211 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
11212 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
11213 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
11214 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
11215 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
11219 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
11222 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
11232 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
11237 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
11238 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
11240 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
11242 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
11248 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
11249 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
11250 following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
11253 (setq gnus-use-trees t
11254 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
11255 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
11256 (gnus-add-configuration
11260 (summary 0.75 point)
11265 @xref{Window Layout}.
11268 @node Mail Group Commands
11269 @section Mail Group Commands
11270 @cindex mail group commands
11272 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
11273 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
11275 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
11276 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
11281 @kindex B e (Summary)
11282 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
11283 @cindex expiring mail
11284 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
11285 process (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}). That is, delete all
11286 expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
11287 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
11290 @kindex B C-M-e (Summary)
11291 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
11292 @cindex expiring mail
11293 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
11294 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
11295 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
11296 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
11299 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
11300 @cindex deleting mail
11301 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
11302 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
11303 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
11304 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
11305 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
11308 @kindex B m (Summary)
11310 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
11311 @vindex gnus-preserve-marks
11312 Move the article from one mail group to another
11313 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}). Marks will be preserved if
11314 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
11317 @kindex B c (Summary)
11319 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
11320 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
11321 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
11322 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}). Marks will be preserved if
11323 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
11326 @kindex B B (Summary)
11327 @cindex crosspost mail
11328 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
11329 Crosspost the current article to some other group
11330 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
11331 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
11332 be properly updated.
11335 @kindex B i (Summary)
11336 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
11337 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
11338 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
11339 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
11342 @kindex B I (Summary)
11343 @findex gnus-summary-create-article
11344 Create an empty article in the current mail newsgroups
11345 (@code{gnus-summary-create-article}). You will be prompted for a
11346 @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
11349 @kindex B r (Summary)
11350 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
11351 @vindex gnus-summary-respool-default-method
11352 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-respool-article}).
11353 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
11354 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
11355 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
11356 Marks will be preserved if @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil}
11357 (which is the default).
11361 @kindex B w (Summary)
11362 @kindex e (Summary)
11363 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
11364 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
11365 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article-done
11366 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
11367 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
11368 (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
11369 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, Gnus won't re-highlight the article.
11372 @kindex B q (Summary)
11373 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
11374 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
11375 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
11376 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
11379 @kindex B t (Summary)
11380 @findex gnus-summary-respool-trace
11381 Similarly, this command will display all fancy splitting patterns used
11382 when respooling, if any (@code{gnus-summary-respool-trace}).
11385 @kindex B p (Summary)
11386 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
11387 Some people have a tendency to send you ``courtesy'' copies when they
11388 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
11389 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
11390 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
11391 article from your news server (or rather, from
11392 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
11393 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
11394 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
11395 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
11396 just not have arrived yet.
11399 @kindex K E (Summary)
11400 @findex gnus-article-encrypt-body
11401 @vindex gnus-article-encrypt-protocol
11402 Encrypt the body of an article (@code{gnus-article-encrypt-body}).
11403 The body is encrypted with the encryption protocol specified by the
11404 variable @code{gnus-article-encrypt-protocol}.
11408 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
11409 @cindex moving articles
11410 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have Gnus
11411 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
11412 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
11413 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
11414 suggestions you find reasonable. (Note that
11415 @code{gnus-move-split-methods} uses group names where
11416 @code{gnus-split-methods} uses file names.)
11419 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
11420 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
11421 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
11422 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
11426 @node Various Summary Stuff
11427 @section Various Summary Stuff
11430 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
11431 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
11432 * Summary Generation Commands::
11433 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
11437 @vindex gnus-summary-display-while-building
11438 @item gnus-summary-display-while-building
11439 If non-@code{nil}, show and update the summary buffer as it's being
11440 built. If @code{t}, update the buffer after every line is inserted.
11441 If the value is an integer, @var{n}, update the display every @var{n}
11442 lines. The default is @code{nil}.
11444 @vindex gnus-summary-display-arrow
11445 @item gnus-summary-display-arrow
11446 If non-@code{nil}, display an arrow in the fringe to indicate the
11449 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
11450 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
11451 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
11453 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
11454 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
11455 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
11456 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
11457 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
11458 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
11461 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
11462 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
11463 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
11464 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
11465 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
11467 @vindex gnus-summary-prepared-hook
11468 @item gnus-summary-prepared-hook
11469 A hook called as the very last thing after the summary buffer has been
11472 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
11473 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
11474 When Gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
11475 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
11476 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
11477 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
11478 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), Gnus will rename the
11479 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
11480 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
11481 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
11483 @vindex gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
11484 @item gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
11485 This function, which takes two parameters (the group name and the list
11486 of articles to be selected), is called to allow the user to alter the
11487 list of articles to be selected.
11489 For instance, the following function adds the list of cached articles to
11490 the list in one particular group:
11493 (defun my-add-cached-articles (group articles)
11494 (if (string= group "some.group")
11495 (append gnus-newsgroup-cached articles)
11499 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-variables
11500 @item gnus-newsgroup-variables
11501 A list of newsgroup (summary buffer) local variables, or cons of
11502 variables and their default expressions to be evalled (when the default
11503 values are not @code{nil}), that should be made global while the summary
11506 Note: The default expressions will be evaluated (using function
11507 @code{eval}) before assignment to the local variable rather than just
11508 assigned to it. If the default expression is the symbol @code{global},
11509 that symbol will not be evaluated but the global value of the local
11510 variable will be used instead.
11512 These variables can be used to set variables in the group parameters
11513 while still allowing them to affect operations done in other
11514 buffers. For example:
11517 (setq gnus-newsgroup-variables
11518 '(message-use-followup-to
11519 (gnus-visible-headers .
11520 "^From:\\|^Newsgroups:\\|^Subject:\\|^Date:\\|^To:")))
11523 Also @pxref{Group Parameters}.
11525 @vindex gnus-propagate-marks
11526 @item gnus-propagate-marks
11527 If non-@code{nil}, propagate marks to the backends for possible
11528 storing. @xref{NNTP marks}, and friends, for a more fine-grained
11534 @node Summary Group Information
11535 @subsection Summary Group Information
11540 @kindex H d (Summary)
11541 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
11542 Give a brief description of the current group
11543 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
11544 rereading the description from the server.
11547 @kindex H h (Summary)
11548 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
11549 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
11550 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
11553 @kindex H i (Summary)
11554 @findex gnus-info-find-node
11555 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
11559 @node Searching for Articles
11560 @subsection Searching for Articles
11565 @kindex M-s (Summary)
11566 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
11567 Search through all subsequent (raw) articles for a regexp
11568 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
11571 @kindex M-r (Summary)
11572 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
11573 Search through all previous (raw) articles for a regexp
11574 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
11577 @kindex M-S (Summary)
11578 @findex gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-forward
11579 Repeat the previous search forwards
11580 (@code{gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-forward}).
11583 @kindex M-R (Summary)
11584 @findex gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-backward
11585 Repeat the previous search backwards
11586 (@code{gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-backward}).
11589 @kindex & (Summary)
11590 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
11591 This command will prompt you for a header, a regular expression to match
11592 on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
11593 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If the header is an empty
11594 string, the match is done on the entire article. If given a prefix,
11595 search backward instead.
11597 For instance, @kbd{& RET some.*string RET #} will put the process mark on
11598 all articles that have heads or bodies that match @samp{some.*string}.
11601 @kindex M-& (Summary)
11602 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
11603 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
11604 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
11607 @node Summary Generation Commands
11608 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
11613 @kindex Y g (Summary)
11614 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
11615 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
11618 @kindex Y c (Summary)
11619 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
11620 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
11621 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
11624 @kindex Y d (Summary)
11625 @findex gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles
11626 Pull all dormant articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
11627 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles}).
11630 @kindex Y t (Summary)
11631 @findex gnus-summary-insert-ticked-articles
11632 Pull all ticked articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
11633 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-ticked-articles}).
11638 @node Really Various Summary Commands
11639 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
11645 @kindex C-d (Summary)
11646 @kindex A D (Summary)
11647 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
11648 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
11649 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
11650 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
11651 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
11652 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
11653 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
11654 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
11657 @vindex gnus-auto-select-on-ephemeral-exit
11658 The variable @code{gnus-auto-select-on-ephemeral-exit} controls what
11659 article should be selected after exiting a digest group. Valid values
11664 Select the next article.
11667 Select the next unread article.
11669 @item next-noselect
11670 Move the cursor to the next article. This is the default.
11672 @item next-unread-noselect
11673 Move the cursor to the next unread article.
11676 If it has any other value or there is no next (unread) article, the
11677 article selected before entering to the digest group will appear.
11680 @kindex C-M-d (Summary)
11681 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
11682 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
11683 several documents into one biiig group
11684 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
11685 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
11686 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
11687 command understands the process/prefix convention
11688 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
11691 @kindex C-t (Summary)
11692 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
11693 Toggle truncation of summary lines
11694 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
11695 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
11696 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
11699 @kindex = (Summary)
11700 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
11701 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
11702 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
11705 @kindex C-M-e (Summary)
11706 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
11707 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
11708 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
11711 @kindex C-M-a (Summary)
11712 @findex gnus-summary-customize-parameters
11713 Customize the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
11714 group (@code{gnus-summary-customize-parameters}).
11719 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
11720 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
11721 @cindex summary exit
11722 @cindex exiting groups
11724 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
11725 group and return you to the group buffer.
11732 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
11733 @kindex Z Q (Summary)
11734 @kindex q (Summary)
11735 @findex gnus-summary-exit
11736 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
11737 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
11738 @vindex gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook
11739 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
11740 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
11741 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
11742 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
11743 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
11744 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
11745 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
11746 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
11750 @kindex Z E (Summary)
11751 @kindex Q (Summary)
11752 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
11753 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
11754 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
11758 @kindex Z c (Summary)
11759 @kindex c (Summary)
11760 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
11761 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
11762 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
11763 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
11766 @kindex Z C (Summary)
11767 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
11768 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
11769 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
11772 @kindex Z n (Summary)
11773 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
11774 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
11775 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
11778 @kindex Z p (Summary)
11779 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-prev-group
11780 Mark all articles as read and go to the previous group
11781 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-prev-group}).
11785 @kindex Z R (Summary)
11786 @kindex C-x C-s (Summary)
11787 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
11788 Exit this group, and then enter it again
11789 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
11790 all articles, both read and unread.
11794 @kindex Z G (Summary)
11795 @kindex M-g (Summary)
11796 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
11797 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
11798 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
11799 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
11800 articles, both read and unread.
11803 @kindex Z N (Summary)
11804 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
11805 Exit the group and go to the next group
11806 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
11809 @kindex Z P (Summary)
11810 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
11811 Exit the group and go to the previous group
11812 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
11815 @kindex Z s (Summary)
11816 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
11817 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
11818 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
11819 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
11820 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
11823 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
11824 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current group
11825 with an ``updating'' exit. For instance @kbd{Q}
11826 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}) does not call this hook.
11828 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
11829 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
11830 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
11831 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
11832 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
11833 If you do that, Gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
11834 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
11835 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
11836 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
11837 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
11838 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
11839 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
11841 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
11843 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
11844 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
11845 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
11846 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
11847 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
11848 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
11849 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
11850 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
11851 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
11854 @node Crosspost Handling
11855 @section Crosspost Handling
11859 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
11860 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
11861 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
11862 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
11863 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
11864 heinous crime. You may want to try NoCeM handling to filter out spam
11867 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
11868 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
11869 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
11870 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
11871 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
11873 @cindex cross-posting
11875 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
11876 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
11877 correctly is if you use an @acronym{NNTP} server that supports @sc{xover}
11878 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
11879 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @acronym{NOV} lines. This is
11880 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
11881 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
11882 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
11883 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
11884 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
11885 the cross reference mechanism.
11887 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
11888 @cindex overview.fmt
11889 To check whether your @acronym{NNTP} server includes the @code{Xref} header
11890 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
11891 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
11892 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
11893 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
11894 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
11897 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
11898 set @code{nntp-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
11899 considerably. Also @pxref{Slow/Expensive Connection}.
11903 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
11906 @node Duplicate Suppression
11907 @section Duplicate Suppression
11909 By default, Gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
11910 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
11911 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
11912 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
11917 The @acronym{NNTP} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
11918 is evil and not very common.
11921 The @acronym{NNTP} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
11922 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
11925 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
11926 different @acronym{NNTP} servers.
11929 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
11932 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
11933 well, but these four are the most common situations.
11935 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
11936 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
11937 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
11938 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
11939 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
11940 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
11941 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
11944 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
11945 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
11946 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
11947 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
11948 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
11949 saw the article in.
11952 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
11953 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
11954 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
11956 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
11957 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
11958 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
11959 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
11960 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single Gnus
11961 session are suppressed.
11963 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
11964 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
11965 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
11966 suppression list. The default is 10000.
11968 @item gnus-duplicate-file
11969 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
11970 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
11971 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
11974 If you have a tendency to stop and start Gnus often, setting
11975 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
11976 you leave Gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
11977 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
11978 so that means that if you stop and start Gnus often, you should set
11979 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
11980 to you to figure out, I think.
11985 Gnus is able to verify signed messages or decrypt encrypted messages.
11986 The formats that are supported are @acronym{PGP}, @acronym{PGP/MIME}
11987 and @acronym{S/MIME}, however you need some external programs to get
11992 To handle @acronym{PGP} and @acronym{PGP/MIME} messages, you have to
11993 install an OpenPGP implementation such as GnuPG. The Lisp interface
11994 to GnuPG included with Emacs is called EasyPG (@pxref{Top, ,EasyPG,
11995 epa, EasyPG Assistant user's manual}), but PGG (@pxref{Top, ,PGG, pgg,
11996 PGG Manual}), Mailcrypt, and gpg.el are also supported.
11999 To handle @acronym{S/MIME} message, you need to install OpenSSL. OpenSSL 0.9.6
12000 or newer is recommended.
12004 The variables that control security functionality on reading/composing
12008 @item mm-verify-option
12009 @vindex mm-verify-option
12010 Option of verifying signed parts. @code{never}, not verify;
12011 @code{always}, always verify; @code{known}, only verify known
12012 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
12014 @item mm-decrypt-option
12015 @vindex mm-decrypt-option
12016 Option of decrypting encrypted parts. @code{never}, no decryption;
12017 @code{always}, always decrypt; @code{known}, only decrypt known
12018 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
12020 @item mm-sign-option
12021 @vindex mm-sign-option
12022 Option of creating signed parts. @code{nil}, use default signing
12023 keys; @code{guided}, ask user to select signing keys from the menu.
12025 @item mm-encrypt-option
12026 @vindex mm-encrypt-option
12027 Option of creating encrypted parts. @code{nil}, use the first
12028 public-key matching the @samp{From:} header as the recipient;
12029 @code{guided}, ask user to select recipient keys from the menu.
12032 @vindex mml1991-use
12033 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for
12034 @acronym{PGP} messages. The default is @code{epg}, but @code{pgg},
12035 @code{mailcrypt}, and @code{gpg} are also supported although
12036 deprecated. By default, Gnus uses the first available interface in
12040 @vindex mml2015-use
12041 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for
12042 @acronym{PGP/MIME} messages. The default is @code{epg}, but
12043 @code{pgg}, @code{mailcrypt}, and @code{gpg} are also supported
12044 although deprecated. By default, Gnus uses the first available
12045 interface in this order.
12049 By default the buttons that display security information are not
12050 shown, because they clutter reading the actual e-mail. You can type
12051 @kbd{K b} manually to display the information. Use the
12052 @code{gnus-buttonized-mime-types} and
12053 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types} variables to control this
12054 permanently. @ref{MIME Commands} for further details, and hints on
12055 how to customize these variables to always display security
12058 @cindex snarfing keys
12059 @cindex importing PGP keys
12060 @cindex PGP key ring import
12061 Snarfing OpenPGP keys (i.e., importing keys from articles into your
12062 key ring) is not supported explicitly through a menu item or command,
12063 rather Gnus do detect and label keys as @samp{application/pgp-keys},
12064 allowing you to specify whatever action you think is appropriate
12065 through the usual @acronym{MIME} infrastructure. You can use a
12066 @file{~/.mailcap} entry (@pxref{mailcap, , mailcap, emacs-mime, The
12067 Emacs MIME Manual}) such as the following to import keys using GNU
12068 Privacy Guard when you click on the @acronym{MIME} button
12069 (@pxref{Using MIME}).
12072 application/pgp-keys; gpg --import --interactive --verbose; needsterminal
12075 This happens to also be the default action defined in
12076 @code{mailcap-mime-data}.
12078 More information on how to set things for sending outgoing signed and
12079 encrypted messages up can be found in the message manual
12080 (@pxref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}).
12083 @section Mailing List
12084 @cindex mailing list
12087 @kindex A M (summary)
12088 @findex gnus-mailing-list-insinuate
12089 Gnus understands some mailing list fields of RFC 2369. To enable it,
12090 add a @code{to-list} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}),
12091 possibly using @kbd{A M} (@code{gnus-mailing-list-insinuate}) in the
12094 That enables the following commands to the summary buffer:
12099 @kindex C-c C-n h (Summary)
12100 @findex gnus-mailing-list-help
12101 Send a message to fetch mailing list help, if List-Help field exists.
12104 @kindex C-c C-n s (Summary)
12105 @findex gnus-mailing-list-subscribe
12106 Send a message to subscribe the mailing list, if List-Subscribe field exists.
12109 @kindex C-c C-n u (Summary)
12110 @findex gnus-mailing-list-unsubscribe
12111 Send a message to unsubscribe the mailing list, if List-Unsubscribe
12115 @kindex C-c C-n p (Summary)
12116 @findex gnus-mailing-list-post
12117 Post to the mailing list, if List-Post field exists.
12120 @kindex C-c C-n o (Summary)
12121 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
12122 Send a message to the mailing list owner, if List-Owner field exists.
12125 @kindex C-c C-n a (Summary)
12126 @findex gnus-mailing-list-archive
12127 Browse the mailing list archive, if List-Archive field exists.
12132 @node Article Buffer
12133 @chapter Article Buffer
12134 @cindex article buffer
12136 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
12137 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
12138 tell Gnus otherwise.
12141 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
12142 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @acronym{MIME} before reading them.
12143 * HTML:: Reading @acronym{HTML} messages.
12144 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
12145 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
12146 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
12150 @node Hiding Headers
12151 @section Hiding Headers
12152 @cindex hiding headers
12153 @cindex deleting headers
12155 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
12156 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
12158 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
12159 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
12160 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
12161 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
12162 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
12163 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
12164 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseam---and you'll probably want to get rid
12165 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
12166 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
12168 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
12172 @item gnus-visible-headers
12173 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
12174 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
12175 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
12176 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
12178 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
12179 the article and the subject, you'd say:
12182 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
12185 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
12188 @item gnus-ignored-headers
12189 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
12190 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
12191 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
12192 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
12193 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
12195 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} line
12196 and the @code{Xref} line, you might say:
12199 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
12202 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
12205 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
12206 variable will have no effect.
12210 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
12211 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
12212 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
12213 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
12214 the headers are to be displayed.
12216 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
12217 and then the subject, you might say something like:
12220 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
12223 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
12224 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
12226 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
12227 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
12228 You can hide further boring headers by setting
12229 @code{gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers} to @code{head}. What this function
12230 does depends on the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a
12231 list, but this list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead it
12232 lists various @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove
12235 These conditions are:
12238 Remove all empty headers.
12240 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
12241 @code{Newsgroups} header.
12243 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same addresses as
12244 the @code{From} header, or if the @code{broken-reply-to} group
12247 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
12250 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
12251 the current group's @code{to-address} parameter.
12253 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
12254 the current group's @code{to-list} parameter.
12256 Remove the @code{Cc} header if it only contains the address identical to
12257 the current group's @code{to-list} parameter.
12259 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
12262 Remove the @code{To} and/or @code{Cc} header if it is very long.
12264 Remove all @code{To} and/or @code{Cc} headers if there are more than one.
12267 To include these three elements, you could say something like:
12270 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
12271 '(empty followup-to reply-to))
12274 This is also the default value for this variable.
12278 @section Using MIME
12279 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
12281 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
12282 while people stand around yawning.
12284 @acronym{MIME}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
12285 while all newsreaders die of fear.
12287 @acronym{MIME} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
12288 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
12289 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
12291 @vindex gnus-display-mime-function
12292 @findex gnus-display-mime
12293 Gnus pushes @acronym{MIME} articles through @code{gnus-display-mime-function}
12294 to display the @acronym{MIME} parts. This is @code{gnus-display-mime} by
12295 default, which creates a bundle of clickable buttons that can be used to
12296 display, save and manipulate the @acronym{MIME} objects.
12298 The following commands are available when you have placed point over a
12299 @acronym{MIME} button:
12302 @findex gnus-article-press-button
12303 @item RET (Article)
12304 @kindex RET (Article)
12305 @itemx BUTTON-2 (Article)
12306 Toggle displaying of the @acronym{MIME} object
12307 (@code{gnus-article-press-button}). If built-in viewers can not display
12308 the object, Gnus resorts to external viewers in the @file{mailcap}
12309 files. If a viewer has the @samp{copiousoutput} specification, the
12310 object is displayed inline.
12312 @findex gnus-mime-view-part
12313 @item M-RET (Article)
12314 @kindex M-RET (Article)
12316 Prompt for a method, and then view the @acronym{MIME} object using this
12317 method (@code{gnus-mime-view-part}).
12319 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-type
12321 @kindex t (Article)
12322 View the @acronym{MIME} object as if it were a different @acronym{MIME} media type
12323 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-type}).
12325 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset
12327 @kindex C (Article)
12328 Prompt for a charset, and then view the @acronym{MIME} object using this
12329 charset (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset}).
12331 @findex gnus-mime-save-part
12333 @kindex o (Article)
12334 Prompt for a file name, and then save the @acronym{MIME} object
12335 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part}).
12337 @findex gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip
12338 @item C-o (Article)
12339 @kindex C-o (Article)
12340 Prompt for a file name, then save the @acronym{MIME} object and strip it from
12341 the article. Then proceed to article editing, where a reasonable
12342 suggestion is being made on how the altered article should look
12343 like. The stripped @acronym{MIME} object will be referred via the
12344 message/external-body @acronym{MIME} type.
12345 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip}).
12347 @findex gnus-mime-replace-part
12349 @kindex r (Article)
12350 Prompt for a file name, replace the @acronym{MIME} object with an
12351 external body refering to the file via the message/external-body
12352 @acronym{MIME} type. (@code{gnus-mime-replace-part}).
12354 @findex gnus-mime-delete-part
12356 @kindex d (Article)
12357 Delete the @acronym{MIME} object from the article and replace it with some
12358 information about the removed @acronym{MIME} object
12359 (@code{gnus-mime-delete-part}).
12361 @c FIXME: gnus-auto-select-part should be documented here
12363 @findex gnus-mime-copy-part
12365 @kindex c (Article)
12366 Copy the @acronym{MIME} object to a fresh buffer and display this buffer
12367 (@code{gnus-mime-copy-part}). If given a prefix, copy the raw contents
12368 without decoding. If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual
12369 charset stuff (see @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist} in
12370 @ref{Paging the Article}). Compressed files like @file{.gz} and
12371 @file{.bz2} are automatically decompressed if
12372 @code{auto-compression-mode} is enabled (@pxref{Compressed Files,,
12373 Accessing Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Editor}).
12375 @findex gnus-mime-print-part
12377 @kindex p (Article)
12378 Print the @acronym{MIME} object (@code{gnus-mime-print-part}). This
12379 command respects the @samp{print=} specifications in the
12380 @file{.mailcap} file.
12382 @findex gnus-mime-inline-part
12384 @kindex i (Article)
12385 Insert the contents of the @acronym{MIME} object into the buffer
12386 (@code{gnus-mime-inline-part}) as @samp{text/plain}. If given a prefix, insert
12387 the raw contents without decoding. If given a numerical prefix, you can
12388 do semi-manual charset stuff (see
12389 @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist} in @ref{Paging the
12390 Article}). Compressed files like @file{.gz} and @file{.bz2} are
12391 automatically decompressed depending on @code{jka-compr} regardless of
12392 @code{auto-compression-mode} (@pxref{Compressed Files,, Accessing
12393 Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Editor}).
12395 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-internally
12397 @kindex E (Article)
12398 View the @acronym{MIME} object with an internal viewer. If no internal
12399 viewer is available, use an external viewer
12400 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-internally}).
12402 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-externally
12404 @kindex e (Article)
12405 View the @acronym{MIME} object with an external viewer.
12406 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-externally}).
12408 @findex gnus-mime-pipe-part
12410 @kindex | (Article)
12411 Output the @acronym{MIME} object to a process (@code{gnus-mime-pipe-part}).
12413 @findex gnus-mime-action-on-part
12415 @kindex . (Article)
12416 Interactively run an action on the @acronym{MIME} object
12417 (@code{gnus-mime-action-on-part}).
12421 Gnus will display some @acronym{MIME} objects automatically. The way Gnus
12422 determines which parts to do this with is described in the Emacs
12423 @acronym{MIME} manual.
12425 It might be best to just use the toggling functions from the article
12426 buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance, you enter the
12427 group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it, @acronym{MIME} has
12428 decoded the sound file in the article and some horrible sing-a-long song
12429 comes screaming out your speakers, and you can't find the volume button,
12430 because there isn't one, and people are starting to look at you, and you
12431 try to stop the program, but you can't, and you can't find the program
12432 to control the volume, and everybody else in the room suddenly decides
12433 to look at you disdainfully, and you'll feel rather stupid.)
12435 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
12437 Also @pxref{MIME Commands}.
12441 @section @acronym{HTML}
12442 @cindex @acronym{HTML}
12444 If you have @code{w3m} installed on your system, Gnus can display
12445 @acronym{HTML} articles in the article buffer. There are many Gnus
12446 add-ons for doing this, using various approaches, but there's one
12447 (sort of) built-in method that's used by default.
12449 For a complete overview, consult @xref{Display Customization,
12450 ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}. This
12451 section only describes the default method.
12454 @item mm-text-html-renderer
12455 @vindex mm-text-html-renderer
12456 If set to @code{gnus-article-html}, Gnus will use the built-in method,
12457 that's based on @code{curl} and @code{w3m}.
12459 @item gnus-blocked-images
12460 @vindex gnus-blocked-images
12461 Images that have @acronym{URL}s that match this regexp won't be
12462 fetched and displayed. For instance, do block all @acronym{URL}s that
12463 have the string ``ads'' in them, do the following:
12466 (setq gnus-blocked-images "ads")
12469 The default is to block all external images.
12471 @item gnus-html-cache-directory
12472 @vindex gnus-html-cache-directory
12473 Gnus will download and cache images according to how
12474 @code{gnus-blocked-images} is set. These images will be stored in
12477 @item gnus-html-cache-size
12478 @vindex gnus-html-cache-size
12479 When @code{gnus-html-cache-size} bytes have been used in that
12480 directory, the oldest files will be deleted. The default is 500MB.
12482 @item gnus-html-frame-width
12483 @vindex gnus-html-frame-width
12484 The width to use when rendering HTML. The default is 70.
12486 @item gnus-max-image-proportion
12487 @vindex gnus-max-image-proportion
12488 How big pictures displayed are in relation to the window they're in.
12489 A value of 0.7 (the default) means that they are allowed to take up
12490 70% of the width and height of the window. If they are larger than
12491 this, and Emacs supports it, then the images will be rescaled down to
12492 fit these criteria.
12496 To use this, make sure that you have @code{w3m} and @code{curl}
12497 installed. If you have, then Gnus should display @acronym{HTML}
12502 @node Customizing Articles
12503 @section Customizing Articles
12504 @cindex article customization
12506 A slew of functions for customizing how the articles are to look like
12507 exist. You can call these functions interactively
12508 (@pxref{Article Washing}), or you can have them
12509 called automatically when you select the articles.
12511 To have them called automatically, you should set the corresponding
12512 ``treatment'' variable. For instance, to have headers hidden, you'd set
12513 @code{gnus-treat-hide-headers}. Below is a list of variables that can
12514 be set, but first we discuss the values these variables can have.
12516 Note: Some values, while valid, make little sense. Check the list below
12517 for sensible values.
12521 @code{nil}: Don't do this treatment.
12524 @code{t}: Do this treatment on all body parts.
12527 @code{head}: Do the treatment on the headers.
12530 @code{first}: Do this treatment on the first body part.
12533 @code{last}: Do this treatment on the last body part.
12536 An integer: Do this treatment on all body parts that have a length less
12540 A list of strings: Do this treatment on all body parts that are in
12541 articles that are read in groups that have names that match one of the
12542 regexps in the list.
12545 A list where the first element is not a string:
12547 The list is evaluated recursively. The first element of the list is a
12548 predicate. The following predicates are recognized: @code{or},
12549 @code{and}, @code{not} and @code{typep}. Here's an example:
12553 (typep "text/x-vcard"))
12558 You may have noticed that the word @dfn{part} is used here. This refers
12559 to the fact that some messages are @acronym{MIME} multipart articles that may
12560 be divided into several parts. Articles that are not multiparts are
12561 considered to contain just a single part.
12563 @vindex gnus-article-treat-types
12564 Are the treatments applied to all sorts of multipart parts? Yes, if you
12565 want to, but by default, only @samp{text/plain} parts are given the
12566 treatment. This is controlled by the @code{gnus-article-treat-types}
12567 variable, which is a list of regular expressions that are matched to the
12568 type of the part. This variable is ignored if the value of the
12569 controlling variable is a predicate list, as described above.
12572 @c Avoid sort of redundant entries in the same section for the printed
12573 @c manual, but add them in info to allow `i gnus-treat-foo-bar RET' or
12575 @vindex gnus-treat-buttonize
12576 @vindex gnus-treat-buttonize-head
12577 @vindex gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences
12578 @vindex gnus-treat-overstrike
12579 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-cr
12580 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body
12581 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines
12582 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines
12583 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-pem
12584 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines
12585 @vindex gnus-treat-unsplit-urls
12586 @vindex gnus-treat-wash-html
12587 @vindex gnus-treat-date-english
12588 @vindex gnus-treat-date-iso8601
12589 @vindex gnus-treat-date-lapsed
12590 @vindex gnus-treat-date-local
12591 @vindex gnus-treat-date-original
12592 @vindex gnus-treat-date-user-defined
12593 @vindex gnus-treat-date-ut
12594 @vindex gnus-treat-from-picon
12595 @vindex gnus-treat-mail-picon
12596 @vindex gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon
12597 @vindex gnus-treat-display-smileys
12598 @vindex gnus-treat-body-boundary
12599 @vindex gnus-treat-display-x-face
12600 @vindex gnus-treat-display-face
12601 @vindex gnus-treat-emphasize
12602 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-article
12603 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-long-lines
12604 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers
12605 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation
12606 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe
12607 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-headers
12608 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-signature
12609 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-banner
12610 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers
12611 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-citation
12612 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-headers
12613 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-signature
12614 @vindex gnus-treat-play-sounds
12615 @vindex gnus-treat-translate
12616 @vindex gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig
12617 @vindex gnus-treat-unfold-headers
12618 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-headers
12619 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups
12620 @vindex gnus-treat-leading-whitespace
12623 The following treatment options are available. The easiest way to
12624 customize this is to examine the @code{gnus-article-treat} customization
12625 group. Values in parenthesis are suggested sensible values. Others are
12626 possible but those listed are probably sufficient for most people.
12629 @item gnus-treat-buttonize (t, integer)
12630 @item gnus-treat-buttonize-head (head)
12632 @xref{Article Buttons}.
12634 @item gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences (t, integer)
12635 @item gnus-treat-overstrike (t, integer)
12636 @item gnus-treat-strip-cr (t, integer)
12637 @item gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body (t, integer)
12638 @item gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines (t, first, integer)
12639 @item gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines (t, integer)
12640 @item gnus-treat-strip-pem (t, last, integer)
12641 @item gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines (t, last, integer)
12642 @item gnus-treat-unsplit-urls (t, integer)
12643 @item gnus-treat-wash-html (t, integer)
12645 @xref{Article Washing}.
12647 @item gnus-treat-date-english (head)
12648 @item gnus-treat-date-iso8601 (head)
12649 @item gnus-treat-date-lapsed (head)
12650 @item gnus-treat-date-local (head)
12651 @item gnus-treat-date-original (head)
12652 @item gnus-treat-date-user-defined (head)
12653 @item gnus-treat-date-ut (head)
12655 @xref{Article Date}.
12657 @item gnus-treat-from-picon (head)
12658 @item gnus-treat-mail-picon (head)
12659 @item gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon (head)
12663 @item gnus-treat-display-smileys (t, integer)
12665 @item gnus-treat-body-boundary (head)
12667 @vindex gnus-body-boundary-delimiter
12668 Adds a delimiter between header and body, the string used as delimiter
12669 is controlled by @code{gnus-body-boundary-delimiter}.
12673 @vindex gnus-treat-display-x-face
12674 @item gnus-treat-display-x-face (head)
12678 @vindex gnus-treat-display-face
12679 @item gnus-treat-display-face (head)
12683 @vindex gnus-treat-emphasize
12684 @item gnus-treat-emphasize (t, head, integer)
12685 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-article
12686 @item gnus-treat-fill-article (t, integer)
12687 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-long-lines
12688 @item gnus-treat-fill-long-lines (t, integer)
12689 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers
12690 @item gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers (head)
12691 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation
12692 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation (t, integer)
12693 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe
12694 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe (t, integer)
12695 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-headers
12696 @item gnus-treat-hide-headers (head)
12697 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-signature
12698 @item gnus-treat-hide-signature (t, last)
12699 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-banner
12700 @item gnus-treat-strip-banner (t, last)
12701 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers
12702 @item gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers (head)
12704 @xref{Article Hiding}.
12706 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-citation
12707 @item gnus-treat-highlight-citation (t, integer)
12708 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-headers
12709 @item gnus-treat-highlight-headers (head)
12710 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-signature
12711 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last, integer)
12713 @xref{Article Highlighting}.
12715 @vindex gnus-treat-play-sounds
12716 @item gnus-treat-play-sounds
12717 @vindex gnus-treat-translate
12718 @item gnus-treat-translate
12719 @item gnus-treat-ansi-sequences (t)
12720 @vindex gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig
12721 @item gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig (head)
12723 @vindex gnus-treat-unfold-headers
12724 @item gnus-treat-unfold-headers (head)
12725 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-headers
12726 @item gnus-treat-fold-headers (head)
12727 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups
12728 @item gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups (head)
12729 @vindex gnus-treat-leading-whitespace
12730 @item gnus-treat-leading-whitespace (head)
12732 @xref{Article Header}.
12737 @vindex gnus-part-display-hook
12738 You can, of course, write your own functions to be called from
12739 @code{gnus-part-display-hook}. The functions are called narrowed to the
12740 part, and you can do anything you like, pretty much. There is no
12741 information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can change
12745 @node Article Keymap
12746 @section Article Keymap
12748 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
12749 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
12750 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
12751 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
12754 @kindex v (Article)
12755 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Article)
12756 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
12757 command or better use it as a prefix key.
12759 A few additional keystrokes are available:
12764 @kindex SPACE (Article)
12765 @findex gnus-article-next-page
12766 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
12767 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h SPACE h}.
12770 @kindex DEL (Article)
12771 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
12772 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
12773 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h DEL h}.
12776 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
12777 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
12778 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
12779 @kbd{C-c ^}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
12780 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
12783 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
12784 @findex gnus-article-mail
12785 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
12786 given a prefix, include the mail.
12789 @kindex s (Article)
12790 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
12791 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
12792 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
12795 @kindex ? (Article)
12796 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
12797 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
12798 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
12801 @kindex TAB (Article)
12802 @findex gnus-article-next-button
12803 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
12804 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
12807 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
12808 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
12809 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
12812 @kindex R (Article)
12813 @findex gnus-article-reply-with-original
12814 Send a reply to the current article and yank the current article
12815 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}). If the region is active,
12816 only yank the text in the region.
12819 @kindex S W (Article)
12820 @findex gnus-article-wide-reply-with-original
12821 Send a wide reply to the current article and yank the current article
12822 (@code{gnus-article-wide-reply-with-original}). If the region is
12823 active, only yank the text in the region.
12826 @kindex F (Article)
12827 @findex gnus-article-followup-with-original
12828 Send a followup to the current article and yank the current article
12829 (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}). If the region is active,
12830 only yank the text in the region.
12837 @section Misc Article
12841 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
12842 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
12843 @cindex article buffers, several
12844 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
12845 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
12848 @vindex gnus-article-decode-hook
12849 @item gnus-article-decode-hook
12850 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
12851 Hook used to decode @acronym{MIME} articles. The default value is
12852 @code{(article-decode-charset article-decode-encoded-words)}
12854 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
12855 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
12856 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
12857 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
12858 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
12859 the contents of the article buffer.
12861 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
12862 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
12863 Hook called in article mode buffers.
12865 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
12866 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
12867 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
12868 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
12870 @vindex gnus-article-over-scroll
12871 @item gnus-article-over-scroll
12872 If non-@code{nil}, allow scrolling the article buffer even when there
12873 no more new text to scroll in. The default is @code{nil}.
12875 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
12876 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
12877 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
12878 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Summary Buffer Mode
12879 Line}). It accepts the same format specifications as that variable,
12880 with two extensions:
12885 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
12886 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
12887 performed. The characters and their meaning:
12892 Displayed when cited text may be hidden in the article buffer.
12895 Displayed when headers are hidden in the article buffer.
12898 Displayed when article is digitally signed or encrypted, and Gnus has
12899 hidden the security headers. (N.B. does not tell anything about
12900 security status, i.e. good or bad signature.)
12903 Displayed when the signature has been hidden in the Article buffer.
12906 Displayed when Gnus has treated overstrike characters in the article buffer.
12909 Displayed when Gnus has treated emphasized strings in the article buffer.
12914 The number of @acronym{MIME} parts in the article.
12918 @vindex gnus-break-pages
12920 @item gnus-break-pages
12921 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
12922 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
12923 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
12924 paging will not be done.
12926 @item gnus-page-delimiter
12927 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
12928 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
12932 @cindex internationalized domain names
12933 @vindex gnus-use-idna
12934 @item gnus-use-idna
12935 This variable controls whether Gnus performs IDNA decoding of
12936 internationalized domain names inside @samp{From}, @samp{To} and
12937 @samp{Cc} headers. @xref{IDNA, ,IDNA,message, The Message Manual},
12938 for how to compose such messages. This requires
12939 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/, GNU Libidn}, and this
12940 variable is only enabled if you have installed it.
12945 @node Composing Messages
12946 @chapter Composing Messages
12947 @cindex composing messages
12950 @cindex sending mail
12955 @cindex using s/mime
12956 @cindex using smime
12958 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
12959 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
12960 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the
12961 article by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Overview, message,
12962 Message Manual}. Where the message will be posted/mailed to depends
12963 on your setup (@pxref{Posting Server}).
12966 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
12967 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
12968 * POP before SMTP:: You cannot send a mail unless you read a mail.
12969 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
12970 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
12971 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
12972 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
12973 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
12974 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
12977 Also @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
12978 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
12984 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
12987 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
12988 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
12989 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
12990 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched. If
12991 @code{nil} include all headers.
12993 @item gnus-add-to-list
12994 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
12995 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
12996 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
12998 @item gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
12999 @vindex gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
13000 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you for a confirmation when you are
13001 about to reply to news articles by mail. If it is @code{nil}, nothing
13002 interferes in what you want to do. This can also be a function
13003 receiving the group name as the only parameter which should return
13004 non-@code{nil} if a confirmation is needed, or a regular expression
13005 matching group names, where confirmation should be asked for.
13007 If you find yourself never wanting to reply to mail, but occasionally
13008 press @kbd{R} anyway, this variable might be for you.
13010 @item gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
13011 @vindex gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
13012 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus also requests confirmation according to
13013 @code{gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news} when replying to mail. This is
13014 useful for treating mailing lists like newsgroups.
13019 @node Posting Server
13020 @section Posting Server
13022 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
13023 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
13025 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
13027 It can be quite complicated.
13029 @vindex gnus-post-method
13030 When posting news, Message usually invokes @code{message-send-news}
13031 (@pxref{News Variables, , News Variables, message, Message Manual}).
13032 Normally, Gnus will post using the same select method as you're
13033 reading from (which might be convenient if you're reading lots of
13034 groups from different private servers). However. If the server
13035 you're reading from doesn't allow posting, just reading, you probably
13036 want to use some other server to post your (extremely intelligent and
13037 fabulously interesting) articles. You can then set the
13038 @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
13041 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
13044 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
13045 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
13046 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
13047 the ``current'' server, to get back the default behavior, for posting.
13049 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
13050 Gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
13052 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
13053 If that's the case, Gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
13056 Finally, if you want to always post using the native select method,
13057 you can set this variable to @code{native}.
13059 @vindex message-send-mail-function
13060 When sending mail, Message invokes the function specified by the
13061 variable @code{message-send-mail-function}. Gnus tries to set it to a
13062 value suitable for your system.
13063 @xref{Mail Variables, ,Mail Variables,message,Message manual}, for more
13066 @node POP before SMTP
13067 @section POP before SMTP
13068 @cindex pop before smtp
13069 @findex message-smtpmail-send-it
13070 @findex mail-source-touch-pop
13072 Does your @acronym{ISP} require the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP}
13073 authentication? It is whether you need to connect to the @acronym{POP}
13074 mail server within a certain time before sending mails. If so, there is
13075 a convenient way. To do that, put the following lines in your
13076 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
13079 (setq message-send-mail-function 'message-smtpmail-send-it)
13080 (add-hook 'message-send-mail-hook 'mail-source-touch-pop)
13084 It means to let Gnus connect to the @acronym{POP} mail server in advance
13085 whenever you send a mail. The @code{mail-source-touch-pop} function
13086 does only a @acronym{POP} authentication according to the value of
13087 @code{mail-sources} without fetching mails, just before sending a mail.
13088 Note that you have to use @code{message-smtpmail-send-it} which runs
13089 @code{message-send-mail-hook} rather than @code{smtpmail-send-it} and
13090 set the value of @code{mail-sources} for a @acronym{POP} connection
13091 correctly. @xref{Mail Sources}.
13093 If you have two or more @acronym{POP} mail servers set in
13094 @code{mail-sources}, you may want to specify one of them to
13095 @code{mail-source-primary-source} as the @acronym{POP} mail server to be
13096 used for the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication. If it
13097 is your primary @acronym{POP} mail server (i.e., you are fetching mails
13098 mainly from that server), you can set it permanently as follows:
13101 (setq mail-source-primary-source
13102 '(pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
13103 :password "secret"))
13107 Otherwise, bind it dynamically only when performing the
13108 @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication as follows:
13111 (add-hook 'message-send-mail-hook
13113 (let ((mail-source-primary-source
13114 '(pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
13115 :password "secret")))
13116 (mail-source-touch-pop))))
13119 @node Mail and Post
13120 @section Mail and Post
13122 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
13126 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
13127 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
13128 @cindex mailing lists
13130 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
13131 gatewayed to the @acronym{NNTP} server, you can read those groups without
13132 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
13133 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
13134 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
13135 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
13136 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
13137 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
13138 still a pain, though.
13140 @item gnus-user-agent
13141 @vindex gnus-user-agent
13144 This variable controls which information should be exposed in the
13145 User-Agent header. It can be a list of symbols or a string. Valid
13146 symbols are @code{gnus} (show Gnus version) and @code{emacs} (show Emacs
13147 version). In addition to the Emacs version, you can add @code{codename}
13148 (show (S)XEmacs codename) or either @code{config} (show system
13149 configuration) or @code{type} (show system type). If you set it to a
13150 string, be sure to use a valid format, see RFC 2616.
13154 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
13155 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
13156 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
13159 @findex ispell-message
13161 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
13164 If you want to change the @code{ispell} dictionary based on what group
13165 you're in, you could say something like the following:
13168 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
13172 "^de\\." (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
13173 (ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch"))
13175 (ispell-change-dictionary "english")))))
13178 Modify to suit your needs.
13180 @vindex gnus-message-highlight-citation
13181 If @code{gnus-message-highlight-citation} is t, different levels of
13182 citations are highlighted like in Gnus article buffers also in message
13185 @node Archived Messages
13186 @section Archived Messages
13187 @cindex archived messages
13188 @cindex sent messages
13190 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
13191 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
13192 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
13193 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}, which
13196 For archiving interesting messages in a group you read, see the
13197 @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}) command (@pxref{Mail
13200 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
13201 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server Gnus is to
13202 use to store sent messages. The default is @code{"archive"}, and when
13203 actually being used it is expanded into:
13206 (nnfolder "archive"
13207 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
13208 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
13209 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
13210 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
13214 @vindex gnus-update-message-archive-method
13215 Note: a server like this is saved in the @file{~/.newsrc.eld} file first
13216 so that it may be used as a real method of the server which is named
13217 @code{"archive"} (that is, for the case where
13218 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} is set to @code{"archive"}) ever
13219 since. If it once has been saved, it will never be updated by default
13220 even if you change the value of @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
13221 afterward. Therefore, the server @code{"archive"} doesn't necessarily
13222 mean the @code{nnfolder} server like this at all times. If you want the
13223 saved method to reflect always the value of
13224 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, set the
13225 @code{gnus-update-message-archive-method} variable to a non-@code{nil}
13226 value. The default value of this variable is @code{nil}.
13229 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
13230 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likable select method
13231 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
13232 directory chosen, you could say something like:
13235 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
13236 '(nnfolder "archive"
13237 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
13238 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
13239 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
13242 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
13244 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
13245 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
13246 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
13248 This variable can be used to do the following:
13252 Messages will be saved in that group.
13254 Note that you can include a select method in the group name, then the
13255 message will not be stored in the select method given by
13256 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, but in the select method specified
13257 by the group name, instead. Suppose @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
13258 has the default value shown above. Then setting
13259 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{"foo"} means that outgoing
13260 messages are stored in @samp{nnfolder+archive:foo}, but if you use the
13261 value @code{"nnml:foo"}, then outgoing messages will be stored in
13264 @item a list of strings
13265 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
13267 @item an alist of regexps, functions and forms
13268 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
13271 No message archiving will take place. This is the default.
13276 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
13278 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
13281 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
13283 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
13286 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
13288 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
13289 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
13290 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
13291 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
13294 More complex stuff:
13296 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
13297 '((if (message-news-p)
13302 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
13303 messages in one file per month:
13306 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
13307 '((if (message-news-p)
13309 (concat "mail." (format-time-string "%Y-%m")))))
13312 @c (XEmacs 19.13 doesn't have @code{format-time-string}, so you'll have to
13313 @c use a different value for @code{gnus-message-archive-group} there.)
13315 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
13316 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
13317 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
13318 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
13319 Gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
13320 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
13321 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
13322 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
13323 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
13324 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
13326 That's the default method of archiving sent messages. Gnus offers a
13327 different way for the people who don't like the default method. In that
13328 case you should set @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{nil};
13329 this will disable archiving.
13332 @item gnus-outgoing-message-group
13333 @vindex gnus-outgoing-message-group
13334 All outgoing messages will be put in this group. If you want to store
13335 all your outgoing mail and articles in the group @samp{nnml:archive},
13336 you set this variable to that value. This variable can also be a list of
13339 If you want to have greater control over what group to put each
13340 message in, you can set this variable to a function that checks the
13341 current newsgroup name and then returns a suitable group name (or list
13344 This variable can be used instead of @code{gnus-message-archive-group},
13345 but the latter is the preferred method.
13347 @item gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
13348 @vindex gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
13349 If non-@code{nil}, automatically mark @code{Gcc} articles as read.
13351 @item gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
13352 @vindex gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
13353 If @code{nil}, attach files as normal parts in Gcc copies; if a regexp
13354 and matches the Gcc group name, attach files as external parts; if it is
13355 @code{all}, attach local files as external parts; if it is other
13356 non-@code{nil}, the behavior is the same as @code{all}, but it may be
13357 changed in the future.
13362 @node Posting Styles
13363 @section Posting Styles
13364 @cindex posting styles
13367 All them variables, they make my head swim.
13369 So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
13370 on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
13371 and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
13374 @vindex gnus-posting-styles
13375 One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
13376 variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
13377 came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
13378 a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
13383 (signature "Peace and happiness")
13384 (organization "What me?"))
13386 (signature "Death to everybody"))
13387 ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
13388 (organization "Emacs is it")))
13391 As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
13392 @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
13393 ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
13394 over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
13395 applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
13396 the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
13397 @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
13398 signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
13400 The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
13401 string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
13402 If it is the form @code{(header @var{match} @var{regexp})}, then Gnus
13403 will look in the original article for a header whose name is
13404 @var{match} and compare that @var{regexp}. @var{match} and
13405 @var{regexp} are strings. (The original article is the one you are
13406 replying or following up to. If you are not composing a reply or a
13407 followup, then there is nothing to match against.) If the
13408 @code{match} is a function symbol, that function will be called with
13409 no arguments. If it's a variable symbol, then the variable will be
13410 referenced. If it's a list, then that list will be @code{eval}ed. In
13411 any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil} value, then the style is
13412 said to @dfn{match}.
13414 Each style may contain an arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
13415 attribute consists of a @code{(@var{name} @var{value})} pair. In
13416 addition, you can also use the @code{(@var{name} :file @var{value})}
13417 form or the @code{(@var{name} :value @var{value})} form. Where
13418 @code{:file} signifies @var{value} represents a file name and its
13419 contents should be used as the attribute value, @code{:value} signifies
13420 @var{value} does not represent a file name explicitly. The attribute
13421 name can be one of:
13424 @item @code{signature}
13425 @item @code{signature-file}
13426 @item @code{x-face-file}
13427 @item @code{address}, overriding @code{user-mail-address}
13428 @item @code{name}, overriding @code{(user-full-name)}
13432 Note that the @code{signature-file} attribute honors the variable
13433 @code{message-signature-directory}.
13435 The attribute name can also be a string or a symbol. In that case,
13436 this will be used as a header name, and the value will be inserted in
13437 the headers of the article; if the value is @code{nil}, the header
13438 name will be removed. If the attribute name is @code{eval}, the form
13439 is evaluated, and the result is thrown away.
13441 The attribute value can be a string (used verbatim), a function with
13442 zero arguments (the return value will be used), a variable (its value
13443 will be used) or a list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value
13444 will be used). The functions and sexps are called/@code{eval}ed in the
13445 message buffer that is being set up. The headers of the current article
13446 are available through the @code{message-reply-headers} variable, which
13447 is a vector of the following headers: number subject from date id
13448 references chars lines xref extra.
13450 @vindex message-reply-headers
13452 If you wish to check whether the message you are about to compose is
13453 meant to be a news article or a mail message, you can check the values
13454 of the @code{message-news-p} and @code{message-mail-p} functions.
13456 @findex message-mail-p
13457 @findex message-news-p
13459 So here's a new example:
13462 (setq gnus-posting-styles
13464 (signature-file "~/.signature")
13466 (x-face-file "~/.xface")
13467 (x-url (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
13468 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
13470 (signature my-funny-signature-randomizer))
13471 ((equal (system-name) "gnarly") ;; @r{A form}
13472 (signature my-quote-randomizer))
13473 (message-news-p ;; @r{A function symbol}
13474 (signature my-news-signature))
13475 (window-system ;; @r{A value symbol}
13476 ("X-Window-System" (format "%s" window-system)))
13477 ;; @r{If I'm replying to Larsi, set the Organization header.}
13478 ((header "from" "larsi.*org")
13479 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
13480 ((posting-from-work-p) ;; @r{A user defined function}
13481 (signature-file "~/.work-signature")
13482 (address "user@@bar.foo")
13483 (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
13484 (organization "Important Work, Inc"))
13486 (From (with-current-buffer gnus-article-buffer
13487 (message-fetch-field "to"))))
13489 (signature-file "~/.mail-signature"))))
13492 The @samp{nnml:.*} rule means that you use the @code{To} address as the
13493 @code{From} address in all your outgoing replies, which might be handy
13494 if you fill many roles.
13495 You may also use @code{message-alternative-emails} instead.
13496 @xref{Message Headers, ,Message Headers, message, Message Manual}.
13502 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
13503 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
13504 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
13505 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
13506 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
13508 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
13509 some sort using the Gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
13510 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
13511 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
13512 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
13516 @vindex nndraft-directory
13517 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
13518 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
13519 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
13520 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
13521 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
13522 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
13524 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
13525 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
13526 unsubscribe it. The special properties of the draft group comes from
13527 a group property (@pxref{Group Parameters}), and if lost the group
13528 behaves like any other group. This means the commands below will not
13529 be available. To restore the special properties of the group, the
13530 simplest way is to kill the group, using @kbd{C-k}, and restart
13531 Gnus. The group is automatically created again with the
13532 correct parameters. The content of the group is not lost.
13534 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
13535 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
13536 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
13537 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
13538 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
13539 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
13540 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
13541 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
13542 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
13543 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
13544 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
13545 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
13546 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
13547 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
13549 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
13550 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
13551 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
13553 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
13554 @kindex D e (Draft)
13555 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
13556 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
13557 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
13559 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
13562 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
13563 @kindex D s (Draft)
13564 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
13565 @kindex D S (Draft)
13566 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
13567 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
13568 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
13569 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
13570 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
13573 @findex gnus-draft-toggle-sending
13574 @kindex D t (Draft)
13575 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
13576 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
13577 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
13579 Finally, if you want to delete a draft, use the normal @kbd{B DEL}
13580 command (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
13583 @node Rejected Articles
13584 @section Rejected Articles
13585 @cindex rejected articles
13587 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
13588 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
13589 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
13590 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
13592 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of Gnus.
13593 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
13594 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
13595 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So Gnus saves these
13596 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
13598 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
13599 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
13600 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
13602 @node Signing and encrypting
13603 @section Signing and encrypting
13605 @cindex using s/mime
13606 @cindex using smime
13608 Gnus can digitally sign and encrypt your messages, using vanilla
13609 @acronym{PGP} format or @acronym{PGP/MIME} or @acronym{S/MIME}. For
13610 decoding such messages, see the @code{mm-verify-option} and
13611 @code{mm-decrypt-option} options (@pxref{Security}).
13613 @vindex gnus-message-replysign
13614 @vindex gnus-message-replyencrypt
13615 @vindex gnus-message-replysignencrypted
13616 Often, you would like to sign replies to people who send you signed
13617 messages. Even more often, you might want to encrypt messages which
13618 are in reply to encrypted messages. Gnus offers
13619 @code{gnus-message-replysign} to enable the former, and
13620 @code{gnus-message-replyencrypt} for the latter. In addition, setting
13621 @code{gnus-message-replysignencrypted} (on by default) will sign
13622 automatically encrypted messages.
13624 Instructing @acronym{MML} to perform security operations on a
13625 @acronym{MIME} part is done using the @kbd{C-c C-m s} key map for
13626 signing and the @kbd{C-c C-m c} key map for encryption, as follows.
13631 @kindex C-c C-m s s (Message)
13632 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-smime
13634 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{S/MIME}.
13637 @kindex C-c C-m s o (Message)
13638 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
13640 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{PGP}.
13643 @kindex C-c C-m s p (Message)
13644 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
13646 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{PGP/MIME}.
13649 @kindex C-c C-m c s (Message)
13650 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-smime
13652 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{S/MIME}.
13655 @kindex C-c C-m c o (Message)
13656 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgp
13658 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{PGP}.
13661 @kindex C-c C-m c p (Message)
13662 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgpmime
13664 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{PGP/MIME}.
13667 @kindex C-c C-m C-n (Message)
13668 @findex mml-unsecure-message
13669 Remove security related @acronym{MML} tags from message.
13673 @xref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}, for more information.
13675 @node Select Methods
13676 @chapter Select Methods
13677 @cindex foreign groups
13678 @cindex select methods
13680 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
13681 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
13682 @acronym{NNTP} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
13683 personal mail group.
13685 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
13686 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
13687 list where the first element says what back end to use (e.g. @code{nntp},
13688 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
13689 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
13690 value may have special meaning for the back end in question.
13692 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
13693 we do just that (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
13695 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the back end will recognize the
13698 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @acronym{NNTP} server
13699 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
13700 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
13701 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
13702 back end just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
13704 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
13707 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
13708 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
13709 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
13710 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
13711 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @acronym{IMAP} client.
13712 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files.
13713 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
13714 * Email Based Diary:: Using mails to manage diary events in Gnus.
13715 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
13719 @node Server Buffer
13720 @section Server Buffer
13722 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
13723 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
13724 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
13725 one back end or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
13726 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
13727 back end represents a virtual server.
13729 For instance, the @code{nntp} back end may be used to connect to several
13730 different actual @acronym{NNTP} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
13731 on the same actual @acronym{NNTP} server. You tell Gnus which back end to
13732 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
13734 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
13735 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
13736 @acronym{NNTP} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
13737 hangs if queried for @acronym{NOV} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
13738 Anyway, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
13739 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
13740 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
13742 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
13743 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
13746 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
13747 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
13748 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
13749 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
13750 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
13751 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
13752 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
13755 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
13756 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
13759 @node Server Buffer Format
13760 @subsection Server Buffer Format
13761 @cindex server buffer format
13763 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
13764 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
13765 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
13766 variable, with some simple extensions:
13771 How the news is fetched---the back end name.
13774 The name of this server.
13777 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
13780 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
13783 Whether this server is agentized.
13786 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
13787 The mode line can also be customized by using the
13788 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable (@pxref{Mode Line
13789 Formatting}). The following specs are understood:
13799 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
13802 @node Server Commands
13803 @subsection Server Commands
13804 @cindex server commands
13810 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Server)
13811 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
13812 command or better use it as a prefix key.
13816 @findex gnus-server-add-server
13817 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
13821 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
13822 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
13825 @kindex SPACE (Server)
13826 @findex gnus-server-read-server
13827 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
13831 @findex gnus-server-exit
13832 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
13836 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
13837 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
13841 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
13842 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
13846 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
13847 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
13851 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
13852 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
13856 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
13857 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
13858 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
13863 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
13864 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
13865 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
13866 a mail back end that has gotten out of sync.
13870 @findex gnus-server-compact-server
13872 Compact all groups in the server under point
13873 (@code{gnus-server-compact-server}). Currently implemented only in
13874 nnml (@pxref{Mail Spool}). This removes gaps between article numbers,
13875 hence getting a correct total article count.
13880 @node Example Methods
13881 @subsection Example Methods
13883 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
13886 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
13889 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
13895 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
13896 back end, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
13899 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
13900 @code{(@var{variable} @var{form})} pairs.
13902 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
13903 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
13907 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
13910 You should read the documentation to each back end to find out what
13911 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
13913 @code{nnmh} is a mail back end that reads a spool-like structure. Say
13914 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
13915 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
13919 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
13922 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
13925 Here's the method for a public spool:
13929 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
13930 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
13936 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @acronym{NNTP}
13937 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
13938 on the firewall machine and connect with
13939 @uref{http://netcat.sourceforge.net/, netcat} from there to the
13940 @acronym{NNTP} server.
13941 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
13942 should probably look something like this:
13946 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat)
13947 (nntp-via-address "the.firewall.machine")
13948 (nntp-address "the.real.nntp.host"))
13951 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
13952 compressed connection over the modem line, you could add the following
13953 configuration to the example above:
13956 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
13959 See also @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches}. Here's an example for
13960 an indirect connection:
13963 (setq gnus-select-method
13965 (nntp-address "news.server.example")
13966 (nntp-via-user-name "intermediate_user_name")
13967 (nntp-via-address "intermediate.host.example")
13968 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
13969 (nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches ("-C"))
13970 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat)))
13973 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
13974 provide automatic authorization, of course.
13976 If you're behind a firewall, but have direct access to the outside world
13977 through a wrapper command like "runsocks", you could open a socksified
13978 netcat connection to the news server as follows:
13982 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
13983 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-netcat-stream)
13984 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
13988 @node Creating a Virtual Server
13989 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
13991 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
13992 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
13994 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
13995 would probably be best to use @code{nnml} to read the cache. You
13996 could also use @code{nnspool} or @code{nnmh}, though.
13998 Type @kbd{a nnml RET cache RET}.
14000 You should now have a brand new @code{nnml} virtual server called
14001 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
14002 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
14003 will contain the following:
14013 (nnml-directory "~/News/cache/")
14014 (nnml-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
14017 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
14018 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
14019 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
14022 @node Server Variables
14023 @subsection Server Variables
14024 @cindex server variables
14025 @cindex server parameters
14027 One sticky point when defining variables (both on back ends and in Emacs
14028 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
14029 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
14030 change the ``base'' variable after the variables have been loaded, you
14031 won't change the ``derived'' variables.
14033 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
14034 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
14035 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
14036 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
14037 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
14038 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
14039 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
14040 variables for each back end, see each back end's section later in this
14041 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
14045 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
14046 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
14047 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
14050 Server variables are often called @dfn{server parameters}.
14052 @node Servers and Methods
14053 @subsection Servers and Methods
14055 Wherever you would normally use a select method
14056 (e.g. @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
14057 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
14058 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
14062 @node Unavailable Servers
14063 @subsection Unavailable Servers
14065 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
14066 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
14067 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
14068 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
14069 actually the case or not.
14071 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
14072 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
14073 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
14074 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
14075 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
14076 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
14077 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
14078 it will regard that server as ``down''.
14080 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
14081 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
14083 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{Server Buffer}) and poke it
14084 with the following commands:
14090 @findex gnus-server-open-server
14091 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
14092 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
14096 @findex gnus-server-close-server
14097 Close the connection (if any) to the server
14098 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
14102 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
14103 Mark the current server as unreachable
14104 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
14107 @kindex M-o (Server)
14108 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
14109 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
14110 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
14113 @kindex M-c (Server)
14114 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
14115 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
14116 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
14120 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
14121 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
14122 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
14126 @findex gnus-server-offline-server
14127 Set server status to offline (@code{gnus-server-offline-server}).
14133 @section Getting News
14134 @cindex reading news
14135 @cindex news back ends
14137 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
14138 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @acronym{NNTP} server,
14139 or it can read from a local spool.
14142 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @acronym{NNTP} server.
14143 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
14151 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @acronym{NNTP} server is rather easy.
14152 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @acronym{NNTP}
14153 server as the, uhm, address.
14155 If the @acronym{NNTP} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
14156 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
14157 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
14158 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
14160 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
14161 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
14162 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
14164 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
14169 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
14170 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
14171 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
14173 @cindex authentication
14174 @cindex nntp authentication
14175 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
14176 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
14177 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
14178 commands to the @acronym{NNTP} server after it has been contacted. By
14179 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
14180 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
14181 present in this hook.
14183 @item nntp-authinfo-function
14184 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
14185 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
14186 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
14187 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @acronym{NNTP}
14188 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
14189 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
14190 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
14191 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
14192 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
14193 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
14194 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
14198 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
14201 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs.
14203 The valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password},
14204 @samp{default}. In addition Gnus introduces two new tokens, not present
14205 in the original @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp} syntax, namely @samp{port} and
14206 @samp{force}. (This is the only way the @file{.authinfo} file format
14207 deviates from the @file{.netrc} file format.) @samp{port} is used to
14208 indicate what port on the server the credentials apply to and
14209 @samp{force} is explained below.
14213 Here's an example file:
14216 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
14217 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
14220 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
14221 have to be first, for instance.
14223 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
14224 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
14225 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
14226 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
14227 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
14228 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
14229 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
14231 You can also add @samp{default} lines that will apply to all servers
14232 that don't have matching @samp{machine} lines.
14238 This will force sending @samp{AUTHINFO} commands to all servers not
14239 previously mentioned.
14241 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
14243 @item nntp-server-action-alist
14244 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
14245 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
14246 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
14247 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
14250 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
14251 '(("innd" (ding))))
14254 You probably don't want to do that, though.
14256 The default value is
14259 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
14260 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook
14261 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
14264 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
14265 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
14267 @item nntp-maximum-request
14268 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
14269 If the @acronym{NNTP} server doesn't support @acronym{NOV} headers, this back end
14270 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
14271 speed things up, the back end sends lots of these commands without
14272 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
14273 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
14274 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
14276 @item nntp-connection-timeout
14277 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
14278 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
14279 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @acronym{NNTP} servers not
14280 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
14281 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
14282 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
14283 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} back end should wait for a
14284 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
14285 no timeouts are done.
14287 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
14288 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
14289 If the @acronym{NNTP} server does not support @acronym{NOV}, you could set this
14290 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @acronym{NOV}
14293 @item nntp-xover-commands
14294 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
14295 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
14297 List of strings used as commands to fetch @acronym{NOV} lines from a
14298 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
14302 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
14303 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @acronym{NOV} lines to
14304 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
14305 if you have read articles 2-5000 in the group, and only want to read
14306 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @acronym{NOV}
14307 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
14308 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
14309 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
14310 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
14311 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
14312 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
14314 @item nntp-xref-number-is-evil
14315 @vindex nntp-xref-number-is-evil
14316 When Gnus refers to an article having the @code{Message-ID} that a user
14317 specifies or having the @code{Message-ID} of the parent article of the
14318 current one (@pxref{Finding the Parent}), Gnus sends a @code{HEAD}
14319 command to the @acronym{NNTP} server to know where it is, and the server
14320 returns the data containing the pairs of a group and an article number
14321 in the @code{Xref} header. Gnus normally uses the article number to
14322 refer to the article if the data shows that that article is in the
14323 current group, while it uses the @code{Message-ID} otherwise. However,
14324 some news servers, e.g., ones running Diablo, run multiple engines
14325 having the same articles but article numbers are not kept synchronized
14326 between them. In that case, the article number that appears in the
14327 @code{Xref} header varies by which engine is chosen, so you cannot refer
14328 to the parent article that is in the current group, for instance. If
14329 you connect to such a server, set this variable to a non-@code{nil}
14330 value, and Gnus never uses article numbers. For example:
14333 (setq gnus-select-method
14335 (nntp-address "newszilla.example.com")
14336 (nntp-xref-number-is-evil t)
14340 The default value of this server variable is @code{nil}.
14342 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
14343 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
14344 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @acronym{NNTP} server.
14346 @item nntp-record-commands
14347 @vindex nntp-record-commands
14348 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
14349 @acronym{NNTP} server (along with a timestamp) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
14350 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@acronym{NNTP} connection
14351 that doesn't seem to work.
14353 @item nntp-open-connection-function
14354 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
14355 It is possible to customize how the connection to the nntp server will
14356 be opened. If you specify an @code{nntp-open-connection-function}
14357 parameter, Gnus will use that function to establish the connection.
14358 Seven pre-made functions are supplied. These functions can be grouped
14359 in two categories: direct connection functions (four pre-made), and
14360 indirect ones (three pre-made).
14362 @item nntp-never-echoes-commands
14363 @vindex nntp-never-echoes-commands
14364 Non-@code{nil} means the nntp server never echoes commands. It is
14365 reported that some nntps server doesn't echo commands. So, you may want
14366 to set this to non-@code{nil} in the method for such a server setting
14367 @code{nntp-open-connection-function} to @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream} for
14368 example. The default value is @code{nil}. Note that the
14369 @code{nntp-open-connection-functions-never-echo-commands} variable
14370 overrides the @code{nil} value of this variable.
14372 @item nntp-open-connection-functions-never-echo-commands
14373 @vindex nntp-open-connection-functions-never-echo-commands
14374 List of functions that never echo commands. Add or set a function which
14375 you set to @code{nntp-open-connection-function} to this list if it does
14376 not echo commands. Note that a non-@code{nil} value of the
14377 @code{nntp-never-echoes-commands} variable overrides this variable. The
14378 default value is @code{(nntp-open-network-stream)}.
14380 @item nntp-prepare-post-hook
14381 @vindex nntp-prepare-post-hook
14382 A hook run just before posting an article. If there is no
14383 @code{Message-ID} header in the article and the news server provides the
14384 recommended ID, it will be added to the article before running this
14385 hook. It is useful to make @code{Cancel-Lock} headers even if you
14386 inhibit Gnus to add a @code{Message-ID} header, you could say:
14389 (add-hook 'nntp-prepare-post-hook 'canlock-insert-header)
14392 Note that not all servers support the recommended ID. This works for
14393 INN versions 2.3.0 and later, for instance.
14398 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
14399 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
14400 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
14401 * NNTP marks:: Storing marks for @acronym{NNTP} servers.
14405 @node Direct Functions
14406 @subsubsection Direct Functions
14407 @cindex direct connection functions
14409 These functions are called direct because they open a direct connection
14410 between your machine and the @acronym{NNTP} server. The behavior of these
14411 functions is also affected by commonly understood variables
14412 (@pxref{Common Variables}).
14415 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
14416 @item nntp-open-network-stream
14417 This is the default, and simply connects to some port or other on the
14420 @findex nntp-open-tls-stream
14421 @item nntp-open-tls-stream
14422 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
14423 this you must have @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/, GNUTLS}
14424 installed. You then define a server as follows:
14427 ;; @r{"nntps" is port 563 and is predefined in our @file{/etc/services}}
14428 ;; @r{however, @samp{gnutls-cli -p} doesn't like named ports.}
14430 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
14431 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-tls-stream)
14432 (nntp-port-number 563)
14433 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
14436 @findex nntp-open-ssl-stream
14437 @item nntp-open-ssl-stream
14438 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
14439 this you must have @uref{http://www.openssl.org, OpenSSL} or
14440 @uref{ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL, SSLeay} installed. You
14441 then define a server as follows:
14444 ;; @r{"snews" is port 563 and is predefined in our @file{/etc/services}}
14445 ;; @r{however, @samp{openssl s_client -port} doesn't like named ports.}
14447 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
14448 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-ssl-stream)
14449 (nntp-port-number 563)
14450 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
14453 @findex nntp-open-netcat-stream
14454 @item nntp-open-netcat-stream
14455 Opens a connection to an @acronym{NNTP} server using the @code{netcat}
14456 program. You might wonder why this function exists, since we have
14457 the default @code{nntp-open-network-stream} which would do the job. (One
14458 of) the reason(s) is that if you are behind a firewall but have direct
14459 connections to the outside world thanks to a command wrapper like
14460 @code{runsocks}, you can use it like this:
14464 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
14465 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-netcat-stream)
14466 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
14469 With the default method, you would need to wrap your whole Emacs
14470 session, which is not a good idea.
14472 @findex nntp-open-telnet-stream
14473 @item nntp-open-telnet-stream
14474 Like @code{nntp-open-netcat-stream}, but uses @code{telnet} rather than
14475 @code{netcat}. @code{telnet} is a bit less robust because of things
14476 like line-end-conversion, but sometimes netcat is simply
14477 not available. The previous example would turn into:
14481 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
14482 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-telnet-stream)
14483 (nntp-address "the.news.server")
14484 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
14489 @node Indirect Functions
14490 @subsubsection Indirect Functions
14491 @cindex indirect connection functions
14493 These functions are called indirect because they connect to an
14494 intermediate host before actually connecting to the @acronym{NNTP} server.
14495 All of these functions and related variables are also said to belong to
14496 the ``via'' family of connection: they're all prefixed with ``via'' to make
14497 things cleaner. The behavior of these functions is also affected by
14498 commonly understood variables (@pxref{Common Variables}).
14501 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat
14502 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat
14503 Does an @samp{rlogin} on a remote system, and then uses @code{netcat} to connect
14504 to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from there. This is useful for instance if
14505 you need to connect to a firewall machine first.
14507 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat}-specific variables:
14510 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
14511 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
14512 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
14513 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
14515 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
14516 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
14517 List of strings to be used as the switches to
14518 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. The default is @code{nil}. If you use
14519 @samp{ssh} for @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}, you may set this to
14520 @samp{("-C")} in order to compress all data connections.
14523 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
14524 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
14525 Does essentially the same, but uses @code{telnet} instead of @samp{netcat}
14526 to connect to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from the intermediate host.
14527 @code{telnet} is a bit less robust because of things like
14528 line-end-conversion, but sometimes @code{netcat} is simply not available.
14530 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet}-specific variables:
14533 @item nntp-telnet-command
14534 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
14535 Command used to connect to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from the
14536 intermediate host. The default is @samp{telnet}.
14538 @item nntp-telnet-switches
14539 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
14540 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
14541 @code{nntp-telnet-command} command. The default is @code{("-8")}.
14543 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
14544 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
14545 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
14546 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
14548 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
14549 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
14550 List of strings to be used as the switches to
14551 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. If you use @samp{ssh}, you may need to set
14552 this to @samp{("-t" "-e" "none")} or @samp{("-C" "-t" "-e" "none")} if
14553 the telnet command requires a pseudo-tty allocation on an intermediate
14554 host. The default is @code{nil}.
14557 Note that you may want to change the value for @code{nntp-end-of-line}
14558 to @samp{\n} (@pxref{Common Variables}).
14560 @item nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
14561 @findex nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
14562 Does essentially the same, but uses @samp{telnet} instead of
14563 @samp{rlogin} to connect to the intermediate host.
14565 @code{nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet}-specific variables:
14568 @item nntp-via-telnet-command
14569 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-command
14570 Command used to @code{telnet} the intermediate host. The default is
14573 @item nntp-via-telnet-switches
14574 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-switches
14575 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
14576 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @samp{("-8")}.
14578 @item nntp-via-user-password
14579 @vindex nntp-via-user-password
14580 Password to use when logging in on the intermediate host.
14582 @item nntp-via-envuser
14583 @vindex nntp-via-envuser
14584 If non-@code{nil}, the intermediate @code{telnet} session (client and
14585 server both) will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for
14586 login name. This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
14588 @item nntp-via-shell-prompt
14589 @vindex nntp-via-shell-prompt
14590 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the intermediate host. The default
14591 is @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
14595 Note that you may want to change the value for @code{nntp-end-of-line}
14596 to @samp{\n} (@pxref{Common Variables}).
14600 Here are some additional variables that are understood by all the above
14605 @item nntp-via-user-name
14606 @vindex nntp-via-user-name
14607 User name to use when connecting to the intermediate host.
14609 @item nntp-via-address
14610 @vindex nntp-via-address
14611 Address of the intermediate host to connect to.
14616 @node Common Variables
14617 @subsubsection Common Variables
14619 The following variables affect the behavior of all, or several of the
14620 pre-made connection functions. When not specified, all functions are
14621 affected (the values of the following variables will be used as the
14622 default if each virtual @code{nntp} server doesn't specify those server
14623 variables individually).
14627 @item nntp-pre-command
14628 @vindex nntp-pre-command
14629 A command wrapper to use when connecting through a non native
14630 connection function (all except @code{nntp-open-network-stream},
14631 @code{nntp-open-tls-stream}, and @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream}). This is
14632 where you would put a @samp{SOCKS} wrapper for instance.
14635 @vindex nntp-address
14636 The address of the @acronym{NNTP} server.
14638 @item nntp-port-number
14639 @vindex nntp-port-number
14640 Port number to connect to the @acronym{NNTP} server. The default is
14641 @samp{nntp}. If you use @acronym{NNTP} over
14642 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}, you may want to use integer ports rather
14643 than named ports (i.e, use @samp{563} instead of @samp{snews} or
14644 @samp{nntps}), because external @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} tools may
14645 not work with named ports.
14647 @item nntp-end-of-line
14648 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
14649 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @acronym{NNTP}
14650 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
14651 using a non native telnet connection function.
14653 @item nntp-netcat-command
14654 @vindex nntp-netcat-command
14655 Command to use when connecting to the @acronym{NNTP} server through
14656 @samp{netcat}. This is @emph{not} for an intermediate host. This is
14657 just for the real @acronym{NNTP} server. The default is
14660 @item nntp-netcat-switches
14661 @vindex nntp-netcat-switches
14662 A list of switches to pass to @code{nntp-netcat-command}. The default
14668 @subsubsection NNTP marks
14669 @cindex storing NNTP marks
14671 Gnus stores marks (@pxref{Marking Articles}) for @acronym{NNTP}
14672 servers in marks files. A marks file records what marks you have set
14673 in a group and each file is specific to the corresponding server.
14674 Marks files are stored in @file{~/News/marks}
14675 (@code{nntp-marks-directory}) under a classic hierarchy resembling
14676 that of a news server, for example marks for the group
14677 @samp{gmane.discuss} on the news.gmane.org server will be stored in
14678 the file @file{~/News/marks/news.gmane.org/gmane/discuss/.marks}.
14680 Marks files are useful because you can copy the @file{~/News/marks}
14681 directory (using rsync, scp or whatever) to another Gnus installation,
14682 and it will realize what articles you have read and marked. The data
14683 in @file{~/News/marks} has priority over the same data in
14684 @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
14686 Note that marks files are very much server-specific: Gnus remembers
14687 the article numbers so if you don't use the same servers on both
14688 installations things are most likely to break (most @acronym{NNTP}
14689 servers do not use the same article numbers as any other server).
14690 However, if you use servers A, B, C on one installation and servers A,
14691 D, E on the other, you can sync the marks files for A and then you'll
14692 get synchronization for that server between the two installations.
14694 Using @acronym{NNTP} marks can possibly incur a performance penalty so
14695 if Gnus feels sluggish, try setting the @code{nntp-marks-is-evil}
14696 variable to @code{t}. Marks will then be stored in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
14702 @item nntp-marks-is-evil
14703 @vindex nntp-marks-is-evil
14704 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any marks files. The
14705 default is @code{nil}.
14707 @item nntp-marks-directory
14708 @vindex nntp-marks-directory
14709 The directory where marks for nntp groups will be stored.
14715 @subsection News Spool
14719 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
14720 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
14721 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
14724 Anyway, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
14725 anything else) as the address.
14727 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
14728 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
14729 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
14730 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
14734 @item nnspool-inews-program
14735 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
14736 Program used to post an article.
14738 @item nnspool-inews-switches
14739 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
14740 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
14742 @item nnspool-spool-directory
14743 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
14744 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
14745 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
14747 @item nnspool-nov-directory
14748 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
14749 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @acronym{NOV} files. This is normally@*
14750 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
14752 @item nnspool-lib-dir
14753 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
14754 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
14756 @item nnspool-active-file
14757 @vindex nnspool-active-file
14758 The name of the active file.
14760 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
14761 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
14762 The name of the group descriptions file.
14764 @item nnspool-history-file
14765 @vindex nnspool-history-file
14766 The name of the news history file.
14768 @item nnspool-active-times-file
14769 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
14770 The name of the active date file.
14772 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
14773 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
14774 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @acronym{NOV} files
14777 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
14778 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
14780 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
14781 relevant portion from the overview file. If @code{nil},
14782 @code{nnspool} will load the entire file into a buffer and process it
14789 @section Getting Mail
14790 @cindex reading mail
14793 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
14797 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
14798 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
14799 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
14800 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
14801 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
14802 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
14803 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
14804 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
14805 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
14806 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
14807 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
14808 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
14809 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
14813 @node Mail in a Newsreader
14814 @subsection Mail in a Newsreader
14816 If you are used to traditional mail readers, but have decided to switch
14817 to reading mail with Gnus, you may find yourself experiencing something
14818 of a culture shock.
14820 Gnus does not behave like traditional mail readers. If you want to make
14821 it behave that way, you can, but it's an uphill battle.
14823 Gnus, by default, handles all its groups using the same approach. This
14824 approach is very newsreaderly---you enter a group, see the new/unread
14825 messages, and when you read the messages, they get marked as read, and
14826 you don't see them any more. (Unless you explicitly ask for them.)
14828 In particular, you do not do anything explicitly to delete messages.
14830 Does this mean that all the messages that have been marked as read are
14831 deleted? How awful!
14833 But, no, it means that old messages are @dfn{expired} according to some
14834 scheme or other. For news messages, the expire process is controlled by
14835 the news administrator; for mail, the expire process is controlled by
14836 you. The expire process for mail is covered in depth in @ref{Expiring
14839 What many Gnus users find, after using it a while for both news and
14840 mail, is that the transport mechanism has very little to do with how
14841 they want to treat a message.
14843 Many people subscribe to several mailing lists. These are transported
14844 via @acronym{SMTP}, and are therefore mail. But we might go for weeks without
14845 answering, or even reading these messages very carefully. We may not
14846 need to save them because if we should need to read one again, they are
14847 archived somewhere else.
14849 Some people have local news groups which have only a handful of readers.
14850 These are transported via @acronym{NNTP}, and are therefore news. But we may need
14851 to read and answer a large fraction of the messages very carefully in
14852 order to do our work. And there may not be an archive, so we may need
14853 to save the interesting messages the same way we would personal mail.
14855 The important distinction turns out to be not the transport mechanism,
14856 but other factors such as how interested we are in the subject matter,
14857 or how easy it is to retrieve the message if we need to read it again.
14859 Gnus provides many options for sorting mail into ``groups'' which behave
14860 like newsgroups, and for treating each group (whether mail or news)
14863 Some users never get comfortable using the Gnus (ahem) paradigm and wish
14864 that Gnus should grow up and be a male, er, mail reader. It is possible
14865 to whip Gnus into a more mailreaderly being, but, as said before, it's
14866 not easy. People who prefer proper mail readers should try @sc{vm}
14867 instead, which is an excellent, and proper, mail reader.
14869 I don't mean to scare anybody off, but I want to make it clear that you
14870 may be required to learn a new way of thinking about messages. After
14871 you've been subjected to The Gnus Way, you will come to love it. I can
14872 guarantee it. (At least the guy who sold me the Emacs Subliminal
14873 Brain-Washing Functions that I've put into Gnus did guarantee it. You
14874 Will Be Assimilated. You Love Gnus. You Love The Gnus Mail Way.
14878 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
14879 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
14881 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
14882 mail back end of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
14883 and things will happen automatically.
14885 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a ``one file per
14886 mail'' back end), you could put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
14889 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
14892 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this back end will be queried for new
14893 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
14894 directory, which is @file{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
14895 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
14896 like any other group.
14898 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
14901 (setq nnmail-split-methods
14902 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
14903 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
14907 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
14908 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
14909 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
14912 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
14913 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
14914 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Back End} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
14917 @node Splitting Mail
14918 @subsection Splitting Mail
14919 @cindex splitting mail
14920 @cindex mail splitting
14921 @cindex mail filtering (splitting)
14923 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
14924 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
14925 to be split into groups.
14928 (setq nnmail-split-methods
14929 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
14930 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
14931 ("mail.other" "")))
14934 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
14935 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
14936 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
14937 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
14938 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
14939 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
14940 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
14943 ("list.\\1" "From:.* \\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
14947 In that case, @code{nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded} controls whether
14948 the inserted text should be made lowercase. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
14950 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
14951 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
14952 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
14953 mail belongs in that group.
14955 @cindex @samp{bogus} group
14956 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
14957 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{""} so that it matches any mails
14958 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
14959 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first rule
14960 to make a match will ``win'', unless you have crossposting enabled. In
14961 that case, all matching rules will ``win''.) If no rule matched, the mail
14962 will end up in the @samp{bogus} group. When new groups are created by
14963 splitting mail, you may want to run @code{gnus-group-find-new-groups} to
14964 see the new groups. This also applies to the @samp{bogus} group.
14966 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
14967 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
14968 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
14969 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
14970 thinks should carry this mail message.
14972 Note that the mail back ends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
14973 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
14974 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
14975 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
14977 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
14978 The mail back ends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
14979 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
14980 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
14981 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{""}) group.
14983 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
14986 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
14987 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
14988 links. If that's the case for you, set
14989 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
14990 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
14992 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
14993 @findex nnmail-split-history
14994 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
14995 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command. If you wish to see
14996 where re-spooling messages would put the messages, you can use
14997 @code{gnus-summary-respool-trace} and related commands (@pxref{Mail
15000 @vindex nnmail-split-header-length-limit
15001 Header lines longer than the value of
15002 @code{nnmail-split-header-length-limit} are excluded from the split
15005 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes
15006 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-charset
15007 By default, splitting does not decode headers, so you can not match on
15008 non-@acronym{ASCII} strings. But it is useful if you want to match
15009 articles based on the raw header data. To enable it, set the
15010 @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes} variable to a non-@code{nil} value.
15011 In addition, the value of the @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-charset}
15012 variable is used for decoding non-@acronym{MIME} encoded string when
15013 @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes} is non-@code{nil}. The default
15014 value is @code{nil} which means not to decode non-@acronym{MIME} encoded
15015 string. A suitable value for you will be @code{undecided} or be the
15016 charset used normally in mails you are interested in.
15018 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
15019 By default, splitting is performed on all incoming messages. If you
15020 specify a @code{directory} entry for the variable @code{mail-sources}
15021 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}), however, then splitting does
15022 @emph{not} happen by default. You can set the variable
15023 @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming} to a non-@code{nil} value to make
15024 splitting happen even in this case. (This variable has no effect on
15025 other kinds of entries.)
15027 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
15028 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
15029 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
15030 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
15031 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
15032 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
15033 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
15034 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
15035 month's rent money.
15039 @subsection Mail Sources
15041 Mail can be gotten from many different sources---the mail spool, from
15042 a @acronym{POP} mail server, from a procmail directory, or from a
15043 maildir, for instance.
15046 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
15047 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
15048 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
15052 @node Mail Source Specifiers
15053 @subsubsection Mail Source Specifiers
15055 @cindex mail server
15058 @cindex mail source
15060 You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by setting @code{mail-sources}
15061 (@pxref{Fetching Mail}) to a @dfn{mail source specifier}.
15066 (pop :server "pop3.mailserver.com" :user "myname")
15069 As can be observed, a mail source specifier is a list where the first
15070 element is a @dfn{mail source type}, followed by an arbitrary number of
15071 @dfn{keywords}. Keywords that are not explicitly specified are given
15074 The @code{mail-sources} is global for all mail groups. You can specify
15075 an additional mail source for a particular group by including the
15076 @code{group} mail specifier in @code{mail-sources}, and setting a
15077 @code{mail-source} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) specifying
15078 a single mail source. When this is used, @code{mail-sources} is
15079 typically just @code{(group)}; the @code{mail-source} parameter for a
15080 group might look like this:
15083 (mail-source . (file :path "home/user/spools/foo.spool"))
15086 This means that the group's (and only this group's) messages will be
15087 fetched from the spool file @samp{/user/spools/foo.spool}.
15089 The following mail source types are available:
15093 Get mail from a single file; typically from the mail spool.
15099 The file name. Defaults to the value of the @env{MAIL}
15100 environment variable or the value of @code{rmail-spool-directory}
15101 (usually something like @file{/usr/mail/spool/user-name}).
15105 Script run before/after fetching mail.
15108 An example file mail source:
15111 (file :path "/usr/spool/mail/user-name")
15114 Or using the default file name:
15120 If the mail spool file is not located on the local machine, it's best
15121 to use @acronym{POP} or @acronym{IMAP} or the like to fetch the mail.
15122 You can not use ange-ftp file names here---it has no way to lock the
15123 mail spool while moving the mail.
15125 If it's impossible to set up a proper server, you can use ssh instead.
15129 '((file :prescript "ssh host bin/getmail >%t")))
15132 The @samp{getmail} script would look something like the following:
15136 # getmail - move mail from spool to stdout
15139 MOVEMAIL=/usr/lib/emacs/20.3/i386-redhat-linux/movemail
15141 rm -f $TMP; $MOVEMAIL $MAIL $TMP >/dev/null && cat $TMP
15144 Alter this script to fit the @samp{movemail} and temporary
15145 file you want to use.
15149 @vindex nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once
15150 Get mail from several files in a directory. This is typically used
15151 when you have procmail split the incoming mail into several files.
15152 That is, there is a one-to-one correspondence between files in that
15153 directory and groups, so that mail from the file @file{foo.bar.spool}
15154 will be put in the group @code{foo.bar}. (You can change the suffix
15155 to be used instead of @code{.spool}.) Setting
15156 @code{nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once} to non-@code{nil} forces
15157 Gnus to scan the mail source only once. This is particularly useful
15158 if you want to scan mail groups at a specified level.
15160 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
15161 There is also the variable @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming}, if you set
15162 that to a non-@code{nil} value, then the normal splitting process is
15163 applied to all the files from the directory, @ref{Splitting Mail}.
15169 The name of the directory where the files are. There is no default
15173 Only files ending with this suffix are used. The default is
15177 Only files that have this predicate return non-@code{nil} are returned.
15178 The default is @code{identity}. This is used as an additional
15179 filter---only files that have the right suffix @emph{and} satisfy this
15180 predicate are considered.
15184 Script run before/after fetching mail.
15188 An example directory mail source:
15191 (directory :path "/home/user-name/procmail-dir/"
15196 Get mail from a @acronym{POP} server.
15202 The name of the @acronym{POP} server. The default is taken from the
15203 @env{MAILHOST} environment variable.
15206 The port number of the @acronym{POP} server. This can be a number (eg,
15207 @samp{:port 1234}) or a string (eg, @samp{:port "pop3"}). If it is a
15208 string, it should be a service name as listed in @file{/etc/services} on
15209 Unix systems. The default is @samp{"pop3"}. On some systems you might
15210 need to specify it as @samp{"pop-3"} instead.
15213 The user name to give to the @acronym{POP} server. The default is the login
15217 The password to give to the @acronym{POP} server. If not specified,
15218 the user is prompted.
15221 The program to use to fetch mail from the @acronym{POP} server. This
15222 should be a @code{format}-like string. Here's an example:
15225 fetchmail %u@@%s -P %p %t
15228 The valid format specifier characters are:
15232 The name of the file the mail is to be moved to. This must always be
15233 included in this string.
15236 The name of the server.
15239 The port number of the server.
15242 The user name to use.
15245 The password to use.
15248 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
15249 corresponding keywords.
15252 A script to be run before fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
15253 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
15256 A script to be run after fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
15257 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
15260 The function to use to fetch mail from the @acronym{POP} server. The
15261 function is called with one parameter---the name of the file where the
15262 mail should be moved to.
15264 @item :authentication
15265 This can be either the symbol @code{password} or the symbol @code{apop}
15266 and says what authentication scheme to use. The default is
15271 @vindex pop3-movemail
15272 @vindex pop3-leave-mail-on-server
15273 If the @code{:program} and @code{:function} keywords aren't specified,
15274 @code{pop3-movemail} will be used. If @code{pop3-leave-mail-on-server}
15275 is non-@code{nil} the mail is to be left on the @acronym{POP} server
15276 after fetching when using @code{pop3-movemail}. Note that POP servers
15277 maintain no state information between sessions, so what the client
15278 believes is there and what is actually there may not match up. If they
15279 do not, then you may get duplicate mails or the whole thing can fall
15280 apart and leave you with a corrupt mailbox.
15282 Here are some examples for getting mail from a @acronym{POP} server.
15283 Fetch from the default @acronym{POP} server, using the default user
15284 name, and default fetcher:
15290 Fetch from a named server with a named user and password:
15293 (pop :server "my.pop.server"
15294 :user "user-name" :password "secret")
15297 Use @samp{movemail} to move the mail:
15300 (pop :program "movemail po:%u %t %p")
15304 Get mail from a maildir. This is a type of mailbox that is supported by
15305 at least qmail and postfix, where each file in a special directory
15306 contains exactly one mail.
15312 The name of the directory where the mails are stored. The default is
15313 taken from the @env{MAILDIR} environment variable or
15316 The subdirectories of the Maildir. The default is
15317 @samp{("new" "cur")}.
15319 @c If you sometimes look at your mail through a pop3 daemon before fetching
15320 @c them with Gnus, you may also have to fetch your mails from the
15321 @c @code{cur} directory inside the maildir, like in the first example
15324 You can also get mails from remote hosts (because maildirs don't suffer
15325 from locking problems).
15329 Two example maildir mail sources:
15332 (maildir :path "/home/user-name/Maildir/"
15333 :subdirs ("cur" "new"))
15337 (maildir :path "/user@@remotehost.org:~/Maildir/"
15342 Get mail from a @acronym{IMAP} server. If you don't want to use
15343 @acronym{IMAP} as intended, as a network mail reading protocol (ie
15344 with nnimap), for some reason or other, Gnus let you treat it similar
15345 to a @acronym{POP} server and fetches articles from a given
15346 @acronym{IMAP} mailbox. @xref{IMAP}, for more information.
15348 Note that for the Kerberos, GSSAPI, @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} and STARTTLS support you
15349 may need external programs and libraries, @xref{IMAP}.
15355 The name of the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is taken from the
15356 @env{MAILHOST} environment variable.
15359 The port number of the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is @samp{143}, or
15360 @samp{993} for @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} connections.
15363 The user name to give to the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is the login
15367 The password to give to the @acronym{IMAP} server. If not specified, the user is
15371 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this is one of the
15372 symbols in @code{imap-stream-alist}. Right now, this means
15373 @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{starttls}, @samp{tls},
15374 @samp{ssl}, @samp{shell} or the default @samp{network}.
15376 @item :authentication
15377 Which authenticator to use for authenticating to the server, this is
15378 one of the symbols in @code{imap-authenticator-alist}. Right now,
15379 this means @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{digest-md5},
15380 @samp{cram-md5}, @samp{anonymous} or the default @samp{login}.
15383 When using the `shell' :stream, the contents of this variable is
15384 mapped into the @code{imap-shell-program} variable. This should be a
15385 @code{format}-like string (or list of strings). Here's an example:
15391 Make sure nothing is interfering with the output of the program, e.g.,
15392 don't forget to redirect the error output to the void. The valid format
15393 specifier characters are:
15397 The name of the server.
15400 User name from @code{imap-default-user}.
15403 The port number of the server.
15406 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
15407 corresponding keywords.
15410 The name of the mailbox to get mail from. The default is @samp{INBOX}
15411 which normally is the mailbox which receives incoming mail.
15414 The predicate used to find articles to fetch. The default, @samp{UNSEEN
15415 UNDELETED}, is probably the best choice for most people, but if you
15416 sometimes peek in your mailbox with a @acronym{IMAP} client and mark some
15417 articles as read (or; SEEN) you might want to set this to @samp{1:*}.
15418 Then all articles in the mailbox is fetched, no matter what. For a
15419 complete list of predicates, see RFC 2060 section 6.4.4.
15422 How to flag fetched articles on the server, the default @samp{\Deleted}
15423 will mark them as deleted, an alternative would be @samp{\Seen} which
15424 would simply mark them as read. These are the two most likely choices,
15425 but more flags are defined in RFC 2060 section 2.3.2.
15428 If non-@code{nil}, don't remove all articles marked as deleted in the
15429 mailbox after finishing the fetch.
15433 An example @acronym{IMAP} mail source:
15436 (imap :server "mail.mycorp.com"
15438 :fetchflag "\\Seen")
15442 Get mail from a webmail server, such as @uref{http://www.hotmail.com/},
15443 @uref{http://webmail.netscape.com/}, @uref{http://www.netaddress.com/},
15444 @uref{http://mail.yahoo.com/}.
15446 NOTE: Webmail largely depends on cookies. A "one-line-cookie" patch is
15447 required for url "4.0pre.46".
15449 WARNING: Mails may be lost. NO WARRANTY.
15455 The type of the webmail server. The default is @code{hotmail}. The
15456 alternatives are @code{netscape}, @code{netaddress}, @code{my-deja}.
15459 The user name to give to the webmail server. The default is the login
15463 The password to give to the webmail server. If not specified, the user is
15467 If non-@code{nil}, only fetch unread articles and don't move them to
15468 trash folder after finishing the fetch.
15472 An example webmail source:
15475 (webmail :subtype 'hotmail
15477 :password "secret")
15481 Get the actual mail source from the @code{mail-source} group parameter,
15482 @xref{Group Parameters}.
15487 @item Common Keywords
15488 Common keywords can be used in any type of mail source.
15494 If non-@code{nil}, fetch the mail even when Gnus is unplugged. If you
15495 use directory source to get mail, you can specify it as in this
15500 '((directory :path "/home/pavel/.Spool/"
15505 Gnus will then fetch your mail even when you are unplugged. This is
15506 useful when you use local mail and news.
15511 @subsubsection Function Interface
15513 Some of the above keywords specify a Lisp function to be executed.
15514 For each keyword @code{:foo}, the Lisp variable @code{foo} is bound to
15515 the value of the keyword while the function is executing. For example,
15516 consider the following mail-source setting:
15519 (setq mail-sources '((pop :user "jrl"
15520 :server "pophost" :function fetchfunc)))
15523 While the function @code{fetchfunc} is executing, the symbol @code{user}
15524 is bound to @code{"jrl"}, and the symbol @code{server} is bound to
15525 @code{"pophost"}. The symbols @code{port}, @code{password},
15526 @code{program}, @code{prescript}, @code{postscript}, @code{function},
15527 and @code{authentication} are also bound (to their default values).
15529 See above for a list of keywords for each type of mail source.
15532 @node Mail Source Customization
15533 @subsubsection Mail Source Customization
15535 The following is a list of variables that influence how the mail is
15536 fetched. You would normally not need to set or change any of these
15540 @item mail-source-crash-box
15541 @vindex mail-source-crash-box
15542 File where mail will be stored while processing it. The default is@*
15543 @file{~/.emacs-mail-crash-box}.
15546 @item mail-source-delete-incoming
15547 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
15548 If non-@code{nil}, delete incoming files after handling them. If
15549 @code{t}, delete the files immediately, if @code{nil}, never delete any
15550 files. If a positive number, delete files older than number of days
15551 (the deletion will only happen when receiving new mail). You may also
15552 set @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} to @code{nil} and call
15553 @code{mail-source-delete-old-incoming} from a hook or interactively.
15554 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} defaults to @code{10} in alpha Gnusae
15555 and @code{2} in released Gnusae. @xref{Gnus Development}.
15557 @item mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
15558 @vindex mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
15559 If non-@code{nil}, ask for confirmation before deleting old incoming
15560 files. This variable only applies when
15561 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is a positive number.
15563 @item mail-source-ignore-errors
15564 @vindex mail-source-ignore-errors
15565 If non-@code{nil}, ignore errors when reading mail from a mail source.
15567 @item mail-source-directory
15568 @vindex mail-source-directory
15569 Directory where incoming mail source files (if any) will be stored. The
15570 default is @file{~/Mail/}. At present, the only thing this is used for
15571 is to say where the incoming files will be stored if the variable
15572 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil} or a number.
15574 @item mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
15575 @vindex mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
15576 Prefix for file name for storing incoming mail. The default is
15577 @file{Incoming}, in which case files will end up with names like
15578 @file{Incoming30630D_} or @file{Incoming298602ZD}. This is really only
15579 relevant if @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil} or a
15582 @item mail-source-default-file-modes
15583 @vindex mail-source-default-file-modes
15584 All new mail files will get this file mode. The default is 384.
15586 @item mail-source-movemail-program
15587 @vindex mail-source-movemail-program
15588 If non-@code{nil}, name of program for fetching new mail. If
15589 @code{nil}, @code{movemail} in @var{exec-directory}.
15594 @node Fetching Mail
15595 @subsubsection Fetching Mail
15597 @vindex mail-sources
15598 The way to actually tell Gnus where to get new mail from is to set
15599 @code{mail-sources} to a list of mail source specifiers
15600 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}).
15602 If this variable is @code{nil}, the mail back ends will never attempt to
15603 fetch mail by themselves.
15605 If you want to fetch mail both from your local spool as well as a
15606 @acronym{POP} mail server, you'd say something like:
15611 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
15612 :password "secret")))
15615 Or, if you don't want to use any of the keyword defaults:
15619 '((file :path "/var/spool/mail/user-name")
15620 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
15623 :password "secret")))
15627 When you use a mail back end, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
15628 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
15629 mail if you're not using a mail back end---you have to do a lot of magic
15630 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
15631 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
15632 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
15636 @node Mail Back End Variables
15637 @subsection Mail Back End Variables
15639 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
15643 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
15644 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
15645 The mail back ends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
15646 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
15648 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
15649 @item nnmail-split-hook
15650 @findex gnus-article-decode-encoded-words
15651 @cindex RFC 1522 decoding
15652 @cindex RFC 2047 decoding
15653 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
15654 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
15655 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
15656 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
15657 in the buffer will show up in any files.
15658 @code{gnus-article-decode-encoded-words} is one likely function to add
15661 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
15662 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
15663 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
15664 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
15665 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
15666 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
15667 starting to handle the new mail) and
15668 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
15669 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
15670 default file modes the new mail files get:
15673 (add-hook 'nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
15674 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 511)))
15676 (add-hook 'nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
15677 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 551)))
15680 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
15681 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
15682 If non-@code{nil}, the mail back ends will use long file and directory
15683 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
15684 (assuming use of @code{nnml} back end) or files (assuming use of
15685 @code{nnfolder} back end) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
15686 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
15688 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
15689 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
15690 @findex delete-file
15691 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
15693 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
15694 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
15695 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
15696 the back end (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
15697 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
15699 @item nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
15700 @vindex nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
15701 This can be a regular expression or a list of regular expressions.
15702 Group names that match any of the regular expressions will never be
15703 recorded in the @code{Message-ID} cache.
15705 This can be useful, for example, when using Fancy Splitting
15706 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}) together with the function
15707 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}.
15712 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
15713 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
15714 @cindex mail splitting
15715 @cindex fancy mail splitting
15717 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
15718 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
15719 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
15720 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
15721 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
15722 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
15724 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
15727 ;; @r{Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of}
15728 ;; @r{the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group}
15729 ;; @r{from real errors.}
15730 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
15732 ;; @r{Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant}
15733 ;; @r{groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the}
15734 ;; @r{(ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.}
15735 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
15736 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
15737 ;; @r{Other mailing lists@dots{}}
15738 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
15739 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
15740 ;; @r{Both lists below have the same suffix, so prevent}
15741 ;; @r{cross-posting to mkpkg.list of messages posted only to}
15742 ;; @r{the bugs- list, but allow cross-posting when the}
15743 ;; @r{message was really cross-posted.}
15744 (any "bugs-mypackage@@somewhere" "mypkg.bugs")
15745 (any "mypackage@@somewhere" - "bugs-mypackage" "mypkg.list")
15746 ;; @r{People@dots{}}
15747 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
15748 ;; @r{Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.}
15752 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a
15753 (possibly) recursive structure where each split may contain other
15754 splits. Here are the possible split syntaxes:
15759 If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group name. Normal
15760 regexp match expansion will be done. See below for examples.
15762 @c Don't fold this line.
15763 @item (@var{field} @var{value} [- @var{restrict} [@dots{}] ] @var{split} [@var{invert-partial}])
15764 The split can be a list containing at least three elements. If the
15765 first element @var{field} (a regexp matching a header) contains
15766 @var{value} (also a regexp) then store the message as specified by
15769 If @var{restrict} (yet another regexp) matches some string after
15770 @var{field} and before the end of the matched @var{value}, the
15771 @var{split} is ignored. If none of the @var{restrict} clauses match,
15772 @var{split} is processed.
15774 The last element @var{invert-partial} is optional. If it is
15775 non-@code{nil}, the match-partial-words behavior controlled by the
15776 variable @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} (see below) is
15777 be inverted. (New in Gnus 5.10.7)
15779 @item (| @var{split} @dots{})
15780 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{|} (vertical
15781 bar), then process each @var{split} until one of them matches. A
15782 @var{split} is said to match if it will cause the mail message to be
15783 stored in one or more groups.
15785 @item (& @var{split} @dots{})
15786 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{&}, then
15787 process all @var{split}s in the list.
15790 If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save (i.e., delete)
15791 this message. Use with extreme caution.
15793 @item (: @var{function} @var{arg1} @var{arg2} @dots{})
15794 If the split is a list, and the first element is @samp{:}, then the
15795 second element will be called as a function with @var{args} given as
15796 arguments. The function should return a @var{split}.
15799 For instance, the following function could be used to split based on the
15800 body of the messages:
15803 (defun split-on-body ()
15807 (goto-char (point-min))
15808 (when (re-search-forward "Some.*string" nil t)
15812 The buffer is narrowed to the header of the message in question when
15813 @var{function} is run. That's why @code{(widen)} needs to be called
15814 after @code{save-excursion} and @code{save-restriction} in the example
15815 above. Also note that with the nnimap backend, message bodies will
15816 not be downloaded by default. You need to set
15817 @code{nnimap-split-download-body} to @code{t} to do that
15818 (@pxref{Splitting in IMAP}).
15820 @item (! @var{func} @var{split})
15821 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{!}, then
15822 @var{split} will be processed, and @var{func} will be called as a
15823 function with the result of @var{split} as argument. @var{func}
15824 should return a split.
15827 If the split is @code{nil}, it is ignored.
15831 In these splits, @var{field} must match a complete field name.
15833 Normally, @var{value} in these splits must match a complete @emph{word}
15834 according to the fundamental mode syntax table. In other words, all
15835 @var{value}'s will be implicitly surrounded by @code{\<...\>} markers,
15836 which are word delimiters. Therefore, if you use the following split,
15840 (any "joe" "joemail")
15844 messages sent from @samp{joedavis@@foo.org} will normally not be filed
15845 in @samp{joemail}. If you want to alter this behavior, you can use any
15846 of the following three ways:
15850 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words
15851 You can set the @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} variable
15852 to non-@code{nil} in order to ignore word boundaries and instead the
15853 match becomes more like a grep. This variable controls whether partial
15854 words are matched during fancy splitting. The default value is
15857 Note that it influences all @var{value}'s in your split rules.
15860 @var{value} beginning with @code{.*} ignores word boundaries in front of
15861 a word. Similarly, if @var{value} ends with @code{.*}, word boundaries
15862 in the rear of a word will be ignored. For example, the @var{value}
15863 @code{"@@example\\.com"} does not match @samp{foo@@example.com} but
15864 @code{".*@@example\\.com"} does.
15867 You can set the @var{invert-partial} flag in your split rules of the
15868 @samp{(@var{field} @var{value} @dots{})} types, aforementioned in this
15869 section. If the flag is set, word boundaries on both sides of a word
15870 are ignored even if @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} is
15871 @code{nil}. Contrarily, if the flag is set, word boundaries are not
15872 ignored even if @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} is
15873 non-@code{nil}. (New in Gnus 5.10.7)
15876 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
15877 @var{field} and @var{value} can also be Lisp symbols, in that case
15878 they are expanded as specified by the variable
15879 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells,
15880 where the @sc{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @sc{cdr}
15881 contains the associated value. Predefined entries in
15882 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist} include:
15886 Matches the @samp{From}, @samp{Sender} and @samp{Resent-From} fields.
15888 Matches the @samp{To}, @samp{Cc}, @samp{Apparently-To},
15889 @samp{Resent-To} and @samp{Resent-Cc} fields.
15891 Is the union of the @code{from} and @code{to} entries.
15894 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
15895 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
15896 when all this splitting is performed.
15898 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
15899 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
15900 substitutions in the group names), you can say things like:
15903 (any "debian-\\b\\(\\w+\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
15906 In this example, messages sent to @samp{debian-foo@@lists.debian.org}
15907 will be filed in @samp{mail.debian.foo}.
15909 If the string contains the element @samp{\&}, then the previously
15910 matched string will be substituted. Similarly, the elements @samp{\\1}
15911 up to @samp{\\9} will be substituted with the text matched by the
15912 groupings 1 through 9.
15914 @vindex nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded
15915 Where @code{nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded} controls whether the
15916 lowercase of the matched string should be used for the substitution.
15917 Setting it as non-@code{nil} is useful to avoid the creation of multiple
15918 groups when users send to an address using different case
15919 (i.e. mailing-list@@domain vs Mailing-List@@Domain). The default value
15922 @findex nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent
15923 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} is a function which allows you to
15924 split followups into the same groups their parents are in. Sometimes
15925 you can't make splitting rules for all your mail. For example, your
15926 boss might send you personal mail regarding different projects you are
15927 working on, and as you can't tell your boss to put a distinguishing
15928 string into the subject line, you have to resort to manually moving the
15929 messages into the right group. With this function, you only have to do
15930 it once per thread.
15932 To use this feature, you have to set @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates}
15933 and @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} to a non-@code{nil}
15934 value. And then you can include @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}
15935 using the colon feature, like so:
15937 (setq nnmail-treat-duplicates 'warn ; @r{or @code{delete}}
15938 nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids t
15940 '(| (: nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent)
15941 ;; @r{other splits go here}
15945 This feature works as follows: when @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} is
15946 non-@code{nil}, Gnus records the message id of every message it sees
15947 in the file specified by the variable
15948 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, together with the group it is in
15949 (the group is omitted for non-mail messages). When mail splitting is
15950 invoked, the function @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} then looks
15951 at the References (and In-Reply-To) header of each message to split
15952 and searches the file specified by @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}
15953 for the message ids. When it has found a parent, it returns the
15954 corresponding group name unless the group name matches the regexp
15955 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent-ignore-groups}. It is
15956 recommended that you set @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length} to a
15957 somewhat higher number than the default so that the message ids are
15958 still in the cache. (A value of 5000 appears to create a file some
15959 300 kBytes in size.)
15960 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
15961 When @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus
15962 also records the message ids of moved articles, so that the followup
15963 messages goes into the new group.
15965 Also see the variable @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} if you don't
15966 want certain groups to be recorded in the cache. For example, if all
15967 outgoing messages are written to an ``outgoing'' group, you could set
15968 @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} to match that group name.
15969 Otherwise, answers to all your messages would end up in the
15970 ``outgoing'' group.
15973 @node Group Mail Splitting
15974 @subsection Group Mail Splitting
15975 @cindex mail splitting
15976 @cindex group mail splitting
15978 @findex gnus-group-split
15979 If you subscribe to dozens of mailing lists but you don't want to
15980 maintain mail splitting rules manually, group mail splitting is for you.
15981 You just have to set @code{to-list} and/or @code{to-address} in group
15982 parameters or group customization and set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to
15983 @code{gnus-group-split}. This splitting function will scan all groups
15984 for those parameters and split mail accordingly, i.e., messages posted
15985 from or to the addresses specified in the parameters @code{to-list} or
15986 @code{to-address} of a mail group will be stored in that group.
15988 Sometimes, mailing lists have multiple addresses, and you may want mail
15989 splitting to recognize them all: just set the @code{extra-aliases} group
15990 parameter to the list of additional addresses and it's done. If you'd
15991 rather use a regular expression, set @code{split-regexp}.
15993 All these parameters in a group will be used to create an
15994 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split, in which the @var{field} is @samp{any},
15995 the @var{value} is a single regular expression that matches
15996 @code{to-list}, @code{to-address}, all of @code{extra-aliases} and all
15997 matches of @code{split-regexp}, and the @var{split} is the name of the
15998 group. @var{restrict}s are also supported: just set the
15999 @code{split-exclude} parameter to a list of regular expressions.
16001 If you can't get the right split to be generated using all these
16002 parameters, or you just need something fancier, you can set the
16003 parameter @code{split-spec} to an @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split. In
16004 this case, all other aforementioned parameters will be ignored by
16005 @code{gnus-group-split}. In particular, @code{split-spec} may be set to
16006 @code{nil}, in which case the group will be ignored by
16007 @code{gnus-group-split}.
16009 @vindex gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group
16010 @code{gnus-group-split} will do cross-posting on all groups that match,
16011 by defining a single @code{&} fancy split containing one split for each
16012 group. If a message doesn't match any split, it will be stored in the
16013 group named in @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}, unless
16014 some group has @code{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all}, in which case
16015 that group is used as the catch-all group. Even though this variable is
16016 often used just to name a group, it may also be set to an arbitrarily
16017 complex fancy split (after all, a group name is a fancy split), and this
16018 may be useful to split mail that doesn't go to any mailing list to
16019 personal mail folders. Note that this fancy split is added as the last
16020 element of a @code{|} split list that also contains a @code{&} split
16021 with the rules extracted from group parameters.
16023 It's time for an example. Assume the following group parameters have
16028 ((to-address . "bar@@femail.com")
16029 (split-regexp . ".*@@femail\\.com"))
16031 ((to-list . "foo@@nowhere.gov")
16032 (extra-aliases "foo@@localhost" "foo-redist@@home")
16033 (split-exclude "bugs-foo" "rambling-foo")
16034 (admin-address . "foo-request@@nowhere.gov"))
16036 ((split-spec . catch-all))
16039 Setting @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{gnus-group-split} will
16040 behave as if @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been selected and variable
16041 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been set as follows:
16044 (| (& (any "\\(bar@@femail\\.com\\|.*@@femail\\.com\\)" "mail.bar")
16045 (any "\\(foo@@nowhere\\.gov\\|foo@@localhost\\|foo-redist@@home\\)"
16046 - "bugs-foo" - "rambling-foo" "mail.foo"))
16050 @findex gnus-group-split-fancy
16051 If you'd rather not use group splitting for all your mail groups, you
16052 may use it for only some of them, by using @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
16056 (: gnus-group-split-fancy @var{groups} @var{no-crosspost} @var{catch-all})
16059 @var{groups} may be a regular expression or a list of group names whose
16060 parameters will be scanned to generate the output split.
16061 @var{no-crosspost} can be used to disable cross-posting; in this case, a
16062 single @code{|} split will be output. @var{catch-all} is the fall back
16063 fancy split, used like @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}.
16064 If @var{catch-all} is @code{nil}, or if @code{split-regexp} matches the
16065 empty string in any selected group, no catch-all split will be issued.
16066 Otherwise, if some group has @code{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all},
16067 this group will override the value of the @var{catch-all} argument.
16069 @findex gnus-group-split-setup
16070 Unfortunately, scanning all groups and their parameters can be quite
16071 slow, especially considering that it has to be done for every message.
16072 But don't despair! The function @code{gnus-group-split-setup} can be
16073 used to enable @code{gnus-group-split} in a much more efficient way. It
16074 sets @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy} and sets
16075 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} to the split produced by
16076 @code{gnus-group-split-fancy}. Thus, the group parameters are only
16077 scanned once, no matter how many messages are split.
16079 @findex gnus-group-split-update
16080 However, if you change group parameters, you'd have to update
16081 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} manually. You can do it by running
16082 @code{gnus-group-split-update}. If you'd rather have it updated
16083 automatically, just tell @code{gnus-group-split-setup} to do it for
16084 you. For example, add to your @file{~/.gnus.el}:
16087 (gnus-group-split-setup @var{auto-update} @var{catch-all})
16090 If @var{auto-update} is non-@code{nil}, @code{gnus-group-split-update}
16091 will be added to @code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook}, so you won't ever
16092 have to worry about updating @code{nnmail-split-fancy} again. If you
16093 don't omit @var{catch-all} (it's optional, equivalent to @code{nil}),
16094 @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group} will be set to its
16097 @vindex gnus-group-split-updated-hook
16098 Because you may want to change @code{nnmail-split-fancy} after it is set
16099 by @code{gnus-group-split-update}, this function will run
16100 @code{gnus-group-split-updated-hook} just before finishing.
16102 @node Incorporating Old Mail
16103 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
16104 @cindex incorporating old mail
16105 @cindex import old mail
16107 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
16108 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
16109 back ends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
16112 Doing so can be quite easy.
16114 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
16115 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
16116 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
16117 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
16118 your @code{nnml} groups.
16124 Go to the group buffer.
16127 Type @kbd{G f} and give the file name to the mbox file when prompted to create an
16128 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
16131 Type @kbd{SPACE} to enter the newly created group.
16134 Type @kbd{M P b} to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
16135 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
16138 Type @kbd{B r} to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
16139 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
16142 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
16143 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
16144 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
16145 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
16146 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
16148 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
16149 back end to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
16150 using the new mail back end.
16153 @node Expiring Mail
16154 @subsection Expiring Mail
16155 @cindex article expiry
16156 @cindex expiring mail
16158 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
16159 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
16160 different approach to mail reading.
16162 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
16163 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
16164 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
16165 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
16166 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
16167 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
16170 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
16171 articles as @dfn{expirable}. (With the default key bindings, this means
16172 that you have to type @kbd{E}.) This does not mean that the articles
16173 will disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
16174 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
16175 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
16176 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
16177 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
16178 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
16180 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Gnus provides
16181 two features, called ``auto-expire'' and ``total-expire'', that can help you
16182 with this. In a nutshell, ``auto-expire'' means that Gnus hits @kbd{E}
16183 for you when you select an article. And ``total-expire'' means that Gnus
16184 considers all articles as expirable that are read. So, in addition to
16185 the articles marked @samp{E}, also the articles marked @samp{r},
16186 @samp{R}, @samp{O}, @samp{K}, @samp{Y} and so on are considered
16189 When should either auto-expire or total-expire be used? Most people
16190 who are subscribed to mailing lists split each list into its own group
16191 and then turn on auto-expire or total-expire for those groups.
16192 (@xref{Splitting Mail}, for more information on splitting each list
16193 into its own group.)
16195 Which one is better, auto-expire or total-expire? It's not easy to
16196 answer. Generally speaking, auto-expire is probably faster. Another
16197 advantage of auto-expire is that you get more marks to work with: for
16198 the articles that are supposed to stick around, you can still choose
16199 between tick and dormant and read marks. But with total-expire, you
16200 only have dormant and ticked to choose from. The advantage of
16201 total-expire is that it works well with adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive
16202 Scoring}). Auto-expire works with normal scoring but not with adaptive
16205 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
16206 Groups that match the regular expression
16207 @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will have all articles that you
16208 read marked as expirable automatically. All articles marked as
16209 expirable have an @samp{E} in the first column in the summary buffer.
16211 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
16212 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
16213 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
16214 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
16215 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
16217 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
16219 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
16220 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
16221 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
16224 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
16225 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
16226 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
16227 articles expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
16228 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
16230 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
16231 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
16234 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
16235 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
16238 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
16239 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
16241 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
16242 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
16243 don't really mix very well.
16245 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
16246 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
16247 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
16248 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
16251 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
16252 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
16253 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
16254 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
16257 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
16259 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
16261 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
16263 ((string= group "mail.junk")
16265 ((string= group "important")
16271 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
16272 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
16274 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
16275 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
16276 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
16279 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
16280 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
16282 @vindex nnmail-expiry-target
16283 The normal action taken when expiring articles is to delete them.
16284 However, in some circumstances it might make more sense to move them
16285 to other groups instead of deleting them. The variable
16286 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} (and the @code{expiry-target} group
16287 parameter) controls this. The variable supplies a default value for
16288 all groups, which can be overridden for specific groups by the group
16289 parameter. default value is @code{delete}, but this can also be a
16290 string (which should be the name of the group the message should be
16291 moved to), or a function (which will be called in a buffer narrowed to
16292 the message in question, and with the name of the group being moved
16293 from as its parameter) which should return a target---either a group
16294 name or @code{delete}.
16296 Here's an example for specifying a group name:
16298 (setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
16301 @findex nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
16302 @vindex nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
16303 Gnus provides a function @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-target} which will
16304 expire mail to groups according to the variable
16305 @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets}. Here's an example:
16308 (setq nnmail-expiry-target 'nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
16309 nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
16310 '((to-from "boss" "nnfolder:Work")
16311 ("subject" "IMPORTANT" "nnfolder:IMPORTANT.%Y.%b")
16312 ("from" ".*" "nnfolder:Archive-%Y")))
16315 With this setup, any mail that has @code{IMPORTANT} in its Subject
16316 header and was sent in the year @code{YYYY} and month @code{MMM}, will
16317 get expired to the group @code{nnfolder:IMPORTANT.YYYY.MMM}. If its
16318 From or To header contains the string @code{boss}, it will get expired
16319 to @code{nnfolder:Work}. All other mail will get expired to
16320 @code{nnfolder:Archive-YYYY}.
16322 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
16323 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
16324 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
16325 easier for procmail users.
16327 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
16328 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
16329 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
16330 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
16331 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
16332 caution. Even more dangerous is the
16333 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
16334 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
16335 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
16336 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
16337 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
16338 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
16339 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
16342 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
16344 @vindex gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire
16345 If @code{gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire} is non-@code{nil}, user marking
16346 commands will not mark an article as expirable, even if the group has
16347 auto-expire turned on.
16349 @vindex gnus-mark-copied-or-moved-articles-as-expirable
16350 The expirable marks of articles will be removed when copying or moving
16351 them to a group in which auto-expire is not turned on. This is for
16352 preventing articles from being expired unintentionally. On the other
16353 hand, to a group that has turned auto-expire on, the expirable marks of
16354 articles that are copied or moved will not be changed by default. I.e.,
16355 when copying or moving to such a group, articles that were expirable
16356 will be left expirable and ones that were not expirable will not be
16357 marked as expirable. So, even though in auto-expire groups, some
16358 articles will never get expired (unless you read them again). If you
16359 don't side with that behavior that unexpirable articles may be mixed
16360 into auto-expire groups, you can set
16361 @code{gnus-mark-copied-or-moved-articles-as-expirable} to a
16362 non-@code{nil} value. In that case, articles that have been read will
16363 be marked as expirable automatically when being copied or moved to a
16364 group that has auto-expire turned on. The default value is @code{nil}.
16368 @subsection Washing Mail
16369 @cindex mail washing
16370 @cindex list server brain damage
16371 @cindex incoming mail treatment
16373 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
16374 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC 822 doesn't explicitly
16375 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
16376 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
16377 Yes, but RFC 822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
16378 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
16380 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
16381 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
16382 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
16385 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
16386 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
16387 storing the mail to disk. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
16388 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
16391 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
16392 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
16393 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
16394 grand, sweeping gestures. It is called in a buffer that contains all
16395 the new, incoming mail. Functions to be used include:
16398 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
16399 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
16400 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
16401 Emacs running on MS machines.
16405 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
16406 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
16407 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
16408 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
16411 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
16412 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
16413 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
16414 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
16416 (Note that this function works on both the header on the body of all
16417 messages, so it is a potentially dangerous function to use (if a body
16418 of a message contains something that looks like a header line). So
16419 rather than fix the bug, it is of course the right solution to make it
16420 into a feature by documenting it.)
16422 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
16423 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
16424 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
16425 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
16426 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
16427 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
16428 also be a list of regexp. @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} may not contain
16431 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
16432 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
16435 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
16436 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
16439 This can also be done non-destructively with
16440 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}, @xref{Article Hiding}.
16442 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
16443 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
16444 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
16446 @item nnmail-ignore-broken-references
16447 @findex nnmail-ignore-broken-references
16448 @c @findex nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
16451 Some mail user agents (e.g. Eudora and Pegasus) produce broken
16452 @code{References} headers, but correct @code{In-Reply-To} headers. This
16453 function will get rid of the @code{References} header if the headers
16454 contain a line matching the regular expression
16455 @code{nnmail-broken-references-mailers}.
16459 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
16460 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
16461 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
16465 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
16466 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
16467 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
16474 @subsection Duplicates
16476 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
16477 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
16478 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
16479 @cindex duplicate mails
16480 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
16481 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
16482 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
16483 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s---
16484 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
16485 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
16486 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
16487 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
16488 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
16489 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
16490 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
16491 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
16492 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
16494 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
16495 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
16496 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
16497 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
16499 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
16502 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
16503 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
16507 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
16508 '(| ;; @r{Messages duplicates go to a separate group.}
16509 ("gnus-warning" "duplicat\\(e\\|ion\\) of message" "duplicate")
16510 ;; @r{Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.}
16511 (any mail "mail.misc")
16512 ;; @r{Other rules.}
16518 (setq nnmail-split-methods
16519 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:.*duplicate")
16520 ;; @r{Other rules.}
16524 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
16525 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
16526 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
16527 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
16528 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
16531 @node Not Reading Mail
16532 @subsection Not Reading Mail
16534 If you start using any of the mail back ends, they have the annoying
16535 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
16536 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
16538 If you set @code{mail-sources} and @code{nnmail-spool-file} to
16539 @code{nil}, none of the back ends will ever attempt to read incoming
16540 mail, which should help.
16542 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
16543 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
16544 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
16545 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
16546 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
16547 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
16548 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old (pre-Emacs
16549 23) Rmail file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All back ends have
16550 variables called back-end-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
16551 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
16552 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
16554 All the mail back ends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
16555 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
16559 @node Choosing a Mail Back End
16560 @subsection Choosing a Mail Back End
16562 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
16563 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
16564 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
16566 There are six different mail back ends in the standard Gnus, and more
16567 back ends are available separately. The mail back end most people use
16568 (because it is possibly the fastest) is @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail
16572 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
16573 * Babyl:: Babyl was used by older versions of Rmail.
16574 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
16575 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
16576 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
16577 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
16578 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
16582 @node Unix Mail Box
16583 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
16585 @cindex unix mail box
16587 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
16588 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
16589 The @dfn{nnmbox} back end will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
16590 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
16591 which group it belongs in.
16593 Virtual server settings:
16596 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
16597 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
16598 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory. Default is
16601 @item nnmbox-active-file
16602 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
16603 The name of the active file for the mail box. Default is
16604 @file{~/.mbox-active}.
16606 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
16607 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
16608 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
16609 into groups. Default is @code{t}.
16614 @subsubsection Babyl
16617 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
16618 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
16619 The @dfn{nnbabyl} back end will use a Babyl mail box to store mail.
16620 @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each mail article to say which
16621 group it belongs in.
16623 Virtual server settings:
16626 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
16627 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
16628 The name of the Babyl file. The default is @file{~/RMAIL}
16630 @item nnbabyl-active-file
16631 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
16632 The name of the active file for the Babyl file. The default is
16633 @file{~/.rmail-active}
16635 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
16636 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
16637 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail. Default is
16643 @subsubsection Mail Spool
16645 @cindex mail @acronym{NOV} spool
16647 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
16648 format. It should be used with some caution.
16650 @vindex nnml-directory
16651 If you use this back end, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
16652 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
16653 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
16654 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
16656 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
16659 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
16660 in your account, you should not use this back end. As each mail gets its
16661 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
16662 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
16663 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
16664 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
16665 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
16666 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
16668 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest back end when it comes to article
16669 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
16670 @acronym{NOV} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it possibly the
16671 fastest back end when it comes to reading mail.
16673 @cindex self contained nnml servers
16675 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnml}
16676 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
16677 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
16678 proper @code{nnml} server) and have all your marks be preserved. Marks
16679 for a group are usually stored in the @code{.marks} file (but see
16680 @code{nnml-marks-file-name}) within each @code{nnml} group's directory.
16681 Individual @code{nnml} groups are also possible to backup, use @kbd{G m}
16682 to restore the group (after restoring the backup into the nnml
16685 If for some reason you believe your @file{.marks} files are screwed
16686 up, you can just delete them all. Gnus will then correctly regenerate
16687 them next time it starts.
16689 Virtual server settings:
16692 @item nnml-directory
16693 @vindex nnml-directory
16694 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory. The
16695 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default value
16698 @item nnml-active-file
16699 @vindex nnml-active-file
16700 The active file for the @code{nnml} server. The default is
16701 @file{~/Mail/active}.
16703 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
16704 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
16705 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
16706 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}.
16708 @item nnml-get-new-mail
16709 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
16710 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail. The default is
16713 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
16714 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
16715 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @acronym{NOV} files. The
16716 default is @code{nil}.
16718 @item nnml-nov-file-name
16719 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
16720 The name of the @acronym{NOV} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
16722 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
16723 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
16724 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
16726 @item nnml-marks-is-evil
16727 @vindex nnml-marks-is-evil
16728 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
16729 default is @code{nil}.
16731 @item nnml-marks-file-name
16732 @vindex nnml-marks-file-name
16733 The name of the @dfn{marks} files. The default is @file{.marks}.
16735 @item nnml-use-compressed-files
16736 @vindex nnml-use-compressed-files
16737 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will allow using compressed message
16738 files. This requires @code{auto-compression-mode} to be enabled
16739 (@pxref{Compressed Files, ,Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Manual}).
16740 If the value of @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is a string, it is used
16741 as the file extension specifying the compression program. You can set it
16742 to @samp{.bz2} if your Emacs supports it. A value of @code{t} is
16743 equivalent to @samp{.gz}.
16745 @item nnml-compressed-files-size-threshold
16746 @vindex nnml-compressed-files-size-threshold
16747 Default size threshold for compressed message files. Message files with
16748 bodies larger than that many characters will be automatically compressed
16749 if @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is non-@code{nil}.
16753 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
16754 If your @code{nnml} groups and @acronym{NOV} files get totally out of
16755 whack, you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
16756 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
16757 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
16758 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
16759 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
16764 @subsubsection MH Spool
16766 @cindex mh-e mail spool
16768 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
16769 @acronym{NOV} databases and it doesn't keep an active file or marks
16770 file. This makes @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower back end than
16771 @code{nnml}, but it also makes it easier to write procmail scripts
16774 Virtual server settings:
16777 @item nnmh-directory
16778 @vindex nnmh-directory
16779 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory. The
16780 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
16783 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
16784 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
16785 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail. The default is
16789 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
16790 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
16791 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks
16792 they are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
16793 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
16794 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not
16795 have to set this variable to @code{t}. The default is @code{nil}.
16800 @subsubsection Maildir
16804 @code{nnmaildir} stores mail in the maildir format, with each maildir
16805 corresponding to a group in Gnus. This format is documented here:
16806 @uref{http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html} and here:
16807 @uref{http://www.qmail.org/man/man5/maildir.html}. @code{nnmaildir}
16808 also stores extra information in the @file{.nnmaildir/} directory
16811 Maildir format was designed to allow concurrent deliveries and
16812 reading, without needing locks. With other back ends, you would have
16813 your mail delivered to a spool of some kind, and then you would
16814 configure Gnus to split mail from that spool into your groups. You
16815 can still do that with @code{nnmaildir}, but the more common
16816 configuration is to have your mail delivered directly to the maildirs
16817 that appear as group in Gnus.
16819 @code{nnmaildir} is designed to be perfectly reliable: @kbd{C-g} will
16820 never corrupt its data in memory, and @code{SIGKILL} will never
16821 corrupt its data in the filesystem.
16823 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks and @acronym{NOV} data in each
16824 maildir. So you can copy a whole maildir from one Gnus setup to
16825 another, and you will keep your marks.
16827 Virtual server settings:
16831 For each of your @code{nnmaildir} servers (it's very unlikely that
16832 you'd need more than one), you need to create a directory and populate
16833 it with maildirs or symlinks to maildirs (and nothing else; do not
16834 choose a directory already used for other purposes). Each maildir
16835 will be represented in Gnus as a newsgroup on that server; the
16836 filename of the symlink will be the name of the group. Any filenames
16837 in the directory starting with @samp{.} are ignored. The directory is
16838 scanned when you first start Gnus, and each time you type @kbd{g} in
16839 the group buffer; if any maildirs have been removed or added,
16840 @code{nnmaildir} notices at these times.
16842 The value of the @code{directory} parameter should be a Lisp form
16843 which is processed by @code{eval} and @code{expand-file-name} to get
16844 the path of the directory for this server. The form is @code{eval}ed
16845 only when the server is opened; the resulting string is used until the
16846 server is closed. (If you don't know about forms and @code{eval},
16847 don't worry---a simple string will work.) This parameter is not
16848 optional; you must specify it. I don't recommend using
16849 @code{"~/Mail"} or a subdirectory of it; several other parts of Gnus
16850 use that directory by default for various things, and may get confused
16851 if @code{nnmaildir} uses it too. @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} is a typical
16854 @item target-prefix
16855 This should be a Lisp form which is processed by @code{eval} and
16856 @code{expand-file-name}. The form is @code{eval}ed only when the
16857 server is opened; the resulting string is used until the server is
16860 When you create a group on an @code{nnmaildir} server, the maildir is
16861 created with @code{target-prefix} prepended to its name, and a symlink
16862 pointing to that maildir is created, named with the plain group name.
16863 So if @code{directory} is @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} and
16864 @code{target-prefix} is @code{"../maildirs/"}, then when you create
16865 the group @code{foo}, @code{nnmaildir} will create
16866 @file{~/.nnmaildir/../maildirs/foo} as a maildir, and will create
16867 @file{~/.nnmaildir/foo} as a symlink pointing to
16868 @file{../maildirs/foo}.
16870 You can set @code{target-prefix} to a string without any slashes to
16871 create both maildirs and symlinks in the same @code{directory}; in
16872 this case, any maildirs found in @code{directory} whose names start
16873 with @code{target-prefix} will not be listed as groups (but the
16874 symlinks pointing to them will be).
16876 As a special case, if @code{target-prefix} is @code{""} (the default),
16877 then when you create a group, the maildir will be created in
16878 @code{directory} without a corresponding symlink. Beware that you
16879 cannot use @code{gnus-group-delete-group} on such groups without the
16880 @code{force} argument.
16882 @item directory-files
16883 This should be a function with the same interface as
16884 @code{directory-files} (such as @code{directory-files} itself). It is
16885 used to scan the server's @code{directory} for maildirs. This
16886 parameter is optional; the default is
16887 @code{nnheader-directory-files-safe} if
16888 @code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is @code{nil}, and
16889 @code{directory-files} otherwise.
16890 (@code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is checked only once when the
16891 server is opened; if you want to check it each time the directory is
16892 scanned, you'll have to provide your own function that does that.)
16895 If non-@code{nil}, then after scanning for new mail in the group
16896 maildirs themselves as usual, this server will also incorporate mail
16897 the conventional Gnus way, from @code{mail-sources} according to
16898 @code{nnmail-split-methods} or @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. The default
16899 value is @code{nil}.
16901 Do @emph{not} use the same maildir both in @code{mail-sources} and as
16902 an @code{nnmaildir} group. The results might happen to be useful, but
16903 that would be by chance, not by design, and the results might be
16904 different in the future. If your split rules create new groups,
16905 remember to supply a @code{create-directory} server parameter.
16908 @subsubsection Group parameters
16910 @code{nnmaildir} uses several group parameters. It's safe to ignore
16911 all this; the default behavior for @code{nnmaildir} is the same as the
16912 default behavior for other mail back ends: articles are deleted after
16913 one week, etc. Except for the expiry parameters, all this
16914 functionality is unique to @code{nnmaildir}, so you can ignore it if
16915 you're just trying to duplicate the behavior you already have with
16918 If the value of any of these parameters is a vector, the first element
16919 is evaluated as a Lisp form and the result is used, rather than the
16920 original value. If the value is not a vector, the value itself is
16921 evaluated as a Lisp form. (This is why these parameters use names
16922 different from those of other, similar parameters supported by other
16923 back ends: they have different, though similar, meanings.) (For
16924 numbers, strings, @code{nil}, and @code{t}, you can ignore the
16925 @code{eval} business again; for other values, remember to use an extra
16926 quote and wrap the value in a vector when appropriate.)
16930 An integer specifying the minimum age, in seconds, of an article
16931 before it will be expired, or the symbol @code{never} to specify that
16932 articles should never be expired. If this parameter is not set,
16933 @code{nnmaildir} falls back to the usual
16934 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait}(@code{-function}) variables (the
16935 @code{expiry-wait} group parameter overrides @code{nnmail-expiry-wait}
16936 and makes @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} ineffective). If you
16937 wanted a value of 3 days, you could use something like @code{[(* 3 24
16938 60 60)]}; @code{nnmaildir} will evaluate the form and use the result.
16939 An article's age is measured starting from the article file's
16940 modification time. Normally, this is the same as the article's
16941 delivery time, but editing an article makes it younger. Moving an
16942 article (other than via expiry) may also make an article younger.
16945 If this is set to a string such as a full Gnus group name, like
16947 "backend+server.address.string:group.name"
16949 and if it is not the name of the same group that the parameter belongs
16950 to, then articles will be moved to the specified group during expiry
16951 before being deleted. @emph{If this is set to an @code{nnmaildir}
16952 group, the article will be just as old in the destination group as it
16953 was in the source group.} So be careful with @code{expire-age} in the
16954 destination group. If this is set to the name of the same group that
16955 the parameter belongs to, then the article is not expired at all. If
16956 you use the vector form, the first element is evaluated once for each
16957 article. So that form can refer to
16958 @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name}, etc., to decide where to put the
16959 article. @emph{Even if this parameter is not set, @code{nnmaildir}
16960 does not fall back to the @code{expiry-target} group parameter or the
16961 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} variable.}
16964 If this is set to @code{t}, @code{nnmaildir} will treat the articles
16965 in this maildir as read-only. This means: articles are not renamed
16966 from @file{new/} into @file{cur/}; articles are only found in
16967 @file{new/}, not @file{cur/}; articles are never deleted; articles
16968 cannot be edited. @file{new/} is expected to be a symlink to the
16969 @file{new/} directory of another maildir---e.g., a system-wide mailbox
16970 containing a mailing list of common interest. Everything in the
16971 maildir outside @file{new/} is @emph{not} treated as read-only, so for
16972 a shared mailbox, you do still need to set up your own maildir (or
16973 have write permission to the shared mailbox); your maildir just won't
16974 contain extra copies of the articles.
16976 @item directory-files
16977 A function with the same interface as @code{directory-files}. It is
16978 used to scan the directories in the maildir corresponding to this
16979 group to find articles. The default is the function specified by the
16980 server's @code{directory-files} parameter.
16982 @item distrust-Lines:
16983 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmaildir} will always count the lines of an
16984 article, rather than use the @code{Lines:} header field. If
16985 @code{nil}, the header field will be used if present.
16988 A list of mark symbols, such as @code{['(read expire)]}. Whenever
16989 Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for article marks, @code{nnmaildir} will
16990 say that all articles have these marks, regardless of whether the
16991 marks stored in the filesystem say so. This is a proof-of-concept
16992 feature that will probably be removed eventually; it ought to be done
16993 in Gnus proper, or abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
16996 A list of mark symbols, such as @code{['(tick expire)]}. Whenever
16997 Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for article marks, @code{nnmaildir} will
16998 say that no articles have these marks, regardless of whether the marks
16999 stored in the filesystem say so. @code{never-marks} overrides
17000 @code{always-marks}. This is a proof-of-concept feature that will
17001 probably be removed eventually; it ought to be done in Gnus proper, or
17002 abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
17004 @item nov-cache-size
17005 An integer specifying the size of the @acronym{NOV} memory cache. To
17006 speed things up, @code{nnmaildir} keeps @acronym{NOV} data in memory
17007 for a limited number of articles in each group. (This is probably not
17008 worthwhile, and will probably be removed in the future.) This
17009 parameter's value is noticed only the first time a group is seen after
17010 the server is opened---i.e., when you first start Gnus, typically.
17011 The @acronym{NOV} cache is never resized until the server is closed
17012 and reopened. The default is an estimate of the number of articles
17013 that would be displayed in the summary buffer: a count of articles
17014 that are either marked with @code{tick} or not marked with
17015 @code{read}, plus a little extra.
17018 @subsubsection Article identification
17019 Articles are stored in the @file{cur/} subdirectory of each maildir.
17020 Each article file is named like @code{uniq:info}, where @code{uniq}
17021 contains no colons. @code{nnmaildir} ignores, but preserves, the
17022 @code{:info} part. (Other maildir readers typically use this part of
17023 the filename to store marks.) The @code{uniq} part uniquely
17024 identifies the article, and is used in various places in the
17025 @file{.nnmaildir/} subdirectory of the maildir to store information
17026 about the corresponding article. The full pathname of an article is
17027 available in the variable @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name} after you
17028 request the article in the summary buffer.
17030 @subsubsection NOV data
17031 An article identified by @code{uniq} has its @acronym{NOV} data (used
17032 to generate lines in the summary buffer) stored in
17033 @code{.nnmaildir/nov/uniq}. There is no
17034 @code{nnmaildir-generate-nov-databases} function. (There isn't much
17035 need for it---an article's @acronym{NOV} data is updated automatically
17036 when the article or @code{nnmail-extra-headers} has changed.) You can
17037 force @code{nnmaildir} to regenerate the @acronym{NOV} data for a
17038 single article simply by deleting the corresponding @acronym{NOV}
17039 file, but @emph{beware}: this will also cause @code{nnmaildir} to
17040 assign a new article number for this article, which may cause trouble
17041 with @code{seen} marks, the Agent, and the cache.
17043 @subsubsection Article marks
17044 An article identified by @code{uniq} is considered to have the mark
17045 @code{flag} when the file @file{.nnmaildir/marks/flag/uniq} exists.
17046 When Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for a group's marks, @code{nnmaildir}
17047 looks for such files and reports the set of marks it finds. When Gnus
17048 asks @code{nnmaildir} to store a new set of marks, @code{nnmaildir}
17049 creates and deletes the corresponding files as needed. (Actually,
17050 rather than create a new file for each mark, it just creates hard
17051 links to @file{.nnmaildir/markfile}, to save inodes.)
17053 You can invent new marks by creating a new directory in
17054 @file{.nnmaildir/marks/}. You can tar up a maildir and remove it from
17055 your server, untar it later, and keep your marks. You can add and
17056 remove marks yourself by creating and deleting mark files. If you do
17057 this while Gnus is running and your @code{nnmaildir} server is open,
17058 it's best to exit all summary buffers for @code{nnmaildir} groups and
17059 type @kbd{s} in the group buffer first, and to type @kbd{g} or
17060 @kbd{M-g} in the group buffer afterwards. Otherwise, Gnus might not
17061 pick up the changes, and might undo them.
17065 @subsubsection Mail Folders
17067 @cindex mbox folders
17068 @cindex mail folders
17070 @code{nnfolder} is a back end for storing each mail group in a
17071 separate file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format.
17072 @code{nnfolder} will add extra headers to keep track of article
17073 numbers and arrival dates.
17075 @cindex self contained nnfolder servers
17077 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnfolder}
17078 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
17079 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
17080 proper @code{nnfolder} server) and have all your marks be preserved.
17081 Marks for a group are usually stored in a file named as the mbox file
17082 with @code{.mrk} concatenated to it (but see
17083 @code{nnfolder-marks-file-suffix}) within the @code{nnfolder}
17084 directory. Individual @code{nnfolder} groups are also possible to
17085 backup, use @kbd{G m} to restore the group (after restoring the backup
17086 into the @code{nnfolder} directory).
17088 Virtual server settings:
17091 @item nnfolder-directory
17092 @vindex nnfolder-directory
17093 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this
17094 directory. The default is the value of @code{message-directory}
17095 (whose default is @file{~/Mail})
17097 @item nnfolder-active-file
17098 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
17099 The name of the active file. The default is @file{~/Mail/active}.
17101 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
17102 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
17103 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
17104 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}
17106 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
17107 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
17108 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail. The
17109 default is @code{t}
17111 @item nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
17112 @vindex nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
17113 @cindex backup files
17114 Hook run before saving the folders. Note that Emacs does the normal
17115 backup renaming of files even with the @code{nnfolder} buffers. If
17116 you wish to switch this off, you could say something like the
17117 following in your @file{.emacs} file:
17120 (defun turn-off-backup ()
17121 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
17123 (add-hook 'nnfolder-save-buffer-hook 'turn-off-backup)
17126 @item nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
17127 @vindex nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
17128 Hook run in a buffer narrowed to the message that is to be deleted.
17129 This function can be used to copy the message to somewhere else, or to
17130 extract some information from it before removing it.
17132 @item nnfolder-nov-is-evil
17133 @vindex nnfolder-nov-is-evil
17134 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @acronym{NOV} files. The
17135 default is @code{nil}.
17137 @item nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
17138 @vindex nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
17139 The extension for @acronym{NOV} files. The default is @file{.nov}.
17141 @item nnfolder-nov-directory
17142 @vindex nnfolder-nov-directory
17143 The directory where the @acronym{NOV} files should be stored. If
17144 @code{nil}, @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
17146 @item nnfolder-marks-is-evil
17147 @vindex nnfolder-marks-is-evil
17148 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
17149 default is @code{nil}.
17151 @item nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
17152 @vindex nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
17153 The extension for @sc{marks} files. The default is @file{.mrk}.
17155 @item nnfolder-marks-directory
17156 @vindex nnfolder-marks-directory
17157 The directory where the @sc{marks} files should be stored. If
17158 @code{nil}, @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
17163 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
17164 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
17165 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
17166 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
17167 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
17168 @code{nnfolder-directory}. This only works if you use long file names,
17171 @node Comparing Mail Back Ends
17172 @subsubsection Comparing Mail Back Ends
17174 First, just for terminology, the @dfn{back end} is the common word for a
17175 low-level access method---a transport, if you will, by which something
17176 is acquired. The sense is that one's mail has to come from somewhere,
17177 and so selection of a suitable back end is required in order to get that
17178 mail within spitting distance of Gnus.
17180 The same concept exists for Usenet itself: Though access to articles is
17181 typically done by @acronym{NNTP} these days, once upon a midnight dreary, everyone
17182 in the world got at Usenet by running a reader on the machine where the
17183 articles lay (the machine which today we call an @acronym{NNTP} server), and
17184 access was by the reader stepping into the articles' directory spool
17185 area directly. One can still select between either the @code{nntp} or
17186 @code{nnspool} back ends, to select between these methods, if one happens
17187 actually to live on the server (or can see its spool directly, anyway,
17190 The goal in selecting a mail back end is to pick one which
17191 simultaneously represents a suitable way of dealing with the original
17192 format plus leaving mail in a form that is convenient to use in the
17193 future. Here are some high and low points on each:
17198 UNIX systems have historically had a single, very common, and well-
17199 defined format. All messages arrive in a single @dfn{spool file}, and
17200 they are delineated by a line whose regular expression matches
17201 @samp{^From_}. (My notational use of @samp{_} is to indicate a space,
17202 to make it clear in this instance that this is not the RFC-specified
17203 @samp{From:} header.) Because Emacs and therefore Gnus emanate
17204 historically from the Unix environment, it is simplest if one does not
17205 mess a great deal with the original mailbox format, so if one chooses
17206 this back end, Gnus' primary activity in getting mail from the real spool
17207 area to Gnus' preferred directory is simply to copy it, with no
17208 (appreciable) format change in the process. It is the ``dumbest'' way
17209 to move mail into availability in the Gnus environment. This makes it
17210 fast to move into place, but slow to parse, when Gnus has to look at
17215 Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and DEC-20, running operating
17216 systems called TOPS and related things, and the usual (only?) mail
17217 reading environment was a thing called Babyl. I don't know what format
17218 was used for mail landing on the system, but Babyl had its own internal
17219 format to which mail was converted, primarily involving creating a
17220 spool-file-like entity with a scheme for inserting Babyl-specific
17221 headers and status bits above the top of each message in the file.
17222 Rmail was Emacs' first mail reader, it was written by Richard Stallman,
17223 and Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl environment, so he wrote Rmail
17224 to understand the mail files folks already had in existence. Gnus (and
17225 VM, for that matter) continue to support this format because it's
17226 perceived as having some good qualities in those mailer-specific
17227 headers/status bits stuff. Rmail itself still exists as well, of
17228 course, and is still maintained within Emacs. Since Emacs 23, it
17229 uses standard mbox format rather than Babyl.
17231 Both of the above forms leave your mail in a single file on your
17232 file system, and they must parse that entire file each time you take a
17237 @code{nnml} is the back end which smells the most as though you were
17238 actually operating with an @code{nnspool}-accessed Usenet system. (In
17239 fact, I believe @code{nnml} actually derived from @code{nnspool} code,
17240 lo these years ago.) One's mail is taken from the original spool file,
17241 and is then cut up into individual message files, 1:1. It maintains a
17242 Usenet-style active file (analogous to what one finds in an INN- or
17243 CNews-based news system in (for instance) @file{/var/lib/news/active},
17244 or what is returned via the @samp{NNTP LIST} verb) and also creates
17245 @dfn{overview} files for efficient group entry, as has been defined for
17246 @acronym{NNTP} servers for some years now. It is slower in mail-splitting,
17247 due to the creation of lots of files, updates to the @code{nnml} active
17248 file, and additions to overview files on a per-message basis, but it is
17249 extremely fast on access because of what amounts to the indexing support
17250 provided by the active file and overviews.
17252 @code{nnml} costs @dfn{inodes} in a big way; that is, it soaks up the
17253 resource which defines available places in the file system to put new
17254 files. Sysadmins take a dim view of heavy inode occupation within
17255 tight, shared file systems. But if you live on a personal machine where
17256 the file system is your own and space is not at a premium, @code{nnml}
17259 It is also problematic using this back end if you are living in a
17260 FAT16-based Windows world, since much space will be wasted on all these
17265 The Rand MH mail-reading system has been around UNIX systems for a very
17266 long time; it operates by splitting one's spool file of messages into
17267 individual files, but with little or no indexing support---@code{nnmh}
17268 is considered to be semantically equivalent to ``@code{nnml} without
17269 active file or overviews''. This is arguably the worst choice, because
17270 one gets the slowness of individual file creation married to the
17271 slowness of access parsing when learning what's new in one's groups.
17275 Basically the effect of @code{nnfolder} is @code{nnmbox} (the first
17276 method described above) on a per-group basis. That is, @code{nnmbox}
17277 itself puts @emph{all} one's mail in one file; @code{nnfolder} provides a
17278 little bit of optimization to this so that each of one's mail groups has
17279 a Unix mail box file. It's faster than @code{nnmbox} because each group
17280 can be parsed separately, and still provides the simple Unix mail box
17281 format requiring minimal effort in moving the mail around. In addition,
17282 it maintains an ``active'' file making it much faster for Gnus to figure
17283 out how many messages there are in each separate group.
17285 If you have groups that are expected to have a massive amount of
17286 messages, @code{nnfolder} is not the best choice, but if you receive
17287 only a moderate amount of mail, @code{nnfolder} is probably the most
17288 friendly mail back end all over.
17292 For configuring expiry and other things, @code{nnmaildir} uses
17293 incompatible group parameters, slightly different from those of other
17296 @code{nnmaildir} is largely similar to @code{nnml}, with some notable
17297 differences. Each message is stored in a separate file, but the
17298 filename is unrelated to the article number in Gnus. @code{nnmaildir}
17299 also stores the equivalent of @code{nnml}'s overview files in one file
17300 per article, so it uses about twice as many inodes as @code{nnml}. (Use
17301 @code{df -i} to see how plentiful your inode supply is.) If this slows
17302 you down or takes up very much space, consider switching to
17303 @uref{http://www.namesys.com/, ReiserFS} or another non-block-structured
17306 Since maildirs don't require locking for delivery, the maildirs you use
17307 as groups can also be the maildirs your mail is directly delivered to.
17308 This means you can skip Gnus' mail splitting if your mail is already
17309 organized into different mailboxes during delivery. A @code{directory}
17310 entry in @code{mail-sources} would have a similar effect, but would
17311 require one set of mailboxes for spooling deliveries (in mbox format,
17312 thus damaging message bodies), and another set to be used as groups (in
17313 whatever format you like). A maildir has a built-in spool, in the
17314 @code{new/} subdirectory. Beware that currently, mail moved from
17315 @code{new/} to @code{cur/} instead of via mail splitting will not
17316 undergo treatment such as duplicate checking.
17318 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks for a given group in the
17319 corresponding maildir, in a way designed so that it's easy to manipulate
17320 them from outside Gnus. You can tar up a maildir, unpack it somewhere
17321 else, and still have your marks. @code{nnml} also stores marks, but
17322 it's not as easy to work with them from outside Gnus as with
17325 @code{nnmaildir} uses a significant amount of memory to speed things up.
17326 (It keeps in memory some of the things that @code{nnml} stores in files
17327 and that @code{nnmh} repeatedly parses out of message files.) If this
17328 is a problem for you, you can set the @code{nov-cache-size} group
17329 parameter to something small (0 would probably not work, but 1 probably
17330 would) to make it use less memory. This caching will probably be
17331 removed in the future.
17333 Startup is likely to be slower with @code{nnmaildir} than with other
17334 back ends. Everything else is likely to be faster, depending in part
17335 on your file system.
17337 @code{nnmaildir} does not use @code{nnoo}, so you cannot use @code{nnoo}
17338 to write an @code{nnmaildir}-derived back end.
17343 @node Browsing the Web
17344 @section Browsing the Web
17346 @cindex browsing the web
17350 Web-based discussion forums are getting more and more popular. On many
17351 subjects, the web-based forums have become the most important forums,
17352 eclipsing the importance of mailing lists and news groups. The reason
17353 is easy to understand---they are friendly to new users; you just point
17354 and click, and there's the discussion. With mailing lists, you have to
17355 go through a cumbersome subscription procedure, and most people don't
17356 even know what a news group is.
17358 The problem with this scenario is that web browsers are not very good at
17359 being newsreaders. They do not keep track of what articles you've read;
17360 they do not allow you to score on subjects you're interested in; they do
17361 not allow off-line browsing; they require you to click around and drive
17362 you mad in the end.
17364 So---if web browsers suck at reading discussion forums, why not use Gnus
17367 Gnus has been getting a bit of a collection of back ends for providing
17368 interfaces to these sources.
17372 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
17373 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
17374 * Customizing W3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/W3 from Gnus.
17377 All the web sources require Emacs/W3 and the url library or those
17378 alternatives to work.
17380 The main caveat with all these web sources is that they probably won't
17381 work for a very long time. Gleaning information from the @acronym{HTML} data
17382 is guesswork at best, and when the layout is altered, the Gnus back end
17383 will fail. If you have reasonably new versions of these back ends,
17384 though, you should be ok.
17386 One thing all these Web methods have in common is that the Web sources
17387 are often down, unavailable or just plain too slow to be fun. In those
17388 cases, it makes a lot of sense to let the Gnus Agent (@pxref{Gnus
17389 Unplugged}) handle downloading articles, and then you can read them at
17390 leisure from your local disk. No more World Wide Wait for you.
17392 @node Archiving Mail
17393 @subsection Archiving Mail
17394 @cindex archiving mail
17395 @cindex backup of mail
17397 Some of the back ends, notably @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, and
17398 @code{nnmaildir}, now actually store the article marks with each group.
17399 For these servers, archiving and restoring a group while preserving
17400 marks is fairly simple.
17402 (Preserving the group level and group parameters as well still
17403 requires ritual dancing and sacrifices to the @file{.newsrc.eld} deity
17406 To archive an entire @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir}
17407 server, take a recursive copy of the server directory. There is no need
17408 to shut down Gnus, so archiving may be invoked by @code{cron} or
17409 similar. You restore the data by restoring the directory tree, and
17410 adding a server definition pointing to that directory in Gnus. The
17411 @ref{Article Backlog}, @ref{Asynchronous Fetching} and other things
17412 might interfere with overwriting data, so you may want to shut down Gnus
17413 before you restore the data.
17415 It is also possible to archive individual @code{nnml},
17416 @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir} groups, while preserving marks.
17417 For @code{nnml} or @code{nnmaildir}, you copy all files in the group's
17418 directory. For @code{nnfolder} you need to copy both the base folder
17419 file itself (@file{FOO}, say), and the marks file (@file{FOO.mrk} in
17420 this example). Restoring the group is done with @kbd{G m} from the Group
17421 buffer. The last step makes Gnus notice the new directory.
17422 @code{nnmaildir} notices the new directory automatically, so @kbd{G m}
17423 is unnecessary in that case.
17426 @subsection Web Searches
17431 @cindex Usenet searches
17432 @cindex searching the Usenet
17434 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
17435 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
17436 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
17437 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
17438 searches without having to use a browser.
17440 The @code{nnweb} back end allows an easy interface to the mighty search
17441 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
17442 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
17443 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
17444 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
17446 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
17447 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
17448 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
17449 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
17450 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
17451 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
17452 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
17453 engines (Google, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
17454 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
17455 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
17458 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
17459 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
17460 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'@^etre} is to
17461 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
17462 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
17463 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
17465 You must have the @code{url} and @code{W3} package or those alternatives
17466 (try @code{customize-group} on the @samp{mm-url} variable group)
17467 installed to be able to use @code{nnweb}.
17469 Virtual server variables:
17474 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
17475 are @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}. Note that
17476 @code{dejanews} is an alias to @code{google}.
17479 @vindex nnweb-search
17480 The search string to feed to the search engine.
17482 @item nnweb-max-hits
17483 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
17484 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
17487 @item nnweb-type-definition
17488 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
17489 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
17490 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
17495 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
17499 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
17502 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
17505 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
17509 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
17520 Some web sites have an RDF Site Summary (@acronym{RSS}).
17521 @acronym{RSS} is a format for summarizing headlines from news related
17522 sites (such as BBC or CNN). But basically anything list-like can be
17523 presented as an @acronym{RSS} feed: weblogs, changelogs or recent
17524 changes to a wiki (e.g. @url{http://cliki.net/recent-changes.rdf}).
17526 @acronym{RSS} has a quite regular and nice interface, and it's
17527 possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
17529 Note: you had better use Emacs which supports the @code{utf-8} coding
17530 system because @acronym{RSS} uses UTF-8 for encoding non-@acronym{ASCII}
17531 text by default. It is also used by default for non-@acronym{ASCII}
17534 @kindex G R (Group)
17535 Use @kbd{G R} from the group buffer to subscribe to a feed---you will be
17536 prompted for the location, the title and the description of the feed.
17537 The title, which allows any characters, will be used for the group name
17538 and the name of the group data file. The description can be omitted.
17540 An easy way to get started with @code{nnrss} is to say something like
17541 the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnrss RET RET y}, then
17542 subscribe to groups.
17544 The @code{nnrss} back end saves the group data file in
17545 @code{nnrss-directory} (see below) for each @code{nnrss} group. File
17546 names containing non-@acronym{ASCII} characters will be encoded by the
17547 coding system specified with the @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system}
17548 variable or other. Also @xref{Non-ASCII Group Names}, for more
17551 The @code{nnrss} back end generates @samp{multipart/alternative}
17552 @acronym{MIME} articles in which each contains a @samp{text/plain} part
17553 and a @samp{text/html} part.
17556 You can also use the following commands to import and export your
17557 subscriptions from a file in @acronym{OPML} format (Outline Processor
17560 @defun nnrss-opml-import file
17561 Prompt for an @acronym{OPML} file, and subscribe to each feed in the
17565 @defun nnrss-opml-export
17566 Write your current @acronym{RSS} subscriptions to a buffer in
17567 @acronym{OPML} format.
17570 The following @code{nnrss} variables can be altered:
17573 @item nnrss-directory
17574 @vindex nnrss-directory
17575 The directory where @code{nnrss} stores its files. The default is
17576 @file{~/News/rss/}.
17578 @item nnrss-file-coding-system
17579 @vindex nnrss-file-coding-system
17580 The coding system used when reading and writing the @code{nnrss} groups
17581 data files. The default is the value of
17582 @code{mm-universal-coding-system} (which defaults to @code{emacs-mule}
17583 in Emacs or @code{escape-quoted} in XEmacs).
17585 @item nnrss-ignore-article-fields
17586 @vindex nnrss-ignore-article-fields
17587 Some feeds update constantly article fields during their publications,
17588 e.g. to indicate the number of comments. However, if there is
17589 a difference between the local article and the distant one, the latter
17590 is considered to be new. To avoid this and discard some fields, set this
17591 variable to the list of fields to be ignored. The default is
17592 @code{'(slash:comments)}.
17594 @item nnrss-use-local
17595 @vindex nnrss-use-local
17596 @findex nnrss-generate-download-script
17597 If you set @code{nnrss-use-local} to @code{t}, @code{nnrss} will read
17598 the feeds from local files in @code{nnrss-directory}. You can use
17599 the command @code{nnrss-generate-download-script} to generate a
17600 download script using @command{wget}.
17602 @item nnrss-wash-html-in-text-plain-parts
17603 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{nnrss} renders text in @samp{text/plain}
17604 parts as @acronym{HTML}. The function specified by the
17605 @code{mm-text-html-renderer} variable (@pxref{Display Customization,
17606 ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}) will be used
17607 to render text. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default, text will
17608 simply be folded. Leave it @code{nil} if you prefer to see
17609 @samp{text/html} parts.
17612 The following code may be helpful, if you want to show the description in
17613 the summary buffer.
17616 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-description-field)
17617 (setq gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-15,15f%]%) %s%uX\n")
17619 (defun gnus-user-format-function-X (header)
17621 (assq nnrss-description-field (mail-header-extra header))))
17622 (if descr (concat "\n\t" (cdr descr)) "")))
17625 The following code may be useful to open an nnrss url directly from the
17629 (require 'browse-url)
17631 (defun browse-nnrss-url (arg)
17633 (let ((url (assq nnrss-url-field
17636 (assq (gnus-summary-article-number)
17637 gnus-newsgroup-data))))))
17640 (browse-url (cdr url))
17641 (gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward 1))
17642 (gnus-summary-scroll-up arg))))
17644 (eval-after-load "gnus"
17645 #'(define-key gnus-summary-mode-map
17646 (kbd "<RET>") 'browse-nnrss-url))
17647 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-url-field)
17650 Even if you have added @samp{text/html} to the
17651 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives} variable (@pxref{Display
17652 Customization, ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME
17653 Manual}) since you don't want to see @acronym{HTML} parts, it might be
17654 more useful especially in @code{nnrss} groups to display
17655 @samp{text/html} parts. Here's an example of setting
17656 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives} as a group parameter (@pxref{Group
17657 Parameters}) in order to display @samp{text/html} parts only in
17658 @code{nnrss} groups:
17661 ;; @r{Set the default value of @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives}.}
17662 (eval-after-load "gnus-sum"
17664 'gnus-newsgroup-variables
17665 '(mm-discouraged-alternatives
17666 . '("text/html" "image/.*"))))
17668 ;; @r{Display @samp{text/html} parts in @code{nnrss} groups.}
17671 '("\\`nnrss:" (mm-discouraged-alternatives nil)))
17675 @node Customizing W3
17676 @subsection Customizing W3
17682 Gnus uses the url library to fetch web pages and Emacs/W3 (or those
17683 alternatives) to display web pages. Emacs/W3 is documented in its own
17684 manual, but there are some things that may be more relevant for Gnus
17687 For instance, a common question is how to make Emacs/W3 follow links
17688 using the @code{browse-url} functions (which will call some external web
17689 browser like Netscape). Here's one way:
17692 (eval-after-load "w3"
17694 (fset 'w3-fetch-orig (symbol-function 'w3-fetch))
17695 (defun w3-fetch (&optional url target)
17696 (interactive (list (w3-read-url-with-default)))
17697 (if (eq major-mode 'gnus-article-mode)
17699 (w3-fetch-orig url target)))))
17702 Put that in your @file{.emacs} file, and hitting links in W3-rendered
17703 @acronym{HTML} in the Gnus article buffers will use @code{browse-url} to
17710 @cindex @acronym{IMAP}
17712 @acronym{IMAP} is a network protocol for reading mail (or news, or @dots{}),
17713 think of it as a modernized @acronym{NNTP}. Connecting to a @acronym{IMAP}
17714 server is much similar to connecting to a news server, you just
17715 specify the network address of the server.
17717 @acronym{IMAP} has two properties. First, @acronym{IMAP} can do
17718 everything that @acronym{POP} can, it can hence be viewed as a
17719 @acronym{POP++}. Secondly, @acronym{IMAP} is a mail storage protocol,
17720 similar to @acronym{NNTP} being a news storage protocol---however,
17721 @acronym{IMAP} offers more features than @acronym{NNTP} because news
17722 is more or less read-only whereas mail is read-write.
17724 If you want to use @acronym{IMAP} as a @acronym{POP++}, use an imap
17725 entry in @code{mail-sources}. With this, Gnus will fetch mails from
17726 the @acronym{IMAP} server and store them on the local disk. This is
17727 not the usage described in this section---@xref{Mail Sources}.
17729 If you want to use @acronym{IMAP} as a mail storage protocol, use an nnimap
17730 entry in @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods}. With this, Gnus will
17731 manipulate mails stored on the @acronym{IMAP} server. This is the kind of
17732 usage explained in this section.
17734 A server configuration in @file{~/.gnus.el} with a few @acronym{IMAP}
17735 servers might look something like the following. (Note that for
17736 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}, you need external programs and libraries,
17740 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
17741 '((nnimap "simpleserver") ; @r{no special configuration}
17742 ; @r{perhaps a ssh port forwarded server:}
17744 (nnimap-address "localhost")
17745 (nnimap-server-port 1430))
17746 ; @r{a UW server running on localhost}
17748 (nnimap-server-port 143)
17749 (nnimap-address "localhost")
17750 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "mail/*")))
17751 ; @r{anonymous public cyrus server:}
17752 (nnimap "cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu"
17753 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous)
17754 (nnimap-list-pattern "archive.*")
17755 (nnimap-stream network))
17756 ; @r{a ssl server on a non-standard port:}
17758 (nnimap-address "vic20.somewhere.com")
17759 (nnimap-server-port 9930)
17760 (nnimap-stream ssl))))
17763 After defining the new server, you can subscribe to groups on the
17764 server using normal Gnus commands such as @kbd{U} in the Group Buffer
17765 (@pxref{Subscription Commands}) or via the Server Buffer
17766 (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
17768 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nnimap}
17773 @item nnimap-address
17774 @vindex nnimap-address
17776 The address of the remote @acronym{IMAP} server. Defaults to the virtual
17777 server name if not specified.
17779 @item nnimap-server-port
17780 @vindex nnimap-server-port
17781 Port on server to contact. Defaults to port 143, or 993 for @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}.
17783 Note that this should be an integer, example server specification:
17786 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
17787 (nnimap-server-port 4711))
17790 @item nnimap-list-pattern
17791 @vindex nnimap-list-pattern
17792 String or list of strings of mailboxes to limit available groups to.
17793 This is used when the server has very many mailboxes and you're only
17794 interested in a few---some servers export your home directory via
17795 @acronym{IMAP}, you'll probably want to limit the mailboxes to those in
17796 @file{~/Mail/*} then.
17798 The string can also be a cons of REFERENCE and the string as above, what
17799 REFERENCE is used for is server specific, but on the University of
17800 Washington server it's a directory that will be concatenated with the
17803 Example server specification:
17806 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
17807 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "Mail/*" "alt.sex.*"
17808 ("~friend/Mail/" . "list/*"))))
17811 @item nnimap-stream
17812 @vindex nnimap-stream
17813 The type of stream used to connect to your server. By default, nnimap
17814 will detect and automatically use all of the below, with the exception
17815 of @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}. (@acronym{IMAP} over
17816 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} is being replaced by STARTTLS, which can
17817 be automatically detected, but it's not widely deployed yet.)
17819 Example server specification:
17822 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
17823 (nnimap-stream ssl))
17826 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-stream} is a symbol!
17830 @dfn{gssapi:} Connect with GSSAPI (usually Kerberos 5). Requires the
17831 @samp{gsasl} or @samp{imtest} program.
17833 @dfn{kerberos4:} Connect with Kerberos 4. Requires the @samp{imtest} program.
17835 @dfn{starttls:} Connect via the STARTTLS extension (similar to
17836 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}). Requires the external library @samp{starttls.el} and program
17839 @dfn{tls:} Connect through @acronym{TLS}. Requires GNUTLS (the program
17840 @samp{gnutls-cli}).
17842 @dfn{ssl:} Connect through @acronym{SSL}. Requires OpenSSL (the program
17843 @samp{openssl}) or SSLeay (@samp{s_client}).
17845 @dfn{shell:} Use a shell command to start @acronym{IMAP} connection.
17847 @dfn{network:} Plain, TCP/IP network connection.
17850 @vindex imap-kerberos4-program
17851 The @samp{imtest} program is shipped with Cyrus IMAPD. If you're
17852 using @samp{imtest} from Cyrus IMAPD < 2.0.14 (which includes version
17853 1.5.x and 1.6.x) you need to frob @code{imap-process-connection-type}
17854 to make @code{imap.el} use a pty instead of a pipe when communicating
17855 with @samp{imtest}. You will then suffer from a line length
17856 restrictions on @acronym{IMAP} commands, which might make Gnus seem to hang
17857 indefinitely if you have many articles in a mailbox. The variable
17858 @code{imap-kerberos4-program} contain parameters to pass to the imtest
17861 For @acronym{TLS} connection, the @code{gnutls-cli} program from GNUTLS is
17862 needed. It is available from
17863 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/}.
17865 @vindex imap-gssapi-program
17866 This parameter specifies a list of command lines that invoke a GSSAPI
17867 authenticated @acronym{IMAP} stream in a subshell. They are tried
17868 sequentially until a connection is made, or the list has been
17869 exhausted. By default, @samp{gsasl} from GNU SASL, available from
17870 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/}, and the @samp{imtest}
17871 program from Cyrus IMAPD (see @code{imap-kerberos4-program}), are
17874 @vindex imap-ssl-program
17875 For @acronym{SSL} connections, the OpenSSL program is available from
17876 @uref{http://www.openssl.org/}. OpenSSL was formerly known as SSLeay,
17877 and nnimap support it too---although the most recent versions of
17878 SSLeay, 0.9.x, are known to have serious bugs making it
17879 useless. Earlier versions, especially 0.8.x, of SSLeay are known to
17880 work. The variable @code{imap-ssl-program} contain parameters to pass
17883 @vindex imap-shell-program
17884 @vindex imap-shell-host
17885 For @acronym{IMAP} connections using the @code{shell} stream, the
17886 variable @code{imap-shell-program} specify what program to call. Make
17887 sure nothing is interfering with the output of the program, e.g., don't
17888 forget to redirect the error output to the void.
17890 @item nnimap-authenticator
17891 @vindex nnimap-authenticator
17893 The authenticator used to connect to the server. By default, nnimap
17894 will use the most secure authenticator your server is capable of.
17896 Example server specification:
17899 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
17900 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous))
17903 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-authenticator} is a symbol!
17907 @dfn{gssapi:} GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5) authentication. Requires
17908 external program @code{gsasl} or @code{imtest}.
17910 @dfn{kerberos4:} Kerberos 4 authentication. Requires external program
17913 @dfn{digest-md5:} Encrypted username/password via DIGEST-MD5. Requires
17914 external library @code{digest-md5.el}.
17916 @dfn{cram-md5:} Encrypted username/password via CRAM-MD5.
17918 @dfn{login:} Plain-text username/password via LOGIN.
17920 @dfn{anonymous:} Login as ``anonymous'', supplying your email address as password.
17923 @item nnimap-expunge-on-close
17925 @vindex nnimap-expunge-on-close
17926 Unlike Parmenides the @acronym{IMAP} designers have decided things that
17927 don't exist actually do exist. More specifically, @acronym{IMAP} has
17928 this concept of marking articles @code{Deleted} which doesn't actually
17929 delete them, and this (marking them @code{Deleted}, that is) is what
17930 nnimap does when you delete an article in Gnus (with @kbd{B DEL} or
17933 Since the articles aren't really removed when we mark them with the
17934 @code{Deleted} flag we'll need a way to actually delete them. Feel like
17935 running in circles yet?
17937 Traditionally, nnimap has removed all articles marked as @code{Deleted}
17938 when closing a mailbox but this is now configurable by this server
17941 The possible options are:
17946 The default behavior, delete all articles marked as ``Deleted'' when
17949 Never actually delete articles. Currently there is no way of showing
17950 the articles marked for deletion in nnimap, but other @acronym{IMAP} clients
17951 may allow you to do this. If you ever want to run the EXPUNGE command
17952 manually, @xref{Expunging mailboxes}.
17954 When closing mailboxes, nnimap will ask if you wish to expunge deleted
17959 @item nnimap-importantize-dormant
17960 @vindex nnimap-importantize-dormant
17962 If non-@code{nil} (the default), marks dormant articles as ticked (as
17963 well), for other @acronym{IMAP} clients. Within Gnus, dormant articles will
17964 naturally still (only) be marked as dormant. This is to make dormant
17965 articles stand out, just like ticked articles, in other @acronym{IMAP}
17966 clients. (In other words, Gnus has two ``Tick'' marks and @acronym{IMAP}
17969 Probably the only reason for frobbing this would be if you're trying
17970 enable per-user persistent dormant flags, using something like:
17973 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-flag-alist)
17974 (format "gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
17975 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-predicate-alist)
17976 (format "KEYWORD gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
17979 In this case, you would not want the per-user dormant flag showing up
17980 as ticked for other users.
17982 @item nnimap-expunge-search-string
17984 @vindex nnimap-expunge-search-string
17985 @cindex expiring @acronym{IMAP} mail
17987 This variable contain the @acronym{IMAP} search command sent to server when
17988 searching for articles eligible for expiring. The default is
17989 @code{"UID %s NOT SINCE %s"}, where the first @code{%s} is replaced by
17990 UID set and the second @code{%s} is replaced by a date.
17992 Probably the only useful value to change this to is
17993 @code{"UID %s NOT SENTSINCE %s"}, which makes nnimap use the Date: in
17994 messages instead of the internal article date. See section 6.4.4 of
17995 RFC 2060 for more information on valid strings.
17997 However, if @code{nnimap-search-uids-not-since-is-evil}
17998 is true, this variable has no effect since the search logic
17999 is reversed, as described below.
18001 @item nnimap-authinfo-file
18002 @vindex nnimap-authinfo-file
18004 A file containing credentials used to log in on servers. The format is
18005 (almost) the same as the @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file. See the
18006 variable @code{nntp-authinfo-file} for exact syntax; also see
18007 @ref{NNTP}. An example of an .authinfo line for an IMAP server, is:
18010 machine students.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis port imap
18013 Note that it should be @code{port imap}, or @code{port 143}, if you
18014 use a @code{nnimap-stream} of @code{tls} or @code{ssl}, even if the
18015 actual port number used is port 993 for secured IMAP. For
18016 convenience, Gnus will accept @code{port imaps} as a synonym of
18019 @item nnimap-need-unselect-to-notice-new-mail
18020 @vindex nnimap-need-unselect-to-notice-new-mail
18022 Unselect mailboxes before looking for new mail in them. Some servers
18023 seem to need this under some circumstances; it was reported that
18026 @item nnimap-nov-is-evil
18027 @vindex nnimap-nov-is-evil
18028 @cindex Courier @acronym{IMAP} server
18029 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
18031 Never generate or use a local @acronym{NOV} database. Defaults to the
18032 value of @code{gnus-agent}.
18034 Using a @acronym{NOV} database usually makes header fetching much
18035 faster, but it uses the @code{UID SEARCH UID} command, which is very
18036 slow on some servers (notably some versions of Courier). Since the Gnus
18037 Agent caches the information in the @acronym{NOV} database without using
18038 the slow command, this variable defaults to true if the Agent is in use,
18039 and false otherwise.
18041 @item nnimap-search-uids-not-since-is-evil
18042 @vindex nnimap-search-uids-not-since-is-evil
18043 @cindex Courier @acronym{IMAP} server
18044 @cindex expiring @acronym{IMAP} mail
18046 Avoid the @code{UID SEARCH UID @var{message numbers} NOT SINCE
18047 @var{date}} command, which is slow on some @acronym{IMAP} servers
18048 (notably, some versions of Courier). Instead, use @code{UID SEARCH SINCE
18049 @var{date}} and prune the list of expirable articles within Gnus.
18051 When Gnus expires your mail (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), it starts with a
18052 list of expirable articles and asks the IMAP server questions like ``Of
18053 these articles, which ones are older than a week?'' While this seems
18054 like a perfectly reasonable question, some IMAP servers take a long time
18055 to answer it, since they seemingly go looking into every old article to
18056 see if it is one of the expirable ones. Curiously, the question ``Of
18057 @emph{all} articles, which ones are newer than a week?'' seems to be
18058 much faster to answer, so setting this variable causes Gnus to ask this
18059 question and figure out the answer to the real question itself.
18061 This problem can really sneak up on you: when you first configure Gnus,
18062 everything works fine, but once you accumulate a couple thousand
18063 messages, you start cursing Gnus for being so slow. On the other hand,
18064 if you get a lot of email within a week, setting this variable will
18065 cause a lot of network traffic between Gnus and the IMAP server.
18067 @item nnimap-logout-timeout
18068 @vindex nnimap-logout-timeout
18070 There is a case where a connection to a @acronym{IMAP} server is unable
18071 to close, when connecting to the server via a certain kind of network,
18072 e.g. @acronym{VPN}. In that case, it will be observed that a connection
18073 between Emacs and the local network looks alive even if the server has
18074 closed a connection for some reason (typically, a timeout).
18075 Consequently, Emacs continues waiting for a response from the server for
18076 the @code{LOGOUT} command that Emacs sent, or hangs in other words. If
18077 you are in such a network, setting this variable to a number of seconds
18078 will be helpful. If it is set, a hung connection will be closed
18079 forcibly, after this number of seconds from the time Emacs sends the
18080 @code{LOGOUT} command. It should not be too small value but too large
18081 value will be inconvenient too. Perhaps the value 1.0 will be a good
18082 candidate but it might be worth trying some other values.
18084 Example server specification:
18087 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
18088 (nnimap-logout-timeout 1.0))
18094 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
18095 * Expiring in IMAP:: Expiring mail with nnimap.
18096 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
18097 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a ``compress mailbox'' button.
18098 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use @acronym{IMAP} namespace in Gnus.
18099 * Debugging IMAP:: What to do when things don't work.
18104 @node Splitting in IMAP
18105 @subsection Splitting in IMAP
18106 @cindex splitting imap mail
18108 Splitting is something Gnus users have loved and used for years, and now
18109 the rest of the world is catching up. Yeah, dream on, not many
18110 @acronym{IMAP} servers have server side splitting and those that have
18111 splitting seem to use some non-standard protocol. This means that
18112 @acronym{IMAP} support for Gnus has to do its own splitting.
18116 (Incidentally, people seem to have been dreaming on, and Sieve has
18117 gaining a market share and is supported by several IMAP servers.
18118 Fortunately, Gnus support it too, @xref{Sieve Commands}.)
18120 Here are the variables of interest:
18124 @item nnimap-split-crosspost
18125 @cindex splitting, crosspost
18127 @vindex nnimap-split-crosspost
18129 If non-@code{nil}, do crossposting if several split methods match the
18130 mail. If @code{nil}, the first match in @code{nnimap-split-rule}
18131 found will be used.
18133 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-crosspost}.
18135 @item nnimap-split-inbox
18136 @cindex splitting, inbox
18138 @vindex nnimap-split-inbox
18140 A string or a list of strings that gives the name(s) of @acronym{IMAP}
18141 mailboxes to split from. Defaults to @code{nil}, which means that
18142 splitting is disabled!
18145 (setq nnimap-split-inbox
18146 '("INBOX" ("~/friend/Mail" . "lists/*") "lists.imap"))
18149 No nnmail equivalent.
18151 @item nnimap-split-rule
18152 @cindex splitting, rules
18153 @vindex nnimap-split-rule
18155 New mail found in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be split according to
18158 This variable contains a list of lists, where the first element in the
18159 sublist gives the name of the @acronym{IMAP} mailbox to move articles
18160 matching the regexp in the second element in the sublist. Got that?
18161 Neither did I, we need examples.
18164 (setq nnimap-split-rule
18166 "^Sender: owner-nnimap@@vic20.globalcom.se")
18167 ("INBOX.junk" "^Subject:.*MAKE MONEY")
18168 ("INBOX.private" "")))
18171 This will put all articles from the nnimap mailing list into mailbox
18172 INBOX.nnimap, all articles containing MAKE MONEY in the Subject: line
18173 into INBOX.junk and everything else in INBOX.private.
18175 The first string may contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by
18176 replace-match to insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For
18180 ("INBOX.lists.\\1" "^Sender: owner-\\([a-z-]+\\)@@")
18183 The first element can also be the symbol @code{junk} to indicate that
18184 matching messages should simply be deleted. Use with care.
18186 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
18187 called with the first element of the rule as the argument, in a buffer
18188 containing the headers of the article. It should return a
18189 non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the mail belongs in that group.
18191 Nnmail users might recollect that the last regexp had to be empty to
18192 match all articles (like in the example above). This is not required in
18193 nnimap. Articles not matching any of the regexps will not be moved out
18194 of your inbox. (This might affect performance if you keep lots of
18195 unread articles in your inbox, since the splitting code would go over
18196 them every time you fetch new mail.)
18198 These rules are processed from the beginning of the alist toward the
18199 end. The first rule to make a match will ``win'', unless you have
18200 crossposting enabled. In that case, all matching rules will ``win''.
18202 This variable can also have a function as its value, the function will
18203 be called with the headers narrowed and should return a group where it
18204 thinks the article should be split to. See @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
18206 The splitting code tries to create mailboxes if it needs to.
18208 To allow for different split rules on different virtual servers, and
18209 even different split rules in different inboxes on the same server,
18210 the syntax of this variable have been extended along the lines of:
18213 (setq nnimap-split-rule
18214 '(("my1server" (".*" (("ding" "ding@@gnus.org")
18215 ("junk" "From:.*Simon"))))
18216 ("my2server" ("INBOX" nnimap-split-fancy))
18217 ("my[34]server" (".*" (("private" "To:.*Simon")
18218 ("junk" my-junk-func))))))
18221 The virtual server name is in fact a regexp, so that the same rules
18222 may apply to several servers. In the example, the servers
18223 @code{my3server} and @code{my4server} both use the same rules.
18224 Similarly, the inbox string is also a regexp. The actual splitting
18225 rules are as before, either a function, or a list with group/regexp or
18226 group/function elements.
18228 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
18230 @item nnimap-split-predicate
18232 @vindex nnimap-split-predicate
18234 Mail matching this predicate in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be
18235 split, it is a string and the default is @samp{UNSEEN UNDELETED}.
18237 This might be useful if you use another @acronym{IMAP} client to read mail in
18238 your inbox but would like Gnus to split all articles in the inbox
18239 regardless of readedness. Then you might change this to
18242 @item nnimap-split-fancy
18243 @cindex splitting, fancy
18244 @findex nnimap-split-fancy
18245 @vindex nnimap-split-fancy
18247 It's possible to set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
18248 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} if you want to use fancy
18249 splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
18251 However, to be able to have different fancy split rules for nnmail and
18252 nnimap back ends you can set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
18253 @code{nnimap-split-fancy} and define the nnimap specific fancy split
18254 rule in @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
18259 (setq nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
18260 nnimap-split-fancy ...)
18263 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
18265 @item nnimap-split-download-body
18266 @findex nnimap-split-download-body
18267 @vindex nnimap-split-download-body
18269 Set to non-@code{nil} to download entire articles during splitting.
18270 This is generally not required, and will slow things down
18271 considerably. You may need it if you want to use an advanced
18272 splitting function that analyzes the body to split the article.
18276 @node Expiring in IMAP
18277 @subsection Expiring in IMAP
18278 @cindex expiring @acronym{IMAP} mail
18280 Even though @code{nnimap} is not a proper @code{nnmail} derived back
18281 end, it supports most features in regular expiring (@pxref{Expiring
18282 Mail}). Unlike splitting in @acronym{IMAP} (@pxref{Splitting in
18283 IMAP}) it does not clone the @code{nnmail} variables (i.e., creating
18284 @var{nnimap-expiry-wait}) but reuse the @code{nnmail} variables. What
18285 follows below are the variables used by the @code{nnimap} expiry
18288 A note on how the expire mark is stored on the @acronym{IMAP} server is
18289 appropriate here as well. The expire mark is translated into a
18290 @code{imap} client specific mark, @code{gnus-expire}, and stored on the
18291 message. This means that likely only Gnus will understand and treat
18292 the @code{gnus-expire} mark properly, although other clients may allow
18293 you to view client specific flags on the message. It also means that
18294 your server must support permanent storage of client specific flags on
18295 messages. Most do, fortunately.
18297 If expiring @acronym{IMAP} mail seems very slow, try setting the server
18298 variable @code{nnimap-search-uids-not-since-is-evil}.
18302 @item nnmail-expiry-wait
18303 @item nnmail-expiry-wait-function
18305 These variables are fully supported. The expire value can be a
18306 number, the symbol @code{immediate} or @code{never}.
18308 @item nnmail-expiry-target
18310 This variable is supported, and internally implemented by calling the
18311 @code{nnmail} functions that handle this. It contains an optimization
18312 that if the destination is a @acronym{IMAP} group on the same server, the
18313 article is copied instead of appended (that is, uploaded again).
18317 @node Editing IMAP ACLs
18318 @subsection Editing IMAP ACLs
18319 @cindex editing imap acls
18320 @cindex Access Control Lists
18321 @cindex Editing @acronym{IMAP} ACLs
18322 @kindex G l (Group)
18323 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-edit-acl
18325 ACL stands for Access Control List. ACLs are used in @acronym{IMAP} for
18326 limiting (or enabling) other users access to your mail boxes. Not all
18327 @acronym{IMAP} servers support this, this function will give an error if it
18330 To edit an ACL for a mailbox, type @kbd{G l}
18331 (@code{gnus-group-edit-nnimap-acl}) and you'll be presented with an ACL
18332 editing window with detailed instructions.
18334 Some possible uses:
18338 Giving ``anyone'' the ``lrs'' rights (lookup, read, keep seen/unseen flags)
18339 on your mailing list mailboxes enables other users on the same server to
18340 follow the list without subscribing to it.
18342 At least with the Cyrus server, you are required to give the user
18343 ``anyone'' posting ("p") capabilities to have ``plussing'' work (that is,
18344 mail sent to user+mailbox@@domain ending up in the @acronym{IMAP} mailbox
18348 @node Expunging mailboxes
18349 @subsection Expunging mailboxes
18353 @cindex manual expunging
18354 @kindex G x (Group)
18355 @findex gnus-group-expunge-group
18357 If you're using the @code{never} setting of @code{nnimap-expunge-on-close},
18358 you may want the option of expunging all deleted articles in a mailbox
18359 manually. This is exactly what @kbd{G x} does.
18361 Currently there is no way of showing deleted articles, you can just
18364 @node A note on namespaces
18365 @subsection A note on namespaces
18366 @cindex IMAP namespace
18369 The @acronym{IMAP} protocol has a concept called namespaces, described
18370 by the following text in the RFC2060:
18373 5.1.2. Mailbox Namespace Naming Convention
18375 By convention, the first hierarchical element of any mailbox name
18376 which begins with "#" identifies the "namespace" of the remainder of
18377 the name. This makes it possible to disambiguate between different
18378 types of mailbox stores, each of which have their own namespaces.
18380 For example, implementations which offer access to USENET
18381 newsgroups MAY use the "#news" namespace to partition the USENET
18382 newsgroup namespace from that of other mailboxes. Thus, the
18383 comp.mail.misc newsgroup would have an mailbox name of
18384 "#news.comp.mail.misc", and the name "comp.mail.misc" could refer
18385 to a different object (e.g. a user's private mailbox).
18388 While there is nothing in this text that warrants concern for the
18389 @acronym{IMAP} implementation in Gnus, some servers use namespace
18390 prefixes in a way that does not work with how Gnus uses mailbox names.
18392 Specifically, University of Washington's @acronym{IMAP} server uses
18393 mailbox names like @code{#driver.mbx/read-mail} which are valid only
18394 in the @sc{create} and @sc{append} commands. After the mailbox is
18395 created (or a messages is appended to a mailbox), it must be accessed
18396 without the namespace prefix, i.e. @code{read-mail}. Since Gnus do
18397 not make it possible for the user to guarantee that user entered
18398 mailbox names will only be used with the CREATE and APPEND commands,
18399 you should simply not use the namespace prefixed mailbox names in
18402 See the UoW IMAPD documentation for the @code{#driver.*/} prefix
18403 for more information on how to use the prefixes. They are a power
18404 tool and should be used only if you are sure what the effects are.
18406 @node Debugging IMAP
18407 @subsection Debugging IMAP
18408 @cindex IMAP debugging
18409 @cindex protocol dump (IMAP)
18411 @acronym{IMAP} is a complex protocol, more so than @acronym{NNTP} or
18412 @acronym{POP3}. Implementation bugs are not unlikely, and we do our
18413 best to fix them right away. If you encounter odd behavior, chances
18414 are that either the server or Gnus is buggy.
18416 If you are familiar with network protocols in general, you will
18417 probably be able to extract some clues from the protocol dump of the
18418 exchanges between Gnus and the server. Even if you are not familiar
18419 with network protocols, when you include the protocol dump in
18420 @acronym{IMAP}-related bug reports you are helping us with data
18421 critical to solving the problem. Therefore, we strongly encourage you
18422 to include the protocol dump when reporting IMAP bugs in Gnus.
18426 Because the protocol dump, when enabled, generates lots of data, it is
18427 disabled by default. You can enable it by setting @code{imap-log} as
18434 This instructs the @code{imap.el} package to log any exchanges with
18435 the server. The log is stored in the buffer @samp{*imap-log*}. Look
18436 for error messages, which sometimes are tagged with the keyword
18437 @code{BAD}---but when submitting a bug, make sure to include all the
18440 @node Other Sources
18441 @section Other Sources
18443 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
18444 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
18448 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
18449 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
18450 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
18451 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
18455 @node Directory Groups
18456 @subsection Directory Groups
18458 @cindex directory groups
18460 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
18461 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
18464 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
18465 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
18466 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
18467 back end to read directories. Big deal.
18469 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
18470 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
18471 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
18472 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
18473 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
18475 @code{nndir} will use @acronym{NOV} files if they are present.
18477 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' back end---you can't delete or expire
18478 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
18479 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
18480 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
18483 @node Anything Groups
18484 @subsection Anything Groups
18487 From the @code{nndir} back end (which reads a single spool-like
18488 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
18489 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
18492 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
18493 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
18494 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
18495 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're forgetting.
18496 @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it snoops each
18497 file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e., the first
18498 few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head. If this is
18499 just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g. a C source file),
18500 @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It will use
18501 file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
18504 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
18505 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
18506 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
18507 in the article buffer, just as usual.
18509 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
18510 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
18511 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
18512 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
18514 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
18515 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
18516 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
18517 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
18518 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
18519 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
18520 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
18521 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
18526 @item nneething-map-file-directory
18527 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
18528 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
18529 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
18531 @item nneething-exclude-files
18532 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
18533 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
18534 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
18536 @item nneething-include-files
18537 @vindex nneething-include-files
18538 Regexp saying what files to include in the group. If this variable is
18539 non-@code{nil}, only files matching this regexp will be included.
18541 @item nneething-map-file
18542 @vindex nneething-map-file
18543 Name of the map files.
18547 @node Document Groups
18548 @subsection Document Groups
18550 @cindex documentation group
18553 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
18554 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
18564 The standard Unix mbox file.
18566 @cindex MMDF mail box
18568 The MMDF mail box format.
18571 Several news articles appended into a file.
18573 @cindex rnews batch files
18575 The rnews batch transport format.
18578 Netscape mail boxes.
18581 @acronym{MIME} multipart messages.
18583 @item standard-digest
18584 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
18587 A @acronym{MIME} digest of messages.
18589 @item lanl-gov-announce
18590 Announcement messages from LANL Gov Announce.
18592 @cindex forwarded messages
18593 @item rfc822-forward
18594 A message forwarded according to RFC822.
18597 The Outlook mail box.
18600 The Outlook Express dbx mail box.
18603 A bounce message from the Exim MTA.
18606 A message forwarded according to informal rules.
18609 An RFC934-forwarded message.
18615 A digest of Clarinet brief news items.
18618 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
18624 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
18625 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
18626 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
18629 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
18630 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
18631 group. And that's it.
18633 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
18634 new & spiffy Gnus mail back end, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
18635 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
18636 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
18637 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
18638 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
18639 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
18640 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
18641 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
18642 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
18644 Virtual server variables:
18647 @item nndoc-article-type
18648 @vindex nndoc-article-type
18649 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
18650 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
18651 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts}, @code{standard-digest},
18652 @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs}, @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook},
18653 @code{oe-dbx}, @code{mailman}, and @code{mail-in-mail} or @code{guess}.
18655 @item nndoc-post-type
18656 @vindex nndoc-post-type
18657 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
18658 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
18663 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
18667 @node Document Server Internals
18668 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
18670 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
18671 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
18672 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
18673 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
18675 First, here's an example document type definition:
18679 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
18680 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
18683 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
18684 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
18685 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
18686 types can be defined with very few settings:
18689 @item first-article
18690 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
18691 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
18694 @item article-begin
18695 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
18696 says what the beginning of each article looks like. To do more
18697 complicated things that cannot be dealt with a simple regexp, you can
18698 use @code{article-begin-function} instead of this.
18700 @item article-begin-function
18701 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the beginning
18702 of each article. This setting overrides @code{article-begin}.
18705 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
18706 article. To do more complicated things that cannot be dealt with a
18707 simple regexp, you can use @code{head-begin-function} instead of this.
18709 @item head-begin-function
18710 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
18711 the article. This setting overrides @code{head-begin}.
18714 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
18715 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
18718 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
18719 to @samp{^\n}. To do more complicated things that cannot be dealt with
18720 a simple regexp, you can use @code{body-begin-function} instead of this.
18722 @item body-begin-function
18723 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
18724 of the article. This setting overrides @code{body-begin}.
18727 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article. To do
18728 more complicated things that cannot be dealt with a simple regexp, you
18729 can use @code{body-end-function} instead of this.
18731 @item body-end-function
18732 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
18733 the article. This setting overrides @code{body-end}.
18736 If present, this should match the beginning of the file. All text
18737 before this regexp will be totally ignored.
18740 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
18741 regexp will be totally ignored.
18745 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
18746 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
18747 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
18748 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
18749 something that's palatable for Gnus:
18752 @item prepare-body-function
18753 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
18754 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
18755 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
18757 @item article-transform-function
18758 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
18759 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
18760 body of the article.
18762 @item generate-head-function
18763 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
18764 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
18765 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
18766 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
18768 @item generate-article-function
18769 If present, this function is called to generate an entire article that
18770 Gnus can understand. It is called with the article number as a
18771 parameter when requesting all articles.
18773 @item dissection-function
18774 If present, this function is called to dissect a document by itself,
18775 overriding @code{first-article}, @code{article-begin},
18776 @code{article-begin-function}, @code{head-begin},
18777 @code{head-begin-function}, @code{head-end}, @code{body-begin},
18778 @code{body-begin-function}, @code{body-end}, @code{body-end-function},
18779 @code{file-begin}, and @code{file-end}.
18783 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
18788 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
18789 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
18790 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
18791 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
18792 (head-end . "^ ?$")
18793 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
18794 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
18795 (subtype digest guess))
18798 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
18799 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
18800 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
18801 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
18802 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
18804 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
18805 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first
18806 is the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says
18807 where in the document type definition alist to put this definition.
18808 The alist is traversed sequentially, and
18809 @code{nndoc-@var{type}-type-p} is called for a given type @var{type}.
18810 So @code{nndoc-mmdf-type-p} is called to see whether a document is of
18811 @code{mmdf} type, and so on. These type predicates should return
18812 @code{nil} if the document is not of the correct type; @code{t} if it
18813 is of the correct type; and a number if the document might be of the
18814 correct type. A high number means high probability; a low number
18815 means low probability with @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
18818 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
18819 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
18820 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
18823 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
18824 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
18825 The @code{nngateway} back end provides the interface.
18827 Note that you can't read anything from this back end---it can only be
18833 @item nngateway-address
18834 @vindex nngateway-address
18835 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
18837 @item nngateway-header-transformation
18838 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
18839 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
18840 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
18841 transformation should be called, and defaults to
18842 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
18843 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
18846 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
18847 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
18848 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
18851 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
18854 will get this @code{To} header inserted:
18857 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
18860 The following pre-defined functions exist:
18862 @findex nngateway-simple-header-transformation
18865 @item nngateway-simple-header-transformation
18866 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
18867 @var{newsgroup}@@@code{nngateway-address}.
18869 @findex nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
18871 @item nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
18872 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
18873 @code{nngateway-address}.
18881 (setq gnus-post-method
18883 "mail2news@@replay.com"
18884 (nngateway-header-transformation
18885 nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation)))
18888 So, to use this, simply say something like:
18891 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
18896 @node Combined Groups
18897 @section Combined Groups
18899 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
18903 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
18907 @node Virtual Groups
18908 @subsection Virtual Groups
18910 @cindex virtual groups
18911 @cindex merging groups
18913 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
18916 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
18917 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
18918 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
18920 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
18921 regexp to match component groups.
18923 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
18924 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
18925 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it
18926 came. (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be
18927 shown in the virtual group.). To create an empty virtual group, run
18928 @kbd{G V} (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}) in the group buffer
18929 and edit the method regexp with @kbd{M-e}
18930 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method})
18932 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
18933 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
18936 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
18939 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
18940 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
18942 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
18943 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
18944 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
18945 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
18948 "^nntp\\+server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
18951 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
18952 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
18953 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
18955 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
18956 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
18957 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
18958 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
18959 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
18961 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
18962 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
18963 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
18965 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
18966 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} variable is non-@code{nil} (which
18967 is the default), @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread
18968 articles when entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil}
18969 and you read articles in a component group after the virtual group has
18970 been activated, the read articles from the component group will show up
18971 when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this effect if you
18972 have two virtual groups that have a component group in common. If
18973 that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}. Or you can
18974 just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before you enter
18975 it---it'll have much the same effect.
18977 @code{nnvirtual} can have both mail and news groups as component groups.
18978 When responding to articles in @code{nnvirtual} groups, @code{nnvirtual}
18979 has to ask the back end of the component group the article comes from
18980 whether it is a news or mail back end. However, when you do a @kbd{^},
18981 there is typically no sure way for the component back end to know this,
18982 and in that case @code{nnvirtual} tells Gnus that the article came from a
18983 not-news back end. (Just to be on the safe side.)
18985 @kbd{C-c C-n} in the message buffer will insert the @code{Newsgroups}
18986 line from the article you respond to in these cases.
18988 @code{nnvirtual} groups do not inherit anything but articles and marks
18989 from component groups---group parameters, for instance, are not
18993 @node Email Based Diary
18994 @section Email Based Diary
18996 @cindex email based diary
18999 This section describes a special mail back end called @code{nndiary},
19000 and its companion library @code{gnus-diary}. It is ``special'' in the
19001 sense that it is not meant to be one of the standard alternatives for
19002 reading mail with Gnus. See @ref{Choosing a Mail Back End} for that.
19003 Instead, it is used to treat @emph{some} of your mails in a special way,
19004 namely, as event reminders.
19006 Here is a typical scenario:
19010 You've got a date with Andy Mc Dowell or Bruce Willis (select according
19011 to your sexual preference) in one month. You don't want to forget it.
19013 So you send a ``reminder'' message (actually, a diary one) to yourself.
19015 You forget all about it and keep on getting and reading new mail, as usual.
19017 From time to time, as you type `g' in the group buffer and as the date
19018 is getting closer, the message will pop up again to remind you of your
19019 appointment, just as if it were new and unread.
19021 Read your ``new'' messages, this one included, and start dreaming again
19022 of the night you're gonna have.
19024 Once the date is over (you actually fell asleep just after dinner), the
19025 message will be automatically deleted if it is marked as expirable.
19028 The Gnus Diary back end has the ability to handle regular appointments
19029 (that wouldn't ever be deleted) as well as punctual ones, operates as a
19030 real mail back end and is configurable in many ways. All of this is
19031 explained in the sections below.
19034 * The NNDiary Back End:: Basic setup and usage.
19035 * The Gnus Diary Library:: Utility toolkit on top of nndiary.
19036 * Sending or Not Sending:: A final note on sending diary messages.
19040 @node The NNDiary Back End
19041 @subsection The NNDiary Back End
19043 @cindex the nndiary back end
19045 @code{nndiary} is a back end very similar to @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail
19046 Spool}). Actually, it could appear as a mix of @code{nnml} and
19047 @code{nndraft}. If you know @code{nnml}, you're already familiar with
19048 the message storing scheme of @code{nndiary}: one file per message, one
19049 directory per group.
19051 Before anything, there is one requirement to be able to run
19052 @code{nndiary} properly: you @emph{must} use the group timestamp feature
19053 of Gnus. This adds a timestamp to each group's parameters. @ref{Group
19054 Timestamp} to see how it's done.
19057 * Diary Messages:: What makes a message valid for nndiary.
19058 * Running NNDiary:: NNDiary has two modes of operation.
19059 * Customizing NNDiary:: Bells and whistles.
19062 @node Diary Messages
19063 @subsubsection Diary Messages
19064 @cindex nndiary messages
19065 @cindex nndiary mails
19067 @code{nndiary} messages are just normal ones, except for the mandatory
19068 presence of 7 special headers. These headers are of the form
19069 @code{X-Diary-<something>}, @code{<something>} being one of
19070 @code{Minute}, @code{Hour}, @code{Dom}, @code{Month}, @code{Year},
19071 @code{Time-Zone} and @code{Dow}. @code{Dom} means ``Day of Month'', and
19072 @code{dow} means ``Day of Week''. These headers actually behave like
19073 crontab specifications and define the event date(s):
19077 For all headers except the @code{Time-Zone} one, a header value is
19078 either a star (meaning all possible values), or a list of fields
19079 (separated by a comma).
19081 A field is either an integer, or a range.
19083 A range is two integers separated by a dash.
19085 Possible integer values are 0--59 for @code{Minute}, 0--23 for
19086 @code{Hour}, 1--31 for @code{Dom}, 1--12 for @code{Month}, above 1971
19087 for @code{Year} and 0--6 for @code{Dow} (0 meaning Sunday).
19089 As a special case, a star in either @code{Dom} or @code{Dow} doesn't
19090 mean ``all possible values'', but ``use only the other field''. Note
19091 that if both are star'ed, the use of either one gives the same result.
19093 The @code{Time-Zone} header is special in that it can only have one
19094 value (@code{GMT}, for instance). A star doesn't mean ``all possible
19095 values'' (because it makes no sense), but ``the current local time
19096 zone''. Most of the time, you'll be using a star here. However, for a
19097 list of available time zone values, see the variable
19098 @code{nndiary-headers}.
19101 As a concrete example, here are the diary headers to add to your message
19102 for specifying ``Each Monday and each 1st of month, at 12:00, 20:00,
19103 21:00, 22:00, 23:00 and 24:00, from 1999 to 2010'' (I'll let you find
19108 X-Diary-Hour: 12, 20-24
19111 X-Diary-Year: 1999-2010
19113 X-Diary-Time-Zone: *
19116 @node Running NNDiary
19117 @subsubsection Running NNDiary
19118 @cindex running nndiary
19119 @cindex nndiary operation modes
19121 @code{nndiary} has two modes of operation: ``traditional'' (the default)
19122 and ``autonomous''. In traditional mode, @code{nndiary} does not get new
19123 mail by itself. You have to move (@kbd{B m}) or copy (@kbd{B c}) mails
19124 from your primary mail back end to nndiary groups in order to handle them
19125 as diary messages. In autonomous mode, @code{nndiary} retrieves its own
19126 mail and handles it independently from your primary mail back end.
19128 One should note that Gnus is not inherently designed to allow several
19129 ``master'' mail back ends at the same time. However, this does make
19130 sense with @code{nndiary}: you really want to send and receive diary
19131 messages to your diary groups directly. So, @code{nndiary} supports
19132 being sort of a ``second primary mail back end'' (to my knowledge, it is
19133 the only back end offering this feature). However, there is a limitation
19134 (which I hope to fix some day): respooling doesn't work in autonomous
19137 In order to use @code{nndiary} in autonomous mode, you have several
19142 Allow @code{nndiary} to retrieve new mail by itself. Put the following
19143 line in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
19146 (setq nndiary-get-new-mail t)
19149 You must arrange for diary messages (those containing @code{X-Diary-*}
19150 headers) to be split in a private folder @emph{before} Gnus treat them.
19151 Again, this is needed because Gnus cannot (yet ?) properly handle
19152 multiple primary mail back ends. Getting those messages from a separate
19153 source will compensate this misfeature to some extent.
19155 As an example, here's my procmailrc entry to store diary files in
19156 @file{~/.nndiary} (the default @code{nndiary} mail source file):
19165 Once this is done, you might want to customize the following two options
19166 that affect the diary mail retrieval and splitting processes:
19168 @defvar nndiary-mail-sources
19169 This is the diary-specific replacement for the standard
19170 @code{mail-sources} variable. It obeys the same syntax, and defaults to
19171 @code{(file :path "~/.nndiary")}.
19174 @defvar nndiary-split-methods
19175 This is the diary-specific replacement for the standard
19176 @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable. It obeys the same syntax.
19179 Finally, you may add a permanent @code{nndiary} virtual server
19180 (something like @code{(nndiary "diary")} should do) to your
19181 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods}.
19183 Hopefully, almost everything (see the TODO section in
19184 @file{nndiary.el}) will work as expected when you restart Gnus: in
19185 autonomous mode, typing @kbd{g} and @kbd{M-g} in the group buffer, will
19186 also get your new diary mails and split them according to your
19187 diary-specific rules, @kbd{F} will find your new diary groups etc.
19189 @node Customizing NNDiary
19190 @subsubsection Customizing NNDiary
19191 @cindex customizing nndiary
19192 @cindex nndiary customization
19194 Now that @code{nndiary} is up and running, it's time to customize it.
19195 The custom group is called @code{nndiary} (no, really ?!). You should
19196 browse it to figure out which options you'd like to tweak. The following
19197 two variables are probably the only ones you will want to change:
19199 @defvar nndiary-reminders
19200 This is the list of times when you want to be reminded of your
19201 appointments (e.g. 3 weeks before, then 2 days before, then 1 hour
19202 before and that's it). Remember that ``being reminded'' means that the
19203 diary message will pop up as brand new and unread again when you get new
19207 @defvar nndiary-week-starts-on-monday
19208 Rather self-explanatory. Otherwise, Sunday is assumed (this is the
19213 @node The Gnus Diary Library
19214 @subsection The Gnus Diary Library
19216 @cindex the gnus diary library
19218 Using @code{nndiary} manually (I mean, writing the headers by hand and
19219 so on) would be rather boring. Fortunately, there is a library called
19220 @code{gnus-diary} written on top of @code{nndiary}, that does many
19221 useful things for you.
19223 In order to use it, add the following line to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
19226 (require 'gnus-diary)
19229 Also, you shouldn't use any @code{gnus-user-format-function-[d|D]}
19230 (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}). @code{gnus-diary} provides both of these
19231 (sorry if you used them before).
19235 * Diary Summary Line Format:: A nicer summary buffer line format.
19236 * Diary Articles Sorting:: A nicer way to sort messages.
19237 * Diary Headers Generation:: Not doing it manually.
19238 * Diary Group Parameters:: Not handling them manually.
19241 @node Diary Summary Line Format
19242 @subsubsection Diary Summary Line Format
19243 @cindex diary summary buffer line
19244 @cindex diary summary line format
19246 Displaying diary messages in standard summary line format (usually
19247 something like @samp{From Joe: Subject}) is pretty useless. Most of
19248 the time, you're the one who wrote the message, and you mostly want to
19249 see the event's date.
19251 @code{gnus-diary} provides two supplemental user formats to be used in
19252 summary line formats. @code{D} corresponds to a formatted time string
19253 for the next occurrence of the event (e.g. ``Sat, Sep 22 01, 12:00''),
19254 while @code{d} corresponds to an approximative remaining time until the
19255 next occurrence of the event (e.g. ``in 6 months, 1 week'').
19257 For example, here's how Joe's birthday is displayed in my
19258 @code{nndiary+diary:birthdays} summary buffer (note that the message is
19259 expirable, but will never be deleted, as it specifies a periodic event):
19262 E Sat, Sep 22 01, 12:00: Joe's birthday (in 6 months, 1 week)
19265 In order to get something like the above, you would normally add the
19266 following line to your diary groups'parameters:
19269 (gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z %uD: %(%s%) (%ud)\n")
19272 However, @code{gnus-diary} does it automatically (@pxref{Diary Group
19273 Parameters}). You can however customize the provided summary line format
19274 with the following user options:
19276 @defvar gnus-diary-summary-line-format
19277 Defines the summary line format used for diary groups (@pxref{Summary
19278 Buffer Lines}). @code{gnus-diary} uses it to automatically update the
19279 diary groups'parameters.
19282 @defvar gnus-diary-time-format
19283 Defines the format to display dates in diary summary buffers. This is
19284 used by the @code{D} user format. See the docstring for details.
19287 @defvar gnus-diary-delay-format-function
19288 Defines the format function to use for displaying delays (remaining
19289 times) in diary summary buffers. This is used by the @code{d} user
19290 format. There are currently built-in functions for English and French;
19291 you can also define your own. See the docstring for details.
19294 @node Diary Articles Sorting
19295 @subsubsection Diary Articles Sorting
19296 @cindex diary articles sorting
19297 @cindex diary summary lines sorting
19298 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule
19299 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-schedule
19300 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-schedule
19302 @code{gnus-diary} provides new sorting functions (@pxref{Sorting the
19303 Summary Buffer} ) called @code{gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule},
19304 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-schedule} and
19305 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-schedule}. These functions let you organize
19306 your diary summary buffers from the closest event to the farthest one.
19308 @code{gnus-diary} automatically installs
19309 @code{gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule} as a menu item in the summary
19310 buffer's ``sort'' menu, and the two others as the primary (hence
19311 default) sorting functions in the group parameters (@pxref{Diary Group
19314 @node Diary Headers Generation
19315 @subsubsection Diary Headers Generation
19316 @cindex diary headers generation
19317 @findex gnus-diary-check-message
19319 @code{gnus-diary} provides a function called
19320 @code{gnus-diary-check-message} to help you handle the @code{X-Diary-*}
19321 headers. This function ensures that the current message contains all the
19322 required diary headers, and prompts you for values or corrections if
19325 This function is hooked into the @code{nndiary} back end, so that
19326 moving or copying an article to a diary group will trigger it
19327 automatically. It is also bound to @kbd{C-c C-f d} in
19328 @code{message-mode} and @code{article-edit-mode} in order to ease the
19329 process of converting a usual mail to a diary one.
19331 This function takes a prefix argument which will force prompting of
19332 all diary headers, regardless of their presence or validity. That way,
19333 you can very easily reschedule an already valid diary message, for
19336 @node Diary Group Parameters
19337 @subsubsection Diary Group Parameters
19338 @cindex diary group parameters
19340 When you create a new diary group, or visit one, @code{gnus-diary}
19341 automatically checks your group parameters and if needed, sets the
19342 summary line format to the diary-specific value, installs the
19343 diary-specific sorting functions, and also adds the different
19344 @code{X-Diary-*} headers to the group's posting-style. It is then easier
19345 to send a diary message, because if you use @kbd{C-u a} or @kbd{C-u m}
19346 on a diary group to prepare a message, these headers will be inserted
19347 automatically (although not filled with proper values yet).
19349 @node Sending or Not Sending
19350 @subsection Sending or Not Sending
19352 Well, assuming you've read all of the above, here are two final notes on
19353 mail sending with @code{nndiary}:
19357 @code{nndiary} is a @emph{real} mail back end. You really send real diary
19358 messsages for real. This means for instance that you can give
19359 appointments to anybody (provided they use Gnus and @code{nndiary}) by
19360 sending the diary message to them as well.
19362 However, since @code{nndiary} also has a @code{request-post} method, you
19363 can also use @kbd{C-u a} instead of @kbd{C-u m} on a diary group and the
19364 message won't actually be sent; just stored locally in the group. This
19365 comes in very handy for private appointments.
19368 @node Gnus Unplugged
19369 @section Gnus Unplugged
19374 @cindex Gnus unplugged
19376 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
19377 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
19378 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
19379 read news. Believe it or not.
19381 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
19382 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
19383 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
19384 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
19385 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
19387 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
19388 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
19389 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
19390 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
19391 reading news on a machine.
19393 Setting up Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple. In
19394 fact, you don't have to configure anything as the agent is now enabled
19395 by default (@pxref{Agent Variables, gnus-agent}).
19397 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
19400 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
19401 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
19402 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
19403 * Agent Visuals:: Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
19404 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
19405 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
19406 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
19407 * Agent and flags:: How the Agent maintains flags.
19408 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with @acronym{IMAP}.
19409 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
19410 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
19411 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
19412 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
19413 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
19418 @subsection Agent Basics
19420 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
19422 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
19423 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
19424 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
19425 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
19427 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
19428 connected to the net continuously.
19430 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
19431 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
19433 You know that Gnus gives you all the opportunity you'd ever want for
19434 shooting yourself in the foot. Some people call it flexibility. Gnus
19435 is also customizable to a great extent, which means that the user has a
19436 say on how Gnus behaves. Other newsreaders might unconditionally shoot
19437 you in your foot, but with Gnus, you have a choice!
19439 Gnus is never really in plugged or unplugged state. Rather, it applies
19440 that state to each server individually. This means that some servers
19441 can be plugged while others can be unplugged. Additionally, some
19442 servers can be ignored by the Agent altogether (which means that
19443 they're kinda like plugged always).
19445 So when you unplug the Agent and then wonder why is Gnus opening a
19446 connection to the Net, the next step to do is to look whether all
19447 servers are agentized. If there is an unagentized server, you found
19450 Another thing is the @dfn{offline} state. Sometimes, servers aren't
19451 reachable. When Gnus notices this, it asks you whether you want the
19452 server to be switched to offline state. If you say yes, then the
19453 server will behave somewhat as if it was unplugged, except that Gnus
19454 will ask you whether you want to switch it back online again.
19456 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
19461 @findex gnus-unplugged
19462 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
19463 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
19464 already fetched while in this mode.
19467 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
19468 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
19469 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged} and use @kbd{g} to check for new mail
19470 as usual. To check for new mail in unplugged mode (@pxref{Mail
19471 Source Specifiers}).
19474 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the
19475 news onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press
19476 @kbd{g} to check if there are any new news and then @kbd{J s} to fetch
19477 all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus know which
19478 articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}).
19481 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
19482 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
19483 then you read the news offline.
19486 And then you go to step 2.
19489 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
19495 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
19496 back end, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
19497 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
19498 @kbd{J a} on the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
19499 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}), or @kbd{J r} on automatically
19500 added servers you do not wish to have covered by the Agent. By default,
19501 all @code{nntp} and @code{nnimap} servers in @code{gnus-select-method} and
19502 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} are agentized.
19505 Decide on download policy. It's fairly simple once you decide whether
19506 you are going to use agent categories, topic parameters, and/or group
19507 parameters to implement your policy. If you're new to gnus, it
19508 is probably best to start with a category, @xref{Agent Categories}.
19510 Both topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) and agent categories
19511 (@pxref{Agent Categories}) provide for setting a policy that applies
19512 to multiple groups. Which you use is entirely up to you. Topic
19513 parameters do override categories so, if you mix the two, you'll have
19514 to take that into account. If you have a few groups that deviate from
19515 your policy, you can use group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to
19519 Uhm@dots{} that's it.
19523 @node Agent Categories
19524 @subsection Agent Categories
19526 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
19527 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
19528 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
19529 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
19530 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
19531 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
19532 you're interested in the articles anyway.
19534 One of the more effective methods for controlling what is to be
19535 downloaded is to create a @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all)
19536 groups to this category. Groups that do not belong in any other
19537 category belong to the @code{default} category. Gnus has its own
19538 buffer for creating and managing categories.
19540 If you prefer, you can also use group parameters (@pxref{Group
19541 Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) for an
19542 alternative approach to controlling the agent. The only real
19543 difference is that categories are specific to the agent (so there is
19544 less to learn) while group and topic parameters include the kitchen
19547 Since you can set agent parameters in several different places we have
19548 a rule to decide which source to believe. This rule specifies that
19549 the parameter sources are checked in the following order: group
19550 parameters, topic parameters, agent category, and finally customizable
19551 variables. So you can mix all of these sources to produce a wide range
19552 of behavior, just don't blame me if you don't remember where you put
19556 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
19557 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
19558 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
19562 @node Category Syntax
19563 @subsubsection Category Syntax
19565 A category consists of a name, the list of groups belonging to the
19566 category, and a number of optional parameters that override the
19567 customizable variables. The complete list of agent parameters are
19570 @cindex Agent Parameters
19573 The list of groups that are in this category.
19575 @item agent-predicate
19576 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
19577 are eligible for downloading; and
19580 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
19581 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
19582 score} is not necessarily related to normal scores.)
19584 @item agent-enable-expiration
19585 a boolean indicating whether the agent should expire old articles in
19586 this group. Most groups should be expired to conserve disk space. In
19587 fact, its probably safe to say that the gnus.* hierarchy contains the
19588 only groups that should not be expired.
19590 @item agent-days-until-old
19591 an integer indicating the number of days that the agent should wait
19592 before deciding that a read article is safe to expire.
19594 @item agent-low-score
19595 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-low-score}.
19597 @item agent-high-score
19598 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-high-score}.
19600 @item agent-short-article
19601 an integer that overrides the value of
19602 @code{gnus-agent-short-article}.
19604 @item agent-long-article
19605 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-long-article}.
19607 @item agent-enable-undownloaded-faces
19608 a symbol indicating whether the summary buffer should display
19609 undownloaded articles using the @code{gnus-summary-*-undownloaded-face}
19610 faces. Any symbol other than @code{nil} will enable the use of
19611 undownloaded faces.
19614 The name of a category can not be changed once the category has been
19617 Each category maintains a list of groups that are exclusive members of
19618 that category. The exclusivity rule is automatically enforced, add a
19619 group to a new category and it is automatically removed from its old
19622 A predicate in its simplest form can be a single predicate such as
19623 @code{true} or @code{false}. These two will download every available
19624 article or nothing respectively. In the case of these two special
19625 predicates an additional score rule is superfluous.
19627 Predicates of @code{high} or @code{low} download articles in respect of
19628 their scores in relationship to @code{gnus-agent-high-score} and
19629 @code{gnus-agent-low-score} as described below.
19631 To gain even finer control of what is to be regarded eligible for
19632 download a predicate can consist of a number of predicates with logical
19633 operators sprinkled in between.
19635 Perhaps some examples are in order.
19637 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
19638 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
19644 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
19645 short (for some value of ``short'').
19647 Here's a more complex predicate:
19656 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
19657 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
19660 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
19661 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
19662 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
19664 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
19665 you want to do, you can write your own.
19667 When evaluating each of these predicates, the named constant will be
19668 bound to the value determined by calling
19669 @code{gnus-agent-find-parameter} on the appropriate parameter. For
19670 example, gnus-agent-short-article will be bound to
19671 @code{(gnus-agent-find-parameter group 'agent-short-article)}. This
19672 means that you can specify a predicate in your category then tune that
19673 predicate to individual groups.
19677 True if the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
19678 lines; default 100.
19681 True if the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
19682 lines; default 200.
19685 True if the article has a download score less than
19686 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
19689 True if the article has a download score greater than
19690 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
19693 True if the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
19694 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
19695 checksum and sees whether articles match.
19704 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
19705 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
19706 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
19709 For example, you could decide that you don't want to download articles
19710 that were posted more than a certain number of days ago (e.g. posted
19711 more than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} ago) you might write a function
19712 something along the lines of the following:
19715 (defun my-article-old-p ()
19716 "Say whether an article is old."
19717 (< (time-to-days (date-to-time (mail-header-date gnus-headers)))
19718 (- (time-to-days (current-time)) gnus-agent-expire-days)))
19721 with the predicate then defined as:
19724 (not my-article-old-p)
19727 or you could append your predicate to the predefined
19728 @code{gnus-category-predicate-alist} in your @file{~/.gnus.el} or
19732 (require 'gnus-agent)
19733 (setq gnus-category-predicate-alist
19734 (append gnus-category-predicate-alist
19735 '((old . my-article-old-p))))
19738 and simply specify your predicate as:
19744 If/when using something like the above, be aware that there are many
19745 misconfigured systems/mailers out there and so an article's date is not
19746 always a reliable indication of when it was posted. Hell, some people
19747 just don't give a damn.
19749 The above predicates apply to @emph{all} the groups which belong to the
19750 category. However, if you wish to have a specific predicate for an
19751 individual group within a category, or you're just too lazy to set up a
19752 new category, you can enter a group's individual predicate in its group
19753 parameters like so:
19756 (agent-predicate . short)
19759 This is the group/topic parameter equivalent of the agent category default.
19760 Note that when specifying a single word predicate like this, the
19761 @code{agent-predicate} specification must be in dotted pair notation.
19763 The equivalent of the longer example from above would be:
19766 (agent-predicate or high (and (not low) (not long)))
19769 The outer parenthesis required in the category specification are not
19770 entered here as, not being in dotted pair notation, the value of the
19771 predicate is assumed to be a list.
19774 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
19775 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
19776 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
19777 following headers can be scored on: @code{Subject}, @code{From},
19778 @code{Date}, @code{Message-ID}, @code{References}, @code{Chars},
19779 @code{Lines}, and @code{Xref}.
19781 As with predicates, the specification of the @code{download score rule}
19782 to use in respect of a group can be in either the category definition if
19783 it's to be applicable to all groups in therein, or a group's parameters
19784 if it's to be specific to that group.
19786 In both of these places the @code{download score rule} can take one of
19793 This has the same syntax as a normal Gnus score file except only a
19794 subset of scoring keywords are available as mentioned above.
19800 Category specification
19804 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
19810 Group/Topic Parameter specification
19813 (agent-score ("from"
19814 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
19819 Again, note the omission of the outermost parenthesis here.
19825 These score files must @emph{only} contain the permitted scoring
19826 keywords stated above.
19832 Category specification
19835 ("~/News/agent.SCORE")
19841 ("~/News/agent.SCORE" "~/News/agent.group.SCORE")
19845 Group Parameter specification
19848 (agent-score "~/News/agent.SCORE")
19851 Additional score files can be specified as above. Need I say anything
19856 Use @code{normal} score files
19858 If you don't want to maintain two sets of scoring rules for a group, and
19859 your desired @code{downloading} criteria for a group are the same as your
19860 @code{reading} criteria then you can tell the agent to refer to your
19861 @code{normal} score files when deciding what to download.
19863 These directives in either the category definition or a group's
19864 parameters will cause the agent to read in all the applicable score
19865 files for a group, @emph{filtering out} those sections that do not
19866 relate to one of the permitted subset of scoring keywords.
19870 Category Specification
19877 Group Parameter specification
19880 (agent-score . file)
19885 @node Category Buffer
19886 @subsubsection Category Buffer
19888 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
19889 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
19890 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
19892 The following commands are available in this buffer:
19896 @kindex q (Category)
19897 @findex gnus-category-exit
19898 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
19901 @kindex e (Category)
19902 @findex gnus-category-customize-category
19903 Use a customization buffer to set all of the selected category's
19904 parameters at one time (@code{gnus-category-customize-category}).
19907 @kindex k (Category)
19908 @findex gnus-category-kill
19909 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
19912 @kindex c (Category)
19913 @findex gnus-category-copy
19914 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
19917 @kindex a (Category)
19918 @findex gnus-category-add
19919 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
19922 @kindex p (Category)
19923 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
19924 Edit the predicate of the current category
19925 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
19928 @kindex g (Category)
19929 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
19930 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
19931 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
19934 @kindex s (Category)
19935 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
19936 Edit the download score rule of the current category
19937 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
19940 @kindex l (Category)
19941 @findex gnus-category-list
19942 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
19946 @node Category Variables
19947 @subsubsection Category Variables
19950 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
19951 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
19952 Hook run in category buffers.
19954 @item gnus-category-line-format
19955 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
19956 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
19957 Variables}). Valid elements are:
19961 The name of the category.
19964 The number of groups in the category.
19967 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
19968 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
19969 Format of the category mode line (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}).
19971 @item gnus-agent-short-article
19972 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
19973 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
19975 @item gnus-agent-long-article
19976 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
19977 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
19979 @item gnus-agent-low-score
19980 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
19981 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
19984 @item gnus-agent-high-score
19985 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
19986 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
19989 @item gnus-agent-expire-days
19990 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
19991 The number of days that a @samp{read} article must stay in the agent's
19992 local disk before becoming eligible for expiration (While the name is
19993 the same, this doesn't mean expiring the article on the server. It
19994 just means deleting the local copy of the article). What is also
19995 important to understand is that the counter starts with the time the
19996 article was written to the local disk and not the time the article was
20000 @item gnus-agent-enable-expiration
20001 @vindex gnus-agent-enable-expiration
20002 Determines whether articles in a group are, by default, expired or
20003 retained indefinitely. The default is @code{ENABLE} which means that
20004 you'll have to disable expiration when desired. On the other hand,
20005 you could set this to @code{DISABLE}. In that case, you would then
20006 have to enable expiration in selected groups.
20011 @node Agent Commands
20012 @subsection Agent Commands
20013 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-plugged
20014 @kindex J j (Agent)
20016 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
20017 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged}) command works in all modes, and
20018 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
20022 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
20023 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
20024 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
20030 @node Group Agent Commands
20031 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
20035 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
20036 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
20037 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
20038 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
20041 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
20042 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
20043 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
20046 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
20047 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
20048 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
20049 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
20052 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
20053 @findex gnus-group-send-queue
20054 Send all sendable messages in the queue group
20055 (@code{gnus-group-send-queue}). @xref{Drafts}.
20058 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
20059 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
20060 Add the current group to an Agent category
20061 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}). This command understands the
20062 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
20065 @kindex J r (Agent Group)
20066 @findex gnus-agent-remove-group
20067 Remove the current group from its category, if any
20068 (@code{gnus-agent-remove-group}). This command understands the
20069 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
20072 @kindex J Y (Agent Group)
20073 @findex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
20074 Synchronize flags changed while unplugged with remote server, if any.
20080 @node Summary Agent Commands
20081 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
20085 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
20086 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
20087 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
20090 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
20091 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
20092 Remove the downloading mark from the article
20093 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
20097 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
20098 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
20099 Toggle whether to download the article
20100 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}). The download mark is @samp{%} by
20104 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
20105 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
20106 Mark all articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}) that are neither cached, downloaded, nor downloadable.
20109 @kindex J S (Agent Summary)
20110 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-group
20111 Download all eligible (@pxref{Agent Categories}) articles in this group.
20112 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-group}).
20115 @kindex J s (Agent Summary)
20116 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-series
20117 Download all processable articles in this group.
20118 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-series}).
20121 @kindex J u (Agent Summary)
20122 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group
20123 Download all downloadable articles in the current group
20124 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group}).
20129 @node Server Agent Commands
20130 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
20134 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
20135 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
20136 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
20137 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
20140 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
20141 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
20142 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
20143 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
20148 @node Agent Visuals
20149 @subsection Agent Visuals
20151 If you open a summary while unplugged and, Gnus knows from the group's
20152 active range that there are more articles than the headers currently
20153 stored in the Agent, you may see some articles whose subject looks
20154 something like @samp{[Undownloaded article #####]}. These are
20155 placeholders for the missing headers. Aside from setting a mark,
20156 there is not much that can be done with one of these placeholders.
20157 When Gnus finally gets a chance to fetch the group's headers, the
20158 placeholders will automatically be replaced by the actual headers.
20159 You can configure the summary buffer's maneuvering to skip over the
20160 placeholders if you care (See @code{gnus-auto-goto-ignores}).
20162 While it may be obvious to all, the only headers and articles
20163 available while unplugged are those headers and articles that were
20164 fetched into the Agent while previously plugged. To put it another
20165 way, ``If you forget to fetch something while plugged, you might have a
20166 less than satisfying unplugged session''. For this reason, the Agent
20167 adds two visual effects to your summary buffer. These effects display
20168 the download status of each article so that you always know which
20169 articles will be available when unplugged.
20171 The first visual effect is the @samp{%O} spec. If you customize
20172 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} to include this specifier, you will add
20173 a single character field that indicates an article's download status.
20174 Articles that have been fetched into either the Agent or the Cache,
20175 will display @code{gnus-downloaded-mark} (defaults to @samp{+}). All
20176 other articles will display @code{gnus-undownloaded-mark} (defaults to
20177 @samp{-}). If you open a group that has not been agentized, a space
20178 (@samp{ }) will be displayed.
20180 The second visual effect are the undownloaded faces. The faces, there
20181 are three indicating the article's score (low, normal, high), seem to
20182 result in a love/hate response from many Gnus users. The problem is
20183 that the face selection is controlled by a list of condition tests and
20184 face names (See @code{gnus-summary-highlight}). Each condition is
20185 tested in the order in which it appears in the list so early
20186 conditions have precedence over later conditions. All of this means
20187 that, if you tick an undownloaded article, the article will continue
20188 to be displayed in the undownloaded face rather than the ticked face.
20190 If you use the Agent as a cache (to avoid downloading the same article
20191 each time you visit it or to minimize your connection time), the
20192 undownloaded face will probably seem like a good idea. The reason
20193 being that you do all of our work (marking, reading, deleting) with
20194 downloaded articles so the normal faces always appear. For those
20195 users using the agent to improve online performance by caching the NOV
20196 database (most users since 5.10.2), the undownloaded faces may appear
20197 to be an absolutely horrible idea. The issue being that, since none
20198 of their articles have been fetched into the Agent, all of the
20199 normal faces will be obscured by the undownloaded faces.
20201 If you would like to use the undownloaded faces, you must enable the
20202 undownloaded faces by setting the @code{agent-enable-undownloaded-faces}
20203 group parameter to @code{t}. This parameter, like all other agent
20204 parameters, may be set on an Agent Category (@pxref{Agent Categories}),
20205 a Group Topic (@pxref{Topic Parameters}), or an individual group
20206 (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
20208 The one problem common to all users using the agent is how quickly it
20209 can consume disk space. If you using the agent on many groups, it is
20210 even more difficult to effectively recover disk space. One solution
20211 is the @samp{%F} format available in @code{gnus-group-line-format}.
20212 This format will display the actual disk space used by articles
20213 fetched into both the agent and cache. By knowing which groups use
20214 the most space, users know where to focus their efforts when ``agent
20215 expiring'' articles.
20217 @node Agent as Cache
20218 @subsection Agent as Cache
20220 When Gnus is plugged, it is not efficient to download headers or
20221 articles from the server again, if they are already stored in the
20222 Agent. So, Gnus normally only downloads headers once, and stores them
20223 in the Agent. These headers are later used when generating the summary
20224 buffer, regardless of whether you are plugged or unplugged. Articles
20225 are not cached in the Agent by default though (that would potentially
20226 consume lots of disk space), but if you have already downloaded an
20227 article into the Agent, Gnus will not download the article from the
20228 server again but use the locally stored copy instead.
20230 If you so desire, you can configure the agent (see @code{gnus-agent-cache}
20231 @pxref{Agent Variables}) to always download headers and articles while
20232 plugged. Gnus will almost certainly be slower, but it will be kept
20233 synchronized with the server. That last point probably won't make any
20234 sense if you are using a nntp or nnimap back end.
20237 @subsection Agent Expiry
20239 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
20240 @findex gnus-agent-expire
20241 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire
20242 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire-group
20243 @findex gnus-agent-expire-group
20244 @cindex agent expiry
20245 @cindex Gnus agent expiry
20246 @cindex expiry, in Gnus agent
20248 The Agent back end, @code{nnagent}, doesn't handle expiry. Well, at
20249 least it doesn't handle it like other back ends. Instead, there are
20250 special @code{gnus-agent-expire} and @code{gnus-agent-expire-group}
20251 commands that will expire all read articles that are older than
20252 @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} days. They can be run whenever you feel
20253 that you're running out of space. Neither are particularly fast or
20254 efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to interrupt them (with
20255 @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started one of them.
20257 Note that other functions, e.g. @code{gnus-request-expire-articles},
20258 might run @code{gnus-agent-expire} for you to keep the agent
20259 synchronized with the group.
20261 The agent parameter @code{agent-enable-expiration} may be used to
20262 prevent expiration in selected groups.
20264 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
20265 If @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, the agent
20266 expiration commands will expire all articles---unread, read, ticked
20267 and dormant. If @code{nil} (which is the default), only read articles
20268 are eligible for expiry, and unread, ticked and dormant articles will
20269 be kept indefinitely.
20271 If you find that some articles eligible for expiry are never expired,
20272 perhaps some Gnus Agent files are corrupted. There's are special
20273 commands, @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} and
20274 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group}, to fix possible problems.
20276 @node Agent Regeneration
20277 @subsection Agent Regeneration
20279 @cindex agent regeneration
20280 @cindex Gnus agent regeneration
20281 @cindex regeneration
20283 The local data structures used by @code{nnagent} may become corrupted
20284 due to certain exceptional conditions. When this happens,
20285 @code{nnagent} functionality may degrade or even fail. The solution
20286 to this problem is to repair the local data structures by removing all
20287 internal inconsistencies.
20289 For example, if your connection to your server is lost while
20290 downloaded articles into the agent, the local data structures will not
20291 know about articles successfully downloaded prior to the connection
20292 failure. Running @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} or
20293 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} will update the data structures
20294 such that you don't need to download these articles a second time.
20296 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate
20297 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate
20298 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} will perform
20299 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} on every agentized group. While
20300 you can run @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} in any buffer, it is strongly
20301 recommended that you first close all summary buffers.
20303 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate-group
20304 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate-group
20305 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} uses the local copies
20306 of individual articles to repair the local @acronym{NOV}(header) database. It
20307 then updates the internal data structures that document which articles
20308 are stored locally. An optional argument will mark articles in the
20311 @node Agent and flags
20312 @subsection Agent and flags
20314 The Agent works with any Gnus back end including those, such as
20315 nnimap, that store flags (read, ticked, etc) on the server. Sadly,
20316 the Agent does not actually know which backends keep their flags in
20317 the backend server rather than in @file{.newsrc}. This means that the
20318 Agent, while unplugged or disconnected, will always record all changes
20319 to the flags in its own files.
20321 When you plug back in, Gnus will then check to see if you have any
20322 changed any flags and ask if you wish to synchronize these with the
20323 server. This behavior is customizable by @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags}.
20325 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
20326 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
20327 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, which is
20328 the default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so
20329 ask if you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has
20330 any other value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
20332 If you do not wish to synchronize flags automatically when you
20333 re-connect, you can do it manually with the
20334 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} command that is bound to @kbd{J Y}
20335 in the group buffer.
20337 Technical note: the synchronization algorithm does not work by ``pushing''
20338 all local flags to the server, but rather by incrementally updated the
20339 server view of flags by changing only those flags that were changed by
20340 the user. Thus, if you set one flag on an article, quit the group then
20341 re-select the group and remove the flag; the flag will be set and
20342 removed from the server when you ``synchronize''. The queued flag
20343 operations can be found in the per-server @code{flags} file in the Agent
20344 directory. It's emptied when you synchronize flags.
20346 @node Agent and IMAP
20347 @subsection Agent and IMAP
20349 The Agent works with any Gnus back end, including nnimap. However,
20350 since there are some conceptual differences between @acronym{NNTP} and
20351 @acronym{IMAP}, this section (should) provide you with some information to
20352 make Gnus Agent work smoother as a @acronym{IMAP} Disconnected Mode client.
20354 Some things are currently not implemented in the Agent that you'd might
20355 expect from a disconnected @acronym{IMAP} client, including:
20360 Copying/moving articles into nnimap groups when unplugged.
20363 Creating/deleting nnimap groups when unplugged.
20367 @node Outgoing Messages
20368 @subsection Outgoing Messages
20370 By default, when Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail
20371 and news) are stored in the draft group ``queue'' (@pxref{Drafts}).
20372 You can view them there after posting, and edit them at will.
20374 You can control the circumstances under which outgoing mail is queued
20375 (see @code{gnus-agent-queue-mail}, @pxref{Agent Variables}). Outgoing
20376 news is always queued when Gnus is unplugged, and never otherwise.
20378 You can send the messages either from the draft group with the special
20379 commands available there, or you can use the @kbd{J S} command in the
20380 group buffer to send all the sendable messages in the draft group.
20381 Posting news will only work when Gnus is plugged, but you can send
20384 If sending mail while unplugged does not work for you and you worry
20385 about hitting @kbd{J S} by accident when unplugged, you can have Gnus
20386 ask you to confirm your action (see
20387 @code{gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue}, @pxref{Agent Variables}).
20389 @node Agent Variables
20390 @subsection Agent Variables
20395 Is the agent enabled? The default is @code{t}. When first enabled,
20396 the agent will use @code{gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods} to
20397 automatically mark some back ends as agentized. You may change which
20398 back ends are agentized using the agent commands in the server buffer.
20400 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
20401 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
20404 @item gnus-agent-directory
20405 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
20406 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
20407 @file{~/News/agent/}.
20409 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
20410 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
20411 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
20412 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
20413 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
20416 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
20417 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
20418 Hook run when connecting to the network.
20420 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
20421 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
20422 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
20424 @item gnus-agent-fetched-hook
20425 @vindex gnus-agent-fetched-hook
20426 Hook run when finished fetching articles.
20428 @item gnus-agent-cache
20429 @vindex gnus-agent-cache
20430 Variable to control whether use the locally stored @acronym{NOV} and
20431 articles when plugged, e.g. essentially using the Agent as a cache.
20432 The default is non-@code{nil}, which means to use the Agent as a cache.
20434 @item gnus-agent-go-online
20435 @vindex gnus-agent-go-online
20436 If @code{gnus-agent-go-online} is @code{nil}, the Agent will never
20437 automatically switch offline servers into online status. If it is
20438 @code{ask}, the default, the Agent will ask if you wish to switch
20439 offline servers into online status when you re-connect. If it has any
20440 other value, all offline servers will be automatically switched into
20443 @item gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
20444 @vindex gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
20445 If @code{gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded} is non-@code{nil},
20446 mark articles as unread after downloading. This is usually a safe
20447 thing to do as the newly downloaded article has obviously not been
20448 read. The default is @code{t}.
20450 @item gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
20451 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
20452 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
20453 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, which is
20454 the default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so
20455 ask if you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has
20456 any other value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
20458 @item gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
20459 @vindex gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
20460 If @code{gnus-agent-consider-all-articles} is non-@code{nil}, the
20461 agent will let the agent predicate decide whether articles need to be
20462 downloaded or not, for all articles. When @code{nil}, the default,
20463 the agent will only let the predicate decide whether unread articles
20464 are downloaded or not. If you enable this, you may also want to look
20465 into the agent expiry settings (@pxref{Category Variables}), so that
20466 the agent doesn't download articles which the agent will later expire,
20467 over and over again.
20469 @item gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
20470 @vindex gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
20471 The agent fetches articles into a temporary buffer prior to parsing
20472 them into individual files. To avoid exceeding the max. buffer size,
20473 the agent alternates between fetching and parsing until all articles
20474 have been fetched. @code{gnus-agent-max-fetch-size} provides a size
20475 limit to control how often the cycling occurs. A large value improves
20476 performance. A small value minimizes the time lost should the
20477 connection be lost while fetching (You may need to run
20478 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} to update the group's state.
20479 However, all articles parsed prior to loosing the connection will be
20480 available while unplugged). The default is 10M so it is unusual to
20483 @item gnus-server-unopen-status
20484 @vindex gnus-server-unopen-status
20485 Perhaps not an Agent variable, but closely related to the Agent, this
20486 variable says what will happen if Gnus cannot open a server. If the
20487 Agent is enabled, the default, @code{nil}, makes Gnus ask the user
20488 whether to deny the server or whether to unplug the agent. If the
20489 Agent is disabled, Gnus always simply deny the server. Other choices
20490 for this variable include @code{denied} and @code{offline} the latter
20491 is only valid if the Agent is used.
20493 @item gnus-auto-goto-ignores
20494 @vindex gnus-auto-goto-ignores
20495 Another variable that isn't an Agent variable, yet so closely related
20496 that most will look for it here, this variable tells the summary
20497 buffer how to maneuver around undownloaded (only headers stored in the
20498 agent) and unfetched (neither article nor headers stored) articles.
20500 The valid values are @code{nil} (maneuver to any article),
20501 @code{undownloaded} (maneuvering while unplugged ignores articles that
20502 have not been fetched), @code{always-undownloaded} (maneuvering always
20503 ignores articles that have not been fetched), @code{unfetched}
20504 (maneuvering ignores articles whose headers have not been fetched).
20506 @item gnus-agent-queue-mail
20507 @vindex gnus-agent-queue-mail
20508 When @code{gnus-agent-queue-mail} is @code{always}, Gnus will always
20509 queue mail rather than sending it straight away. When @code{t}, Gnus
20510 will queue mail when unplugged only. When @code{nil}, never queue
20511 mail. The default is @code{t}.
20513 @item gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue
20514 @vindex gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue
20515 When @code{gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue} is non-@code{nil} Gnus will
20516 prompt you to confirm that you really wish to proceed if you hit
20517 @kbd{J S} while unplugged. The default is @code{nil}.
20519 @item gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods
20520 @vindex gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods
20521 If you have never used the Agent before (or more technically, if
20522 @file{~/News/agent/lib/servers} does not exist), Gnus will
20523 automatically agentize a few servers for you. This variable control
20524 which back ends should be auto-agentized. It is typically only useful
20525 to agentize remote back ends. The auto-agentizing has the same effect
20526 as running @kbd{J a} on the servers (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}).
20527 If the file exist, you must manage the servers manually by adding or
20528 removing them, this variable is only applicable the first time you
20529 start Gnus. The default is @samp{(nntp nnimap)}.
20534 @node Example Setup
20535 @subsection Example Setup
20537 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
20538 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
20539 @file{~/.gnus.el} file to get started.
20542 ;; @r{Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over @acronym{NNTP}}
20543 ;; @r{from your ISP's server.}
20544 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.your-isp.com"))
20546 ;; @r{Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from}
20547 ;; @r{your ISP's @acronym{POP} server.}
20548 (setq mail-sources '((pop :server "pop.your-isp.com")))
20550 ;; @r{Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.}
20551 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
20553 ;; @r{Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.}
20554 ;; (gnus-agentize) ; @r{The obsolete setting.}
20555 ;; (setq gnus-agent t) ; @r{Now the default.}
20558 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
20559 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
20562 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
20563 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
20564 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
20565 @acronym{NNTP} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
20566 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
20569 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
20570 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
20571 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
20572 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
20573 back all the killed groups.)
20575 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
20576 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
20577 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
20580 @node Batching Agents
20581 @subsection Batching Agents
20582 @findex gnus-agent-batch
20584 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
20585 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
20586 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
20588 You can run a complete batch command from the command line with the
20589 following incantation:
20593 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null 2>&1
20597 @node Agent Caveats
20598 @subsection Agent Caveats
20600 The Gnus Agent doesn't seem to work like most other offline
20601 newsreaders. Here are some common questions that some imaginary people
20605 @item If I read an article while plugged, do they get entered into the Agent?
20607 @strong{No}. If you want this behavior, add
20608 @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} to
20609 @code{gnus-select-article-hook}.
20611 @item If I read an article while plugged, and the article already exists in
20612 the Agent, will it get downloaded once more?
20614 @strong{No}, unless @code{gnus-agent-cache} is @code{nil}.
20618 In short, when Gnus is unplugged, it only looks into the locally stored
20619 articles; when it's plugged, it talks to your ISP and may also use the
20620 locally stored articles.
20627 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
20628 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
20629 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
20632 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
20633 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
20634 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
20635 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
20636 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
20638 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
20639 before generating the summary buffer.
20641 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
20642 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
20643 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
20645 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
20646 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
20647 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
20648 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
20651 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
20652 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
20653 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
20654 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
20655 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
20656 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
20657 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
20658 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
20659 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
20660 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
20661 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
20662 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
20663 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
20664 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
20665 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
20666 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
20670 @node Summary Score Commands
20671 @section Summary Score Commands
20672 @cindex score commands
20674 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
20675 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
20676 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
20677 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
20678 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
20680 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
20681 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
20682 some other score file (e.g. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
20683 score file the current one.
20685 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
20690 @kindex V s (Summary)
20691 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
20692 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
20695 @kindex V S (Summary)
20696 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
20697 Display the score of the current article
20698 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
20701 @kindex V t (Summary)
20702 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
20703 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
20704 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}). In the @code{*Score Trace*} buffer, you
20705 may type @kbd{e} to edit score file corresponding to the score rule on
20706 current line and @kbd{f} to format (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) the
20707 score file and edit it.
20710 @kindex V w (Summary)
20711 @findex gnus-score-find-favourite-words
20712 List words used in scoring (@code{gnus-score-find-favourite-words}).
20715 @kindex V R (Summary)
20716 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
20717 Run the current summary through the scoring process
20718 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
20719 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
20720 effect you're having.
20723 @kindex V c (Summary)
20724 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
20725 Make a different score file the current
20726 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
20729 @kindex V e (Summary)
20730 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
20731 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
20732 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
20736 @kindex V f (Summary)
20737 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
20738 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
20739 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
20742 @kindex V F (Summary)
20743 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
20744 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
20745 after editing score files.
20748 @kindex V C (Summary)
20749 @findex gnus-score-customize
20750 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
20751 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
20755 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
20760 @kindex V m (Summary)
20761 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
20762 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
20763 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
20766 @kindex V x (Summary)
20767 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
20768 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
20769 expunge all articles below this score
20770 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
20773 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
20774 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
20777 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
20778 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
20782 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
20783 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
20785 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
20786 keys are available:
20790 Score on the author name.
20793 Score on the subject line.
20796 Score on the @code{Xref} line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
20799 Score on the @code{References} line.
20805 Score on the number of lines.
20808 Score on the @code{Message-ID} header.
20811 Score on an ``extra'' header, that is, one of those in gnus-extra-headers,
20812 if your @acronym{NNTP} server tracks additional header data in overviews.
20815 Score on followups---this matches the author name, and adds scores to
20816 the followups to this author. (Using this key leads to the creation of
20817 @file{ADAPT} files.)
20826 Score on thread. (Using this key leads to the creation of @file{ADAPT}
20832 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
20833 what headers you are scoring on.
20845 Substring matching.
20848 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
20877 Greater than number.
20882 The fourth and usually final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e.,
20883 expiring) score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry,
20884 or whether it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score
20889 Temporary score entry.
20892 Permanent score entry.
20895 Immediately scoring.
20899 If you are scoring on `e' (extra) headers, you will then be prompted for
20900 the header name on which you wish to score. This must be a header named
20901 in gnus-extra-headers, and @samp{TAB} completion is available.
20905 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
20906 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
20907 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
20908 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
20910 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
20911 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
20912 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
20913 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
20914 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
20916 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
20917 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
20918 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
20919 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
20920 current score file.
20922 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
20923 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
20924 pretend they are keymaps or not.
20927 @node Group Score Commands
20928 @section Group Score Commands
20929 @cindex group score commands
20931 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
20936 @kindex W e (Group)
20937 @findex gnus-score-edit-all-score
20938 Edit the apply-to-all-groups all.SCORE file. You will be popped into
20939 a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score File Editing}).
20942 @kindex W f (Group)
20943 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
20944 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
20945 all the time. This command will flush the cache
20946 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
20950 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
20952 @findex gnus-batch-score
20953 @cindex batch scoring
20955 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-batch-score
20959 @node Score Variables
20960 @section Score Variables
20961 @cindex score variables
20965 @item gnus-use-scoring
20966 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
20967 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
20968 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
20970 @item gnus-kill-killed
20971 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
20972 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
20973 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
20974 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
20975 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
20976 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
20977 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
20979 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
20980 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
20981 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
20982 initialized from the @env{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
20983 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
20985 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
20986 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
20987 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
20988 (@file{SCORE} by default.)
20990 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
20991 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
20992 @cindex score cache
20993 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
20994 score files. However, this might make your Emacs grow big and
20995 bloated, so this regexp can be used to weed out score files unlikely
20996 to be needed again. It would be a bad idea to deny caching of
20997 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
20998 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
20999 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
21002 @item gnus-save-score
21003 @vindex gnus-save-score
21004 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
21005 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
21006 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
21008 If you do not set this to @code{t}, then manual scores (like those set
21009 with @kbd{V s} (@code{gnus-summary-set-score})) will not be preserved
21010 across group visits.
21012 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
21013 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
21014 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
21015 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
21016 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
21017 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
21018 manually entered data.
21020 @item gnus-summary-default-score
21021 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
21022 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
21024 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
21025 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
21026 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
21027 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
21028 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
21029 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
21031 @item gnus-score-over-mark
21032 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
21033 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
21034 default. Default is @samp{+}.
21036 @item gnus-score-below-mark
21037 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
21038 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
21039 default. Default is @samp{-}.
21041 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
21042 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
21043 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
21044 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
21046 Predefined functions available are:
21049 @item gnus-score-find-single
21050 @findex gnus-score-find-single
21051 Only apply the group's own score file.
21053 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
21054 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
21055 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
21056 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
21057 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
21058 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
21059 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
21060 then a regexp match is done.
21062 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
21063 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
21065 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
21066 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
21067 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
21068 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
21070 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
21071 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
21072 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
21073 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
21074 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE} for each
21078 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all
21079 these functions will be called with the group name as argument, and
21080 all the returned lists of score files will be applied. These
21081 functions can also return lists of lists of score alists directly. In
21082 that case, the functions that return these non-file score alists
21083 should probably be placed before the ``real'' score file functions, to
21084 ensure that the last score file returned is the local score file.
21087 For example, to do hierarchical scoring but use a non-server-specific
21088 overall score file, you could use the value
21090 (list (lambda (group) ("all.SCORE"))
21091 'gnus-score-find-hierarchical)
21094 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
21095 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
21096 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
21097 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
21098 are expired. It's 7 by default.
21100 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
21101 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
21102 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, temporary score entries that have
21103 been triggered (matched) will have their dates updated. (This is how Gnus
21104 controls expiry---all non-matched-entries will become too old while
21105 matched entries will stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this
21106 variable to @code{nil}, even matched entries will grow old and will
21107 have to face that oh-so grim reaper.
21109 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
21110 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
21111 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
21113 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
21114 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
21115 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be
21116 simplified for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
21117 threading---according to the current value of
21118 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions}. If the scoring entry uses
21119 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
21120 simplified in this manner.
21125 @node Score File Format
21126 @section Score File Format
21127 @cindex score file format
21129 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
21130 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
21131 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
21133 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
21137 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
21139 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
21141 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
21143 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
21148 (mark-and-expunge -10)
21152 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
21153 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
21154 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
21155 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
21159 This example demonstrates most score file elements. @xref{Advanced
21160 Scoring}, for a different approach.
21162 Even though this looks much like Lisp code, nothing here is actually
21163 @code{eval}ed. The Lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
21164 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
21166 Six keys are supported by this alist:
21171 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
21172 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
21173 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
21174 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
21175 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
21176 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
21177 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
21178 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
21179 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
21180 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
21181 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
21182 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
21183 to articles that matches these score entries.
21185 Following this key is an arbitrary number of score entries, where each
21186 score entry has one to four elements.
21190 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
21191 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
21195 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
21196 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
21197 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
21198 is successful. If this element is not present, the
21199 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
21200 instead. This is 1000 by default.
21203 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
21204 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
21205 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
21206 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
21207 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
21210 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
21211 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
21212 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
21213 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
21216 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
21217 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
21218 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
21219 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
21220 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
21221 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
21222 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
21223 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
21224 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
21225 instead, if you feel like.
21228 Just as for the standard string overview headers, if you are using
21229 gnus-extra-headers, you can score on these headers' values. In this
21230 case, there is a 5th element in the score entry, being the name of the
21231 header to be scored. The following entry is useful in your
21232 @file{all.SCORE} file in case of spam attacks from a single origin
21233 host, if your @acronym{NNTP} server tracks @samp{NNTP-Posting-Host} in
21237 ("111.222.333.444" -1000 nil s
21238 "NNTP-Posting-Host")
21242 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
21243 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
21245 These predicates are true if
21248 (PREDICATE HEADER MATCH)
21251 evaluates to non-@code{nil}. For instance, the advanced match
21252 @code{("lines" 4 <)} (@pxref{Advanced Scoring}) will result in the
21259 Or to put it another way: When using @code{<} on @code{Lines} with 4 as
21260 the match, we get the score added if the article has less than 4 lines.
21261 (It's easy to get confused and think it's the other way around. But
21262 it's not. I think.)
21264 When matching on @code{Lines}, be careful because some back ends (like
21265 @code{nndir}) do not generate @code{Lines} header, so every article ends
21266 up being marked as having 0 lines. This can lead to strange results if
21267 you happen to lower score of the articles with few lines.
21270 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
21271 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
21272 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
21273 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
21274 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
21275 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
21276 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
21280 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
21281 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
21282 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
21283 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
21284 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
21285 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
21286 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
21287 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
21290 @item Head, Body, All
21291 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
21295 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
21296 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
21297 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
21298 you e.g. increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
21299 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
21300 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
21301 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
21305 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
21306 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an
21307 article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{x}, then you add a @samp{thread}
21308 match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each article that
21309 has @var{x} in its @code{References} header. (These new @samp{thread}
21310 matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching articles.)
21311 This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an entire thread,
21312 even though some articles in the thread may not have complete
21313 @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
21314 undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
21315 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
21319 @cindex score file atoms
21321 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
21322 lower than this number will be marked as read.
21325 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
21326 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
21328 @item mark-and-expunge
21329 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
21330 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
21333 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
21334 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
21335 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
21336 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
21337 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
21340 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
21341 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
21344 @item exclude-files
21345 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
21346 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
21350 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}ed. This element will be
21351 ignored when handling global score files.
21354 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
21355 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
21356 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
21357 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
21360 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
21361 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
21362 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
21363 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
21365 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
21369 (mark-and-expunge -100)
21372 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
21373 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
21374 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{c y}) the
21375 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
21376 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
21378 I.e.---the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where a few
21379 interesting threads which can't be found automatically by ordinary
21380 scoring rules exist.
21383 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
21384 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
21385 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
21386 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
21387 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
21388 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
21389 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
21390 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
21391 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
21392 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
21393 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
21397 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
21398 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
21399 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
21400 file for a number of groups.
21403 @cindex local variables
21404 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(@var{var}
21405 @var{value})} pairs. Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the
21406 current summary buffer, and set to the value specified. This is a
21407 convenient, if somewhat strange, way of setting variables in some
21408 groups if you don't like hooks much. Note that the @var{value} won't
21413 @node Score File Editing
21414 @section Score File Editing
21416 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
21417 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
21418 with a mode for that.
21420 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
21421 additional commands:
21426 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
21427 @findex gnus-score-edit-exit
21428 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
21429 (@code{gnus-score-edit-exit}).
21432 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
21433 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
21434 Insert the current date in numerical format
21435 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
21436 you were wondering.
21439 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
21440 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
21441 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
21442 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
21443 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
21448 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
21450 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
21451 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
21453 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f}, @kbd{V e} and
21454 @kbd{V t} to begin editing score files.
21457 @node Adaptive Scoring
21458 @section Adaptive Scoring
21459 @cindex adaptive scoring
21461 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
21462 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
21463 stupidity, to be precise.
21465 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
21466 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
21467 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
21468 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
21469 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
21470 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
21471 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
21472 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
21473 variable to @code{(word line)}.
21475 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
21476 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
21477 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
21478 might look something like this:
21481 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
21482 '((gnus-unread-mark)
21483 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
21484 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
21485 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
21486 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
21487 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
21488 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
21489 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
21490 (gnus-ancient-mark)
21491 (gnus-low-score-mark)
21492 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
21495 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
21496 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
21497 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
21498 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
21499 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
21500 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
21503 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
21504 will be applied to each article.
21506 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
21507 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{e}) will have a
21508 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
21509 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
21511 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
21512 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
21513 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
21514 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
21516 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
21517 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
21518 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
21519 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
21521 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
21522 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
21523 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
21524 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
21525 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
21526 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
21528 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
21529 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
21530 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
21532 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
21533 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
21534 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
21536 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
21537 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
21538 let you use different rules in different groups.
21540 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
21541 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
21542 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
21545 @vindex gnus-adaptive-pretty-print
21546 Adaptive score files can get huge and are not meant to be edited by
21547 human hands. If @code{gnus-adaptive-pretty-print} is @code{nil} (the
21548 default) those files will not be written in a human readable way.
21550 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
21551 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
21552 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
21553 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
21554 the length of the match is less than
21555 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
21556 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
21559 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
21560 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
21561 headers. If you adapt on words, the
21562 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
21563 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
21566 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
21567 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
21568 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
21569 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
21570 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
21573 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
21574 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
21575 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
21576 score with 30 points.
21578 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
21579 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
21580 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
21581 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
21582 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
21584 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit
21585 Some may feel that short words shouldn't count when doing adaptive
21586 scoring. If so, you may set @code{gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit} to
21587 an integer. Words shorter than this number will be ignored. This
21588 variable defaults to @code{nil}.
21590 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
21591 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
21592 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
21593 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
21595 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
21596 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
21597 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
21598 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
21600 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words
21601 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words} is set to @code{t}, gnus
21602 won't adaptively word score any of the words in the group name. Useful
21603 for groups like @samp{comp.editors.emacs}, where most of the subject
21604 lines contain the word @samp{emacs}.
21606 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
21607 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
21608 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
21610 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
21611 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
21612 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
21613 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
21616 @node Home Score File
21617 @section Home Score File
21619 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
21620 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
21621 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
21622 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
21624 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
21625 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
21626 could perhaps use the same home score file.
21628 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
21629 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
21634 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
21638 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
21639 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
21643 A list. The elements in this list can be:
21647 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{file-name})}. If the @var{regexp} matches the
21648 group name, the @var{file-name} will be used as the home score file.
21651 A function. If the function returns non-@code{nil}, the result will
21652 be used as the home score file. The function will be called with the
21653 name of the group as the parameter.
21656 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
21659 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
21664 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
21667 (setq gnus-home-score-file
21668 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
21671 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
21672 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
21674 @findex gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file
21676 (setq gnus-home-score-file
21677 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
21680 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
21681 Other functions include
21684 @item gnus-current-home-score-file
21685 @findex gnus-current-home-score-file
21686 Return the ``current'' regular score file. This will make scoring
21687 commands add entry to the ``innermost'' matching score file.
21691 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
21692 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
21693 their own home score files:
21696 (setq gnus-home-score-file
21697 ;; @r{All groups that match the regexp @code{"\\.emacs"}}
21698 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
21699 ;; @r{All the comp groups in one score file}
21700 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
21703 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
21704 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
21705 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
21706 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
21707 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
21709 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
21710 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
21711 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
21712 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
21713 precedence over this variable.
21716 @node Followups To Yourself
21717 @section Followups To Yourself
21719 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
21720 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
21721 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
21722 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
21723 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
21724 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
21728 @item gnus-score-followup-article
21729 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
21730 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
21733 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
21734 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
21735 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
21739 @vindex message-sent-hook
21740 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
21741 @code{message-sent-hook}, like this:
21743 (add-hook 'message-sent-hook 'gnus-score-followup-thread)
21747 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
21748 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
21752 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
21753 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
21756 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
21757 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
21762 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore\\.no>"
21766 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
21767 is system-dependent.
21770 @node Scoring On Other Headers
21771 @section Scoring On Other Headers
21772 @cindex scoring on other headers
21774 Gnus is quite fast when scoring the ``traditional''
21775 headers---@samp{From}, @samp{Subject} and so on. However, scoring
21776 other headers requires writing a @code{head} scoring rule, which means
21777 that Gnus has to request every single article from the back end to find
21778 matches. This takes a long time in big groups.
21780 @vindex gnus-inhibit-slow-scoring
21781 You can inhibit this slow scoring on headers or body by setting the
21782 variable @code{gnus-inhibit-slow-scoring}. If
21783 @code{gnus-inhibit-slow-scoring} is regexp, slow scoring is inhibited if
21784 the group matches the regexp. If it is t, slow scoring on it is
21785 inhibited for all groups.
21787 Now, there's not much you can do about the slowness for news groups, but for
21788 mail groups, you have greater control. In @ref{To From Newsgroups},
21789 it's explained in greater detail what this mechanism does, but here's
21790 a cookbook example for @code{nnml} on how to allow scoring on the
21791 @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} headers.
21793 Put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
21796 (setq gnus-extra-headers '(To Cc Newsgroups Keywords)
21797 nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
21800 Restart Gnus and rebuild your @code{nnml} overview files with the
21801 @kbd{M-x nnml-generate-nov-databases} command. This will take a long
21802 time if you have much mail.
21804 Now you can score on @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} as ``extra headers'' like
21805 so: @kbd{I e s p To RET <your name> RET}.
21811 @section Scoring Tips
21812 @cindex scoring tips
21818 @cindex scoring crossposts
21819 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
21820 the @code{Xref} header.
21822 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
21825 @item Multiple crossposts
21826 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
21827 more than, say, 3 groups:
21830 ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+"
21834 @item Matching on the body
21835 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
21836 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
21837 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
21838 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
21839 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
21840 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
21841 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
21844 @item Marking as read
21845 You will probably want to mark articles that have scores below a certain
21846 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
21847 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
21851 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
21853 @item Negated character classes
21854 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
21855 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
21856 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
21860 @node Reverse Scoring
21861 @section Reverse Scoring
21862 @cindex reverse scoring
21864 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
21865 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
21866 like this in your score file:
21870 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
21875 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
21876 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
21879 @node Global Score Files
21880 @section Global Score Files
21881 @cindex global score files
21883 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
21884 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
21885 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
21887 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
21888 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
21889 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
21891 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
21892 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
21893 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
21894 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
21895 files are applicable to which group.
21897 To use the score file
21898 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
21899 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory,
21903 (setq gnus-global-score-files
21904 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
21905 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
21908 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
21910 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
21911 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
21912 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
21913 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
21915 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
21916 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
21918 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
21919 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
21920 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
21921 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
21922 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
21923 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
21925 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
21931 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
21933 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
21935 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
21937 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
21938 lowered out of existence.
21940 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
21941 articles completely.
21944 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
21945 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
21946 old articles for a long time.
21949 @dots{} I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
21950 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
21951 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
21952 holding our breath yet?
21956 @section Kill Files
21959 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
21960 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
21961 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
21963 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
21964 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
21965 files into score files.
21967 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
21968 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
21969 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
21970 that isn't a very good idea.
21972 Normal kill files look like this:
21975 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
21976 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
21980 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
21981 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
21983 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
21984 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
21987 Two summary functions for editing a @sc{gnus} kill file:
21992 @kindex M-k (Summary)
21993 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
21994 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
21997 @kindex M-K (Summary)
21998 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
21999 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
22002 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
22007 @kindex M-k (Group)
22008 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
22009 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
22012 @kindex M-K (Group)
22013 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
22014 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
22017 Kill file variables:
22020 @item gnus-kill-file-name
22021 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
22022 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
22023 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
22024 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
22025 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
22026 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
22028 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
22029 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
22030 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
22031 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
22034 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
22035 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
22036 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
22037 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
22038 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
22039 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
22040 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
22041 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
22042 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
22044 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
22045 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
22046 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
22051 @node Converting Kill Files
22052 @section Converting Kill Files
22054 @cindex converting kill files
22056 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
22057 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
22058 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
22061 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Emacs by default.
22062 You can fetch it from the contrib directory of the Gnus distribution or
22064 @uref{http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-various/gnus-kill-to-score.el}.
22066 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
22067 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
22068 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
22072 @node Advanced Scoring
22073 @section Advanced Scoring
22075 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
22076 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
22077 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
22078 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
22079 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
22081 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
22085 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
22086 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
22087 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
22091 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
22092 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
22094 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
22095 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
22096 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
22097 non-@code{nil} value.
22099 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
22100 operator, and various match operators.
22107 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
22108 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
22109 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
22114 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
22115 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
22116 then this operator will return @code{false}.
22121 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
22122 logical negation of the value of its argument.
22126 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
22127 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
22128 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
22129 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
22130 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
22131 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
22132 the ancestry you want to go.
22134 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
22135 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
22136 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
22137 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
22138 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
22141 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
22142 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
22144 Please note that the following examples are score file rules. To
22145 make a complete score file from them, surround them with another pair
22148 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
22149 when he's talking about Gnus:
22154 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
22155 ("subject" "Gnus"))
22162 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
22166 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
22173 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
22174 really don't want to read what he's written:
22178 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
22179 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigil Logge")))
22183 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
22184 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
22185 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
22192 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
22193 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
22194 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
22195 ("body" "white.*socks"))
22199 Suppose you're reading a high volume group and you're only interested
22200 in replies. The plan is to score down all articles that don't have
22201 subject that begin with "Re:", "Fw:" or "Fwd:" and then score up all
22202 parents of articles that have subjects that begin with reply marks.
22205 ((! ("subject" "re:\\|fwd?:" r))
22207 ((1- ("subject" "re:\\|fwd?:" r))
22211 The possibilities are endless.
22213 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
22214 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
22216 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
22217 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
22218 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
22219 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
22220 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
22221 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
22222 @samp{subject}) first.
22224 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
22225 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
22236 Then that means ``score on the from header of the grandparent of the
22237 current article''. An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
22243 ("subject" "Gnus")))
22250 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
22251 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
22256 @section Score Decays
22257 @cindex score decays
22260 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
22261 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
22262 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
22263 use them in any sensible way.
22265 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
22266 @findex gnus-decay-score
22267 @vindex gnus-decay-score-function
22268 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
22269 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
22270 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
22271 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
22272 If @code{gnus-decay-scores} is a regexp, only score files matching this
22273 regexp are treated. E.g. you may set it to @samp{\\.ADAPT\\'} if only
22274 @emph{adaptive} score files should be decayed. The decay itself if
22275 performed by the @code{gnus-decay-score-function} function, which is
22276 @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the definition of that
22280 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
22281 "Decay SCORE according to `gnus-score-decay-constant'
22282 and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
22284 (* (if (< score 0) -1 1)
22286 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
22288 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
22289 (if (and (featurep 'xemacs)
22290 ;; XEmacs' floor can handle only the floating point
22291 ;; number below the half of the maximum integer.
22292 (> (abs n) (lsh -1 -2)))
22294 (car (split-string (number-to-string n) "\\.")))
22298 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
22299 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
22300 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
22301 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
22305 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
22308 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
22311 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
22315 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
22316 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
22317 the new score, which should be an integer.
22319 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
22320 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
22325 @include message.texi
22326 @chapter Emacs MIME
22327 @include emacs-mime.texi
22329 @include sieve.texi
22341 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
22342 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
22343 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
22344 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
22345 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
22346 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
22347 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
22348 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
22349 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
22350 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
22351 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
22352 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
22353 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
22354 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
22355 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
22356 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
22357 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
22358 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
22359 * Thwarting Email Spam:: Simple ways to avoid unsolicited commercial email.
22360 * Spam Package:: A package for filtering and processing spam.
22361 * The Gnus Registry:: A package for tracking messages by Message-ID.
22362 * Other modes:: Interaction with other modes.
22363 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
22367 @node Process/Prefix
22368 @section Process/Prefix
22369 @cindex process/prefix convention
22371 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
22372 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
22374 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
22375 command to be performed on.
22379 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
22380 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
22381 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
22382 with the current one.
22384 @vindex transient-mark-mode
22385 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
22386 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
22388 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
22389 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
22392 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
22393 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
22395 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
22398 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
22399 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
22400 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
22401 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
22403 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
22404 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
22405 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
22406 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
22407 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
22408 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
22409 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
22410 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
22412 Many commands do not use the process/prefix convention. All commands
22413 that do explicitly say so in this manual. To apply the process/prefix
22414 convention to commands that do not use it, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
22415 command. For instance, to mark all the articles in the group as
22416 expirable, you could say @kbd{M P b M-& E}.
22420 @section Interactive
22421 @cindex interaction
22425 @item gnus-novice-user
22426 @vindex gnus-novice-user
22427 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
22428 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
22429 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
22430 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
22433 @item gnus-expert-user
22434 @vindex gnus-expert-user
22435 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
22436 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing,
22437 no matter how strange. For example, quitting Gnus, exiting a group
22438 without an update, catching up with a group, deleting expired
22439 articles, and replying by mail to a news message will not require
22442 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
22443 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
22444 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
22445 is @code{t} by default.
22447 @item gnus-interactive-exit
22448 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
22449 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
22454 @node Symbolic Prefixes
22455 @section Symbolic Prefixes
22456 @cindex symbolic prefixes
22458 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
22459 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four characters forward, and
22460 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
22461 rule of 900 to the current article.
22463 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
22464 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
22465 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
22466 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
22467 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
22468 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
22469 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
22471 @kindex M-i (Summary)
22472 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
22473 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
22474 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
22475 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
22476 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a C-M-u} means ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u}
22477 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b C-M-u} means
22478 ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
22479 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
22481 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
22482 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
22483 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
22485 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
22489 @node Formatting Variables
22490 @section Formatting Variables
22491 @cindex formatting variables
22493 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called
22494 things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
22495 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
22496 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
22497 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
22500 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
22501 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
22502 lots of percentages everywhere.
22505 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
22506 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
22507 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
22508 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
22509 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
22510 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
22511 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
22512 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
22515 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
22516 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
22517 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
22518 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
22519 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
22520 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
22521 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
22522 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
22524 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
22525 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
22527 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
22528 @findex gnus-update-format
22529 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
22530 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
22531 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
22532 examine the resulting Lisp code to be run to generate the line.
22536 @node Formatting Basics
22537 @subsection Formatting Basics
22539 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
22540 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
22541 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
22543 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
22544 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
22545 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
22546 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
22547 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
22550 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
22551 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
22552 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
22553 less than 4 characters wide.
22555 Also Gnus supports some extended format specifications, such as
22556 @samp{%&user-date;}.
22559 @node Mode Line Formatting
22560 @subsection Mode Line Formatting
22562 Mode line formatting variables (e.g.,
22563 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}) follow the same rules as other,
22564 buffer line oriented formatting variables (@pxref{Formatting Basics})
22565 with the following two differences:
22570 There must be no newline (@samp{\n}) at the end.
22573 The special @samp{%%b} spec can be used to display the buffer name.
22574 Well, it's no spec at all, really---@samp{%%} is just a way to quote
22575 @samp{%} to allow it to pass through the formatting machinery unmangled,
22576 so that Emacs receives @samp{%b}, which is something the Emacs mode line
22577 display interprets to mean ``show the buffer name''. For a full list of
22578 mode line specs Emacs understands, see the documentation of the
22579 @code{mode-line-format} variable.
22584 @node Advanced Formatting
22585 @subsection Advanced Formatting
22587 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
22588 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
22589 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
22590 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
22592 These are the valid modifiers:
22597 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
22601 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
22606 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
22609 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
22614 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
22617 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
22620 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
22623 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
22629 "~(form (current-time-string))@@"
22634 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
22635 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
22636 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
22637 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
22638 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
22639 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
22640 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
22642 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
22643 last operation, padding.
22645 If you use lots of these advanced thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets
22646 quite slow. This can be helped enormously by running @kbd{M-x
22647 gnus-compile} when you are satisfied with the look of your lines.
22648 @xref{Compilation}.
22651 @node User-Defined Specs
22652 @subsection User-Defined Specs
22654 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
22655 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
22656 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
22657 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
22658 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
22659 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
22660 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
22661 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
22662 should protect against that.
22664 Also Gnus supports extended user-defined specs, such as @samp{%u&foo;}.
22665 Gnus will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{foo}.
22667 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
22668 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
22669 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
22670 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
22674 @node Formatting Fonts
22675 @subsection Formatting Fonts
22678 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
22679 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
22680 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
22681 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
22682 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
22686 @vindex gnus-face-0
22687 Text inside the @samp{%@{} and @samp{%@}} specifiers will have their
22688 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
22689 default. If you say @samp{%1@{}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
22690 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
22691 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
22692 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
22694 @cindex %<<, %>>, guillemets
22695 @c @cindex %<<, %>>, %«, %», guillemets
22696 @vindex gnus-balloon-face-0
22697 Text inside the @samp{%<<} and @samp{%>>} specifiers will get the
22698 special @code{balloon-help} property set to
22699 @code{gnus-balloon-face-0}. If you say @samp{%1<<}, you'll get
22700 @code{gnus-balloon-face-1} and so on. The @code{gnus-balloon-face-*}
22701 variables should be either strings or symbols naming functions that
22702 return a string. When the mouse passes over text with this property
22703 set, a balloon window will appear and display the string. Please
22704 refer to @ref{Tooltips, ,Tooltips, emacs, The Emacs Manual},
22705 (in GNU Emacs) or the doc string of @code{balloon-help-mode} (in
22706 XEmacs) for more information on this. (For technical reasons, the
22707 guillemets have been approximated as @samp{<<} and @samp{>>} in this
22710 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
22713 ;; @r{Create three face types.}
22714 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
22715 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
22717 ;; @r{We want the article count to be in}
22718 ;; @r{a bold and green face. So we create}
22719 ;; @r{a new face called @code{my-green-bold}.}
22720 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
22721 ;; @r{Set the color.}
22722 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
22723 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
22725 ;; @r{Set the new & fancy format.}
22726 (setq gnus-group-line-format
22727 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
22730 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
22731 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
22733 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
22734 mode-line variables.
22736 @node Positioning Point
22737 @subsection Positioning Point
22739 Gnus usually moves point to a pre-defined place on each line in most
22740 buffers. By default, point move to the first colon character on the
22741 line. You can customize this behavior in three different ways.
22743 You can move the colon character to somewhere else on the line.
22745 @findex gnus-goto-colon
22746 You can redefine the function that moves the point to the colon. The
22747 function is called @code{gnus-goto-colon}.
22749 But perhaps the most convenient way to deal with this, if you don't want
22750 to have a colon in your line, is to use the @samp{%*} specifier. If you
22751 put a @samp{%*} somewhere in your format line definition, Gnus will
22756 @subsection Tabulation
22758 You can usually line up your displays by padding and cutting your
22759 strings. However, when combining various strings of different size, it
22760 can often be more convenient to just output the strings, and then worry
22761 about lining up the following text afterwards.
22763 To do that, Gnus supplies tabulator specs---@samp{%=}. There are two
22764 different types---@dfn{hard tabulators} and @dfn{soft tabulators}.
22766 @samp{%50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
22767 50. If the text is already past column 50, nothing will be inserted.
22768 This is the soft tabulator.
22770 @samp{%-50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
22771 50. If the text is already past column 50, the excess text past column
22772 50 will be removed. This is the hard tabulator.
22775 @node Wide Characters
22776 @subsection Wide Characters
22778 Fixed width fonts in most countries have characters of the same width.
22779 Some countries, however, use Latin characters mixed with wider
22780 characters---most notable East Asian countries.
22782 The problem is that when formatting, Gnus assumes that if a string is 10
22783 characters wide, it'll be 10 Latin characters wide on the screen. In
22784 these countries, that's not true.
22786 @vindex gnus-use-correct-string-widths
22787 To help fix this, you can set @code{gnus-use-correct-string-widths} to
22788 @code{t}. This makes buffer generation slower, but the results will be
22789 prettier. The default value under XEmacs is @code{t} but @code{nil}
22793 @node Window Layout
22794 @section Window Layout
22795 @cindex window layout
22797 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
22799 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
22800 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
22801 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
22802 @code{t} by default.
22804 Setting this variable to @code{nil} kinda works, but there are
22805 glitches. Use at your own peril.
22807 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
22808 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
22809 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
22812 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)
22813 (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4))))
22814 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
22818 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
22819 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
22820 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
22821 possible names is listed below.
22823 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
22824 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example -
22827 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
22831 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
22832 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
22833 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
22834 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
22835 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
22836 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
22837 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
22838 size spec per split.
22840 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
22841 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
22842 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e. is the third or
22843 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
22844 present) gets focus.
22846 Here's a more complicated example:
22849 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
22850 (summary 0.25 point)
22851 (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4))
22855 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
22856 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
22857 occupy, not a percentage.
22859 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
22860 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
22861 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
22862 be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if
22863 @code{gnus-carpal} is @code{nil}, and four buffers if @code{gnus-carpal}
22866 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
22869 (article (horizontal 1.0
22874 (summary 0.25 point)
22879 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
22880 @code{horizontal} thingie?
22882 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
22883 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
22884 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
22885 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
22886 the screen is to be given to this strip.
22888 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
22889 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
22890 lines from the splits.
22892 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
22897 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
22898 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
22899 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
22900 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
22901 buffer = "(" buf-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
22902 size = number | frame-params
22903 buf-name = group | article | summary ...
22907 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
22908 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
22909 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
22910 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
22912 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
22913 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
22914 @cindex window height
22915 @cindex window width
22916 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
22917 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
22918 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
22919 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
22920 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
22921 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
22923 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
22924 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
22925 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
22926 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
22928 @findex gnus-configure-frame
22929 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
22930 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
22931 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
22932 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
22933 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
22934 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
22935 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
22936 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
22937 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
22938 configuration list.
22941 (gnus-configure-frame
22945 (article 0.3 point))
22953 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
22954 @code{frame} split:
22957 (gnus-configure-frame
22960 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
22962 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
22963 (user-position . t)
22964 (left . -1) (top . 1))
22969 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
22970 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
22971 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
22972 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
22973 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
22974 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
22975 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
22976 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
22978 The list of all possible keys for @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} can
22979 be found in its default value.
22981 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
22982 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
22983 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
22987 (message (horizontal 1.0
22988 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
22990 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
22995 One common desire for a multiple frame split is to have a separate frame
22996 for composing mail and news while leaving the original frame intact. To
22997 accomplish that, something like the following can be done:
23002 (if (not (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer))
23003 (car (cdr (assoc 'group gnus-buffer-configuration)))
23004 (car (cdr (assoc 'summary gnus-buffer-configuration))))
23005 (vertical ((user-position . t) (top . 1) (left . 1)
23006 (name . "Message"))
23007 (message 1.0 point))))
23010 @findex gnus-add-configuration
23011 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
23012 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
23013 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
23014 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
23017 (gnus-add-configuration
23018 '(article (vertical 1.0
23020 (summary .25 point)
23024 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
23025 @file{~/.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
23026 Gnus has been loaded.
23028 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
23029 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
23030 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
23031 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
23032 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
23034 If you're using tree displays (@pxref{Tree Display}), and the tree
23035 window is displayed vertically next to another window, you may also want
23036 to fiddle with @code{gnus-tree-minimize-window} to avoid having the
23039 @subsection Example Window Configurations
23043 Narrow left hand side occupied by group buffer. Right hand side split
23044 between summary buffer (top one-sixth) and article buffer (bottom).
23059 (gnus-add-configuration
23062 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
23064 (summary 0.16 point)
23067 (gnus-add-configuration
23070 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
23071 (vertical 1.0 (summary 1.0 point)))))
23077 @node Faces and Fonts
23078 @section Faces and Fonts
23083 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
23084 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
23085 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
23090 @section Compilation
23091 @cindex compilation
23092 @cindex byte-compilation
23094 @findex gnus-compile
23096 Remember all those line format specification variables?
23097 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}, @code{gnus-group-line-format}, and so
23098 on. Now, Gnus will of course heed whatever these variables are, but,
23099 unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down.
23100 (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions
23101 associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of
23104 To help with this, you can run @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} after you've
23105 fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of)
23106 satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and
23107 you'll get top speed again. Gnus will save these compiled specs in the
23108 @file{.newsrc.eld} file. (User-defined functions aren't compiled by
23109 this function, though---you should compile them yourself by sticking
23110 them into the @file{~/.gnus.el} file and byte-compiling that file.)
23114 @section Mode Lines
23117 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
23118 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
23119 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
23120 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
23121 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
23122 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
23123 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
23126 @cindex display-time
23128 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
23129 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
23130 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
23131 to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
23132 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
23133 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
23134 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
23135 additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify
23138 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
23140 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
23141 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
23143 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
23144 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
23145 (length display-time-string)))))
23148 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
23149 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
23150 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
23151 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
23152 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
23155 @node Highlighting and Menus
23156 @section Highlighting and Menus
23158 @cindex highlighting
23161 @vindex gnus-visual
23162 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
23163 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
23164 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
23167 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
23168 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
23171 @item group-highlight
23172 Do highlights in the group buffer.
23173 @item summary-highlight
23174 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
23175 @item article-highlight
23176 Do highlights in the article buffer.
23178 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
23180 Create menus in the group buffer.
23182 Create menus in the summary buffers.
23184 Create menus in the article buffer.
23186 Create menus in the browse buffer.
23188 Create menus in the server buffer.
23190 Create menus in the score buffers.
23192 Create menus in all buffers.
23195 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
23196 buffers, you could say something like:
23199 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
23202 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
23205 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
23208 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
23209 in all Gnus buffers.
23211 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
23214 @item gnus-mouse-face
23215 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
23216 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
23217 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
23221 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
23225 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
23226 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
23227 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
23229 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
23230 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
23231 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
23233 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
23234 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
23235 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
23237 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
23238 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
23239 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
23241 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
23242 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
23243 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
23245 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
23246 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
23247 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
23258 Those new-fangled @dfn{mouse} contraptions is very popular with the
23259 young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things
23260 these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was
23261 using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single
23262 machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah!
23266 @vindex gnus-carpal
23267 Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to
23268 do anything by setting @code{gnus-carpal} to @code{t}. Pretty simple,
23269 really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you.
23274 @item gnus-carpal-mode-hook
23275 @vindex gnus-carpal-mode-hook
23276 Hook run in all carpal mode buffers.
23278 @item gnus-carpal-button-face
23279 @vindex gnus-carpal-button-face
23280 Face used on buttons.
23282 @item gnus-carpal-header-face
23283 @vindex gnus-carpal-header-face
23284 Face used on carpal buffer headers.
23286 @item gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
23287 @vindex gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
23288 Buttons in the group buffer.
23290 @item gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
23291 @vindex gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
23292 Buttons in the summary buffer.
23294 @item gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
23295 @vindex gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
23296 Buttons in the server buffer.
23298 @item gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
23299 @vindex gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
23300 Buttons in the browse buffer.
23303 All the @code{buttons} variables are lists. The elements in these list
23304 are either cons cells where the @code{car} contains a text to be displayed and
23305 the @code{cdr} contains a function symbol, or a simple string.
23313 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
23314 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
23315 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
23316 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
23317 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
23319 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
23320 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
23321 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
23323 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
23324 been idle for thirty minutes:
23327 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
23330 Here's a handler that scans for @acronym{PGP} headers every hour when
23334 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
23337 This @var{time} parameter and that @var{idle} parameter work together
23338 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
23339 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
23341 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
23342 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
23343 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
23344 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
23346 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
23347 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
23348 @var{idle} minutes.
23350 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
23351 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
23354 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
23355 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
23356 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
23358 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
23359 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
23360 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
23361 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
23363 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
23364 your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
23366 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
23368 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
23371 @findex gnus-demon-add-nocem
23372 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
23373 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
23374 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
23375 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
23376 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
23377 @code{gnus-demon-add-nocem}, @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
23378 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
23379 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
23380 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
23381 @file{~/.gnus.el} if you want those abilities.
23383 @findex gnus-demon-init
23384 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
23385 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
23386 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
23387 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
23388 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
23390 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it. Adding
23391 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
23392 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
23401 @dfn{Spamming} is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
23402 Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
23404 Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various anti-spamming
23405 agencies. These agencies usually also send out @dfn{NoCeM} messages.
23406 NoCeM is pronounced ``no see-'em'', and means what the name
23407 implies---these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
23410 What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled anyway?
23411 Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just honor cancels
23412 from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use of the NoCeM
23413 messages, which are distributed in the newsgroups
23414 @samp{news.lists.filters}, @samp{alt.nocem.misc}, etc.
23416 Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
23417 this will make spam disappear.
23419 There are some variables to customize, of course:
23422 @item gnus-use-nocem
23423 @vindex gnus-use-nocem
23424 Set this variable to @code{t} to set the ball rolling. It is @code{nil}
23427 You can also set this variable to a positive number as a group level.
23428 In that case, Gnus scans NoCeM messages when checking new news if this
23429 value is not exceeding a group level that you specify as the prefix
23430 argument to some commands, e.g. @code{gnus},
23431 @code{gnus-group-get-new-news}, etc. Otherwise, Gnus does not scan
23432 NoCeM messages if you specify a group level that is smaller than this
23433 value to those commands. For example, if you use 1 or 2 on the mail
23434 groups and the levels on the news groups remain the default, 3 is the
23437 @item gnus-nocem-groups
23438 @vindex gnus-nocem-groups
23439 Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
23442 ("news.lists.filters" "alt.nocem.misc")
23445 @item gnus-nocem-issuers
23446 @vindex gnus-nocem-issuers
23447 There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
23448 people you want to listen to. The default is:
23452 "alba-nocem@@albasani.net"
23453 "bleachbot@@httrack.com"
23454 "news@@arcor-online.net"
23455 "news@@uni-berlin.de"
23457 "pgpmoose@@killfile.org"
23461 Known despammers that you can put in this list are listed at@*
23462 @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~rosalind/nocemreg/nocemreg.html}.
23464 You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people---just the
23465 ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all NoCeM
23466 messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a @dfn{type}
23467 header that gives the message a (more or less, usually less) rigorous
23468 definition. Common types are @samp{spam}, @samp{spew}, @samp{mmf},
23469 @samp{binary}, and @samp{troll}. To specify this, you have to use
23470 @code{(@var{issuer} @var{conditions} @dots{})} elements in the list.
23471 Each condition is either a string (which is a regexp that matches types
23472 you want to use) or a list on the form @code{(not @var{string})}, where
23473 @var{string} is a regexp that matches types you don't want to use.
23475 For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis except his
23476 @samp{troll} messages, you'd say:
23479 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
23482 On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his @samp{spam} and
23483 @samp{spew} messages, you'd say:
23486 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
23489 The specs are applied left-to-right.
23492 @item gnus-nocem-verifyer
23493 @vindex gnus-nocem-verifyer
23494 @findex gnus-nocem-epg-verify
23496 This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is who she
23497 says she is. This variable defaults to @code{gnus-nocem-epg-verify} if
23498 EasyPG is available, otherwise defaults to @code{pgg-verify}. The
23499 function should return non-@code{nil} if the verification is successful,
23500 otherwise (including the case the NoCeM message was not signed) should
23501 return @code{nil}. If this is too slow and you don't care for
23502 verification (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable to
23505 Formerly the default was @code{mc-verify}, which is a Mailcrypt
23506 function. While you can still use it, you can change it into
23507 @code{gnus-nocem-epg-verify} or @code{pgg-verify} running with GnuPG if
23508 you are willing to add the @acronym{PGP} public keys to GnuPG's keyring.
23510 @item gnus-nocem-directory
23511 @vindex gnus-nocem-directory
23512 This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default is@*
23513 @file{~/News/NoCeM/}.
23515 @item gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
23516 @vindex gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
23517 The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the cache.
23518 The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be faster, but you
23519 might then see old spam.
23521 @item gnus-nocem-check-from
23522 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-from
23523 Non-@code{nil} means check for valid issuers in message bodies.
23524 Otherwise don't bother fetching articles unless their author matches a
23525 valid issuer; that is much faster if you are selective about the
23528 @item gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
23529 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
23530 If non-@code{nil}, the maximum number of articles to check in any NoCeM
23531 group. @code{nil} means no restriction. NoCeM groups can be huge and
23532 very slow to process.
23536 Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many living
23537 (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process will grow
23538 big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most) of your
23539 unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Subscription Commands}).
23546 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
23547 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
23548 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
23550 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
23551 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
23552 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
23553 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
23554 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
23555 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
23556 @code{undo} function.
23558 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
23559 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
23560 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
23561 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
23562 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
23563 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
23564 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
23565 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
23566 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
23567 never be totally undoable.
23569 @findex gnus-undo-mode
23570 @vindex gnus-use-undo
23572 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
23573 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
23574 default. The @kbd{C-M-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo}
23575 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
23579 @node Predicate Specifiers
23580 @section Predicate Specifiers
23581 @cindex predicate specifiers
23583 Some Gnus variables are @dfn{predicate specifiers}. This is a special
23584 form that allows flexible specification of predicates without having
23585 to type all that much.
23587 These specifiers are lists consisting of functions, symbols and lists.
23592 (or gnus-article-unseen-p
23593 gnus-article-unread-p)
23596 The available symbols are @code{or}, @code{and} and @code{not}. The
23597 functions all take one parameter.
23599 @findex gnus-make-predicate
23600 Internally, Gnus calls @code{gnus-make-predicate} on these specifiers
23601 to create a function that can be called. This input parameter to this
23602 function will be passed along to all the functions in the predicate
23607 @section Moderation
23610 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
23611 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
23612 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
23615 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
23619 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
23622 in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
23624 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
23629 You split your incoming mail by matching on
23630 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
23631 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
23634 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
23635 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
23638 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
23639 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
23643 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
23646 (setq gnus-moderated-list
23647 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
23651 @node Fetching a Group
23652 @section Fetching a Group
23653 @cindex fetching a group
23655 @findex gnus-fetch-group
23656 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
23657 group and I don't care whether Gnus has been started or not''. This is
23658 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
23659 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
23660 It takes the group name as a parameter.
23663 @node Image Enhancements
23664 @section Image Enhancements
23666 XEmacs, as well as Emacs 21@footnote{Emacs 21 on MS Windows doesn't
23667 support images, Emacs 22 does.} and up, are able to display pictures and
23668 stuff, so Gnus has taken advantage of that.
23671 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
23672 * Face:: Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
23673 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
23674 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
23675 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
23683 @code{X-Face} headers describe a 48x48 pixel black-and-white (1 bit
23684 depth) image that's supposed to represent the author of the message.
23685 It seems to be supported by an ever-growing number of mail and news
23689 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
23690 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
23691 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
23699 Viewing an @code{X-Face} header either requires an Emacs that has
23700 @samp{compface} support (which most XEmacs versions have), or that you
23701 have suitable conversion or display programs installed. If your Emacs
23702 has image support the default action is to display the face before the
23703 @code{From} header. If there's no native @code{X-Face} support, Gnus
23704 will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using external programs
23705 from the @code{pbmplus} package and friends, see below. For XEmacs it's
23706 faster if XEmacs has been compiled with @code{X-Face} support. The
23707 default action under Emacs without image support is to fork off the
23708 @code{display} program.
23710 On a GNU/Linux system, the @code{display} program is included in the
23711 ImageMagick package. For external conversion programs look for packages
23712 with names like @code{netpbm}, @code{libgr-progs} and @code{compface}.
23713 On Windows, you may use the packages @code{netpbm} and @code{compface}
23714 from @url{http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net}. You need to add the
23715 @code{bin} directory to your @code{PATH} environment variable.
23716 @c In fact only the following DLLs and binaries seem to be required:
23717 @c compface1.dll uncompface.exe libnetpbm10.dll icontopbm.exe
23719 The variable @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} controls which programs
23720 are used to display the @code{X-Face} header. If this variable is a
23721 string, this string will be executed in a sub-shell. If it is a
23722 function, this function will be called with the face as the argument.
23723 If @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which is a regexp) matches the
23724 @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
23726 (Note: @code{x-face} is used in the variable/function names, not
23734 @vindex gnus-x-face
23735 Face to show X-Face. The colors from this face are used as the
23736 foreground and background colors of the displayed X-Faces. The
23737 default colors are black and white.
23739 @item gnus-face-properties-alist
23740 @vindex gnus-face-properties-alist
23741 Alist of image types and properties applied to Face (@pxref{Face}) and
23742 X-Face images. The default value is @code{((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face))
23743 (png . nil))} for Emacs or @code{((xface . (:face gnus-x-face)))} for
23744 XEmacs. Here are examples:
23747 ;; Specify the altitude of Face and X-Face images in the From header.
23748 (setq gnus-face-properties-alist
23749 '((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face :ascent 80))
23750 (png . (:ascent 80))))
23752 ;; Show Face and X-Face images as pressed buttons.
23753 (setq gnus-face-properties-alist
23754 '((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face :relief -2))
23755 (png . (:relief -2))))
23758 @pxref{Image Descriptors, ,Image Descriptors, elisp, The Emacs Lisp
23759 Reference Manual} for the valid properties for various image types.
23760 Currently, @code{pbm} is used for X-Face images and @code{png} is used
23761 for Face images in Emacs. Only the @code{:face} property is effective
23762 on the @code{xface} image type in XEmacs if it is built with the
23763 @samp{libcompface} library.
23766 If you use posting styles, you can use an @code{x-face-file} entry in
23767 @code{gnus-posting-styles}, @xref{Posting Styles}. If you don't, Gnus
23768 provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow easier
23769 insertion of X-Face headers in outgoing messages. You also need the
23770 above mentioned ImageMagick, netpbm or other image conversion packages
23771 (depending the values of the variables below) for these functions.
23773 @findex gnus-random-x-face
23774 @vindex gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command
23775 @vindex gnus-x-face-directory
23776 @code{gnus-random-x-face} goes through all the @samp{pbm} files in
23777 @code{gnus-x-face-directory} and picks one at random, and then
23778 converts it to the X-Face format by using the
23779 @code{gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command} shell command. The
23780 @samp{pbm} files should be 48x48 pixels big. It returns the X-Face
23781 header data as a string.
23783 @findex gnus-insert-random-x-face-header
23784 @code{gnus-insert-random-x-face-header} calls
23785 @code{gnus-random-x-face} and inserts a @samp{X-Face} header with the
23786 randomly generated data.
23788 @findex gnus-x-face-from-file
23789 @vindex gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command
23790 @code{gnus-x-face-from-file} takes a GIF file as the parameter, and then
23791 converts the file to X-Face format by using the
23792 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command} shell command.
23794 Here's how you would typically use the first function. Put something
23795 like the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
23798 (setq message-required-news-headers
23799 (nconc message-required-news-headers
23800 (list '(X-Face . gnus-random-x-face))))
23803 Using the last function would be something like this:
23806 (setq message-required-news-headers
23807 (nconc message-required-news-headers
23808 (list '(X-Face . (lambda ()
23809 (gnus-x-face-from-file
23810 "~/My-face.gif"))))))
23818 @c #### FIXME: faces and x-faces' implementations should really be harmonized.
23820 @code{Face} headers are essentially a funkier version of @code{X-Face}
23821 ones. They describe a 48x48 pixel colored image that's supposed to
23822 represent the author of the message.
23825 @findex gnus-article-display-face
23826 The contents of a @code{Face} header must be a base64 encoded PNG image.
23827 See @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/circus/face/} for the precise
23830 The @code{gnus-face-properties-alist} variable affects the appearance of
23831 displayed Face images. @xref{X-Face}.
23833 Viewing an @code{Face} header requires an Emacs that is able to display
23836 @c (if (featurep 'xemacs)
23838 @c (image-type-available-p 'png))
23840 Gnus provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow
23841 easier insertion of Face headers in outgoing messages.
23843 @findex gnus-convert-png-to-face
23844 @code{gnus-convert-png-to-face} takes a 48x48 PNG image, no longer than
23845 726 bytes long, and converts it to a face.
23847 @findex gnus-face-from-file
23848 @vindex gnus-convert-image-to-face-command
23849 @code{gnus-face-from-file} takes a JPEG file as the parameter, and then
23850 converts the file to Face format by using the
23851 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-face-command} shell command.
23853 Here's how you would typically use this function. Put something like the
23854 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
23857 (setq message-required-news-headers
23858 (nconc message-required-news-headers
23859 (list '(Face . (lambda ()
23860 (gnus-face-from-file "~/face.jpg"))))))
23865 @subsection Smileys
23870 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/BigFace,height=20cm}}
23875 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
23876 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
23878 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
23879 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
23882 (setq gnus-treat-display-smileys t)
23885 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{8-)}, @samp{:-(} and
23886 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
23887 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
23888 text and maps that to file names.
23890 @vindex smiley-regexp-alist
23891 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist}
23892 variable. The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched;
23893 the second element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by
23894 the picture; and the third element is the name of the file to be
23897 The following variables customize the appearance of the smileys:
23902 @vindex smiley-style
23903 Specifies the smiley style. Predefined smiley styles include
23904 @code{low-color} (small 13x14 pixel, three-color images), @code{medium}
23905 (more colorful images, 16x16 pixel), and @code{grayscale} (grayscale
23906 images, 14x14 pixel). The default depends on the height of the default
23909 @item smiley-data-directory
23910 @vindex smiley-data-directory
23911 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files. You shouldn't set this
23912 variable anymore. Customize @code{smiley-style} instead.
23914 @item gnus-smiley-file-types
23915 @vindex gnus-smiley-file-types
23916 List of suffixes on smiley file names to try.
23930 So@dots{} You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
23931 good way to do so. It's also a great way to impress people staring
23932 over your shoulder as you read news.
23934 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
23943 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
23944 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
23945 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
23946 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
23947 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
23948 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
23949 @code{GIF} formats.
23952 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
23953 For instructions on obtaining and installing the picons databases,
23954 point your Web browser at
23955 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}.
23957 If you are using Debian GNU/Linux, saying @samp{apt-get install
23958 picons.*} will install the picons where Gnus can find them.
23960 To enable displaying picons, simply make sure that
23961 @code{gnus-picon-databases} points to the directory containing the
23964 @vindex gnus-picon-style
23965 The variable @code{gnus-picon-style} controls how picons are displayed.
23966 If @code{inline}, the textual representation is replaced. If
23967 @code{right}, picons are added right to the textual representation.
23969 The following variables offer control over where things are located.
23973 @item gnus-picon-databases
23974 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
23975 The location of the picons database. This is a list of directories
23976 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
23977 subdirectories. Defaults to @code{("/usr/lib/picon"
23978 "/usr/local/faces")}.
23980 @item gnus-picon-news-directories
23981 @vindex gnus-picon-news-directories
23982 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
23983 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
23985 @item gnus-picon-user-directories
23986 @vindex gnus-picon-user-directories
23987 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for user
23988 faces. @code{("users" "usenix" "local" "misc")} is the default.
23990 @item gnus-picon-domain-directories
23991 @vindex gnus-picon-domain-directories
23992 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
23993 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
23994 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
23996 @item gnus-picon-file-types
23997 @vindex gnus-picon-file-types
23998 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
23999 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not built-in your Emacs.
24005 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
24008 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
24009 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
24010 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
24011 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
24012 unusual directory structure.
24014 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
24015 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
24016 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
24021 @subsubsection Toolbar
24025 @item gnus-use-toolbar
24026 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
24027 This variable specifies the position to display the toolbar. If
24028 @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If it is non-@code{nil}, it should
24029 be one of the symbols @code{default}, @code{top}, @code{bottom},
24030 @code{right}, and @code{left}. @code{default} means to use the default
24031 toolbar, the rest mean to display the toolbar on the place which those
24032 names show. The default is @code{default}.
24034 @item gnus-toolbar-thickness
24035 @vindex gnus-toolbar-thickness
24036 Cons of the height and the width specifying the thickness of a toolbar.
24037 The height is used for the toolbar displayed on the top or the bottom,
24038 the width is used for the toolbar displayed on the right or the left.
24039 The default is that of the default toolbar.
24041 @item gnus-group-toolbar
24042 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
24043 The toolbar in the group buffer.
24045 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
24046 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
24047 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
24049 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
24050 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
24051 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
24062 @node Fuzzy Matching
24063 @section Fuzzy Matching
24064 @cindex fuzzy matching
24066 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
24067 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
24069 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
24070 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
24071 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
24073 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
24074 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
24075 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
24076 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
24077 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
24080 @node Thwarting Email Spam
24081 @section Thwarting Email Spam
24085 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
24087 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
24088 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
24089 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
24090 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
24091 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
24092 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
24093 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
24094 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
24097 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
24098 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
24099 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
24100 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
24101 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!'')
24102 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
24104 This is annoying. Here's what you can do about it.
24107 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
24108 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
24109 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
24110 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
24113 @node The problem of spam
24114 @subsection The problem of spam
24116 @cindex spam filtering approaches
24117 @cindex filtering approaches, spam
24119 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
24121 First, some background on spam.
24123 If you have access to e-mail, you are familiar with spam (technically
24124 termed @acronym{UCE}, Unsolicited Commercial E-mail). Simply put, it
24125 exists because e-mail delivery is very cheap compared to paper mail,
24126 so only a very small percentage of people need to respond to an UCE to
24127 make it worthwhile to the advertiser. Ironically, one of the most
24128 common spams is the one offering a database of e-mail addresses for
24129 further spamming. Senders of spam are usually called @emph{spammers},
24130 but terms like @emph{vermin}, @emph{scum}, @emph{sociopaths}, and
24131 @emph{morons} are in common use as well.
24133 Spam comes from a wide variety of sources. It is simply impossible to
24134 dispose of all spam without discarding useful messages. A good
24135 example is the TMDA system, which requires senders
24136 unknown to you to confirm themselves as legitimate senders before
24137 their e-mail can reach you. Without getting into the technical side
24138 of TMDA, a downside is clearly that e-mail from legitimate sources may
24139 be discarded if those sources can't or won't confirm themselves
24140 through the TMDA system. Another problem with TMDA is that it
24141 requires its users to have a basic understanding of e-mail delivery
24144 The simplest approach to filtering spam is filtering, at the mail
24145 server or when you sort through incoming mail. If you get 200 spam
24146 messages per day from @samp{random-address@@vmadmin.com}, you block
24147 @samp{vmadmin.com}. If you get 200 messages about @samp{VIAGRA}, you
24148 discard all messages with @samp{VIAGRA} in the message. If you get
24149 lots of spam from Bulgaria, for example, you try to filter all mail
24150 from Bulgarian IPs.
24152 This, unfortunately, is a great way to discard legitimate e-mail. The
24153 risks of blocking a whole country (Bulgaria, Norway, Nigeria, China,
24154 etc.) or even a continent (Asia, Africa, Europe, etc.) from contacting
24155 you should be obvious, so don't do it if you have the choice.
24157 In another instance, the very informative and useful RISKS digest has
24158 been blocked by overzealous mail filters because it @strong{contained}
24159 words that were common in spam messages. Nevertheless, in isolated
24160 cases, with great care, direct filtering of mail can be useful.
24162 Another approach to filtering e-mail is the distributed spam
24163 processing, for instance DCC implements such a system. In essence,
24164 @var{N} systems around the world agree that a machine @var{X} in
24165 Ghana, Estonia, or California is sending out spam e-mail, and these
24166 @var{N} systems enter @var{X} or the spam e-mail from @var{X} into a
24167 database. The criteria for spam detection vary---it may be the number
24168 of messages sent, the content of the messages, and so on. When a user
24169 of the distributed processing system wants to find out if a message is
24170 spam, he consults one of those @var{N} systems.
24172 Distributed spam processing works very well against spammers that send
24173 a large number of messages at once, but it requires the user to set up
24174 fairly complicated checks. There are commercial and free distributed
24175 spam processing systems. Distributed spam processing has its risks as
24176 well. For instance legitimate e-mail senders have been accused of
24177 sending spam, and their web sites and mailing lists have been shut
24178 down for some time because of the incident.
24180 The statistical approach to spam filtering is also popular. It is
24181 based on a statistical analysis of previous spam messages. Usually
24182 the analysis is a simple word frequency count, with perhaps pairs of
24183 words or 3-word combinations thrown into the mix. Statistical
24184 analysis of spam works very well in most of the cases, but it can
24185 classify legitimate e-mail as spam in some cases. It takes time to
24186 run the analysis, the full message must be analyzed, and the user has
24187 to store the database of spam analysis. Statistical analysis on the
24188 server is gaining popularity. This has the advantage of letting the
24189 user Just Read Mail, but has the disadvantage that it's harder to tell
24190 the server that it has misclassified mail.
24192 Fighting spam is not easy, no matter what anyone says. There is no
24193 magic switch that will distinguish Viagra ads from Mom's e-mails.
24194 Even people are having a hard time telling spam apart from non-spam,
24195 because spammers are actively looking to fool us into thinking they
24196 are Mom, essentially. Spamming is irritating, irresponsible, and
24197 idiotic behavior from a bunch of people who think the world owes them
24198 a favor. We hope the following sections will help you in fighting the
24201 @node Anti-Spam Basics
24202 @subsection Anti-Spam Basics
24206 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
24208 One way of dealing with spam is having Gnus split out all spam into a
24209 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
24211 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
24212 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
24213 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
24214 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
24215 sysadmin whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
24216 part of the mail address.)
24219 (setq message-default-news-headers
24220 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
24223 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
24224 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
24228 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
24229 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
24230 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
24235 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
24236 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
24237 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
24238 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
24240 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @acronym{SMTP} server
24241 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
24242 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
24243 thwarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
24244 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
24245 your fancy split rule in this way:
24250 (to "larsi" "misc")
24254 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
24255 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
24256 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
24257 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
24258 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
24260 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
24261 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
24262 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
24263 to non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
24265 Be careful with this approach. Spammers are wise to it.
24269 @subsection SpamAssassin, Vipul's Razor, DCC, etc
24270 @cindex SpamAssassin
24271 @cindex Vipul's Razor
24274 The days where the hints in the previous section were sufficient in
24275 avoiding spam are coming to an end. There are many tools out there
24276 that claim to reduce the amount of spam you get. This section could
24277 easily become outdated fast, as new products replace old, but
24278 fortunately most of these tools seem to have similar interfaces. Even
24279 though this section will use SpamAssassin as an example, it should be
24280 easy to adapt it to most other tools.
24282 Note that this section does not involve the @code{spam.el} package,
24283 which is discussed in the next section. If you don't care for all
24284 the features of @code{spam.el}, you can make do with these simple
24287 If the tool you are using is not installed on the mail server, you
24288 need to invoke it yourself. Ideas on how to use the
24289 @code{:postscript} mail source parameter (@pxref{Mail Source
24290 Specifiers}) follow.
24294 '((file :prescript "formail -bs spamassassin < /var/mail/%u")
24298 "mv %t /tmp/foo; formail -bs spamc < /tmp/foo > %t")))
24301 Once you manage to process your incoming spool somehow, thus making
24302 the mail contain e.g.@: a header indicating it is spam, you are ready to
24303 filter it out. Using normal split methods (@pxref{Splitting Mail}):
24306 (setq nnmail-split-methods '(("spam" "^X-Spam-Flag: YES")
24310 Or using fancy split methods (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
24313 (setq nnmail-split-methods 'nnmail-split-fancy
24314 nnmail-split-fancy '(| ("X-Spam-Flag" "YES" "spam")
24318 Some people might not like the idea of piping the mail through various
24319 programs using a @code{:prescript} (if some program is buggy, you
24320 might lose all mail). If you are one of them, another solution is to
24321 call the external tools during splitting. Example fancy split method:
24324 (setq nnmail-split-fancy '(| (: kevin-spamassassin)
24326 (defun kevin-spamassassin ()
24330 (if (eq 1 (call-process-region (point-min) (point-max)
24331 "spamc" nil nil nil "-c"))
24335 Note that with the nnimap back end, message bodies will not be
24336 downloaded by default. You need to set
24337 @code{nnimap-split-download-body} to @code{t} to do that
24338 (@pxref{Splitting in IMAP}).
24340 That is about it. As some spam is likely to get through anyway, you
24341 might want to have a nifty function to call when you happen to read
24342 spam. And here is the nifty function:
24345 (defun my-gnus-raze-spam ()
24346 "Submit SPAM to Vipul's Razor, then mark it as expirable."
24348 (gnus-summary-save-in-pipe "razor-report -f -d" t)
24349 (gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable 1))
24353 @subsection Hashcash
24356 A novel technique to fight spam is to require senders to do something
24357 costly and demonstrably unique for each message they send. This has
24358 the obvious drawback that you cannot rely on everyone in the world
24359 using this technique, since it is not part of the Internet standards,
24360 but it may be useful in smaller communities.
24362 While the tools in the previous section work well in practice, they
24363 work only because the tools are constantly maintained and updated as
24364 new form of spam appears. This means that a small percentage of spam
24365 will always get through. It also means that somewhere, someone needs
24366 to read lots of spam to update these tools. Hashcash avoids that, but
24367 instead prefers that everyone you contact through e-mail supports the
24368 scheme. You can view the two approaches as pragmatic vs dogmatic.
24369 The approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages, but as
24370 often in the real world, a combination of them is stronger than either
24371 one of them separately.
24374 The ``something costly'' is to burn CPU time, more specifically to
24375 compute a hash collision up to a certain number of bits. The
24376 resulting hashcash cookie is inserted in a @samp{X-Hashcash:} header.
24377 For more details, and for the external application @code{hashcash} you
24378 need to install to use this feature, see
24379 @uref{http://www.hashcash.org/}. Even more information can be found
24380 at @uref{http://www.camram.org/}.
24382 If you wish to generate hashcash for each message you send, you can
24383 customize @code{message-generate-hashcash} (@pxref{Mail Headers, ,Mail
24384 Headers,message, The Message Manual}), as in:
24387 (setq message-generate-hashcash t)
24390 You will need to set up some additional variables as well:
24394 @item hashcash-default-payment
24395 @vindex hashcash-default-payment
24396 This variable indicates the default number of bits the hash collision
24397 should consist of. By default this is 20. Suggested useful values
24400 @item hashcash-payment-alist
24401 @vindex hashcash-payment-alist
24402 Some receivers may require you to spend burn more CPU time than the
24403 default. This variable contains a list of @samp{(@var{addr}
24404 @var{amount})} cells, where @var{addr} is the receiver (email address
24405 or newsgroup) and @var{amount} is the number of bits in the collision
24406 that is needed. It can also contain @samp{(@var{addr} @var{string}
24407 @var{amount})} cells, where the @var{string} is the string to use
24408 (normally the email address or newsgroup name is used).
24410 @item hashcash-path
24411 @vindex hashcash-path
24412 Where the @code{hashcash} binary is installed. This variable should
24413 be automatically set by @code{executable-find}, but if it's @code{nil}
24414 (usually because the @code{hashcash} binary is not in your path)
24415 you'll get a warning when you check hashcash payments and an error
24416 when you generate hashcash payments.
24420 Gnus can verify hashcash cookies, although this can also be done by
24421 hand customized mail filtering scripts. To verify a hashcash cookie
24422 in a message, use the @code{mail-check-payment} function in the
24423 @code{hashcash.el} library. You can also use the @code{spam.el}
24424 package with the @code{spam-use-hashcash} back end to validate hashcash
24425 cookies in incoming mail and filter mail accordingly (@pxref{Anti-spam
24426 Hashcash Payments}).
24429 @section Spam Package
24430 @cindex spam filtering
24433 The Spam package provides Gnus with a centralized mechanism for
24434 detecting and filtering spam. It filters new mail, and processes
24435 messages according to whether they are spam or ham. (@dfn{Ham} is the
24436 name used throughout this manual to indicate non-spam messages.)
24439 * Spam Package Introduction::
24440 * Filtering Incoming Mail::
24441 * Detecting Spam in Groups::
24442 * Spam and Ham Processors::
24443 * Spam Package Configuration Examples::
24445 * Extending the Spam package::
24446 * Spam Statistics Package::
24449 @node Spam Package Introduction
24450 @subsection Spam Package Introduction
24451 @cindex spam filtering
24452 @cindex spam filtering sequence of events
24455 You must read this section to understand how the Spam package works.
24456 Do not skip, speed-read, or glance through this section.
24458 Make sure you read the section on the @code{spam.el} sequence of
24459 events. See @xref{Extending the Spam package}.
24461 @cindex spam-initialize
24462 @vindex spam-use-stat
24463 To use the Spam package, you @strong{must} first run the function
24464 @code{spam-initialize}:
24470 This autoloads @code{spam.el} and installs the various hooks necessary
24471 to let the Spam package do its job. In order to make use of the Spam
24472 package, you have to set up certain group parameters and variables,
24473 which we will describe below. All of the variables controlling the
24474 Spam package can be found in the @samp{spam} customization group.
24476 There are two ``contact points'' between the Spam package and the rest
24477 of Gnus: checking new mail for spam, and leaving a group.
24479 Checking new mail for spam is done in one of two ways: while splitting
24480 incoming mail, or when you enter a group.
24482 The first way, checking for spam while splitting incoming mail, is
24483 suited to mail back ends such as @code{nnml} or @code{nnimap}, where
24484 new mail appears in a single spool file. The Spam package processes
24485 incoming mail, and sends mail considered to be spam to a designated
24486 ``spam'' group. @xref{Filtering Incoming Mail}.
24488 The second way is suited to back ends such as @code{nntp}, which have
24489 no incoming mail spool, or back ends where the server is in charge of
24490 splitting incoming mail. In this case, when you enter a Gnus group,
24491 the unseen or unread messages in that group are checked for spam.
24492 Detected spam messages are marked as spam. @xref{Detecting Spam in
24495 @cindex spam back ends
24496 In either case, you have to tell the Spam package what method to use
24497 to detect spam messages. There are several methods, or @dfn{spam back
24498 ends} (not to be confused with Gnus back ends!) to choose from: spam
24499 ``blacklists'' and ``whitelists'', dictionary-based filters, and so
24500 forth. @xref{Spam Back Ends}.
24502 In the Gnus summary buffer, messages that have been identified as spam
24503 always appear with a @samp{$} symbol.
24505 The Spam package divides Gnus groups into three categories: ham
24506 groups, spam groups, and unclassified groups. You should mark each of
24507 the groups you subscribe to as either a ham group or a spam group,
24508 using the @code{spam-contents} group parameter (@pxref{Group
24509 Parameters}). Spam groups have a special property: when you enter a
24510 spam group, all unseen articles are marked as spam. Thus, mail split
24511 into a spam group is automatically marked as spam.
24513 Identifying spam messages is only half of the Spam package's job. The
24514 second half comes into play whenever you exit a group buffer. At this
24515 point, the Spam package does several things:
24517 First, it calls @dfn{spam and ham processors} to process the articles
24518 according to whether they are spam or ham. There is a pair of spam
24519 and ham processors associated with each spam back end, and what the
24520 processors do depends on the back end. At present, the main role of
24521 spam and ham processors is for dictionary-based spam filters: they add
24522 the contents of the messages in the group to the filter's dictionary,
24523 to improve its ability to detect future spam. The @code{spam-process}
24524 group parameter specifies what spam processors to use. @xref{Spam and
24527 If the spam filter failed to mark a spam message, you can mark it
24528 yourself, so that the message is processed as spam when you exit the
24538 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-spam
24539 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-spam
24540 Mark current article as spam, showing it with the @samp{$} mark
24541 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}).
24545 Similarly, you can unmark an article if it has been erroneously marked
24546 as spam. @xref{Setting Marks}.
24548 Normally, a ham message found in a non-ham group is not processed as
24549 ham---the rationale is that it should be moved into a ham group for
24550 further processing (see below). However, you can force these articles
24551 to be processed as ham by setting
24552 @code{spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups} and
24553 @code{spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups}.
24555 @vindex gnus-ham-process-destinations
24556 @vindex gnus-spam-process-destinations
24557 The second thing that the Spam package does when you exit a group is
24558 to move ham articles out of spam groups, and spam articles out of ham
24559 groups. Ham in a spam group is moved to the group specified by the
24560 variable @code{gnus-ham-process-destinations}, or the group parameter
24561 @code{ham-process-destination}. Spam in a ham group is moved to the
24562 group specified by the variable @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations},
24563 or the group parameter @code{spam-process-destination}. If these
24564 variables are not set, the articles are left in their current group.
24565 If an article cannot be moved (e.g., with a read-only backend such
24566 as @acronym{NNTP}), it is copied.
24568 If an article is moved to another group, it is processed again when
24569 you visit the new group. Normally, this is not a problem, but if you
24570 want each article to be processed only once, load the
24571 @code{gnus-registry.el} package and set the variable
24572 @code{spam-log-to-registry} to @code{t}. @xref{Spam Package
24573 Configuration Examples}.
24575 Normally, spam groups ignore @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations}.
24576 However, if you set @code{spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only} to
24577 @code{nil}, spam will also be moved out of spam groups, depending on
24578 the @code{spam-process-destination} parameter.
24580 The final thing the Spam package does is to mark spam articles as
24581 expired, which is usually the right thing to do.
24583 If all this seems confusing, don't worry. Soon it will be as natural
24584 as typing Lisp one-liners on a neural interface@dots{} err, sorry, that's
24585 50 years in the future yet. Just trust us, it's not so bad.
24587 @node Filtering Incoming Mail
24588 @subsection Filtering Incoming Mail
24589 @cindex spam filtering
24590 @cindex spam filtering incoming mail
24593 To use the Spam package to filter incoming mail, you must first set up
24594 fancy mail splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}. The Spam package
24595 defines a special splitting function that you can add to your fancy
24596 split variable (either @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or
24597 @code{nnimap-split-fancy}, depending on your mail back end):
24603 @vindex spam-split-group
24605 The @code{spam-split} function scans incoming mail according to your
24606 chosen spam back end(s), and sends messages identified as spam to a
24607 spam group. By default, the spam group is a group named @samp{spam},
24608 but you can change this by customizing @code{spam-split-group}. Make
24609 sure the contents of @code{spam-split-group} are an unqualified group
24610 name. For instance, in an @code{nnimap} server @samp{your-server},
24611 the value @samp{spam} means @samp{nnimap+your-server:spam}. The value
24612 @samp{nnimap+server:spam} is therefore wrong---it gives the group
24613 @samp{nnimap+your-server:nnimap+server:spam}.
24615 @code{spam-split} does not modify the contents of messages in any way.
24617 @vindex nnimap-split-download-body
24618 Note for IMAP users: if you use the @code{spam-check-bogofilter},
24619 @code{spam-check-ifile}, and @code{spam-check-stat} spam back ends,
24620 you should also set the variable @code{nnimap-split-download-body}
24621 to @code{t}. These spam back ends are most useful when they can
24622 ``scan'' the full message body. By default, the nnimap back end only
24623 retrieves the message headers; @code{nnimap-split-download-body} tells
24624 it to retrieve the message bodies as well. We don't set this by
24625 default because it will slow @acronym{IMAP} down, and that is not an
24626 appropriate decision to make on behalf of the user. @xref{Splitting
24629 You have to specify one or more spam back ends for @code{spam-split}
24630 to use, by setting the @code{spam-use-*} variables. @xref{Spam Back
24631 Ends}. Normally, @code{spam-split} simply uses all the spam back ends
24632 you enabled in this way. However, you can tell @code{spam-split} to
24633 use only some of them. Why this is useful? Suppose you are using the
24634 @code{spam-use-regex-headers} and @code{spam-use-blackholes} spam back
24635 ends, and the following split rule:
24638 nnimap-split-fancy '(|
24639 (any "ding" "ding")
24641 ;; @r{default mailbox}
24646 The problem is that you want all ding messages to make it to the ding
24647 folder. But that will let obvious spam (for example, spam detected by
24648 SpamAssassin, and @code{spam-use-regex-headers}) through, when it's
24649 sent to the ding list. On the other hand, some messages to the ding
24650 list are from a mail server in the blackhole list, so the invocation
24651 of @code{spam-split} can't be before the ding rule.
24653 The solution is to let SpamAssassin headers supersede ding rules, and
24654 perform the other @code{spam-split} rules (including a second
24655 invocation of the regex-headers check) after the ding rule. This is
24656 done by passing a parameter to @code{spam-split}:
24661 ;; @r{spam detected by @code{spam-use-regex-headers} goes to @samp{regex-spam}}
24662 (: spam-split "regex-spam" 'spam-use-regex-headers)
24663 (any "ding" "ding")
24664 ;; @r{all other spam detected by spam-split goes to @code{spam-split-group}}
24666 ;; @r{default mailbox}
24671 This lets you invoke specific @code{spam-split} checks depending on
24672 your particular needs, and target the results of those checks to a
24673 particular spam group. You don't have to throw all mail into all the
24674 spam tests. Another reason why this is nice is that messages to
24675 mailing lists you have rules for don't have to have resource-intensive
24676 blackhole checks performed on them. You could also specify different
24677 spam checks for your nnmail split vs. your nnimap split. Go crazy.
24679 You should set the @code{spam-use-*} variables for whatever spam back
24680 ends you intend to use. The reason is that when loading
24681 @file{spam.el}, some conditional loading is done depending on what
24682 @code{spam-use-xyz} variables you have set. @xref{Spam Back Ends}.
24684 @c @emph{TODO: spam.el needs to provide a uniform way of training all the
24685 @c statistical databases. Some have that functionality built-in, others
24688 @node Detecting Spam in Groups
24689 @subsection Detecting Spam in Groups
24691 To detect spam when visiting a group, set the group's
24692 @code{spam-autodetect} and @code{spam-autodetect-methods} group
24693 parameters. These are accessible with @kbd{G c} or @kbd{G p}, as
24694 usual (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
24696 You should set the @code{spam-use-*} variables for whatever spam back
24697 ends you intend to use. The reason is that when loading
24698 @file{spam.el}, some conditional loading is done depending on what
24699 @code{spam-use-xyz} variables you have set.
24701 By default, only unseen articles are processed for spam. You can
24702 force Gnus to recheck all messages in the group by setting the
24703 variable @code{spam-autodetect-recheck-messages} to @code{t}.
24705 If you use the @code{spam-autodetect} method of checking for spam, you
24706 can specify different spam detection methods for different groups.
24707 For instance, the @samp{ding} group may have @code{spam-use-BBDB} as
24708 the autodetection method, while the @samp{suspect} group may have the
24709 @code{spam-use-blacklist} and @code{spam-use-bogofilter} methods
24710 enabled. Unlike with @code{spam-split}, you don't have any control
24711 over the @emph{sequence} of checks, but this is probably unimportant.
24713 @node Spam and Ham Processors
24714 @subsection Spam and Ham Processors
24715 @cindex spam filtering
24716 @cindex spam filtering variables
24717 @cindex spam variables
24720 @vindex gnus-spam-process-newsgroups
24721 Spam and ham processors specify special actions to take when you exit
24722 a group buffer. Spam processors act on spam messages, and ham
24723 processors on ham messages. At present, the main role of these
24724 processors is to update the dictionaries of dictionary-based spam back
24725 ends such as Bogofilter (@pxref{Bogofilter}) and the Spam Statistics
24726 package (@pxref{Spam Statistics Filtering}).
24728 The spam and ham processors that apply to each group are determined by
24729 the group's@code{spam-process} group parameter. If this group
24730 parameter is not defined, they are determined by the variable
24731 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups}.
24733 @vindex gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents
24734 Gnus learns from the spam you get. You have to collect your spam in
24735 one or more spam groups, and set or customize the variable
24736 @code{spam-junk-mailgroups} as appropriate. You can also declare
24737 groups to contain spam by setting their group parameter
24738 @code{spam-contents} to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-spam}, or
24739 by customizing the corresponding variable
24740 @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}. The @code{spam-contents} group
24741 parameter and the @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents} variable can
24742 also be used to declare groups as @emph{ham} groups if you set their
24743 classification to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-ham}. If
24744 groups are not classified by means of @code{spam-junk-mailgroups},
24745 @code{spam-contents}, or @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}, they are
24746 considered @emph{unclassified}. All groups are unclassified by
24749 @vindex gnus-spam-mark
24751 In spam groups, all messages are considered to be spam by default:
24752 they get the @samp{$} mark (@code{gnus-spam-mark}) when you enter the
24753 group. If you have seen a message, had it marked as spam, then
24754 unmarked it, it won't be marked as spam when you enter the group
24755 thereafter. You can disable that behavior, so all unread messages
24756 will get the @samp{$} mark, if you set the
24757 @code{spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam} parameter to @code{nil}. You
24758 should remove the @samp{$} mark when you are in the group summary
24759 buffer for every message that is not spam after all. To remove the
24760 @samp{$} mark, you can use @kbd{M-u} to ``unread'' the article, or
24761 @kbd{d} for declaring it read the non-spam way. When you leave a
24762 group, all spam-marked (@samp{$}) articles are sent to a spam
24763 processor which will study them as spam samples.
24765 Messages may also be deleted in various other ways, and unless
24766 @code{ham-marks} group parameter gets overridden below, marks @samp{R}
24767 and @samp{r} for default read or explicit delete, marks @samp{X} and
24768 @samp{K} for automatic or explicit kills, as well as mark @samp{Y} for
24769 low scores, are all considered to be associated with articles which
24770 are not spam. This assumption might be false, in particular if you
24771 use kill files or score files as means for detecting genuine spam, you
24772 should then adjust the @code{ham-marks} group parameter.
24775 You can customize this group or topic parameter to be the list of
24776 marks you want to consider ham. By default, the list contains the
24777 deleted, read, killed, kill-filed, and low-score marks (the idea is
24778 that these articles have been read, but are not spam). It can be
24779 useful to also include the tick mark in the ham marks. It is not
24780 recommended to make the unread mark a ham mark, because it normally
24781 indicates a lack of classification. But you can do it, and we'll be
24786 You can customize this group or topic parameter to be the list of
24787 marks you want to consider spam. By default, the list contains only
24788 the spam mark. It is not recommended to change that, but you can if
24789 you really want to.
24792 When you leave @emph{any} group, regardless of its
24793 @code{spam-contents} classification, all spam-marked articles are sent
24794 to a spam processor, which will study these as spam samples. If you
24795 explicit kill a lot, you might sometimes end up with articles marked
24796 @samp{K} which you never saw, and which might accidentally contain
24797 spam. Best is to make sure that real spam is marked with @samp{$},
24800 @vindex gnus-ham-process-destinations
24801 When you leave a @emph{spam} group, all spam-marked articles are
24802 marked as expired after processing with the spam processor. This is
24803 not done for @emph{unclassified} or @emph{ham} groups. Also, any
24804 @strong{ham} articles in a spam group will be moved to a location
24805 determined by either the @code{ham-process-destination} group
24806 parameter or a match in the @code{gnus-ham-process-destinations}
24807 variable, which is a list of regular expressions matched with group
24808 names (it's easiest to customize this variable with @kbd{M-x
24809 customize-variable @key{RET} gnus-ham-process-destinations}). Each
24810 group name list is a standard Lisp list, if you prefer to customize
24811 the variable manually. If the @code{ham-process-destination}
24812 parameter is not set, ham articles are left in place. If the
24813 @code{spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group} parameter is
24814 set, the ham articles are marked as unread before being moved.
24816 If ham can not be moved---because of a read-only back end such as
24817 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
24819 Note that you can use multiples destinations per group or regular
24820 expression! This enables you to send your ham to a regular mail
24821 group and to a @emph{ham training} group.
24823 When you leave a @emph{ham} group, all ham-marked articles are sent to
24824 a ham processor, which will study these as non-spam samples.
24826 @vindex spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups
24827 By default the variable @code{spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups} is
24828 @code{nil}. Set it to @code{t} if you want ham found in spam groups
24829 to be processed. Normally this is not done, you are expected instead
24830 to send your ham to a ham group and process it there.
24832 @vindex spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups
24833 By default the variable @code{spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups} is
24834 @code{nil}. Set it to @code{t} if you want ham found in non-ham (spam
24835 or unclassified) groups to be processed. Normally this is not done,
24836 you are expected instead to send your ham to a ham group and process
24839 @vindex gnus-spam-process-destinations
24840 When you leave a @emph{ham} or @emph{unclassified} group, all
24841 @strong{spam} articles are moved to a location determined by either
24842 the @code{spam-process-destination} group parameter or a match in the
24843 @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations} variable, which is a list of
24844 regular expressions matched with group names (it's easiest to
24845 customize this variable with @kbd{M-x customize-variable @key{RET}
24846 gnus-spam-process-destinations}). Each group name list is a standard
24847 Lisp list, if you prefer to customize the variable manually. If the
24848 @code{spam-process-destination} parameter is not set, the spam
24849 articles are only expired. The group name is fully qualified, meaning
24850 that if you see @samp{nntp:servername} before the group name in the
24851 group buffer then you need it here as well.
24853 If spam can not be moved---because of a read-only back end such as
24854 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
24856 Note that you can use multiples destinations per group or regular
24857 expression! This enables you to send your spam to multiple @emph{spam
24860 @vindex spam-log-to-registry
24861 The problem with processing ham and spam is that Gnus doesn't track
24862 this processing by default. Enable the @code{spam-log-to-registry}
24863 variable so @code{spam.el} will use @code{gnus-registry.el} to track
24864 what articles have been processed, and avoid processing articles
24865 multiple times. Keep in mind that if you limit the number of registry
24866 entries, this won't work as well as it does without a limit.
24868 @vindex spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam
24869 Set this variable if you want only unseen articles in spam groups to
24870 be marked as spam. By default, it is set. If you set it to
24871 @code{nil}, unread articles will also be marked as spam.
24873 @vindex spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group
24874 Set this variable if you want ham to be unmarked before it is moved
24875 out of the spam group. This is very useful when you use something
24876 like the tick mark @samp{!} to mark ham---the article will be placed
24877 in your @code{ham-process-destination}, unmarked as if it came fresh
24878 from the mail server.
24880 @vindex spam-autodetect-recheck-messages
24881 When autodetecting spam, this variable tells @code{spam.el} whether
24882 only unseen articles or all unread articles should be checked for
24883 spam. It is recommended that you leave it off.
24885 @node Spam Package Configuration Examples
24886 @subsection Spam Package Configuration Examples
24887 @cindex spam filtering
24888 @cindex spam filtering configuration examples
24889 @cindex spam configuration examples
24892 @subsubheading Ted's setup
24894 From Ted Zlatanov <tzz@@lifelogs.com>.
24896 ;; @r{for @code{gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent} and spam autodetection}
24897 ;; @r{see @file{gnus-registry.el} for more information}
24898 (gnus-registry-initialize)
24902 spam-log-to-registry t ; @r{for spam autodetection}
24904 spam-use-regex-headers t ; @r{catch X-Spam-Flag (SpamAssassin)}
24905 ;; @r{all groups with @samp{spam} in the name contain spam}
24906 gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents
24907 '(("spam" gnus-group-spam-classification-spam))
24908 ;; @r{see documentation for these}
24909 spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only nil
24910 spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam t
24911 spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group t
24912 nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
24913 ;; @r{understand what this does before you copy it to your own setup!}
24914 nnimap-split-fancy '(|
24915 ;; @r{trace references to parents and put in their group}
24916 (: gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent)
24917 ;; @r{this will catch server-side SpamAssassin tags}
24918 (: spam-split 'spam-use-regex-headers)
24919 (any "ding" "ding")
24920 ;; @r{note that spam by default will go to @samp{spam}}
24922 ;; @r{default mailbox}
24925 ;; @r{my parameters, set with @kbd{G p}}
24927 ;; @r{all nnml groups, and all nnimap groups except}
24928 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train} and}
24929 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:spam}: any spam goes to nnimap training,}
24930 ;; @r{because it must have been detected manually}
24932 ((spam-process-destination . "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train"))
24934 ;; @r{all @acronym{NNTP} groups}
24935 ;; @r{autodetect spam with the blacklist and ham with the BBDB}
24936 ((spam-autodetect-methods spam-use-blacklist spam-use-BBDB)
24937 ;; @r{send all spam to the training group}
24938 (spam-process-destination . "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train"))
24940 ;; @r{only some @acronym{NNTP} groups, where I want to autodetect spam}
24941 ((spam-autodetect . t))
24943 ;; @r{my nnimap @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:spam} group}
24945 ;; @r{this is a spam group}
24946 ((spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-spam)
24948 ;; @r{any spam (which happens when I enter for all unseen messages,}
24949 ;; @r{because of the @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents} setting above), goes to}
24950 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train} unless I mark it as ham}
24952 (spam-process-destination "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train")
24954 ;; @r{any ham goes to my @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:mail} folder, but}
24955 ;; @r{also to my @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:trainham} folder for training}
24957 (ham-process-destination "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:mail"
24958 "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:trainham")
24959 ;; @r{in this group, only @samp{!} marks are ham}
24961 (gnus-ticked-mark))
24962 ;; @r{remembers senders in the blacklist on the way out---this is}
24963 ;; @r{definitely not needed, it just makes me feel better}
24964 (spam-process (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist)))
24966 ;; @r{Later, on the @acronym{IMAP} server I use the @samp{train} group for training}
24967 ;; @r{SpamAssassin to recognize spam, and the @samp{trainham} group fora}
24968 ;; @r{recognizing ham---but Gnus has nothing to do with it.}
24972 @subsubheading Using @code{spam.el} on an IMAP server with a statistical filter on the server
24973 From Reiner Steib <reiner.steib@@gmx.de>.
24975 My provider has set up bogofilter (in combination with @acronym{DCC}) on
24976 the mail server (@acronym{IMAP}). Recognized spam goes to
24977 @samp{spam.detected}, the rest goes through the normal filter rules,
24978 i.e. to @samp{some.folder} or to @samp{INBOX}. Training on false
24979 positives or negatives is done by copying or moving the article to
24980 @samp{training.ham} or @samp{training.spam} respectively. A cron job on
24981 the server feeds those to bogofilter with the suitable ham or spam
24982 options and deletes them from the @samp{training.ham} and
24983 @samp{training.spam} folders.
24985 With the following entries in @code{gnus-parameters}, @code{spam.el}
24986 does most of the job for me:
24989 ("nnimap:spam\\.detected"
24990 (gnus-article-sort-functions '(gnus-article-sort-by-chars))
24991 (ham-process-destination "nnimap:INBOX" "nnimap:training.ham")
24992 (spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-spam))
24993 ("nnimap:\\(INBOX\\|other-folders\\)"
24994 (spam-process-destination . "nnimap:training.spam")
24995 (spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-ham))
25000 @item @b{The Spam folder:}
25002 In the folder @samp{spam.detected}, I have to check for false positives
25003 (i.e. legitimate mails, that were wrongly judged as spam by
25004 bogofilter or DCC).
25006 Because of the @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-spam} entry, all
25007 messages are marked as spam (with @code{$}). When I find a false
25008 positive, I mark the message with some other ham mark
25009 (@code{ham-marks}, @ref{Spam and Ham Processors}). On group exit,
25010 those messages are copied to both groups, @samp{INBOX} (where I want
25011 to have the article) and @samp{training.ham} (for training bogofilter)
25012 and deleted from the @samp{spam.detected} folder.
25014 The @code{gnus-article-sort-by-chars} entry simplifies detection of
25015 false positives for me. I receive lots of worms (sweN, @dots{}), that all
25016 have a similar size. Grouping them by size (i.e. chars) makes finding
25017 other false positives easier. (Of course worms aren't @i{spam}
25018 (@acronym{UCE}, @acronym{UBE}) strictly speaking. Anyhow, bogofilter is
25019 an excellent tool for filtering those unwanted mails for me.)
25021 @item @b{Ham folders:}
25023 In my ham folders, I just hit @kbd{S x}
25024 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}) whenever I see an unrecognized spam
25025 mail (false negative). On group exit, those messages are moved to
25026 @samp{training.spam}.
25029 @subsubheading Reporting spam articles in Gmane groups with @code{spam-report.el}
25031 From Reiner Steib <reiner.steib@@gmx.de>.
25033 With following entry in @code{gnus-parameters}, @kbd{S x}
25034 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}) marks articles in @code{gmane.*}
25035 groups as spam and reports the to Gmane at group exit:
25039 (spam-process (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane)))
25042 Additionally, I use @code{(setq spam-report-gmane-use-article-number nil)}
25043 because I don't read the groups directly from news.gmane.org, but
25044 through my local news server (leafnode). I.e. the article numbers are
25045 not the same as on news.gmane.org, thus @code{spam-report.el} has to check
25046 the @code{X-Report-Spam} header to find the correct number.
25048 @node Spam Back Ends
25049 @subsection Spam Back Ends
25050 @cindex spam back ends
25052 The spam package offers a variety of back ends for detecting spam.
25053 Each back end defines a set of methods for detecting spam
25054 (@pxref{Filtering Incoming Mail}, @pxref{Detecting Spam in Groups}),
25055 and a pair of spam and ham processors (@pxref{Spam and Ham
25059 * Blacklists and Whitelists::
25060 * BBDB Whitelists::
25061 * Gmane Spam Reporting::
25062 * Anti-spam Hashcash Payments::
25064 * Regular Expressions Header Matching::
25066 * SpamAssassin back end::
25067 * ifile spam filtering::
25068 * Spam Statistics Filtering::
25072 @node Blacklists and Whitelists
25073 @subsubsection Blacklists and Whitelists
25074 @cindex spam filtering
25075 @cindex whitelists, spam filtering
25076 @cindex blacklists, spam filtering
25079 @defvar spam-use-blacklist
25081 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use blacklists when
25082 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are in the blacklist
25083 will be sent to the @code{spam-split-group}. This is an explicit
25084 filter, meaning that it acts only on mail senders @emph{declared} to
25089 @defvar spam-use-whitelist
25091 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists when
25092 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are not in the
25093 whitelist will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
25094 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the whitelist, their
25095 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
25099 @defvar spam-use-whitelist-exclusive
25101 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists as an
25102 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
25103 unless the sender is in the whitelist. Use with care.
25107 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist
25109 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25110 customizing the group parameters or the
25111 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25112 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
25113 spam-marked articles will be added to the blacklist.
25117 Instead of the obsolete
25118 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist}, it is recommended
25119 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-blacklist)}. Everything will work
25120 the same way, we promise.
25124 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-whitelist
25126 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25127 customizing the group parameters or the
25128 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25129 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
25130 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
25135 Instead of the obsolete
25136 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-whitelist}, it is recommended
25137 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-whitelist)}. Everything will work
25138 the same way, we promise.
25142 Blacklists are lists of regular expressions matching addresses you
25143 consider to be spam senders. For instance, to block mail from any
25144 sender at @samp{vmadmin.com}, you can put @samp{vmadmin.com} in your
25145 blacklist. You start out with an empty blacklist. Blacklist entries
25146 use the Emacs regular expression syntax.
25148 Conversely, whitelists tell Gnus what addresses are considered
25149 legitimate. All messages from whitelisted addresses are considered
25150 non-spam. Also see @ref{BBDB Whitelists}. Whitelist entries use the
25151 Emacs regular expression syntax.
25153 The blacklist and whitelist file locations can be customized with the
25154 @code{spam-directory} variable (@file{~/News/spam} by default), or
25155 the @code{spam-whitelist} and @code{spam-blacklist} variables
25156 directly. The whitelist and blacklist files will by default be in the
25157 @code{spam-directory} directory, named @file{whitelist} and
25158 @file{blacklist} respectively.
25160 @node BBDB Whitelists
25161 @subsubsection BBDB Whitelists
25162 @cindex spam filtering
25163 @cindex BBDB whitelists, spam filtering
25164 @cindex BBDB, spam filtering
25167 @defvar spam-use-BBDB
25169 Analogous to @code{spam-use-whitelist} (@pxref{Blacklists and
25170 Whitelists}), but uses the BBDB as the source of whitelisted
25171 addresses, without regular expressions. You must have the BBDB loaded
25172 for @code{spam-use-BBDB} to work properly. Messages whose senders are
25173 not in the BBDB will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
25174 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the BBDB, their
25175 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
25179 @defvar spam-use-BBDB-exclusive
25181 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use the BBDB as an
25182 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
25183 unless the sender is in the BBDB. Use with care. Only sender
25184 addresses in the BBDB will be allowed through; all others will be
25185 classified as spammers.
25187 While @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} @emph{can} be used as an alias
25188 for @code{spam-use-BBDB} as far as @code{spam.el} is concerned, it is
25189 @emph{not} a separate back end. If you set
25190 @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} to t, @emph{all} your BBDB splitting
25195 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-BBDB
25197 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25198 customizing the group parameters or the
25199 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25200 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
25201 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
25206 Instead of the obsolete
25207 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-BBDB}, it is recommended
25208 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-BBDB)}. Everything will work
25209 the same way, we promise.
25213 @node Gmane Spam Reporting
25214 @subsubsection Gmane Spam Reporting
25215 @cindex spam reporting
25216 @cindex Gmane, spam reporting
25217 @cindex Gmane, spam reporting
25220 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane
25222 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25223 customizing the group parameters or the
25224 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25225 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the spam-marked
25226 articles groups will be reported to the Gmane administrators via a
25229 Gmane can be found at @uref{http://gmane.org}.
25233 Instead of the obsolete
25234 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane}, it is recommended
25235 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-gmane)}. Everything will work the
25236 same way, we promise.
25240 @defvar spam-report-gmane-use-article-number
25242 This variable is @code{t} by default. Set it to @code{nil} if you are
25243 running your own news server, for instance, and the local article
25244 numbers don't correspond to the Gmane article numbers. When
25245 @code{spam-report-gmane-use-article-number} is @code{nil},
25246 @code{spam-report.el} will fetch the number from the article headers.
25250 @defvar spam-report-user-mail-address
25252 Mail address exposed in the User-Agent spam reports to Gmane. It allows
25253 the Gmane administrators to contact you in case of misreports. The
25254 default is @code{user-mail-address}.
25258 @node Anti-spam Hashcash Payments
25259 @subsubsection Anti-spam Hashcash Payments
25260 @cindex spam filtering
25261 @cindex hashcash, spam filtering
25264 @defvar spam-use-hashcash
25266 Similar to @code{spam-use-whitelist} (@pxref{Blacklists and
25267 Whitelists}), but uses hashcash tokens for whitelisting messages
25268 instead of the sender address. Messages without a hashcash payment
25269 token will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an explicit
25270 filter, meaning that unless a hashcash token is found, the messages
25271 are not assumed to be spam or ham.
25276 @subsubsection Blackholes
25277 @cindex spam filtering
25278 @cindex blackholes, spam filtering
25281 @defvar spam-use-blackholes
25283 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus consult the
25284 blackhole-type distributed spam processing systems (DCC, for instance)
25285 when you set this option. The variable @code{spam-blackhole-servers}
25286 holds the list of blackhole servers Gnus will consult. The current
25287 list is fairly comprehensive, but make sure to let us know if it
25288 contains outdated servers.
25290 The blackhole check uses the @code{dig.el} package, but you can tell
25291 @code{spam.el} to use @code{dns.el} instead for better performance if
25292 you set @code{spam-use-dig} to @code{nil}. It is not recommended at
25293 this time to set @code{spam-use-dig} to @code{nil} despite the
25294 possible performance improvements, because some users may be unable to
25295 use it, but you can try it and see if it works for you.
25299 @defvar spam-blackhole-servers
25301 The list of servers to consult for blackhole checks.
25305 @defvar spam-blackhole-good-server-regex
25307 A regular expression for IPs that should not be checked against the
25308 blackhole server list. When set to @code{nil}, it has no effect.
25312 @defvar spam-use-dig
25314 Use the @code{dig.el} package instead of the @code{dns.el} package.
25315 The default setting of @code{t} is recommended.
25319 Blackhole checks are done only on incoming mail. There is no spam or
25320 ham processor for blackholes.
25322 @node Regular Expressions Header Matching
25323 @subsubsection Regular Expressions Header Matching
25324 @cindex spam filtering
25325 @cindex regular expressions header matching, spam filtering
25328 @defvar spam-use-regex-headers
25330 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus check the
25331 message headers against lists of regular expressions when you set this
25332 option. The variables @code{spam-regex-headers-spam} and
25333 @code{spam-regex-headers-ham} hold the list of regular expressions.
25334 Gnus will check against the message headers to determine if the
25335 message is spam or ham, respectively.
25339 @defvar spam-regex-headers-spam
25341 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
25342 the message, positively identify it as spam.
25346 @defvar spam-regex-headers-ham
25348 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
25349 the message, positively identify it as ham.
25353 Regular expression header checks are done only on incoming mail.
25354 There is no specific spam or ham processor for regular expressions.
25357 @subsubsection Bogofilter
25358 @cindex spam filtering
25359 @cindex bogofilter, spam filtering
25362 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter
25364 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
25367 With a minimum of care for associating the @samp{$} mark for spam
25368 articles only, Bogofilter training all gets fairly automatic. You
25369 should do this until you get a few hundreds of articles in each
25370 category, spam or not. The command @kbd{S t} in summary mode, either
25371 for debugging or for curiosity, shows the @emph{spamicity} score of
25372 the current article (between 0.0 and 1.0).
25374 Bogofilter determines if a message is spam based on a specific
25375 threshold. That threshold can be customized, consult the Bogofilter
25378 If the @code{bogofilter} executable is not in your path, Bogofilter
25379 processing will be turned off.
25381 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}.
25390 @findex spam-bogofilter-score
25391 Get the Bogofilter spamicity score (@code{spam-bogofilter-score}).
25394 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter-headers
25396 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
25397 speedy Bogofilter, looking only at the message headers. It works
25398 similarly to @code{spam-use-bogofilter}, but the @code{X-Bogosity} header
25399 must be in the message already. Normally you would do this with a
25400 procmail recipe or something similar; consult the Bogofilter
25401 installation documents for details.
25403 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter}.
25407 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter
25408 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25409 customizing the group parameters or the
25410 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25411 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, spam-marked articles
25412 will be added to the Bogofilter spam database.
25416 Instead of the obsolete
25417 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter}, it is recommended
25418 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-bogofilter)}. Everything will work
25419 the same way, we promise.
25422 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter
25423 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25424 customizing the group parameters or the
25425 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25426 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
25427 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the Bogofilter database
25428 of non-spam messages.
25432 Instead of the obsolete
25433 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter}, it is recommended
25434 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-bogofilter)}. Everything will work
25435 the same way, we promise.
25438 @defvar spam-bogofilter-database-directory
25440 This is the directory where Bogofilter will store its databases. It
25441 is not specified by default, so Bogofilter will use its own default
25442 database directory.
25446 The Bogofilter mail classifier is similar to @command{ifile} in intent and
25447 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
25448 @code{spam-use-bogofilter} and @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}
25449 variables to indicate to spam-split that Bogofilter should either be
25450 used, or has already been used on the article. The 0.9.2.1 version of
25451 Bogofilter was used to test this functionality.
25453 @node SpamAssassin back end
25454 @subsubsection SpamAssassin back end
25455 @cindex spam filtering
25456 @cindex spamassassin, spam filtering
25459 @defvar spam-use-spamassassin
25461 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use SpamAssassin.
25463 SpamAssassin assigns a score to each article based on a set of rules
25464 and tests, including a Bayesian filter. The Bayesian filter can be
25465 trained by associating the @samp{$} mark for spam articles. The
25466 spam score can be viewed by using the command @kbd{S t} in summary
25469 If you set this variable, each article will be processed by
25470 SpamAssassin when @code{spam-split} is called. If your mail is
25471 preprocessed by SpamAssassin, and you want to just use the
25472 SpamAssassin headers, set @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers}
25475 You should not enable this if you use
25476 @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers}.
25480 @defvar spam-use-spamassassin-headers
25482 Set this variable if your mail is preprocessed by SpamAssassin and
25483 want @code{spam-split} to split based on the SpamAssassin headers.
25485 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-spamassassin}.
25489 @defvar spam-spamassassin-program
25491 This variable points to the SpamAssassin executable. If you have
25492 @code{spamd} running, you can set this variable to the @code{spamc}
25493 executable for faster processing. See the SpamAssassin documentation
25494 for more information on @code{spamd}/@code{spamc}.
25498 SpamAssassin is a powerful and flexible spam filter that uses a wide
25499 variety of tests to identify spam. A ham and a spam processors are
25500 provided, plus the @code{spam-use-spamassassin} and
25501 @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers} variables to indicate to
25502 spam-split that SpamAssassin should be either used, or has already
25503 been used on the article. The 2.63 version of SpamAssassin was used
25504 to test this functionality.
25506 @node ifile spam filtering
25507 @subsubsection ifile spam filtering
25508 @cindex spam filtering
25509 @cindex ifile, spam filtering
25512 @defvar spam-use-ifile
25514 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use @command{ifile}, a
25515 statistical analyzer similar to Bogofilter.
25519 @defvar spam-ifile-all-categories
25521 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-use-ifile} to give you all
25522 the ifile categories, not just spam/non-spam. If you use this, make
25523 sure you train ifile as described in its documentation.
25527 @defvar spam-ifile-spam-category
25529 This is the category of spam messages as far as ifile is concerned.
25530 The actual string used is irrelevant, but you probably want to leave
25531 the default value of @samp{spam}.
25534 @defvar spam-ifile-database
25536 This is the filename for the ifile database. It is not specified by
25537 default, so ifile will use its own default database name.
25541 The ifile mail classifier is similar to Bogofilter in intent and
25542 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
25543 @code{spam-use-ifile} variable to indicate to spam-split that ifile
25544 should be used. The 1.2.1 version of ifile was used to test this
25547 @node Spam Statistics Filtering
25548 @subsubsection Spam Statistics Filtering
25549 @cindex spam filtering
25550 @cindex spam-stat, spam filtering
25554 This back end uses the Spam Statistics Emacs Lisp package to perform
25555 statistics-based filtering (@pxref{Spam Statistics Package}). Before
25556 using this, you may want to perform some additional steps to
25557 initialize your Spam Statistics dictionary. @xref{Creating a
25558 spam-stat dictionary}.
25560 @defvar spam-use-stat
25564 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-stat
25565 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25566 customizing the group parameters or the
25567 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25568 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the spam-marked
25569 articles will be added to the spam-stat database of spam messages.
25573 Instead of the obsolete
25574 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-stat}, it is recommended
25575 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-stat)}. Everything will work
25576 the same way, we promise.
25579 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-stat
25580 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25581 customizing the group parameters or the
25582 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25583 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
25584 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the spam-stat database
25585 of non-spam messages.
25589 Instead of the obsolete
25590 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-stat}, it is recommended
25591 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-stat)}. Everything will work
25592 the same way, we promise.
25595 This enables @code{spam.el} to cooperate with @file{spam-stat.el}.
25596 @file{spam-stat.el} provides an internal (Lisp-only) spam database,
25597 which unlike ifile or Bogofilter does not require external programs.
25598 A spam and a ham processor, and the @code{spam-use-stat} variable for
25599 @code{spam-split} are provided.
25602 @subsubsection Using SpamOracle with Gnus
25603 @cindex spam filtering
25607 An easy way to filter out spam is to use SpamOracle. SpamOracle is an
25608 statistical mail filtering tool written by Xavier Leroy and needs to be
25609 installed separately.
25611 There are several ways to use SpamOracle with Gnus. In all cases, your
25612 mail is piped through SpamOracle in its @emph{mark} mode. SpamOracle will
25613 then enter an @samp{X-Spam} header indicating whether it regards the
25614 mail as a spam mail or not.
25616 One possibility is to run SpamOracle as a @code{:prescript} from the
25617 @xref{Mail Source Specifiers}, (@pxref{SpamAssassin}). This method has
25618 the advantage that the user can see the @emph{X-Spam} headers.
25620 The easiest method is to make @file{spam.el} (@pxref{Spam Package})
25623 @vindex spam-use-spamoracle
25624 To enable SpamOracle usage by @code{spam.el}, set the variable
25625 @code{spam-use-spamoracle} to @code{t} and configure the
25626 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or @code{nnimap-split-fancy}. @xref{Spam
25627 Package}. In this example the @samp{INBOX} of an nnimap server is
25628 filtered using SpamOracle. Mails recognized as spam mails will be
25629 moved to @code{spam-split-group}, @samp{Junk} in this case. Ham
25630 messages stay in @samp{INBOX}:
25633 (setq spam-use-spamoracle t
25634 spam-split-group "Junk"
25635 nnimap-split-inbox '("INBOX")
25636 nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
25637 nnimap-split-fancy '(| (: spam-split) "INBOX"))
25640 @defvar spam-use-spamoracle
25641 Set to @code{t} if you want Gnus to enable spam filtering using
25645 @defvar spam-spamoracle-binary
25646 Gnus uses the SpamOracle binary called @file{spamoracle} found in the
25647 user's PATH. Using the variable @code{spam-spamoracle-binary}, this
25651 @defvar spam-spamoracle-database
25652 By default, SpamOracle uses the file @file{~/.spamoracle.db} as a database to
25653 store its analysis. This is controlled by the variable
25654 @code{spam-spamoracle-database} which defaults to @code{nil}. That means
25655 the default SpamOracle database will be used. In case you want your
25656 database to live somewhere special, set
25657 @code{spam-spamoracle-database} to this path.
25660 SpamOracle employs a statistical algorithm to determine whether a
25661 message is spam or ham. In order to get good results, meaning few
25662 false hits or misses, SpamOracle needs training. SpamOracle learns
25663 the characteristics of your spam mails. Using the @emph{add} mode
25664 (training mode) one has to feed good (ham) and spam mails to
25665 SpamOracle. This can be done by pressing @kbd{|} in the Summary
25666 buffer and pipe the mail to a SpamOracle process or using
25667 @file{spam.el}'s spam- and ham-processors, which is much more
25668 convenient. For a detailed description of spam- and ham-processors,
25669 @xref{Spam Package}.
25671 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-spamoracle
25672 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25673 customizing the group parameter or the
25674 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is added
25675 to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, spam-marked articles will be
25676 sent to SpamOracle as spam samples.
25680 Instead of the obsolete
25681 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-spamoracle}, it is recommended
25682 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-spamoracle)}. Everything will work
25683 the same way, we promise.
25686 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-spamoracle
25687 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25688 customizing the group parameter or the
25689 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is added
25690 to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked articles in
25691 @emph{ham} groups will be sent to the SpamOracle as samples of ham
25696 Instead of the obsolete
25697 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-spamoracle}, it is recommended
25698 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-spamoracle)}. Everything will work
25699 the same way, we promise.
25702 @emph{Example:} These are the Group Parameters of a group that has been
25703 classified as a ham group, meaning that it should only contain ham
25706 ((spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-ham)
25707 (spam-process ((ham spam-use-spamoracle)
25708 (spam spam-use-spamoracle))))
25710 For this group the @code{spam-use-spamoracle} is installed for both
25711 ham and spam processing. If the group contains spam message
25712 (e.g. because SpamOracle has not had enough sample messages yet) and
25713 the user marks some messages as spam messages, these messages will be
25714 processed by SpamOracle. The processor sends the messages to
25715 SpamOracle as new samples for spam.
25717 @node Extending the Spam package
25718 @subsection Extending the Spam package
25719 @cindex spam filtering
25720 @cindex spam elisp package, extending
25721 @cindex extending the spam elisp package
25723 Say you want to add a new back end called blackbox. For filtering
25724 incoming mail, provide the following:
25732 (defvar spam-use-blackbox nil
25733 "True if blackbox should be used.")
25736 Write @code{spam-check-blackbox} if Blackbox can check incoming mail.
25738 Write @code{spam-blackbox-register-routine} and
25739 @code{spam-blackbox-unregister-routine} using the bogofilter
25740 register/unregister routines as a start, or other restister/unregister
25741 routines more appropriate to Blackbox, if Blackbox can
25742 register/unregister spam and ham.
25747 The @code{spam-check-blackbox} function should return @samp{nil} or
25748 @code{spam-split-group}, observing the other conventions. See the
25749 existing @code{spam-check-*} functions for examples of what you can
25750 do, and stick to the template unless you fully understand the reasons
25755 For processing spam and ham messages, provide the following:
25762 Note you don't have to provide a spam or a ham processor. Only
25763 provide them if Blackbox supports spam or ham processing.
25765 Also, ham and spam processors are being phased out as single
25766 variables. Instead the form @code{(spam spam-use-blackbox)} or
25767 @code{(ham spam-use-blackbox)} is favored. For now, spam/ham
25768 processor variables are still around but they won't be for long.
25771 (defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox-spam"
25772 "The Blackbox summary exit spam processor.
25773 Only applicable to spam groups.")
25775 (defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox-ham"
25776 "The whitelist summary exit ham processor.
25777 Only applicable to non-spam (unclassified and ham) groups.")
25786 (const :tag "Spam: Blackbox" (spam spam-use-blackbox))
25787 (const :tag "Ham: Blackbox" (ham spam-use-blackbox))
25789 to the @code{spam-process} group parameter in @code{gnus.el}. Make
25790 sure you do it twice, once for the parameter and once for the
25791 variable customization.
25795 (variable-item spam-use-blackbox)
25797 to the @code{spam-autodetect-methods} group parameter in
25798 @code{gnus.el} if Blackbox can check incoming mail for spam contents.
25800 Finally, use the appropriate @code{spam-install-*-backend} function in
25801 @code{spam.el}. Here are the available functions.
25807 @code{spam-install-backend-alias}
25809 This function will simply install an alias for a back end that does
25810 everything like the original back end. It is currently only used to
25811 make @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} act like @code{spam-use-BBDB}.
25814 @code{spam-install-nocheck-backend}
25816 This function installs a back end that has no check function, but can
25817 register/unregister ham or spam. The @code{spam-use-gmane} back end is
25821 @code{spam-install-checkonly-backend}
25823 This function will install a back end that can only check incoming mail
25824 for spam contents. It can't register or unregister messages.
25825 @code{spam-use-blackholes} and @code{spam-use-hashcash} are such
25829 @code{spam-install-statistical-checkonly-backend}
25831 This function installs a statistical back end (one which requires the
25832 full body of a message to check it) that can only check incoming mail
25833 for contents. @code{spam-use-regex-body} is such a filter.
25836 @code{spam-install-statistical-backend}
25838 This function install a statistical back end with incoming checks and
25839 registration/unregistration routines. @code{spam-use-bogofilter} is
25843 @code{spam-install-backend}
25845 This is the most normal back end installation, where a back end that can
25846 check and register/unregister messages is set up without statistical
25847 abilities. The @code{spam-use-BBDB} is such a back end.
25850 @code{spam-install-mover-backend}
25852 Mover back ends are internal to @code{spam.el} and specifically move
25853 articles around when the summary is exited. You will very probably
25854 never install such a back end.
25859 @node Spam Statistics Package
25860 @subsection Spam Statistics Package
25861 @cindex Paul Graham
25862 @cindex Graham, Paul
25863 @cindex naive Bayesian spam filtering
25864 @cindex Bayesian spam filtering, naive
25865 @cindex spam filtering, naive Bayesian
25867 Paul Graham has written an excellent essay about spam filtering using
25868 statistics: @uref{http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html,A Plan for
25869 Spam}. In it he describes the inherent deficiency of rule-based
25870 filtering as used by SpamAssassin, for example: Somebody has to write
25871 the rules, and everybody else has to install these rules. You are
25872 always late. It would be much better, he argues, to filter mail based
25873 on whether it somehow resembles spam or non-spam. One way to measure
25874 this is word distribution. He then goes on to describe a solution
25875 that checks whether a new mail resembles any of your other spam mails
25878 The basic idea is this: Create a two collections of your mail, one
25879 with spam, one with non-spam. Count how often each word appears in
25880 either collection, weight this by the total number of mails in the
25881 collections, and store this information in a dictionary. For every
25882 word in a new mail, determine its probability to belong to a spam or a
25883 non-spam mail. Use the 15 most conspicuous words, compute the total
25884 probability of the mail being spam. If this probability is higher
25885 than a certain threshold, the mail is considered to be spam.
25887 The Spam Statistics package adds support to Gnus for this kind of
25888 filtering. It can be used as one of the back ends of the Spam package
25889 (@pxref{Spam Package}), or by itself.
25891 Before using the Spam Statistics package, you need to set it up.
25892 First, you need two collections of your mail, one with spam, one with
25893 non-spam. Then you need to create a dictionary using these two
25894 collections, and save it. And last but not least, you need to use
25895 this dictionary in your fancy mail splitting rules.
25898 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
25899 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
25900 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
25903 @node Creating a spam-stat dictionary
25904 @subsubsection Creating a spam-stat dictionary
25906 Before you can begin to filter spam based on statistics, you must
25907 create these statistics based on two mail collections, one with spam,
25908 one with non-spam. These statistics are then stored in a dictionary
25909 for later use. In order for these statistics to be meaningful, you
25910 need several hundred emails in both collections.
25912 Gnus currently supports only the nnml back end for automated dictionary
25913 creation. The nnml back end stores all mails in a directory, one file
25914 per mail. Use the following:
25916 @defun spam-stat-process-spam-directory
25917 Create spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every file
25918 is treated as one spam mail.
25921 @defun spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory
25922 Create non-spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every
25923 file is treated as one non-spam mail.
25926 Usually you would call @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory} on a
25927 directory such as @file{~/Mail/mail/spam} (this usually corresponds to
25928 the group @samp{nnml:mail.spam}), and you would call
25929 @code{spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory} on a directory such as
25930 @file{~/Mail/mail/misc} (this usually corresponds to the group
25931 @samp{nnml:mail.misc}).
25933 When you are using @acronym{IMAP}, you won't have the mails available
25934 locally, so that will not work. One solution is to use the Gnus Agent
25935 to cache the articles. Then you can use directories such as
25936 @file{"~/News/agent/nnimap/mail.yourisp.com/personal_spam"} for
25937 @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory}. @xref{Agent as Cache}.
25940 This variable holds the hash-table with all the statistics---the
25941 dictionary we have been talking about. For every word in either
25942 collection, this hash-table stores a vector describing how often the
25943 word appeared in spam and often it appeared in non-spam mails.
25946 If you want to regenerate the statistics from scratch, you need to
25947 reset the dictionary.
25949 @defun spam-stat-reset
25950 Reset the @code{spam-stat} hash-table, deleting all the statistics.
25953 When you are done, you must save the dictionary. The dictionary may
25954 be rather large. If you will not update the dictionary incrementally
25955 (instead, you will recreate it once a month, for example), then you
25956 can reduce the size of the dictionary by deleting all words that did
25957 not appear often enough or that do not clearly belong to only spam or
25958 only non-spam mails.
25960 @defun spam-stat-reduce-size
25961 Reduce the size of the dictionary. Use this only if you do not want
25962 to update the dictionary incrementally.
25965 @defun spam-stat-save
25966 Save the dictionary.
25969 @defvar spam-stat-file
25970 The filename used to store the dictionary. This defaults to
25971 @file{~/.spam-stat.el}.
25974 @node Splitting mail using spam-stat
25975 @subsubsection Splitting mail using spam-stat
25977 This section describes how to use the Spam statistics
25978 @emph{independently} of the @xref{Spam Package}.
25980 First, add the following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
25983 (require 'spam-stat)
25987 This will load the necessary Gnus code, and the dictionary you
25990 Next, you need to adapt your fancy splitting rules: You need to
25991 determine how to use @code{spam-stat}. The following examples are for
25992 the nnml back end. Using the nnimap back end works just as well. Just
25993 use @code{nnimap-split-fancy} instead of @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
25995 In the simplest case, you only have two groups, @samp{mail.misc} and
25996 @samp{mail.spam}. The following expression says that mail is either
25997 spam or it should go into @samp{mail.misc}. If it is spam, then
25998 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will return @samp{mail.spam}.
26001 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
26002 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
26006 @defvar spam-stat-split-fancy-spam-group
26007 The group to use for spam. Default is @samp{mail.spam}.
26010 If you also filter mail with specific subjects into other groups, use
26011 the following expression. Only mails not matching the regular
26012 expression are considered potential spam.
26015 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
26016 `(| ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
26017 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
26021 If you want to filter for spam first, then you must be careful when
26022 creating the dictionary. Note that @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} must
26023 consider both mails in @samp{mail.emacs} and in @samp{mail.misc} as
26024 non-spam, therefore both should be in your collection of non-spam
26025 mails, when creating the dictionary!
26028 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
26029 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
26030 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
26034 You can combine this with traditional filtering. Here, we move all
26035 HTML-only mails into the @samp{mail.spam.filtered} group. Note that since
26036 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will never see them, the mails in
26037 @samp{mail.spam.filtered} should be neither in your collection of spam mails,
26038 nor in your collection of non-spam mails, when creating the
26042 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
26043 `(| ("Content-Type" "text/html" "mail.spam.filtered")
26044 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
26045 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
26050 @node Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
26051 @subsubsection Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
26053 The main interface to using @code{spam-stat}, are the following functions:
26055 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-spam
26056 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new spam mail.
26057 Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
26060 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-no-spam
26061 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new non-spam
26062 mail. Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
26065 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-spam
26066 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be normal
26067 mail but spam. Use this to change the status of a mail that has
26068 already been processed as non-spam.
26071 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-non-spam
26072 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be spam but
26073 normal mail. Use this to change the status of a mail that has already
26074 been processed as spam.
26077 @defun spam-stat-save
26078 Save the hash table to the file. The filename used is stored in the
26079 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
26082 @defun spam-stat-load
26083 Load the hash table from a file. The filename used is stored in the
26084 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
26087 @defun spam-stat-score-word
26088 Return the spam score for a word.
26091 @defun spam-stat-score-buffer
26092 Return the spam score for a buffer.
26095 @defun spam-stat-split-fancy
26096 Use this function for fancy mail splitting. Add the rule @samp{(:
26097 spam-stat-split-fancy)} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
26100 Make sure you load the dictionary before using it. This requires the
26101 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
26104 (require 'spam-stat)
26108 Typical test will involve calls to the following functions:
26111 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
26112 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
26113 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
26114 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
26115 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
26116 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
26117 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
26118 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
26119 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
26120 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
26121 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
26122 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
26123 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
26124 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
26127 Here is how you would create your dictionary:
26130 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
26131 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
26132 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
26133 Repeat for any other non-spam group you need...
26134 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
26135 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
26138 @node The Gnus Registry
26139 @section The Gnus Registry
26144 The Gnus registry is a package that tracks messages by their
26145 Message-ID across all backends. This allows Gnus users to do several
26146 cool things, be the envy of the locals, get free haircuts, and be
26147 experts on world issues. Well, maybe not all of those, but the
26148 features are pretty cool.
26150 Although they will be explained in detail shortly, here's a quick list
26151 of said features in case your attention span is... never mind.
26155 Split messages to their parent
26157 This keeps discussions in the same group. You can use the subject and
26158 the sender in addition to the Message-ID. Several strategies are
26162 Store custom flags and keywords
26164 The registry can store custom flags and keywords for a message. For
26165 instance, you can mark a message ``To-Do'' this way and the flag will
26166 persist whether the message is in the nnimap, nnml, nnmaildir,
26170 Store arbitrary data
26172 Through a simple ELisp API, the registry can remember any data for a
26173 message. A built-in inverse map, when activated, allows quick lookups
26174 of all messages matching a particular set of criteria.
26179 * Fancy splitting to parent::
26180 * Store custom flags and keywords::
26181 * Store arbitrary data::
26187 Fortunately, setting up the Gnus registry is pretty easy:
26190 (setq gnus-registry-max-entries 2500
26191 gnus-registry-use-long-group-names t)
26193 (gnus-registry-initialize)
26196 This adds registry saves to Gnus newsrc saves (which happen on exit
26197 and when you press @kbd{s} from the @code{*Group*} buffer. It also
26198 adds registry calls to article actions in Gnus (copy, move, etc.) so
26199 it's not easy to undo the initialization. See
26200 @code{gnus-registry-initialize} for the gory details.
26202 Here are other settings used by the author of the registry (understand
26203 what they do before you copy them blindly).
26207 gnus-registry-split-strategy 'majority
26208 gnus-registry-ignored-groups '(("nntp" t)
26212 gnus-registry-max-entries 500000
26213 gnus-registry-use-long-group-names t
26214 gnus-registry-track-extra '(sender subject))
26217 They say: keep a lot of messages around, use long group names, track
26218 messages by sender and subject (not just parent Message-ID), and when
26219 the registry splits incoming mail, use a majority rule to decide where
26220 messages should go if there's more than one possibility. In addition,
26221 the registry should ignore messages in groups that match ``nntp'',
26222 ``nnrss'', ``spam'', or ``train.''
26224 You are doubtless impressed by all this, but you ask: ``I am a Gnus
26225 user, I customize to live. Give me more.'' Here you go, these are
26226 the general settings.
26228 @defvar gnus-registry-unfollowed-groups
26229 The groups that will not be followed by
26230 @code{gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent}. They will still be
26231 remembered by the registry. This is a list of regular expressions.
26234 @defvar gnus-registry-ignored-groups
26235 The groups that will not be remembered by the registry. This is a
26236 list of regular expressions, also available through Group/Topic
26237 customization (so you can ignore or keep a specific group or a whole
26241 @defvar gnus-registry-use-long-group-names
26242 Whether the registry will use long group names. It's recommended to
26243 set this to @code{t}, although everything works if you don't. Future
26244 functionality will require it.
26247 @defvar gnus-registry-max-entries
26248 The number (an integer or @code{nil} for unlimited) of entries the
26249 registry will keep.
26252 @defvar gnus-registry-cache-file
26253 The file where the registry will be stored between Gnus sessions.
26256 @node Fancy splitting to parent
26257 @subsection Fancy splitting to parent
26259 Simply put, this lets you put followup e-mail where it belongs.
26261 Every message has a Message-ID, which is unique, and the registry
26262 remembers it. When the message is moved or copied, the registry will
26263 notice this and offer the new group as a choice to the splitting
26266 When a followup is made, usually it mentions the original message's
26267 Message-ID in the headers. The registry knows this and uses that
26268 mention to find the group where the original message lives. You only
26269 have to put a rule like this:
26272 (setq nnimap-my-split-fancy '(|
26274 ;; split to parent: you need this
26275 (: gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent)
26277 ;; other rules, as an example
26283 in your fancy split setup. In addition, you may want to customize the
26284 following variables.
26286 @defvar gnus-registry-track-extra
26287 This is a list of symbols, so it's best to change it from the
26288 Customize interface. By default it's @code{nil}, but you may want to
26289 track @code{subject} and @code{sender} as well when splitting by parent.
26290 It may work for you. It can be annoying if your mail flow is large and
26291 people don't stick to the same groups.
26294 @defvar gnus-registry-split-strategy
26295 This is a symbol, so it's best to change it from the Customize
26296 interface. By default it's @code{nil}, but you may want to set it to
26297 @code{majority} or @code{first} to split by sender or subject based on
26298 the majority of matches or on the first found.
26301 @node Store custom flags and keywords
26302 @subsection Store custom flags and keywords
26304 The registry lets you set custom flags and keywords per message. You
26305 can use the Gnus->Registry Marks menu or the @kbd{M M x} keyboard
26306 shortcuts, where @code{x} is the first letter of the mark's name.
26308 @defvar gnus-registry-marks
26309 The custom marks that the registry can use. You can modify the
26310 default list, if you like. If you do, you'll have to exit Emacs
26311 before they take effect (you can also unload the registry and reload
26312 it or evaluate the specific macros you'll need, but you probably don't
26313 want to bother). Use the Customize interface to modify the list.
26315 By default this list has the @code{Important}, @code{Work},
26316 @code{Personal}, @code{To-Do}, and @code{Later} marks. They all have
26317 keyboard shortcuts like @kbd{M M i} for Important, using the first
26321 @defun gnus-registry-mark-article
26322 Call this function to mark an article with a custom registry mark. It
26323 will offer the available marks for completion.
26326 @node Store arbitrary data
26327 @subsection Store arbitrary data
26329 The registry has a simple API that uses a Message-ID as the key to
26330 store arbitrary data (as long as it can be converted to a list for
26333 @defun gnus-registry-store-extra-entry (id key value)
26334 Store @code{value} in the extra data key @code{key} for message
26338 @defun gnus-registry-delete-extra-entry (id key)
26339 Delete the extra data key @code{key} for message @code{id}.
26342 @defun gnus-registry-fetch-extra (id key)
26343 Get the extra data key @code{key} for message @code{id}.
26346 @defvar gnus-registry-extra-entries-precious
26347 If any extra entries are precious, their presence will make the
26348 registry keep the whole entry forever, even if there are no groups for
26349 the Message-ID and if the size limit of the registry is reached. By
26350 default this is just @code{(marks)} so the custom registry marks are
26355 @section Interaction with other modes
26360 @code{gnus-dired-minor-mode} provides some useful functions for dired
26361 buffers. It is enabled with
26363 (add-hook 'dired-mode-hook 'turn-on-gnus-dired-mode)
26368 @findex gnus-dired-attach
26369 @cindex attachments, selection via dired
26370 Send dired's marked files as an attachment (@code{gnus-dired-attach}).
26371 You will be prompted for a message buffer.
26374 @findex gnus-dired-find-file-mailcap
26375 Visit a file according to the appropriate mailcap entry
26376 (@code{gnus-dired-find-file-mailcap}). With prefix, open file in a new
26380 @findex gnus-dired-print
26381 Print file according to the mailcap entry (@code{gnus-dired-print}). If
26382 there is no print command, print in a PostScript image.
26385 @node Various Various
26386 @section Various Various
26392 @item gnus-home-directory
26393 @vindex gnus-home-directory
26394 All Gnus file and directory variables will be initialized from this
26395 variable, which defaults to @file{~/}.
26397 @item gnus-directory
26398 @vindex gnus-directory
26399 Most Gnus storage file and directory variables will be initialized from
26400 this variable, which defaults to the @env{SAVEDIR} environment
26401 variable, or @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
26403 Note that Gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{~/.gnus.el} file is read.
26404 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
26405 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
26406 @file{~/.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
26408 @item gnus-default-directory
26409 @vindex gnus-default-directory
26410 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
26411 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
26412 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
26413 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
26414 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
26415 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
26418 @vindex gnus-verbose
26419 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
26420 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
26421 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
26422 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
26423 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
26425 @item gnus-verbose-backends
26426 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
26427 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
26428 to the Gnus back ends instead of Gnus proper.
26430 @item gnus-add-timestamp-to-message
26431 @vindex gnus-add-timestamp-to-message
26432 This variable controls whether to add timestamps to messages that are
26433 controlled by @code{gnus-verbose} and @code{gnus-verbose-backends} and
26434 are issued. The default value is @code{nil} which means never to add
26435 timestamp. If it is @code{log}, add timestamps to only the messages
26436 that go into the @samp{*Messages*} buffer (in XEmacs, it is the
26437 @w{@samp{ *Message-Log*}} buffer). If it is neither @code{nil} nor
26438 @code{log}, add timestamps not only to log messages but also to the ones
26439 displayed in the echo area.
26441 @item nnheader-max-head-length
26442 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
26443 When the back ends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
26444 as little as possible. This variable (default 8192) specifies
26445 the absolute max length the back ends will try to read before giving up
26446 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
26447 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
26448 @code{t}, the back ends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
26449 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
26450 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
26452 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
26453 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
26454 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
26455 read when doing the operation described above.
26457 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
26458 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
26460 @cindex invalid characters in file names
26461 @cindex characters in file names
26462 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
26463 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
26464 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
26468 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
26473 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
26474 Windows (phooey) systems.
26476 @item gnus-hidden-properties
26477 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
26478 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
26479 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
26480 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
26482 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
26483 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
26484 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
26485 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
26486 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
26488 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
26489 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
26490 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
26492 @item gnus-invalid-group-regexp
26493 @vindex gnus-invalid-group-regexp
26495 Regexp to match ``invalid'' group names when querying user for a group
26496 name. The default value catches some @strong{really} invalid group
26497 names who could possibly mess up Gnus internally (like allowing
26498 @samp{:} in a group name, which is normally used to delimit method and
26501 @acronym{IMAP} users might want to allow @samp{/} in group names though.
26503 @item gnus-safe-html-newsgroups
26504 @vindex gnus-safe-html-newsgroups
26505 Groups in which links in html articles are considered all safe. The
26506 value may be a regexp matching those groups, a list of group names, or
26507 @code{nil}. This overrides @code{mm-w3m-safe-url-regexp}. The default
26508 value is @code{"\\`nnrss[+:]"}. This is effective only when emacs-w3m
26509 renders html articles, i.e., in the case @code{mm-text-html-renderer} is
26510 set to @code{w3m}. @xref{Display Customization, ,Display Customization,
26511 emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}.
26518 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
26519 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
26521 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
26523 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
26529 Not because of victories @*
26532 but for the common sunshine,@*
26534 the largess of the spring.
26538 but for the day's work done@*
26539 as well as I was able;@*
26540 not for a seat upon the dais@*
26541 but at the common table.@*
26546 @chapter Appendices
26549 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
26550 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
26551 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
26552 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
26553 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
26554 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
26555 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
26556 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
26557 * Frequently Asked Questions:: The Gnus FAQ
26564 @cindex installing under XEmacs
26566 XEmacs is distributed as a collection of packages. You should install
26567 whatever packages the Gnus XEmacs package requires. The current
26568 requirements are @samp{gnus}, @samp{mail-lib}, @samp{xemacs-base},
26569 @samp{eterm}, @samp{sh-script}, @samp{net-utils}, @samp{os-utils},
26570 @samp{dired}, @samp{mh-e}, @samp{sieve}, @samp{ps-print}, @samp{W3},
26571 @samp{pgg}, @samp{mailcrypt}, @samp{ecrypto}, and @samp{sasl}.
26578 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
26579 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
26581 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage,
26582 you can point your (feh!) web browser to
26583 @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/}. This is also the primary
26584 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is
26585 known as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
26587 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
26588 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
26589 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
26590 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
26591 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
26592 appropriate name, don't you think?)
26594 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
26595 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
26596 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
26597 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
26600 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
26601 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
26602 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
26603 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
26604 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
26605 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
26606 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
26607 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
26608 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
26612 @node Gnus Versions
26613 @subsection Gnus Versions
26615 @cindex September Gnus
26617 @cindex Quassia Gnus
26618 @cindex Pterodactyl Gnus
26621 @cindex Gnus versions
26623 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
26624 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
26625 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
26627 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
26628 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
26630 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
26631 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4'' (67 releases).
26633 On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37 releases.
26634 It was released as ``Gnus 5.6'' on March 8th 1998 (46 releases).
26636 Gnus 5.6 begat Pterodactyl Gnus on August 29th 1998 and was released as
26637 ``Gnus 5.8'' (after 99 releases and a CVS repository) on December 3rd
26640 On the 26th of October 2000, Oort Gnus was begun and was released as
26641 Gnus 5.10 on May 1st 2003 (24 releases).
26643 On the January 4th 2004, No Gnus was begun.
26645 On April 19, 2010 Gnus development was moved to Git. See
26646 http://git.gnus.org for details (http://www.gnus.org will be updated
26647 with the information when possible).
26649 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name --
26650 ``(ding) Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'',
26651 ``Pterodactyl Gnus'', ``Oort Gnus'', ``No Gnus'' -- don't panic.
26652 Don't let it know that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly. Whatever
26653 you do, don't run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its reach.
26654 Find a proper released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that instead.
26657 @node Other Gnus Versions
26658 @subsection Other Gnus Versions
26661 In addition to the versions of Gnus which have had their releases
26662 coordinated by Lars, one major development has been Semi-gnus from
26663 Japan. It's based on a library called @acronym{SEMI}, which provides
26664 @acronym{MIME} capabilities.
26666 These Gnusae are based mainly on Gnus 5.6 and Pterodactyl Gnus.
26667 Collectively, they are called ``Semi-gnus'', and different strains are
26668 called T-gnus, ET-gnus, Nana-gnus and Chaos. These provide powerful
26669 @acronym{MIME} and multilingualization things, especially important for
26676 What's the point of Gnus?
26678 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
26679 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
26680 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
26681 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
26682 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
26683 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
26684 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
26685 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
26686 keep track of millions of people who post?
26688 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
26689 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
26690 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
26691 to separate the newsreader from the back ends, Gnus now offers a simple
26692 interface for anybody who wants to write new back ends for fetching mail
26693 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
26694 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
26695 every one of you to explore and invent.
26697 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
26698 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
26701 @node Compatibility
26702 @subsection Compatibility
26704 @cindex compatibility
26705 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
26706 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
26707 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
26712 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
26716 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
26719 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
26722 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
26723 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
26724 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
26725 important variables have their values copied into their global
26726 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
26727 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
26729 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
26730 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
26731 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
26732 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
26733 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
26737 @cindex highlighting
26738 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
26739 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
26740 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
26741 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
26742 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
26743 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
26746 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
26747 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
26748 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
26749 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
26751 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
26752 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
26753 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
26754 to stop doing it the old way.
26756 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
26758 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
26760 @cindex reporting bugs
26762 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
26763 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
26764 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
26766 @vindex gnus-bug-create-help-buffer
26767 If you are in the habit of sending bug reports @emph{very} often, you
26768 may find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
26769 @code{gnus-bug-create-help-buffer} to @code{nil} to avoid having it pop
26774 @subsection Conformity
26776 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
26777 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
26785 There are no known breaches of this standard.
26789 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
26791 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
26792 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
26793 We do have some breaches to this one.
26799 These are considered to be ``vanity headers'', while I consider them
26800 to be consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted
26801 articles coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use
26802 either of those for posting articles. I would not have known that if
26803 it wasn't for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
26808 USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036, based
26809 on Son-of-RFC 1036. They have produced a number of drafts proposing
26810 various changes to the format of news articles. The Gnus towers will
26811 look into implementing the changes when the draft is accepted as an RFC.
26813 @item MIME - RFC 2045-2049 etc
26814 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
26815 All the various @acronym{MIME} RFCs are supported.
26817 @item Disposition Notifications - RFC 2298
26818 Message Mode is able to request notifications from the receiver.
26820 @item PGP - RFC 1991 and RFC 2440
26823 RFC 1991 is the original @acronym{PGP} message specification,
26824 published as an informational RFC. RFC 2440 was the follow-up, now
26825 called Open PGP, and put on the Standards Track. Both document a
26826 non-@acronym{MIME} aware @acronym{PGP} format. Gnus supports both
26827 encoding (signing and encryption) and decoding (verification and
26830 @item PGP/MIME - RFC 2015/3156
26831 RFC 2015 (superseded by 3156 which references RFC 2440 instead of RFC
26832 1991) describes the @acronym{MIME}-wrapping around the RFC 1991/2440 format.
26833 Gnus supports both encoding and decoding.
26835 @item S/MIME - RFC 2633
26836 RFC 2633 describes the @acronym{S/MIME} format.
26838 @item IMAP - RFC 1730/2060, RFC 2195, RFC 2086, RFC 2359, RFC 2595, RFC 1731
26839 RFC 1730 is @acronym{IMAP} version 4, updated somewhat by RFC 2060
26840 (@acronym{IMAP} 4 revision 1). RFC 2195 describes CRAM-MD5
26841 authentication for @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 2086 describes access control
26842 lists (ACLs) for @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 2359 describes a @acronym{IMAP}
26843 protocol enhancement. RFC 2595 describes the proper @acronym{TLS}
26844 integration (STARTTLS) with @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 1731 describes the
26845 GSSAPI/Kerberos4 mechanisms for @acronym{IMAP}.
26849 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
26850 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
26855 @subsection Emacsen
26861 This version of Gnus should work on:
26869 XEmacs 21.4 and up.
26873 This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
26874 that. Not reliably, at least. Older versions of Gnus may work on older
26875 Emacs versions. Particularly, Gnus 5.10.8 should also work on Emacs
26876 20.7 and XEmacs 21.1.
26878 @c No-merge comment: The paragraph added in v5-10 here must not be
26881 @node Gnus Development
26882 @subsection Gnus Development
26884 Gnus is developed in a two-phased cycle. The first phase involves much
26885 discussion on the development mailing list @samp{ding@@gnus.org}, where people
26886 propose changes and new features, post patches and new back ends. This
26887 phase is called the @dfn{alpha} phase, since the Gnusae released in this
26888 phase are @dfn{alpha releases}, or (perhaps more commonly in other
26889 circles) @dfn{snapshots}. During this phase, Gnus is assumed to be
26890 unstable and should not be used by casual users. Gnus alpha releases
26891 have names like ``Oort Gnus'' and ``No Gnus''. @xref{Gnus Versions}.
26893 After futzing around for 10-100 alpha releases, Gnus is declared
26894 @dfn{frozen}, and only bug fixes are applied. Gnus loses the prefix,
26895 and is called things like ``Gnus 5.10.1'' instead. Normal people are
26896 supposed to be able to use these, and these are mostly discussed on the
26897 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} newsgroup. This newgroup is mirrored to the
26898 mailing list @samp{info-gnus-english@@gnu.org} which is carried on Gmane
26899 as @samp{gmane.emacs.gnus.user}. These releases are finally integrated
26903 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
26904 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae,
26905 in particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming}. This is to prevent
26906 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
26907 @xref{Mail Source Customization}.
26909 The division of discussion between the ding mailing list and the Gnus
26910 newsgroup is not purely based on publicity concerns. It's true that
26911 having people write about the horrible things that an alpha Gnus release
26912 can do (sometimes) in a public forum may scare people off, but more
26913 importantly, talking about new experimental features that have been
26914 introduced may confuse casual users. New features are frequently
26915 introduced, fiddled with, and judged to be found wanting, and then
26916 either discarded or totally rewritten. People reading the mailing list
26917 usually keep up with these rapid changes, while people on the newsgroup
26918 can't be assumed to do so.
26920 So if you have problems with or questions about the alpha versions,
26921 direct those to the ding mailing list @samp{ding@@gnus.org}. This list
26922 is also available on Gmane as @samp{gmane.emacs.gnus.general}.
26925 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
26926 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae,
26927 in particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming}. This is to prevent
26928 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
26929 @xref{Mail Source Customization}.
26932 @subsection Contributors
26933 @cindex contributors
26935 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
26936 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
26937 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
26938 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
26939 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
26940 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
26941 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
26942 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
26943 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
26944 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
26946 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for@dots{} oops,
26952 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
26955 Shenghuo Zhu---uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el, webmail.el,
26956 nnwarchive and many, many other things connected with @acronym{MIME} and
26957 other types of en/decoding, as well as general bug fixing, new
26958 functionality and stuff.
26961 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
26962 well as numerous other things).
26965 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
26968 Joe Reiss---creator of the smiley faces.
26971 Justin Sheehy---the @acronym{FAQ} maintainer.
26974 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
26977 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
26978 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
26981 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
26984 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section.
26987 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
26990 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
26993 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and fixes.
26996 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
26999 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
27000 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
27003 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
27006 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
27009 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
27012 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
27016 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
27019 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
27022 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
27025 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
27026 well as autoconf support.
27030 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
27031 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
27033 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
27048 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
27050 Katsumi Yamaoka, @c Yamaoka
27054 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
27064 Alexei V. Barantsev,
27079 Massimo Campostrini,
27084 Jae-you Chung, @c ?
27085 James H. Cloos, Jr.,
27089 Andrew J. Cosgriff,
27092 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
27098 Michael Welsh Duggan,
27103 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
27107 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
27115 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
27117 Michelangelo Grigni,
27121 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
27123 Yoshiki Hayashi, @c Hayashi
27125 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
27133 Fran@,{c}ois Felix Ingrand,
27134 Tatsuya Ichikawa, @c Ichikawa
27135 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
27137 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
27147 Peter Skov Knudsen,
27148 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
27150 Koseki Yoshinori, @c Koseki
27151 Thor Kristoffersen,
27154 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
27172 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
27173 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
27180 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
27185 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
27189 John McClary Prevost,
27195 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
27200 Christian von Roques,
27203 Wolfgang Rupprecht,
27210 Philippe Schnoebelen,
27212 Randal L. Schwartz,
27226 Kiyokazu Suto, @c Suto
27231 Tozawa Akihiko, @c Tozawa
27251 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
27252 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
27253 (550kB and counting).
27255 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
27258 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
27259 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
27263 @subsection New Features
27264 @cindex new features
27267 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
27268 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
27269 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
27270 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
27271 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
27272 * Oort Gnus:: It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10/5.11.
27273 * No Gnus:: Very punny.
27276 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
27277 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
27278 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
27281 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
27283 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
27288 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
27289 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
27292 Local spool and several @acronym{NNTP} servers can be used at once
27293 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
27296 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
27299 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
27300 All the mail back ends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
27301 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
27304 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
27305 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
27306 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
27307 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
27310 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
27311 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
27314 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
27315 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
27316 (@pxref{The Active File}).
27319 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
27320 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
27323 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
27324 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
27325 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
27328 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
27329 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
27330 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
27333 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{~/.gnus.el}) to avoid
27334 cluttering up the @file{.emacs} file.
27337 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
27338 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
27341 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
27342 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
27345 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
27346 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
27349 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
27350 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
27353 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
27356 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
27357 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
27360 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
27361 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
27364 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
27365 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
27368 Gnus can fetch @acronym{FAQ}s and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
27371 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
27372 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
27375 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
27379 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
27383 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
27384 configuration (@pxref{Window Layout}).
27387 You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard
27393 @node September Gnus
27394 @subsubsection September Gnus
27398 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/september,height=20cm}}
27402 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
27407 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
27408 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
27412 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
27413 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
27417 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
27421 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
27422 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
27425 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
27429 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions.
27432 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
27435 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
27438 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
27442 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
27443 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
27446 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
27450 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
27454 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
27458 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
27462 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
27465 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
27466 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
27469 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
27473 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
27474 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
27477 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
27480 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
27481 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
27482 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
27485 Gnus has a new back end (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets.
27488 The Gnus cache is much faster.
27491 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
27495 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
27496 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
27499 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
27500 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
27503 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
27504 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
27507 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
27508 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
27509 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
27512 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
27513 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
27516 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
27519 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
27522 All mail back ends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
27525 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
27528 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
27529 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
27532 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Window
27536 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
27539 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}}
27544 Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (@pxref{NoCeM}).
27547 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
27551 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
27554 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
27558 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
27561 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
27564 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
27565 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
27568 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
27569 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
27573 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
27574 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
27577 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
27581 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
27582 buffer to allow easier treatment.
27585 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
27588 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
27592 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
27596 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
27597 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
27600 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
27604 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
27605 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
27608 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
27609 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
27612 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
27616 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
27619 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
27622 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
27628 @subsubsection Red Gnus
27630 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
27634 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/red,height=20cm}}
27641 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
27644 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
27645 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
27648 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
27649 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
27653 Article washing status can be displayed in the
27654 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
27657 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
27660 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
27661 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
27664 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
27668 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
27669 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
27673 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extendable (@pxref{Document
27674 Server Internals}).
27677 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
27681 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
27684 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
27685 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
27688 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
27689 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
27690 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
27693 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
27694 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
27697 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
27698 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
27701 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{C-M-_}
27705 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
27706 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
27709 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
27710 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
27713 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
27717 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
27720 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
27724 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
27725 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
27728 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
27729 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
27732 A new command for reading collections of documents
27733 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{C-M-d}
27734 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
27737 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
27741 A new mail-to-news back end makes it possible to post even when the @acronym{NNTP}
27742 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
27745 A new back end for reading searches from Web search engines
27746 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
27747 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
27750 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
27751 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
27755 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
27759 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
27763 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}}
27768 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
27772 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
27776 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
27777 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
27780 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
27786 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
27788 New features in Gnus 5.6:
27793 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
27794 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added.
27795 @xref{Gnus Unplugged}, for the full story.
27798 The @code{nndraft} back end has returned, but works differently than
27799 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
27800 group, which is created automatically.
27803 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
27807 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-ID's.
27810 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
27811 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
27814 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
27818 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
27821 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
27822 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
27825 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
27828 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. @xref{Symbolic Prefixes}, for
27832 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
27833 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the @file{all.SCORE} file.
27836 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
27837 control over simplification.
27840 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
27843 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
27847 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
27850 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
27853 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
27854 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
27855 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
27858 Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
27859 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
27862 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
27866 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
27867 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
27870 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
27871 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @acronym{NNTP} servers.
27874 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
27878 A history of where mails have been split is available.
27881 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
27884 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
27885 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
27888 A new function for citing in Message has been
27889 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
27892 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
27895 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
27899 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
27900 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
27903 The ``lapsed date'' article header can be kept continually
27904 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
27907 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} back end.
27910 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
27914 @node Pterodactyl Gnus
27915 @subsubsection Pterodactyl Gnus
27917 New features in Gnus 5.8:
27922 The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
27923 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
27925 If you used procmail like in
27928 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
27929 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
27930 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
27931 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
27934 this now has changed to
27938 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
27942 @xref{Mail Source Specifiers}.
27945 Gnus is now a @acronym{MIME}-capable reader. This affects many parts of
27946 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
27949 Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too
27950 many parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
27953 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} can now be a function to be
27954 called to position point.
27957 The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
27958 summary buffers and @acronym{NOV} files.
27961 @code{gnus-article-display-hook} has been removed. Instead, a number
27962 of variables starting with @code{gnus-treat-} have been added.
27965 The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now works in a
27966 subtly different manner.
27969 New web-based back ends have been added: @code{nnslashdot},
27970 @code{nnwarchive} and @code{nnultimate}. nnweb has been revamped,
27971 again, to keep up with ever-changing layouts.
27974 Gnus can now read @acronym{IMAP} mail via @code{nnimap}.
27979 @subsubsection Oort Gnus
27982 New features in Gnus 5.10:
27986 @item Installation changes
27987 @c ***********************
27991 Upgrading from previous (stable) version if you have used Oort.
27993 If you have tried Oort (the unstable Gnus branch leading to this
27994 release) but went back to a stable version, be careful when upgrading to
27995 this version. In particular, you will probably want to remove all
27996 @file{.marks} (nnml) and @file{.mrk} (nnfolder) files, so that flags are
27997 read from your @file{.newsrc.eld} instead of from the
27998 @file{.marks}/@file{.mrk} file where this release store flags. See a
27999 later entry for more information about marks. Note that downgrading
28000 isn't save in general.
28003 Lisp files are now installed in @file{.../site-lisp/gnus/} by default.
28004 It defaulted to @file{.../site-lisp/} formerly. In addition to this,
28005 the new installer issues a warning if other Gnus installations which
28006 will shadow the latest one are detected. You can then remove those
28007 shadows manually or remove them using @code{make
28008 remove-installed-shadows}.
28011 New @file{make.bat} for compiling and installing Gnus under MS Windows
28013 Use @file{make.bat} if you want to install Gnus under MS Windows, the
28014 first argument to the batch-program should be the directory where
28015 @file{xemacs.exe} respectively @file{emacs.exe} is located, if you want
28016 to install Gnus after compiling it, give @file{make.bat} @code{/copy} as
28017 the second parameter.
28019 @file{make.bat} has been rewritten from scratch, it now features
28020 automatic recognition of XEmacs and GNU Emacs, generates
28021 @file{gnus-load.el}, checks if errors occur while compilation and
28022 generation of info files and reports them at the end of the build
28023 process. It now uses @code{makeinfo} if it is available and falls
28024 back to @file{infohack.el} otherwise. @file{make.bat} should now
28025 install all files which are necessary to run Gnus and be generally a
28026 complete replacement for the @code{configure; make; make install}
28027 cycle used under Unix systems.
28029 The new @file{make.bat} makes @file{make-x.bat} and @file{xemacs.mak}
28030 superfluous, so they have been removed.
28033 @file{~/News/overview/} not used.
28035 As a result of the following change, the @file{~/News/overview/}
28036 directory is not used any more. You can safely delete the entire
28039 @c FIXME: `gnus-load' is mentioned in README, which is not included in
28040 @c the repository. We should find a better place for this item.
28042 @code{(require 'gnus-load)}
28044 If you use a stand-alone Gnus distribution, you'd better add
28045 @code{(require 'gnus-load)} into your @file{~/.emacs} after adding the Gnus
28046 lisp directory into load-path.
28048 File @file{gnus-load.el} contains autoload commands, functions and variables,
28049 some of which may not be included in distributions of Emacsen.
28053 @item New packages and libraries within Gnus
28054 @c *****************************************
28059 The revised Gnus @acronym{FAQ} is included in the manual,
28060 @xref{Frequently Asked Questions}.
28063 @acronym{TLS} wrapper shipped with Gnus
28065 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} is now supported in @acronym{IMAP} and
28066 @acronym{NNTP} via @file{tls.el} and GNUTLS. The old
28067 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} support via (external third party)
28068 @file{ssl.el} and OpenSSL still works.
28071 Improved anti-spam features.
28073 Gnus is now able to take out spam from your mail and news streams
28074 using a wide variety of programs and filter rules. Among the supported
28075 methods are RBL blocklists, bogofilter and white/blacklists. Hooks
28076 for easy use of external packages such as SpamAssassin and Hashcash
28077 are also new. @ref{Thwarting Email Spam} and @ref{Spam Package}.
28078 @c FIXME: @xref{Spam Package}?. Should this be under Misc?
28081 Gnus supports server-side mail filtering using Sieve.
28083 Sieve rules can be added as Group Parameters for groups, and the
28084 complete Sieve script is generated using @kbd{D g} from the Group
28085 buffer, and then uploaded to the server using @kbd{C-c C-l} in the
28086 generated Sieve buffer. @xref{Sieve Commands}, and the new Sieve
28087 manual @ref{Top, , Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
28091 @item Changes in group mode
28092 @c ************************
28097 @code{gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group} can be called interactively,
28101 Retrieval of charters and control messages
28103 There are new commands for fetching newsgroup charters (@kbd{H c}) and
28104 control messages (@kbd{H C}).
28107 The new variable @code{gnus-parameters} can be used to set group parameters.
28109 Earlier this was done only via @kbd{G p} (or @kbd{G c}), which stored
28110 the parameters in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}, but via this variable you can
28111 enjoy the powers of customize, and simplified backups since you set the
28112 variable in @file{~/.gnus.el} instead of @file{~/.newsrc.eld}. The
28113 variable maps regular expressions matching group names to group
28116 (setq gnus-parameters
28118 (gnus-show-threads nil)
28119 (gnus-use-scoring nil))
28120 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
28121 (to-group . "\\1"))))
28125 Unread count correct in nnimap groups.
28127 The estimated number of unread articles in the group buffer should now
28128 be correct for nnimap groups. This is achieved by calling
28129 @code{nnimap-fixup-unread-after-getting-new-news} from the
28130 @code{gnus-setup-news-hook} (called on startup) and
28131 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook}. (called after getting new
28132 mail). If you have modified those variables from the default, you may
28133 want to add @code{nnimap-fixup-unread-after-getting-new-news} again. If
28134 you were happy with the estimate and want to save some (minimal) time
28135 when getting new mail, remove the function.
28138 Group names are treated as UTF-8 by default.
28140 This is supposedly what USEFOR wanted to migrate to. See
28141 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist} and
28142 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist} for customization.
28145 @code{gnus-group-charset-alist} and
28146 @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
28148 The regexps in these variables are compared with full group names
28149 instead of real group names in 5.8. Users who customize these
28150 variables should change those regexps accordingly. For example:
28152 ("^han\\>" euc-kr) -> ("\\(^\\|:\\)han\\>" euc-kr)
28156 Old intermediate incoming mail files (@file{Incoming*}) are deleted
28157 after a couple of days, not immediately. @xref{Mail Source
28158 Customization}. (New in Gnus 5.10.10 / Emacs 22.2)
28162 @item Changes in summary and article mode
28163 @c **************************************
28168 @kbd{F} (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}) and @kbd{R}
28169 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}) only yank the text in the
28170 region if the region is active.
28173 In draft groups, @kbd{e} is now bound to @code{gnus-draft-edit-message}.
28174 Use @kbd{B w} for @code{gnus-summary-edit-article} instead.
28179 More buttons for URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links, man
28180 pages and Emacs or Gnus related references. @xref{Article Buttons}. The
28181 variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} can be used to control the
28182 appearance of all article buttons. @xref{Article Button Levels}.
28185 Single-part yenc encoded attachments can be decoded.
28190 The picons code has been reimplemented to work in GNU Emacs---some of
28191 the previous options have been removed or renamed.
28193 Picons are small ``personal icons'' representing users, domain and
28194 newsgroups, which can be displayed in the Article buffer.
28198 If the new option @code{gnus-treat-body-boundary} is non-@code{nil}, a
28199 boundary line is drawn at the end of the headers.
28202 Signed article headers (X-PGP-Sig) can be verified with @kbd{W p}.
28205 The Summary Buffer uses an arrow in the fringe to indicate the current
28206 article. Use @code{(setq gnus-summary-display-arrow nil)} to disable it.
28209 Warn about email replies to news
28211 Do you often find yourself replying to news by email by mistake? Then
28212 the new option @code{gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news} is just the thing for
28216 If the new option @code{gnus-summary-display-while-building} is
28217 non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer is shown and updated as it's being
28221 The new @code{recent} mark @samp{.} indicates newly arrived messages (as
28222 opposed to old but unread messages).
28225 Gnus supports RFC 2369 mailing list headers, and adds a number of
28226 related commands in mailing list groups. @xref{Mailing List}.
28229 The Date header can be displayed in a format that can be read aloud
28230 in English. @xref{Article Date}.
28233 diffs are automatically highlighted in groups matching
28234 @code{mm-uu-diff-groups-regexp}
28237 Better handling of Microsoft citation styles
28239 Gnus now tries to recognize the mangled header block that some Microsoft
28240 mailers use to indicate that the rest of the message is a citation, even
28241 though it is not quoted in any way. The variable
28242 @code{gnus-cite-unsightly-citation-regexp} matches the start of these
28245 The new command @kbd{W Y f}
28246 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article}) allows deuglifying broken
28247 Outlook (Express) articles.
28250 @code{gnus-article-skip-boring}
28252 If you set @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} to @code{t}, then Gnus will
28253 not scroll down to show you a page that contains only boring text,
28254 which by default means cited text and signature. You can customize
28255 what is skippable using @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}.
28257 This feature is especially useful if you read many articles that
28258 consist of a little new content at the top with a long, untrimmed
28259 message cited below.
28262 Smileys (@samp{:-)}, @samp{;-)} etc) are now displayed graphically in
28265 Put @code{(setq gnus-treat-display-smileys nil)} in @file{~/.gnus.el} to
28269 Face headers handling. @xref{Face}.
28272 In the summary buffer, the new command @kbd{/ N} inserts new messages
28273 and @kbd{/ o} inserts old messages.
28276 Gnus decodes morse encoded messages if you press @kbd{W m}.
28279 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}
28281 The default value changed to @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%)
28282 %s\n}. Moreover @code{gnus-extra-headers},
28283 @code{nnmail-extra-headers} and @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses}
28284 changed their default so that the users name will be replaced by the
28285 recipient's name or the group name posting to for @acronym{NNTP}
28289 Deleting of attachments.
28291 The command @code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip} (bound to @kbd{C-o}
28292 on @acronym{MIME} buttons) saves a part and replaces the part with an
28293 external one. @code{gnus-mime-delete-part} (bound to @kbd{d} on
28294 @acronym{MIME} buttons) removes a part. It works only on back ends
28295 that support editing.
28298 @code{gnus-default-charset}
28300 The default value is determined from the
28301 @code{current-language-environment} variable, instead of
28302 @code{iso-8859-1}. Also the @samp{.*} item in
28303 @code{gnus-group-charset-alist} is removed.
28306 Printing capabilities are enhanced.
28308 Gnus supports Muttprint natively with @kbd{O P} from the Summary and
28309 Article buffers. Also, each individual @acronym{MIME} part can be
28310 printed using @kbd{p} on the @acronym{MIME} button.
28313 Extended format specs.
28315 Format spec @samp{%&user-date;} is added into
28316 @code{gnus-summary-line-format-alist}. Also, user defined extended
28317 format specs are supported. The extended format specs look like
28318 @samp{%u&foo;}, which invokes function
28319 @code{gnus-user-format-function-@var{foo}}. Because @samp{&} is used as the
28320 escape character, old user defined format @samp{%u&} is no longer supported.
28323 @kbd{/ *} (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}) is rewritten.
28324 @c FIXME: Was this a user-visible change?
28326 It was aliased to @kbd{Y c}
28327 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}). The new function filters
28328 out other articles.
28331 Some limiting commands accept a @kbd{C-u} prefix to negate the match.
28333 If @kbd{C-u} is used on subject, author or extra headers, i.e., @kbd{/
28334 s}, @kbd{/ a}, and @kbd{/ x}
28335 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-@{subject,author,extra@}}) respectively, the
28336 result will be to display all articles that do not match the expression.
28339 Gnus inlines external parts (message/external).
28343 @item Changes in Message mode and related Gnus features
28344 @c ****************************************************
28351 You can delay the sending of a message with @kbd{C-c C-j} in the Message
28352 buffer. The messages are delivered at specified time. This is useful
28353 for sending yourself reminders. @xref{Delayed Articles}.
28356 If the new option @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is non-@code{nil},
28357 the nnml back end allows compressed message files.
28360 The new option @code{gnus-gcc-mark-as-read} automatically marks
28361 Gcc articles as read.
28364 Externalizing of attachments
28366 If @code{gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments} or
28367 @code{message-fcc-externalize-attachments} is non-@code{nil}, attach
28368 local files as external parts.
28371 The envelope sender address can be customized when using Sendmail.
28372 @xref{Mail Variables, Mail Variables,, message, Message Manual}.
28375 Gnus no longer generate the Sender: header automatically.
28377 Earlier it was generated when the user configurable email address was
28378 different from the Gnus guessed default user address. As the guessing
28379 algorithm is rarely correct these days, and (more controversially) the
28380 only use of the Sender: header was to check if you are entitled to
28381 cancel/supersede news (which is now solved by Cancel Locks instead,
28382 see another entry), generation of the header has been disabled by
28383 default. See the variables @code{message-required-headers},
28384 @code{message-required-news-headers}, and
28385 @code{message-required-mail-headers}.
28388 Features from third party @file{message-utils.el} added to @file{message.el}.
28390 Message now asks if you wish to remove @samp{(was: <old subject>)} from
28391 subject lines (see @code{message-subject-trailing-was-query}). @kbd{C-c
28392 M-m} and @kbd{C-c M-f} inserts markers indicating included text.
28393 @kbd{C-c C-f a} adds a X-No-Archive: header. @kbd{C-c C-f x} inserts
28394 appropriate headers and a note in the body for cross-postings and
28395 followups (see the variables @code{message-cross-post-@var{*}}).
28398 References and X-Draft-From headers are no longer generated when you
28399 start composing messages and @code{message-generate-headers-first} is
28403 Easy inclusion of X-Faces headers. @xref{X-Face}.
28406 Group Carbon Copy (GCC) quoting
28408 To support groups that contains SPC and other weird characters, groups
28409 are quoted before they are placed in the Gcc: header. This means
28410 variables such as @code{gnus-message-archive-group} should no longer
28411 contain quote characters to make groups containing SPC work. Also, if
28412 you are using the string @samp{nnml:foo, nnml:bar} (indicating Gcc
28413 into two groups) you must change it to return the list
28414 @code{("nnml:foo" "nnml:bar")}, otherwise the Gcc: line will be quoted
28415 incorrectly. Note that returning the string @samp{nnml:foo, nnml:bar}
28416 was incorrect earlier, it just didn't generate any problems since it
28417 was inserted directly.
28420 @code{message-insinuate-rmail}
28422 @c FIXME should that not be 'message-user-agent?
28423 Adding @code{(message-insinuate-rmail)} and @code{(setq
28424 mail-user-agent 'gnus-user-agent)} in @file{.emacs} convinces Rmail to
28425 compose, reply and forward messages in message-mode, where you can
28426 enjoy the power of @acronym{MML}.
28429 @code{message-minibuffer-local-map}
28431 The line below enables BBDB in resending a message:
28433 (define-key message-minibuffer-local-map [(tab)]
28434 'bbdb-complete-name)
28438 @code{gnus-posting-styles}
28440 Add a new format of match like
28442 ((header "to" "larsi.*org")
28443 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
28445 The old format like the lines below is obsolete, but still accepted.
28447 (header "to" "larsi.*org"
28448 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
28452 @code{message-ignored-news-headers} and @code{message-ignored-mail-headers}
28454 @samp{X-Draft-From} and @samp{X-Gnus-Agent-Meta-Information} have been
28455 added into these two variables. If you customized those, perhaps you
28456 need add those two headers too.
28459 Gnus supports the ``format=flowed'' (RFC 2646) parameter. On
28460 composing messages, it is enabled by @code{use-hard-newlines}.
28461 Decoding format=flowed was present but not documented in earlier
28465 The option @code{mm-fill-flowed} can be used to disable treatment of
28466 ``format=flowed'' messages. Also, flowed text is disabled when sending
28467 inline PGP signed messages. @xref{Flowed text, , Flowed text,
28468 emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}. (New in Gnus 5.10.7)
28469 @c This entry is also present in the node "No Gnus".
28472 Gnus supports the generation of RFC 2298 Disposition Notification requests.
28474 This is invoked with the @kbd{C-c M-n} key binding from message mode.
28477 Message supports the Importance: (RFC 2156) header.
28479 In the message buffer, @kbd{C-c C-f C-i} or @kbd{C-c C-u} cycles through
28483 Gnus supports Cancel Locks in News.
28485 This means a header @samp{Cancel-Lock} is inserted in news posting. It is
28486 used to determine if you wrote an article or not (for canceling and
28487 superseding). Gnus generates a random password string the first time
28488 you post a message, and saves it in your @file{~/.emacs} using the Custom
28489 system. While the variable is called @code{canlock-password}, it is not
28490 security sensitive data. Publishing your canlock string on the web
28491 will not allow anyone to be able to anything she could not already do.
28492 The behavior can be changed by customizing @code{message-insert-canlock}.
28495 Gnus supports @acronym{PGP} (RFC 1991/2440), @acronym{PGP/MIME} (RFC
28496 2015/3156) and @acronym{S/MIME} (RFC 2630-2633).
28498 It needs an external @acronym{S/MIME} and OpenPGP implementation, but no
28499 additional Lisp libraries. This add several menu items to the
28500 Attachments menu, and @kbd{C-c RET} key bindings, when composing
28501 messages. This also obsoletes @code{gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook}.
28504 @acronym{MML} (Mime compose) prefix changed from @kbd{M-m} to @kbd{C-c
28507 This change was made to avoid conflict with the standard binding of
28508 @code{back-to-indentation}, which is also useful in message mode.
28511 The default for @code{message-forward-show-mml} changed to the symbol
28514 The behavior for the @code{best} value is to show @acronym{MML} (i.e.,
28515 convert to @acronym{MIME}) when appropriate. @acronym{MML} will not be
28516 used when forwarding signed or encrypted messages, as the conversion
28517 invalidate the digital signature.
28520 If @code{auto-compression-mode} is enabled, attachments are automatically
28521 decompressed when activated.
28522 @c FIXME: Does this affect article or message mode?
28525 Support for non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names
28527 Message supports non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names in From:, To: and
28528 Cc: and will query you whether to perform encoding when you try to
28529 send a message. The variable @code{message-use-idna} controls this.
28530 Gnus will also decode non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names in From:, To:
28531 and Cc: when you view a message. The variable @code{gnus-use-idna}
28534 @item You can now drag and drop attachments to the Message buffer.
28535 See @code{mml-dnd-protocol-alist} and @code{mml-dnd-attach-options}.
28536 @xref{MIME, ,MIME, message, Message Manual}.
28537 @c New in 5.10.9 / 5.11 (Emacs 22.1)
28539 @item @code{auto-fill-mode} is enabled by default in Message mode.
28540 See @code{message-fill-column}. @xref{Various Message Variables, ,
28541 Message Headers, message, Message Manual}.
28542 @c New in Gnus 5.10.12 / 5.11 (Emacs 22.3)
28546 @item Changes in back ends
28547 @c ***********************
28551 Gnus can display RSS newsfeeds as a newsgroup. @xref{RSS}.
28554 The nndoc back end now supports mailman digests and exim bounces.
28557 Gnus supports Maildir groups.
28559 Gnus includes a new back end @file{nnmaildir.el}. @xref{Maildir}.
28562 The nnml and nnfolder back ends store marks for each groups.
28564 This makes it possible to take backup of nnml/nnfolder servers/groups
28565 separately of @file{~/.newsrc.eld}, while preserving marks. It also
28566 makes it possible to share articles and marks between users (without
28567 sharing the @file{~/.newsrc.eld} file) within e.g. a department. It
28568 works by storing the marks stored in @file{~/.newsrc.eld} in a per-group
28569 file @file{.marks} (for nnml) and @file{@var{groupname}.mrk} (for
28570 nnfolder, named @var{groupname}). If the nnml/nnfolder is moved to
28571 another machine, Gnus will automatically use the @file{.marks} or
28572 @file{.mrk} file instead of the information in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
28573 The new server variables @code{nnml-marks-is-evil} and
28574 @code{nnfolder-marks-is-evil} can be used to disable this feature.
28584 The menu bar item (in Group and Summary buffer) named ``Misc'' has
28585 been renamed to ``Gnus''.
28588 The menu bar item (in Message mode) named ``@acronym{MML}'' has been
28589 renamed to ``Attachments''. Note that this menu also contains security
28590 related stuff, like signing and encryption (@pxref{Security, Security,,
28591 message, Message Manual}).
28594 The tool bars have been updated to use GNOME icons in Group, Summary and
28595 Message mode. You can also customize the tool bars: @kbd{M-x
28596 customize-apropos RET -tool-bar$} should get you started. This is a new
28597 feature in Gnus 5.10.10. (Only for Emacs, not in XEmacs.)
28599 @item The tool bar icons are now (de)activated correctly
28600 in the group buffer, see the variable @code{gnus-group-update-tool-bar}.
28601 Its default value depends on your Emacs version. This is a new feature
28606 @item Miscellaneous changes
28607 @c ************************
28614 The Gnus Agent has seen a major updated and is now enabled by default,
28615 and all nntp and nnimap servers from @code{gnus-select-method} and
28616 @code{gnus-secondary-select-method} are agentized by default. Earlier
28617 only the server in @code{gnus-select-method} was agentized by the
28618 default, and the agent was disabled by default. When the agent is
28619 enabled, headers are now also retrieved from the Agent cache instead
28620 of the back ends when possible. Earlier this only happened in the
28621 unplugged state. You can enroll or remove servers with @kbd{J a} and
28622 @kbd{J r} in the server buffer. Gnus will not download articles into
28623 the Agent cache, unless you instruct it to do so, though, by using
28624 @kbd{J u} or @kbd{J s} from the Group buffer. You revert to the old
28625 behavior of having the Agent disabled with @code{(setq gnus-agent
28626 nil)}. Note that putting @code{(gnus-agentize)} in @file{~/.gnus.el}
28627 is not needed any more.
28630 Gnus reads the @acronym{NOV} and articles in the Agent if plugged.
28632 If one reads an article while plugged, and the article already exists
28633 in the Agent, it won't get downloaded once more. @code{(setq
28634 gnus-agent-cache nil)} reverts to the old behavior.
28639 @code{gnus-dired-minor-mode} (see @ref{Other modes}) installs key
28640 bindings in dired buffers to send a file as an attachment, open a file
28641 using the appropriate mailcap entry, and print a file using the mailcap
28645 The format spec @code{%C} for positioning point has changed to @code{%*}.
28648 @code{gnus-slave-unplugged}
28650 A new command which starts Gnus offline in slave mode.
28657 @subsubsection No Gnus
28660 New features in No Gnus:
28661 @c FIXME: Gnus 5.12?
28663 @include gnus-news.texi
28669 @section The Manual
28673 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
28674 either @code{texi2dvi}
28676 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
28677 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
28679 to get what you hold in your hands now.
28681 The following conventions have been used:
28686 This is a @samp{string}
28689 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
28692 This is a @file{file}
28695 This is a @code{symbol}
28699 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
28703 (setq flargnoze "yes")
28706 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
28709 (setq flumphel 'yes)
28712 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
28713 ever get them confused.
28717 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
28718 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
28719 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
28720 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
28721 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
28722 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
28723 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
28729 @node On Writing Manuals
28730 @section On Writing Manuals
28732 I guess most manuals are written after-the-fact; documenting a program
28733 that's already there. This is not how this manual is written. When
28734 implementing something, I write the manual entry for that something
28735 straight away. I then see that it's difficult to explain the
28736 functionality, so I write how it's supposed to be, and then I change the
28737 implementation. Writing the documentation and writing the code go hand
28740 This, of course, means that this manual has no, or little, flow. It
28741 documents absolutely everything in Gnus, but often not where you're
28742 looking for it. It is a reference manual, and not a guide to how to get
28745 That would be a totally different book, that should be written using the
28746 reference manual as source material. It would look quite different.
28751 @section Terminology
28753 @cindex terminology
28758 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
28759 News is generally fetched from a nearby @acronym{NNTP} server, and is
28760 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
28761 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
28762 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
28766 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
28767 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
28768 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
28769 not posting, and replying is not following up.
28773 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
28777 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
28782 Gnus considers mail and news to be mostly the same, really. The only
28783 difference is how to access the actual articles. News articles are
28784 commonly fetched via the protocol @acronym{NNTP}, whereas mail
28785 messages could be read from a file on the local disk. The internal
28786 architecture of Gnus thus comprises a ``front end'' and a number of
28787 ``back ends''. Internally, when you enter a group (by hitting
28788 @key{RET}, say), you thereby invoke a function in the front end in
28789 Gnus. The front end then ``talks'' to a back end and says things like
28790 ``Give me the list of articles in the foo group'' or ``Show me article
28793 So a back end mainly defines either a protocol (the @code{nntp} back
28794 end accesses news via @acronym{NNTP}, the @code{nnimap} back end
28795 accesses mail via @acronym{IMAP}) or a file format and directory
28796 layout (the @code{nnspool} back end accesses news via the common
28797 ``spool directory'' format, the @code{nnml} back end access mail via a
28798 file format and directory layout that's quite similar).
28800 Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this is all
28801 done by the back ends. A back end is a collection of functions to
28802 access the articles.
28804 However, sometimes the term ``back end'' is also used where ``server''
28805 would have been more appropriate. And then there is the term ``select
28806 method'' which can mean either. The Gnus terminology can be quite
28811 Gnus will always use one method (and back end) as the @dfn{native}, or
28812 default, way of getting news.
28816 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same time.
28817 These are groups that use non-native non-secondary back ends for getting
28822 Secondary back ends are somewhere half-way between being native and being
28823 foreign, but they mostly act like they are native.
28827 A message that has been posted as news.
28830 @cindex mail message
28831 A message that has been mailed.
28835 A mail message or news article
28839 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.) is
28844 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
28849 A line from the head of an article.
28853 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
28854 collection of @acronym{NOV} lines.
28856 @item @acronym{NOV}
28857 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
28858 @acronym{NOV} stands for News OverView, which is a type of news server
28859 header which provide datas containing the condensed header information
28860 of articles. They are produced by the server itself; in the @code{nntp}
28861 back end Gnus uses the ones that the @acronym{NNTP} server makes, but
28862 Gnus makes them by itself for some backends (in particular, @code{nnml}).
28864 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the back end for the headers of all
28865 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
28866 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
28867 normal @sc{head} format.
28869 The @acronym{NOV} data consist of one or more text lines (@pxref{Text
28870 Lines, ,Motion by Text Lines, elisp, The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual})
28871 where each line has the header information of one article. The header
28872 information is a tab-separated series of the header's contents including
28873 an article number, a subject, an author, a date, a message-id,
28876 Those data enable Gnus to generate summary lines quickly. However, if
28877 the server does not support @acronym{NOV} or you disable it purposely or
28878 for some reason, Gnus will try to generate the header information by
28879 parsing each article's headers one by one. It will take time.
28880 Therefore, it is not usually a good idea to set nn*-nov-is-evil
28881 (@pxref{Slow/Expensive Connection}) to a non-@code{nil} value unless you
28882 know that the server makes wrong @acronym{NOV} data.
28886 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
28887 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
28888 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
28889 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
28890 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
28891 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
28893 @item killed groups
28894 @cindex killed groups
28895 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
28896 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
28898 @item zombie groups
28899 @cindex zombie groups
28900 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
28903 @cindex active file
28904 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
28905 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
28906 is rather large, as you might surmise.
28909 @cindex bogus groups
28910 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
28911 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
28912 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
28915 @cindex activating groups
28916 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
28917 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
28918 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
28922 News servers store their articles locally in one fashion or other.
28923 One old-fashioned storage method is to have just one file per
28924 article. That's called a ``traditional spool''.
28928 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
28930 @item select method
28931 @cindex select method
28932 A structure that specifies the back end, the server and the virtual
28935 @item virtual server
28936 @cindex virtual server
28937 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
28938 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
28939 whole is a virtual server.
28943 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
28944 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
28947 @item ephemeral groups
28948 @cindex ephemeral groups
28949 @cindex temporary groups
28950 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
28951 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
28952 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
28955 @cindex solid groups
28956 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
28957 group buffer are solid groups.
28959 @item sparse articles
28960 @cindex sparse articles
28961 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
28962 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
28966 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
28967 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
28971 @cindex thread root
28972 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
28973 articles in the thread.
28977 An article that has responses.
28981 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
28985 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
28986 specified by RFC 1153.
28989 @cindex splitting, terminology
28990 @cindex mail sorting
28991 @cindex mail filtering (splitting)
28992 The action of sorting your emails according to certain rules. Sometimes
28993 incorrectly called mail filtering.
28999 @node Customization
29000 @section Customization
29001 @cindex general customization
29003 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
29004 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
29005 for some quite common situations.
29008 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
29009 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
29010 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
29011 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
29015 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
29016 @subsection Slow/Expensive Connection
29018 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
29019 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
29020 Gnus has to get from the server.
29024 @item gnus-read-active-file
29025 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
29026 entire active file from the server. This file is often very large. You
29027 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
29028 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
29029 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
29031 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
29032 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
29033 Usually this one must @emph{always} be @code{nil} (which is the
29034 default). If, for example, you wish to not use @acronym{NOV}
29035 (@pxref{Terminology}) with the @code{nntp} back end (@pxref{Crosspost
29036 Handling}), set @code{nntp-nov-is-evil} to a non-@code{nil} value
29037 instead of setting this. But you normally do not need to set
29038 @code{nntp-nov-is-evil} since Gnus by itself will detect whether the
29039 @acronym{NNTP} server supports @acronym{NOV}. Anyway, grabbing article
29040 headers from the @acronym{NNTP} server will not be very fast if you tell
29041 Gnus not to use @acronym{NOV}.
29043 As the variables for the other back ends, there are
29044 @code{nndiary-nov-is-evil}, @code{nndir-nov-is-evil},
29045 @code{nnfolder-nov-is-evil}, @code{nnimap-nov-is-evil},
29046 @code{nnml-nov-is-evil}, and @code{nnspool-nov-is-evil}. Note that a
29047 non-@code{nil} value for @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} overrides all those
29052 @node Slow Terminal Connection
29053 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
29055 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
29056 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
29057 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
29061 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
29062 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
29063 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
29064 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
29065 horizontal and vertical recentering.
29067 @item gnus-visible-headers
29068 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
29069 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
29070 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
29071 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
29073 Use the following to enable all the available hiding features:
29075 (setq gnus-treat-hide-headers 'head
29076 gnus-treat-hide-signature t
29077 gnus-treat-hide-citation t)
29080 @item gnus-use-full-window
29081 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
29082 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
29083 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
29084 want to read them anyway.
29086 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
29087 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
29091 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
29092 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
29093 lines, which might save some time.
29097 @node Little Disk Space
29098 @subsection Little Disk Space
29101 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
29102 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
29106 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
29107 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
29108 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
29109 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
29112 @item gnus-read-newsrc-file
29113 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never read @file{.newsrc}---it will
29114 only read @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
29115 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
29118 @item gnus-save-killed-list
29119 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
29120 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
29121 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
29122 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
29128 @subsection Slow Machine
29129 @cindex slow machine
29131 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
29132 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
29134 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
29135 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
29137 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
29138 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
29139 summary buffer faster. Also @pxref{Slow/Expensive Connection}.
29143 @node Troubleshooting
29144 @section Troubleshooting
29145 @cindex troubleshooting
29147 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
29155 Make sure your computer is switched on.
29158 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
29159 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
29163 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
29165 @samp{No Gnus v0.10} @c Adjust ../Makefile.in if you change this line!
29167 you have the right files loaded. Otherwise you have some old @file{.el}
29168 files lying around. Delete these.
29171 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a
29172 @acronym{FAQ} and a how-to.
29175 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
29176 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
29177 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
29178 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
29179 something like that.
29182 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
29185 @cindex reporting bugs
29187 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
29189 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
29190 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
29191 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
29192 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
29194 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
29195 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
29196 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
29197 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
29200 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
29201 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
29202 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
29203 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
29204 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
29205 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
29207 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
29208 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
29209 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
29213 If you would like to contribute a patch to fix bugs or make
29214 improvements, please produce the patch using @samp{diff -u}.
29217 If you want to debug your problem further before reporting, possibly
29218 in order to solve the problem yourself and send a patch, you can use
29219 edebug. Debugging Lisp code is documented in the Elisp manual
29220 (@pxref{Debugging, , Debugging Lisp Programs, elisp, The GNU Emacs
29221 Lisp Reference Manual}). To get you started with edebug, consider if
29222 you discover some weird behavior when pressing @kbd{c}, the first
29223 step is to do @kbd{C-h k c} and click on the hyperlink (Emacs only) in
29224 the documentation buffer that leads you to the function definition,
29225 then press @kbd{M-x edebug-defun RET} with point inside that function,
29226 return to Gnus and press @kbd{c} to invoke the code. You will be
29227 placed in the lisp buffer and can single step using @kbd{SPC} and
29228 evaluate expressions using @kbd{M-:} or inspect variables using
29229 @kbd{C-h v}, abort execution with @kbd{q}, and resume execution with
29230 @kbd{c} or @kbd{g}.
29235 Sometimes, a problem do not directly generate an elisp error but
29236 manifests itself by causing Gnus to be very slow. In these cases, you
29237 can use @kbd{M-x toggle-debug-on-quit} and press @kbd{C-g} when things are
29238 slow, and then try to analyze the backtrace (repeating the procedure
29239 helps isolating the real problem areas).
29241 A fancier approach is to use the elisp profiler, ELP. The profiler is
29242 (or should be) fully documented elsewhere, but to get you started
29243 there are a few steps that need to be followed. First, instrument the
29244 part of Gnus you are interested in for profiling, e.g. @kbd{M-x
29245 elp-instrument-package RET gnus} or @kbd{M-x elp-instrument-package
29246 RET message}. Then perform the operation that is slow and press
29247 @kbd{M-x elp-results}. You will then see which operations that takes
29248 time, and can debug them further. If the entire operation takes much
29249 longer than the time spent in the slowest function in the profiler
29250 output, you probably profiled the wrong part of Gnus. To reset
29251 profiling statistics, use @kbd{M-x elp-reset-all}. @kbd{M-x
29252 elp-restore-all} is supposed to remove profiling, but given the
29253 complexities and dynamic code generation in Gnus, it might not always
29256 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
29257 @cindex ding mailing list
29258 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
29259 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful. You can also ask on
29260 @email{ding@@gnus.org, the ding mailing list}. Write to
29261 @email{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
29265 @node Gnus Reference Guide
29266 @section Gnus Reference Guide
29268 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
29269 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
29270 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
29271 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
29274 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
29275 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
29276 back ends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
29277 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
29278 and general methods of operation.
29281 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
29282 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
29283 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
29284 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
29285 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
29286 * Group Info:: The group info format.
29287 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
29288 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
29289 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
29293 @node Gnus Utility Functions
29294 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
29295 @cindex Gnus utility functions
29296 @cindex utility functions
29298 @cindex internal variables
29300 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
29301 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
29302 Below is a list of the most common ones.
29306 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
29307 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
29308 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
29310 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
29311 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
29312 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
29314 @item gnus-group-real-name
29315 @findex gnus-group-real-name
29316 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
29319 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
29320 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
29321 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
29322 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
29324 @item gnus-get-info
29325 @findex gnus-get-info
29326 Returns the group info list for @var{group}.
29328 @item gnus-group-unread
29329 @findex gnus-group-unread
29330 The number of unread articles in @var{group}, or @code{t} if that is
29334 @findex gnus-active
29335 The active entry for @var{group}.
29337 @item gnus-set-active
29338 @findex gnus-set-active
29339 Set the active entry for @var{group}.
29341 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
29342 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
29343 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
29346 @item gnus-continuum-version
29347 @findex gnus-continuum-version
29348 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
29349 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
29352 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
29353 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
29354 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
29356 @item gnus-news-group-p
29357 @findex gnus-news-group-p
29358 Says whether @var{group} came from a news back end.
29360 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
29361 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
29362 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
29364 @item gnus-server-to-method
29365 @findex gnus-server-to-method
29366 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
29368 @item gnus-server-equal
29369 @findex gnus-server-equal
29370 Says whether two virtual servers are equal.
29372 @item gnus-group-native-p
29373 @findex gnus-group-native-p
29374 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
29376 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
29377 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
29378 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
29380 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
29381 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
29382 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
29384 @item gnus-group-find-parameter
29385 @findex gnus-group-find-parameter
29386 Returns the parameter list of @var{group}. If given a second parameter,
29387 returns the value of that parameter for @var{group}.
29389 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
29390 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
29391 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
29393 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
29394 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
29395 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
29397 @item gnus-check-backend-function
29398 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
29399 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the back end
29400 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
29403 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
29407 @item gnus-read-method
29408 @findex gnus-read-method
29409 Prompts the user for a select method.
29414 @node Back End Interface
29415 @subsection Back End Interface
29417 Gnus doesn't know anything about @acronym{NNTP}, spools, mail or virtual
29418 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
29419 server is a @dfn{back end} and some @dfn{back end variables}. As examples
29420 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
29421 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
29422 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
29424 When Gnus asks for information from a back end---say @code{nntp}---on
29425 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
29426 function parameters. (If not, the back end should use the ``current''
29427 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
29428 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
29429 been opened, the function should fail.
29431 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
29432 name. Take this example:
29436 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
29437 (nntp-port-number 4324))
29440 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
29441 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
29443 The back ends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
29444 The standard back ends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
29445 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
29447 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
29448 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
29449 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
29451 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
29452 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
29453 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
29454 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
29455 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
29456 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
29459 Some back ends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} back ends, and
29460 some might be said not to be. The latter are back ends that generally
29461 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server''
29462 ---they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
29465 Gnus identifies each message by way of group name and article number. A
29466 few remarks about these article numbers might be useful. First of all,
29467 the numbers are positive integers. Secondly, it is normally not
29468 possible for later articles to ``re-use'' older article numbers without
29469 confusing Gnus. That is, if a group has ever contained a message
29470 numbered 42, then no other message may get that number, or Gnus will get
29471 mightily confused.@footnote{See the function
29472 @code{nnchoke-request-update-info}, @ref{Optional Back End Functions}.}
29473 Third, article numbers must be assigned in order of arrival in the
29474 group; this is not necessarily the same as the date of the message.
29476 The previous paragraph already mentions all the ``hard'' restrictions that
29477 article numbers must fulfill. But it seems that it might be useful to
29478 assign @emph{consecutive} article numbers, for Gnus gets quite confused
29479 if there are holes in the article numbering sequence. However, due to
29480 the ``no-reuse'' restriction, holes cannot be avoided altogether. It's
29481 also useful for the article numbers to start at 1 to avoid running out
29482 of numbers as long as possible.
29484 Note that by convention, back ends are named @code{nnsomething}, but
29485 Gnus also comes with some @code{nnnotbackends}, such as
29486 @file{nnheader.el}, @file{nnmail.el} and @file{nnoo.el}.
29488 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary back end
29491 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
29494 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
29495 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
29496 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
29497 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
29498 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
29499 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
29503 @node Required Back End Functions
29504 @subsubsection Required Back End Functions
29508 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
29510 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
29511 @code{Message-ID}s. Current back ends do not fully support either---only
29512 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most back ends do not support
29513 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
29515 The result data should either be HEADs or @acronym{NOV} lines, and the result
29516 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
29517 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
29518 of HEADs and @acronym{NOV} lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
29520 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching ``extra
29521 headers'', in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
29522 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
29523 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
29524 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the back end finds it
29525 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
29526 number, do maximum fetches.
29528 Here's an example HEAD:
29531 221 1056 Article retrieved.
29532 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
29533 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
29534 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
29535 Subject: Re: Something very droll
29536 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
29537 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
29539 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
29540 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
29541 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
29545 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
29546 these in the data buffer.
29548 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
29552 head = error / valid-head
29553 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
29554 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
29555 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
29556 header = <text> eol
29560 (The version of BNF used here is the one used in RFC822.)
29562 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
29563 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
29567 nov-buffer = *nov-line
29568 nov-line = field 7*8[ <TAB> field ] eol
29569 field = <text except TAB>
29572 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
29576 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
29578 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
29579 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
29581 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The back end
29582 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
29583 server. In fact, it should do so.
29585 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
29586 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
29589 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
29591 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
29592 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
29595 There should be no data returned.
29598 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
29600 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the back end
29601 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that back end
29602 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
29603 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
29605 There should be no data returned.
29608 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
29610 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
29611 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
29612 non-@code{nil} value. This function should under no circumstances
29613 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
29615 There should be no data returned.
29618 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
29620 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
29622 There should be no data returned.
29625 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
29627 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
29628 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
29629 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
29630 it would be nice if that were possible.
29632 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
29633 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
29634 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
29635 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
29636 into its article buffer.
29638 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
29639 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
29640 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
29641 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
29642 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
29643 on successful article retrieval.
29646 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST INFO)
29648 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
29649 making @var{group} the current group.
29651 If @var{fast}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
29654 If @var{info}, it allows the backend to update the group info
29657 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
29660 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
29663 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
29664 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
29665 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
29666 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
29667 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
29668 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
29669 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
29670 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader. If the group contains no
29671 articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1 and the
29675 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
29676 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
29677 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
29681 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
29683 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
29684 a no-op on most back ends.
29686 There should be no data returned.
29689 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
29691 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
29694 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
29697 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
29698 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
29701 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
29702 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag. If the group
29703 contains no articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1
29704 and the highest as 0.
29707 active-file = *active-line
29708 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
29710 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
29713 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
29714 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
29715 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
29718 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
29720 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
29721 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
29722 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
29723 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
29724 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
29725 clear if the posting could not be completed.
29727 There should be no result data from this function.
29732 @node Optional Back End Functions
29733 @subsubsection Optional Back End Functions
29737 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
29739 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
29740 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
29741 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
29743 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
29744 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
29745 former is in the same format as the data from
29746 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
29747 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
29750 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
29754 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
29756 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the back end for
29757 alterations. This comes in handy if the back end really carries all
29758 the information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
29759 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
29760 should return a non-@code{nil} value (exceptionally,
29761 @code{nntp-request-update-info} always returns @code{nil} not to waste
29762 the network resources).
29764 There should be no result data from this function.
29767 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
29769 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
29770 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
29771 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
29772 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
29773 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
29774 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
29775 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
29776 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
29778 There should be no result data from this function.
29781 @item (nnchoke-request-set-mark GROUP ACTION &optional SERVER)
29783 Set/remove/add marks on articles. Normally Gnus handles the article
29784 marks (such as read, ticked, expired etc) internally, and store them in
29785 @file{~/.newsrc.eld}. Some back ends (such as @acronym{IMAP}) however carry
29786 all information about the articles on the server, so Gnus need to
29787 propagate the mark information to the server.
29789 @var{action} is a list of mark setting requests, having this format:
29792 (RANGE ACTION MARK)
29795 @var{range} is a range of articles you wish to update marks on.
29796 @var{action} is @code{add} or @code{del}, used to add marks or remove
29797 marks (preserving all marks not mentioned). @var{mark} is a list of
29798 marks; where each mark is a symbol. Currently used marks are
29799 @code{read}, @code{tick}, @code{reply}, @code{expire}, @code{killed},
29800 @code{dormant}, @code{save}, @code{download}, @code{unsend},
29801 @code{forward} and @code{recent}, but your back end should, if
29802 possible, not limit itself to these.
29804 Given contradictory actions, the last action in the list should be the
29805 effective one. That is, if your action contains a request to add the
29806 @code{tick} mark on article 1 and, later in the list, a request to
29807 remove the mark on the same article, the mark should in fact be removed.
29809 An example action list:
29812 (((5 12 30) 'del '(tick))
29813 ((10 . 90) 'add '(read expire))
29814 ((92 94) 'del '(read)))
29817 The function should return a range of articles it wasn't able to set the
29818 mark on (currently not used for anything).
29820 There should be no result data from this function.
29822 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
29824 If the user tries to set a mark that the back end doesn't like, this
29825 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
29826 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
29827 @var{mark}. If the back end doesn't care, it must return the original
29828 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
29830 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
29831 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
29832 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
29835 There should be no result data from this function.
29838 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
29840 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
29841 request that the back end check for incoming articles, in one way or
29842 another. A mail back end will typically read the spool file or query
29843 the @acronym{POP} server when this function is invoked. The
29844 @var{group} doesn't have to be heeded---if the back end decides that
29845 it is too much work just scanning for a single group, it may do a
29846 total scan of all groups. It would be nice, however, to keep things
29847 local if that's practical.
29849 There should be no result data from this function.
29852 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
29854 The result data from this function should be a description of
29858 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
29860 description = <text>
29863 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
29865 The result data from this function should be the description of all
29866 groups available on the server.
29869 description-buffer = *description-line
29873 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
29875 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
29876 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date format
29877 (i.e., the date format used in mail and news headers, and returned by
29878 the function @code{message-make-date} by default). The data should be
29879 in the active buffer format.
29881 It is okay for this function to return ``too many'' groups; some back ends
29882 might find it cheaper to return the full list of groups, rather than
29883 just the new groups. But don't do this for back ends with many groups.
29884 Normally, if the user creates the groups herself, there won't be too
29885 many groups, so @code{nnml} and the like are probably safe. But for
29886 back ends like @code{nntp}, where the groups have been created by the
29887 server, it is quite likely that there can be many groups.
29890 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
29892 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
29894 There should be no return data.
29897 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
29899 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
29900 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
29901 numbers.) It is left up to the back end to decide how old articles
29902 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
29903 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
29906 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
29909 There should be no result data returned.
29912 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM &optional LAST)
29914 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
29915 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
29917 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
29918 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
29919 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
29920 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
29921 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
29922 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
29924 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
29925 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
29928 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
29929 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
29931 There should be no data returned.
29934 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
29936 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
29937 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
29938 this function in short order.
29940 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
29941 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
29943 The group should exist before the back end is asked to accept the
29944 article for that group.
29946 There should be no data returned.
29949 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
29951 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
29952 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
29954 There should be no data returned.
29957 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
29959 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
29960 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
29961 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
29963 There should be no data returned.
29966 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
29968 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
29969 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
29971 There should be no data returned.
29976 @node Error Messaging
29977 @subsubsection Error Messaging
29979 @findex nnheader-report
29980 @findex nnheader-get-report
29981 The back ends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
29982 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
29983 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the back end
29984 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
29985 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
29986 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
29989 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
29991 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
29994 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
29995 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
29996 recently reported message for the back end in question. This function
29997 takes one argument---the server symbol.
29999 Internally, these functions access @var{back-end}@code{-status-string},
30000 so the @code{nnchoke} back end will have its error message stored in
30001 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
30004 @node Writing New Back Ends
30005 @subsubsection Writing New Back Ends
30007 Many back ends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
30008 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
30009 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
30010 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
30011 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
30014 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
30015 back ends when writing new back ends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
30016 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
30018 All the back ends declare their public variables and functions by using a
30019 package called @code{nnoo}.
30021 To inherit functions from other back ends (and allow other back ends to
30022 inherit functions from the current back end), you should use the
30028 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
30029 parameters. For instance:
30032 (nnoo-declare nndir
30036 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
30037 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
30040 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
30041 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
30042 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
30044 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
30045 variables in the parent back ends to map the variable to when executing
30046 a function in those back ends.
30049 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
30050 "Where nndir will look for groups."
30051 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
30054 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
30055 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
30056 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
30058 @item nnoo-define-basics
30059 This macro defines some common functions that almost all back ends should
30063 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
30067 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
30068 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
30069 function as being public so that other back ends can inherit it.
30071 @item nnoo-map-functions
30072 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current back end to
30073 functions from the parent back ends.
30076 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
30077 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
30078 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
30081 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
30082 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
30083 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
30084 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
30087 This macro allows importing functions from back ends. It should be the
30088 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
30089 haven't already been defined.
30095 nnmh-request-newgroups)
30099 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
30100 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
30101 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
30106 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} back end.
30109 ;;; @r{nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus}
30110 ;; @r{Copyright (C) 1995,1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.}
30114 (require 'nnheader)
30118 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
30120 (nnoo-declare nndir
30123 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
30124 "Where nndir will look for groups."
30125 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
30127 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
30128 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
30131 (defvoo nndir-current-group ""
30133 nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
30134 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
30135 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
30137 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
30138 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
30140 ;;; @r{Interface functions.}
30142 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
30144 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
30145 (setq nndir-directory
30146 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
30148 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
30149 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
30150 (push `(nndir-current-group
30151 ,(file-name-nondirectory
30152 (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
30154 (push `(nndir-top-directory
30155 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
30157 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
30159 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
30160 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
30161 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
30162 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
30163 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
30167 nnmh-status-message
30169 nnmh-request-newgroups))
30175 @node Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
30176 @subsubsection Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
30178 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
30179 @findex gnus-declare-backend
30180 Having Gnus start using your new back end is rather easy---you just
30181 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
30182 enter the back end into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
30184 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the back end name and
30185 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
30190 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
30193 The above line would then go in the @file{nnchoke.el} file.
30195 The abilities can be:
30199 This is a mailish back end---followups should (probably) go via mail.
30201 This is a newsish back end---followups should (probably) go via news.
30203 This back end supports both mail and news.
30205 This is neither a post nor mail back end---it's something completely
30208 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
30209 articles and groups.
30211 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
30212 true for almost all back ends.
30213 @item prompt-address
30214 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
30215 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for back ends like
30216 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
30220 @node Mail-like Back Ends
30221 @subsubsection Mail-like Back Ends
30223 One of the things that separate the mail back ends from the rest of the
30224 back ends is the heavy dependence by most of the mail back ends on
30225 common functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the
30226 definition of @code{nnml-request-scan}:
30229 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
30230 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
30231 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
30234 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
30235 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
30238 This function takes four parameters.
30242 This should be a symbol to designate which back end is responsible for
30245 @item exit-function
30246 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
30248 @item temp-directory
30249 Where the temporary files should be stored.
30252 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
30253 performed for one group only.
30256 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{back-end}@code{-save-mail} to
30257 save each article. @var{back-end}@code{-active-number} will be called to
30258 find the article number assigned to this article.
30260 The function also uses the following variables:
30261 @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
30262 this back end); and @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} and
30263 @var{back-end}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
30264 @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
30268 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
30269 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
30273 @node Score File Syntax
30274 @subsection Score File Syntax
30276 Score files are meant to be easily parseable, but yet extremely
30277 mallable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
30278 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
30280 Here's a typical score file:
30284 ("win95" -10000 nil s)
30291 BNF definition of a score file:
30294 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
30295 element = rule / atom
30296 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
30297 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
30298 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
30299 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
30301 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
30302 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
30303 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
30304 date-header = "date"
30305 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
30306 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
30307 score = "nil" / <integer>
30308 date = "nil" / <natural number>
30309 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
30310 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
30311 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
30312 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
30313 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
30314 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
30315 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
30316 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
30317 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
30318 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
30319 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
30320 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
30321 exclude-files / read-only / touched
30322 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
30323 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
30324 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
30325 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
30326 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
30327 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
30328 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
30329 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
30330 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
30331 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
30332 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
30333 eval = "eval" space <form>
30334 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
30337 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
30340 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
30341 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
30342 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
30343 one looong line, then that's ok.
30345 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
30346 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
30350 @subsection Headers
30352 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
30353 corresponds to the @acronym{NOV} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
30354 almost suspect that the author looked at the @acronym{NOV} specification and
30355 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
30357 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
30358 RFC 1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
30359 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
30360 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
30361 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
30362 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
30363 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
30365 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
30366 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
30367 @code{xref}, and @code{extra}. There are macros for accessing and
30368 setting these slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
30369 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
30371 All these slots contain strings, except the @code{extra} slot, which
30372 contains an alist of header/value pairs (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
30378 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
30379 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
30381 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
30382 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
30383 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
30384 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
30386 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
30390 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
30393 is transformed into
30396 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
30399 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
30400 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
30403 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
30406 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
30407 is slightly tricky:
30410 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
30416 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
30419 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
30425 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
30432 and is equal to the previous range.
30434 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
30435 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
30436 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
30440 range = simple-range / normal-range
30441 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
30442 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
30443 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
30444 number *[ " " contents ]
30447 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
30448 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
30449 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
30450 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
30451 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
30456 @subsection Group Info
30458 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
30459 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
30460 describes the group.
30462 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
30463 second is a more complex one:
30466 ("no.group" 5 ((1 . 54324)))
30468 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
30469 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
30471 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
30474 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
30475 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
30476 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
30477 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
30478 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
30479 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
30480 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
30481 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
30482 this section is about.
30484 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
30485 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
30486 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
30488 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
30491 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
30492 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
30493 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
30494 group = quote <string> quote
30495 ralevel = rank / level
30496 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
30497 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
30498 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
30500 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
30501 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
30502 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
30503 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
30506 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
30507 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
30510 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
30511 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
30514 @item gnus-info-group
30515 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
30516 @findex gnus-info-group
30517 @findex gnus-info-set-group
30518 Get/set the group name.
30520 @item gnus-info-rank
30521 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
30522 @findex gnus-info-rank
30523 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
30524 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
30526 @item gnus-info-level
30527 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
30528 @findex gnus-info-level
30529 @findex gnus-info-set-level
30530 Get/set the group level.
30532 @item gnus-info-score
30533 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
30534 @findex gnus-info-score
30535 @findex gnus-info-set-score
30536 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
30538 @item gnus-info-read
30539 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
30540 @findex gnus-info-read
30541 @findex gnus-info-set-read
30542 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
30544 @item gnus-info-marks
30545 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
30546 @findex gnus-info-marks
30547 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
30548 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
30550 @item gnus-info-method
30551 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
30552 @findex gnus-info-method
30553 @findex gnus-info-set-method
30554 Get/set the group select method.
30556 @item gnus-info-params
30557 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
30558 @findex gnus-info-params
30559 @findex gnus-info-set-params
30560 Get/set the group parameters.
30563 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
30564 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
30566 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
30567 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
30568 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
30569 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
30572 @node Extended Interactive
30573 @subsection Extended Interactive
30574 @cindex interactive
30575 @findex gnus-interactive
30577 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
30578 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
30579 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
30582 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
30583 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
30588 The best thing to do would have been to implement
30589 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
30590 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
30591 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
30592 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
30593 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
30594 @code{interactive}.
30596 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
30601 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
30602 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
30606 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
30607 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
30608 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
30611 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
30615 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
30619 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
30625 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
30626 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
30630 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
30631 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
30632 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
30634 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
30635 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
30636 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
30637 Gnus, that's very useful.
30639 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
30640 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
30641 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
30642 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
30643 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
30644 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
30645 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
30646 following function:
30649 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
30653 (,function ,@@args))
30657 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
30658 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
30659 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
30662 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
30663 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
30664 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
30666 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
30667 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
30668 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
30671 @node Various File Formats
30672 @subsection Various File Formats
30675 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
30676 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
30680 @node Active File Format
30681 @subsubsection Active File Format
30683 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
30684 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
30687 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
30690 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
30691 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
30692 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
30693 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
30694 no.general 1000 900 y
30697 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
30700 active = *group-line
30701 group-line = group spc high-number spc low-number spc flag <NEWLINE>
30702 group = <non-white-space string>
30704 high-number = <non-negative integer>
30705 low-number = <positive integer>
30706 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
30709 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
30710 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
30713 @node Newsgroups File Format
30714 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
30716 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
30717 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
30718 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
30721 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
30722 Here's the definition:
30726 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
30727 group = <non-white-space string>
30729 description = <string>
30734 @node Emacs for Heathens
30735 @section Emacs for Heathens
30737 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
30738 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
30739 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{C-M-a}'', ``kill the
30740 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
30741 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
30742 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
30743 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
30747 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
30748 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
30753 @subsection Keystrokes
30757 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
30760 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
30763 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
30764 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
30765 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
30766 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
30767 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
30768 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
30770 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
30771 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
30772 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
30773 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
30774 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
30775 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
30776 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
30778 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
30779 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{C-M-m}
30780 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
30781 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
30782 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
30783 ``Press @kbd{C-M-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
30784 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
30786 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
30787 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
30788 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
30789 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
30790 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
30796 @subsection Emacs Lisp
30798 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
30799 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
30800 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
30801 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
30803 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
30804 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
30805 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
30806 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
30807 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
30808 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
30809 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{~/.gnus.el}
30810 file to customize Gnus. (You can also use the @file{~/.emacs} file, but
30811 in order to set things of Gnus up, it is much better to use the
30812 @file{~/.gnus.el} file, @xref{Startup Files}.)
30814 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
30815 write the following:
30818 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
30821 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
30822 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
30823 you can go and fill your @file{~/.gnus.el} file with lots of these to
30824 change how Gnus works.
30826 If you have put that thing in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file, it will be
30827 read and @code{eval}ed (which is Lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
30828 start Gnus. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
30829 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
30830 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
30832 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
30833 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
30834 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
30838 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
30842 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
30845 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server} to
30846 @samp{nntp.ifi.uio.no}'', that means:
30849 (setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
30852 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
30853 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
30856 @include gnus-faq.texi
30858 @node GNU Free Documentation License
30859 @chapter GNU Free Documentation License
30860 @include doclicense.texi
30878 @c Local Variables:
30880 @c coding: iso-8859-1