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335 * Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
340 @setchapternewpage odd
347 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
349 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
355 @top The Gnus Newsreader
359 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using Gnus. The news
360 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@acronym{NNTP}, local
361 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
364 @c Adjust ../Makefile.in if you change the following line:
365 This manual corresponds to No Gnus v0.7.
376 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
377 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
379 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
380 being accused of plagiarism:
382 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
383 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
384 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you
385 can even read news with it!
387 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
388 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
389 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend Gnus to make it behave
390 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
391 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
397 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
398 * Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
399 * Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
400 * Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
401 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
402 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
403 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
404 * Various:: General purpose settings.
405 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
406 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, @acronym{FAQ}, History, Internals.
407 * GNU Free Documentation License:: The license for this documentation.
408 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
409 * Key Index:: Key Index.
411 Other related manuals
413 * Message:(message). Composing messages.
414 * Emacs-MIME:(emacs-mime). Composing messages; @acronym{MIME}-specific parts.
415 * Sieve:(sieve). Managing Sieve scripts in Emacs.
416 * PGG:(pgg). @acronym{PGP/MIME} with Gnus.
417 * SASL:(sasl). @acronym{SASL} authentication in Emacs.
420 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
424 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
425 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
426 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
427 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
428 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
429 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
430 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
431 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
432 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
433 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
434 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
438 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
439 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
440 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
444 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
445 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
446 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
447 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
448 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
449 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
450 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
451 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
452 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
453 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
454 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
455 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
456 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
457 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
458 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
459 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
460 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
464 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
465 * Group Mode Line Specification:: The group buffer mode line.
466 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
470 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
471 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
472 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
473 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
474 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
478 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
479 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
480 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
481 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
482 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
486 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
487 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
488 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
489 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
490 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
491 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
492 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
493 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
494 * Threading:: How threads are made.
495 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
496 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
497 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
498 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
499 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
500 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
501 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
502 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
503 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
504 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
505 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
506 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
507 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
508 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
509 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
510 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
511 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
512 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
513 or reselecting the current group.
514 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
515 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
516 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
517 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
519 Summary Buffer Format
521 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
522 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
523 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
524 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
528 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
529 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
531 Reply, Followup and Post
533 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
534 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
535 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
536 * Canceling and Superseding::
540 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
541 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
542 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
543 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
544 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
545 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
549 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
550 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
552 Customizing Threading
554 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
555 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
556 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
557 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
561 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
562 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
563 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
564 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
565 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
566 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
570 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
571 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
572 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
576 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
577 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
578 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
579 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
580 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
581 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
582 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
583 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
584 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
585 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
586 * Article Miscellanea:: Various other stuff.
588 Alternative Approaches
590 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
591 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
593 Various Summary Stuff
595 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
596 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
597 * Summary Generation Commands::
598 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
602 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
603 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @acronym{MIME} before reading them.
604 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
605 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
606 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
610 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
611 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
612 * POP before SMTP:: You cannot send a mail unless you read a mail.
613 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
614 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
615 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
616 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
617 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
618 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
622 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
623 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
624 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
625 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
626 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @acronym{IMAP} client.
627 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
628 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
629 * Email Based Diary:: Using mails to manage diary events in Gnus.
630 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
634 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
635 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
636 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
637 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
638 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
639 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
640 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
644 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @acronym{NNTP} server.
645 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
649 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
650 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
651 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
652 * NNTP marks:: Storing marks for @acronym{NNTP} servers.
656 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
657 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
658 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
659 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
660 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
661 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
662 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
663 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
664 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
665 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
666 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
667 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
668 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
672 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
673 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
674 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
676 Choosing a Mail Back End
678 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
679 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the Rmail Babyl format.
680 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
681 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
682 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
683 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
684 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
689 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
690 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
691 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
692 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
693 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
694 * Customizing W3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/W3 from Gnus.
698 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
699 * Expiring in IMAP:: Expiring mail with nnimap.
700 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
701 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a ``compress mailbox'' button.
702 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use @acronym{IMAP} namespace in Gnus.
703 * Debugging IMAP:: What to do when things don't work.
707 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
708 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
709 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
710 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
711 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
715 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
719 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
720 * SOUP Groups:: A back end for reading @sc{soup} packets.
721 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
725 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
726 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
730 * The NNDiary Back End:: Basic setup and usage.
731 * The Gnus Diary Library:: Utility toolkit on top of nndiary.
732 * Sending or Not Sending:: A final note on sending diary messages.
736 * Diary Messages:: What makes a message valid for nndiary.
737 * Running NNDiary:: NNDiary has two modes of operation.
738 * Customizing NNDiary:: Bells and whistles.
740 The Gnus Diary Library
742 * Diary Summary Line Format:: A nicer summary buffer line format.
743 * Diary Articles Sorting:: A nicer way to sort messages.
744 * Diary Headers Generation:: Not doing it manually.
745 * Diary Group Parameters:: Not handling them manually.
749 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
750 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
751 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
752 * Agent Visuals:: Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
753 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
754 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
755 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
756 * Agent and flags:: How the Agent maintains flags.
757 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with @acronym{IMAP}.
758 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
759 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
760 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
761 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
762 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
766 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
767 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
768 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
772 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
773 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
774 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
778 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
779 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
780 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
781 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
782 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
783 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
784 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
785 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
786 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
787 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
788 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
789 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
790 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
791 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
792 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
793 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
797 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
798 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
799 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
803 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
804 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
805 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
806 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
807 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
808 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
809 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
810 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
811 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
812 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
813 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
814 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
815 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
816 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
817 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
818 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
819 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
820 * Thwarting Email Spam:: Simple ways to avoid unsolicited commercial email.
821 * Spam Package:: A package for filtering and processing spam.
822 * Other modes:: Interaction with other modes.
823 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
827 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
828 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
829 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
830 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
831 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
832 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
833 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
834 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
838 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
839 * Face:: Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
840 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were
842 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
843 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
847 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
848 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
849 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
850 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
854 * Spam Package Introduction::
855 * Filtering Incoming Mail::
856 * Detecting Spam in Groups::
857 * Spam and Ham Processors::
858 * Spam Package Configuration Examples::
860 * Extending the Spam package::
861 * Spam Statistics Package::
863 Spam Statistics Package
865 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
866 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
867 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
871 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
872 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
873 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
874 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
875 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
876 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
877 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
878 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
879 * Frequently Asked Questions:: The Gnus FAQ
883 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
884 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
885 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
886 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
887 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
888 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
889 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
890 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
891 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
895 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
896 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
897 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
898 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
899 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
900 * Oort Gnus:: It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10/5.11.
901 * No Gnus:: Very punny.
905 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
906 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
907 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
908 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
912 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
913 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
914 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
915 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
916 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
917 * Group Info:: The group info format.
918 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
919 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
920 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
924 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
925 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
926 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
927 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
928 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
929 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
933 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
934 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
938 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
939 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
945 @chapter Starting Gnus
948 If you are haven't used Emacs much before using Gnus, read @ref{Emacs
953 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus
954 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
955 your Emacs. If not, you should customize the variable
956 @code{gnus-select-method} as described in @ref{Finding the News}. For a
957 minimal setup for posting should also customize the variables
958 @code{user-full-name} and @code{user-mail-address}.
960 @findex gnus-other-frame
961 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
962 If you want to start Gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
963 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
965 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
966 variables in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file. This file is similar to
967 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when Gnus starts.
969 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
970 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
973 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
974 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
975 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
976 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
977 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
978 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
979 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
980 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
981 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
982 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
986 @node Finding the News
987 @section Finding the News
990 @vindex gnus-select-method
992 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where Gnus should look for
993 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
994 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
995 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
998 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @acronym{NNTP} server is where
999 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
1002 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
1005 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
1008 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
1011 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
1012 certainly be much faster. But do not use the local spool if your
1013 server is running Leafnode (which is a simple, standalone private news
1014 server); in this case, use @code{(nntp "localhost")}.
1016 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
1018 @cindex @acronym{NNTP} server
1019 If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
1020 @env{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
1021 Gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
1022 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter.
1023 If that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs
1024 as an @acronym{NNTP} server. That's a long shot, though.
1026 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1027 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
1028 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
1029 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
1031 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
1032 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1033 You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
1034 @acronym{NNTP} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
1035 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), Gnus will let you choose between the servers
1036 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
1037 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this
1038 will set @code{gnus-nntp-server}, which means that if you then @kbd{M-x
1039 gnus} later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same
1042 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
1044 However, if you use one @acronym{NNTP} server regularly and are just
1045 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
1046 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
1047 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
1048 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
1049 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
1051 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
1053 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
1054 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
1055 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
1056 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
1057 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
1058 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
1061 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} back end to read your mail,
1062 you would typically set this variable to
1065 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
1068 Note: the @acronym{NNTP} back end stores marks in marks files
1069 (@pxref{NNTP marks}). This feature makes it easy to share marks between
1070 several Gnus installations, but may slow down things a bit when fetching
1071 new articles. @xref{NNTP marks}, for more information.
1074 @node The First Time
1075 @section The First Time
1076 @cindex first time usage
1078 If no startup files exist (@pxref{Startup Files}), Gnus will try to
1079 determine what groups should be subscribed by default.
1081 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
1082 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, Gnus
1083 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
1084 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
1087 Since she hasn't, Gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
1088 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
1089 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
1091 You'll also be subscribed to the Gnus documentation group, which should
1092 help you with most common problems.
1094 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, Gnus will just
1095 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
1099 @node The Server is Down
1100 @section The Server is Down
1101 @cindex server errors
1103 If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some
1104 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
1105 the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.
1107 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
1108 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
1109 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
1110 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
1111 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
1112 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
1113 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
1115 @findex gnus-no-server
1116 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
1118 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
1119 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
1120 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start Gnus. That might come in handy
1121 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
1122 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
1123 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
1124 levels.) Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1128 @section Slave Gnusae
1131 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the
1132 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
1133 are using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers),
1134 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
1136 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
1137 @file{.newsrc} file.
1139 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the Gnus
1140 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
1141 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
1142 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
1143 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
1144 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
1145 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
1148 Anyway, you start one Gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
1149 however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with
1150 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
1151 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
1152 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus
1153 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
1154 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
1155 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
1157 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
1158 information in the normal (i.e., master) @file{.newsrc} file.
1160 If the @file{.newsrc*} files have not been saved in the master when the
1161 slave starts, you may be prompted as to whether to read an auto-save
1162 file. If you answer ``yes'', the unsaved changes to the master will be
1163 incorporated into the slave. If you answer ``no'', the slave may see some
1164 messages as unread that have been read in the master.
1171 @cindex subscription
1173 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
1174 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
1175 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
1176 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
1177 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
1178 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
1179 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
1180 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the back ends for new groups even
1181 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1184 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
1185 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
1186 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
1190 @node Checking New Groups
1191 @subsection Checking New Groups
1193 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
1194 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
1195 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
1196 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, Gnus will ask the
1197 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
1198 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
1199 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
1200 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
1201 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
1202 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
1204 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
1205 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
1206 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
1207 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
1208 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
1209 work. I could write a function to make Gnus guess whether the server
1210 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
1211 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
1212 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
1213 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
1214 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
1216 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will
1217 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
1218 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
1219 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
1220 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
1221 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
1224 @node Subscription Methods
1225 @subsection Subscription Methods
1227 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
1228 What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
1229 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
1231 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
1232 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
1234 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
1238 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
1239 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
1240 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
1241 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
1242 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
1244 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
1245 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
1246 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
1247 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
1249 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1250 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1251 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
1253 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1254 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1255 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
1256 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
1257 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
1258 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its
1259 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
1260 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
1261 up. Or something like that.
1263 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
1264 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
1265 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask
1266 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
1267 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
1269 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
1270 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
1271 Kill all new groups.
1273 @item gnus-subscribe-topics
1274 @vindex gnus-subscribe-topics
1275 Put the groups into the topic that has a matching @code{subscribe} topic
1276 parameter (@pxref{Topic Parameters}). For instance, a @code{subscribe}
1277 topic parameter that looks like
1283 will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under
1286 If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the
1291 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
1292 A closely related variable is
1293 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
1294 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you in a
1295 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
1296 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
1299 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
1300 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
1301 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
1302 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
1305 @node Filtering New Groups
1306 @subsection Filtering New Groups
1308 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
1309 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
1310 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
1313 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
1316 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
1317 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
1318 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
1319 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
1320 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
1321 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
1322 subscribing these groups.
1323 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
1324 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
1326 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
1327 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
1328 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
1329 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
1330 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
1331 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
1332 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
1333 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
1335 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
1336 Yet another variable that meddles here is
1337 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
1338 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous,
1339 but I thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is
1340 more meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is
1341 used more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new
1342 groups that come from mail back ends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
1343 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, @code{nnmh}, and @code{nnmaildir})
1344 subscribed. If you don't like that, just set this variable to
1347 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
1348 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
1351 @node Changing Servers
1352 @section Changing Servers
1353 @cindex changing servers
1355 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another.
1356 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
1357 very flaky and you want to use another.
1359 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
1360 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
1364 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
1365 @acronym{NNTP} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
1366 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
1367 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
1370 Gnus provides a few functions to attempt to translate a @file{.newsrc}
1371 file from one server to another. They all have one thing in
1372 common---they take a looong time to run. You don't want to use these
1373 functions more than absolutely necessary.
1375 @kindex M-x gnus-change-server
1376 @findex gnus-change-server
1377 If you have access to both servers, Gnus can request the headers for all
1378 the articles you have read and compare @code{Message-ID}s and map the
1379 article numbers of the read articles and article marks. The @kbd{M-x
1380 gnus-change-server} command will do this for all your native groups. It
1381 will prompt for the method you want to move to.
1383 @kindex M-x gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1384 @findex gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1385 You can also move individual groups with the @kbd{M-x
1386 gnus-group-move-group-to-server} command. This is useful if you want to
1387 move a (foreign) group from one server to another.
1389 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1390 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1391 If you don't have access to both the old and new server, all your marks
1392 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use the @kbd{M-x
1393 gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} command to clear out all data
1394 that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.
1396 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data
1397 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
1398 Clear the data from the current group only---nix out marks and the
1399 list of read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
1401 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
1402 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
1403 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
1404 @code{gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} will ask you if you want
1405 to have it done automatically; for @code{gnus-group-clear-data}, you
1406 can use @kbd{M-x gnus-cache-move-cache} (but beware, it will move the
1407 cache for all groups).
1411 @section Startup Files
1412 @cindex startup files
1417 Most common Unix news readers use a shared startup file called
1418 @file{.newsrc}. This file contains all the information about what
1419 groups are subscribed, and which articles in these groups have been
1422 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
1423 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
1424 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
1425 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
1426 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
1427 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
1428 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
1430 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
1431 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
1432 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
1433 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
1434 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
1435 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
1437 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
1438 @vindex gnus-read-newsrc-file
1439 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
1440 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
1441 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster.
1442 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
1443 Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting
1444 @code{gnus-read-newsrc-file} to @code{nil} makes Gnus ignore the
1445 @file{.newsrc} file and any @file{.newsrc-SERVER} files, which can be
1446 convenient if you use a different news reader occasionally, and you
1447 want to read a different subset of the available groups with that
1450 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
1451 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
1452 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
1453 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
1454 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
1455 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
1456 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
1457 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
1458 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
1459 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
1460 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
1461 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
1463 @vindex gnus-startup-file
1464 @vindex gnus-backup-startup-file
1465 @vindex version-control
1466 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
1467 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
1468 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
1469 If you want version control for this file, set
1470 @code{gnus-backup-startup-file}. It respects the same values as the
1471 @code{version-control} variable.
1473 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
1474 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
1475 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
1476 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
1477 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
1478 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
1479 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
1480 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
1481 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
1482 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
1485 (defun turn-off-backup ()
1486 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
1488 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1489 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1492 @vindex gnus-init-file
1493 @vindex gnus-site-init-file
1494 When Gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
1495 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus-init} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
1496 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
1497 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
1498 @file{site-init} files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
1499 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
1500 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
1501 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
1502 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order). If Emacs was invoked with
1503 the @option{-q} or @option{--no-init-file} options (@pxref{Initial
1504 Options, ,Initial Options, emacs, The Emacs Manual}), Gnus doesn't read
1505 @code{gnus-init-file}.
1510 @cindex dribble file
1513 Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles,
1514 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
1515 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
1516 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
1517 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
1520 If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
1521 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
1524 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
1525 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, Gnus won't create and
1526 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
1528 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
1529 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
1530 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, Gnus will dribble
1531 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
1532 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
1533 file permissions as the @file{.newsrc} file.
1535 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
1536 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
1537 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
1540 @node The Active File
1541 @section The Active File
1543 @cindex ignored groups
1545 When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
1546 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
1547 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
1549 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
1550 Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the
1551 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
1552 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make Gnus
1553 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
1554 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
1555 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
1558 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
1559 @c if you set it to anything else.
1561 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
1563 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
1564 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
1565 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
1567 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
1568 you actually subscribe to.
1570 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
1571 variable to @code{nil} will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At
1572 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow Gnus down
1573 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
1575 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
1576 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
1577 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
1578 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
1579 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
1580 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
1582 Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for
1583 instance) do not support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group}. For these
1584 servers, @code{nil} is probably the most efficient value for this
1587 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will ask for group info in total
1588 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
1589 @acronym{NNTP} server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
1590 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
1591 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
1592 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
1594 If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three
1595 different values for this variable and see what works best for you.
1597 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
1598 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1600 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1601 secondary select methods.
1604 @node Startup Variables
1605 @section Startup Variables
1609 @item gnus-load-hook
1610 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1611 A hook run while Gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1612 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1613 times you start Gnus.
1615 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1616 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1617 A hook run after starting up Gnus successfully.
1619 @item gnus-startup-hook
1620 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1621 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1623 @item gnus-started-hook
1624 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1625 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1628 @item gnus-setup-news-hook
1629 @vindex gnus-setup-news-hook
1630 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1631 generating the group buffer.
1633 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1634 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1635 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1636 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1637 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1638 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1639 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1640 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1642 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1643 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1644 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1645 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1646 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1647 @file{~/.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @file{.emacs} instead.
1649 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1650 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1651 Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.
1653 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1654 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1655 If non-@code{nil}, play the Gnus jingle at startup.
1657 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1658 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1659 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1660 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1666 @chapter Group Buffer
1667 @cindex group buffer
1669 @c Alex Schroeder suggests to rearrange this as follows:
1671 @c <kensanata> ok, just save it for reference. I'll go to bed in a minute.
1672 @c 1. Selecting a Group, 2. (new) Finding a Group, 3. Group Levels,
1673 @c 4. Subscription Commands, 5. Group Maneuvering, 6. Group Data,
1674 @c 7. Group Score, 8. Group Buffer Format
1675 @c <kensanata> Group Levels should have more information on levels 5 to 9. I
1676 @c suggest to split the 4th paragraph ("Gnus considers groups...") as follows:
1677 @c <kensanata> First, "Gnus considers groups... (default 9)."
1678 @c <kensanata> New, a table summarizing what levels 1 to 9 mean.
1679 @c <kensanata> Third, "Gnus treats subscribed ... reasons of efficiency"
1680 @c <kensanata> Then expand the next paragraph or add some more to it.
1681 @c This short one sentence explains levels 1 and 2, therefore I understand
1682 @c that I should keep important news at 3 and boring news at 4.
1683 @c Say so! Then go on to explain why I should bother with levels 6 to 9.
1684 @c Maybe keep those that you don't want to read temporarily at 6,
1685 @c those that you never want to read at 8, those that offend your
1686 @c human rights at 9...
1689 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1690 is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1691 long as Gnus is active.
1695 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1696 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group,height=9cm}}
1697 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1698 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1699 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1700 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1701 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1702 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1708 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1709 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1710 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1711 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1712 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1713 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1714 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1715 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1716 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1717 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1718 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1719 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1720 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1721 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1722 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1723 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1724 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1728 @node Group Buffer Format
1729 @section Group Buffer Format
1732 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1733 * Group Mode Line Specification:: The group buffer mode line.
1734 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1737 You can customize the Group Mode tool bar, see @kbd{M-x
1738 customize-apropos RET gnus-group-tool-bar}. This feature is only
1741 The tool bar icons are now (de)activated correctly depending on the
1742 cursor position. Therefore, moving around in the Group Buffer is
1743 slower. You can disable this via the variable
1744 @code{gnus-group-update-tool-bar}. Its default value depends on your
1747 @node Group Line Specification
1748 @subsection Group Line Specification
1749 @cindex group buffer format
1751 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1752 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1754 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1757 25: news.announce.newusers
1758 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1763 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1764 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1765 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1766 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1768 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1769 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1770 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1771 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1772 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1773 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1775 @samp{%M%S%5y:%B%(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1777 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1778 the colon after performing an operation. @xref{Positioning
1779 Point}. Nothing else is required---not even the group name. All
1780 displayed text is just window dressing, and is never examined by Gnus.
1781 Gnus stores all real information it needs using text properties.
1783 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1784 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1785 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1787 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1792 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1795 Whether the group is subscribed.
1798 Level of subscribedness.
1801 Number of unread articles.
1804 Number of dormant articles.
1807 Number of ticked articles.
1810 Number of read articles.
1813 Number of unseen articles.
1816 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1817 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1819 Gnus uses this estimation because the @acronym{NNTP} protocol provides
1820 efficient access to @var{max-number} and @var{min-number} but getting
1821 the true unread message count is not possible efficiently. For
1822 hysterical raisins, even the mail back ends, where the true number of
1823 unread messages might be available efficiently, use the same limited
1824 interface. To remove this restriction from Gnus means that the back
1825 end interface has to be changed, which is not an easy job.
1827 The nnml backend (@pxref{Mail Spool}) has a feature called ``group
1828 compaction'' which circumvents this deficiency: the idea is to
1829 renumber all articles from 1, removing all gaps between numbers, hence
1830 getting a correct total count. Other backends may support this in the
1831 future. In order to keep your total article count relatively up to
1832 date, you might want to compact your groups (or even directly your
1833 server) from time to time. @xref{Misc Group Stuff}, @xref{Server Commands}.
1836 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1839 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1848 Group comment (@pxref{Group Parameters}) or group name if there is no
1849 comment element in the group parameters.
1852 Newsgroup description. You need to read the group descriptions
1853 before these will appear, and to do that, you either have to set
1854 @code{gnus-read-active-file} or use the group buffer @kbd{M-d}
1858 @samp{m} if moderated.
1861 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1867 If the summary buffer for the group is open or not.
1873 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1877 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1880 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1881 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1882 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1883 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1884 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.e.gnus}.
1887 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1889 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1893 @samp{#} (@code{gnus-process-mark}) if the group is process marked.
1896 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1900 The disk space used by the articles fetched by both the cache and
1901 agent. The value is automatically scaled to bytes(B), kilobytes(K),
1902 megabytes(M), or gigabytes(G) to minimize the column width. A format
1903 of %7F is sufficient for a fixed-width column.
1906 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1907 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1908 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1909 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1910 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1911 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1916 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1917 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1918 group, or a bogus native group.
1921 @node Group Mode Line Specification
1922 @subsection Group Mode Line Specification
1923 @cindex group mode line
1925 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1926 The mode line can be changed by setting
1927 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1928 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1932 The native news server.
1934 The native select method.
1938 @node Group Highlighting
1939 @subsection Group Highlighting
1940 @cindex highlighting
1941 @cindex group highlighting
1943 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1944 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1945 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1946 that look like @code{(@var{form} . @var{face})}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1947 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1949 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1953 (cond (window-system
1954 (setq custom-background-mode 'light)
1955 (defface my-group-face-1
1956 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face")
1957 (defface my-group-face-2
1958 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t)))
1959 "Second group face")
1960 (defface my-group-face-3
1961 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face")
1962 (defface my-group-face-4
1963 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face")
1964 (defface my-group-face-5
1965 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face")))
1967 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1968 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1969 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1970 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1971 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1972 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1975 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1977 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1984 The number of unread articles in the group.
1988 Whether the group is a mail group.
1990 The level of the group.
1992 The score of the group.
1994 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1996 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather,
1997 @var{max-number} minus @var{min-number} plus one.
1999 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
2000 topic being inserted.
2003 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
2004 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal Gnus
2005 functions for snarfing info on the group.
2007 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
2008 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
2009 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
2010 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}. This hook
2011 calls @code{gnus-group-highlight-line} by default.
2014 @node Group Maneuvering
2015 @section Group Maneuvering
2016 @cindex group movement
2018 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
2019 expected, hopefully.
2025 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
2026 Go to the next group that has unread articles
2027 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
2033 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
2034 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
2035 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
2039 @findex gnus-group-next-group
2040 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
2044 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
2045 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
2049 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
2050 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
2051 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
2055 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
2056 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
2057 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
2060 Three commands for jumping to groups:
2066 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
2067 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
2068 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
2073 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
2074 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
2075 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
2079 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
2080 Jump to the first group with unread articles
2081 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
2084 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
2085 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
2086 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
2087 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
2090 @vindex gnus-summary-next-group-on-exit
2091 If @code{gnus-summary-next-group-on-exit} is @code{t}, when a summary is
2092 exited, the point in the group buffer is moved to the next unread group.
2093 Otherwise, the point is set to the group just exited. The default is
2096 @node Selecting a Group
2097 @section Selecting a Group
2098 @cindex group selection
2103 @kindex SPACE (Group)
2104 @findex gnus-group-read-group
2105 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
2106 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
2107 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
2108 this command, Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
2109 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{n}, @var{n}
2110 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{n} is
2111 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{n} newest articles, if @var{n} is
2112 negative, Gnus fetches the @code{abs(@var{n})} oldest articles.
2114 Thus, @kbd{SPC} enters the group normally, @kbd{C-u SPC} offers old
2115 articles, @kbd{C-u 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 newest articles, and @kbd{C-u
2116 - 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 oldest ones.
2118 When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type
2119 @kbd{M-g} to fetch new articles, or @kbd{C-u M-g} to also show the old
2124 @findex gnus-group-select-group
2125 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
2126 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
2127 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
2128 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
2132 @kindex M-RET (Group)
2133 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
2134 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
2135 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
2136 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
2137 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
2138 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
2139 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), Gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
2140 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
2141 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
2144 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
2145 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
2146 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
2147 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
2148 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
2151 @kindex C-M-RET (Group)
2152 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
2153 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
2154 doing any processing of its contents
2155 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
2156 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
2157 manner will have no permanent effects.
2161 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
2162 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should
2163 consider to be a big group. If it is @code{nil}, no groups are
2164 considered big. The default value is 200. If the group has more
2165 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, Gnus will query the user
2166 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many
2167 articles should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a
2168 negative number (@var{-n}), the @var{n} oldest articles will be
2169 fetched. If it is positive, the @var{n} articles that have arrived
2170 most recently will be fetched.
2172 @vindex gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup
2173 @code{gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup} is the same as
2174 @code{gnus-large-newsgroup}, but is only used for ephemeral
2177 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
2178 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
2179 @vindex gnus-auto-select-subject
2180 If @code{gnus-auto-select-first} is non-@code{nil}, select an article
2181 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
2182 Which article this is is controlled by the
2183 @code{gnus-auto-select-subject} variable. Valid values for this
2189 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article.
2192 Place point on the subject line of the first article.
2195 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article.
2197 @item unseen-or-unread
2198 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article, and if
2199 there is no such article, place point on the subject line of the first
2203 Place point on the subject line of the highest-scored unread article.
2207 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function
2208 will be called to place point on a subject line.
2210 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
2211 binary group with Huge articles) you can set the
2212 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} variable to @code{nil} in
2213 @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
2217 @node Subscription Commands
2218 @section Subscription Commands
2219 @cindex subscription
2227 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
2228 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
2229 Toggle subscription to the current group
2230 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2236 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
2237 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
2238 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
2239 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
2245 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
2246 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
2247 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
2253 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
2254 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
2257 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2258 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2259 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
2260 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
2261 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
2267 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
2268 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
2272 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
2273 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
2276 @kindex S C-k (Group)
2277 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
2278 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
2279 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
2280 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
2281 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
2282 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
2283 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
2284 @file{.newsrc} file.
2288 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
2298 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
2299 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
2300 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
2301 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
2302 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
2303 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
2308 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
2309 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
2310 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
2314 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
2315 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
2316 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
2318 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2319 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2320 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2321 If you have switched from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another, all your marks
2322 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
2323 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
2330 @section Group Levels
2334 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
2335 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
2336 can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
2337 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
2338 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
2340 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
2346 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
2347 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
2348 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
2349 prompted for a level.
2352 @vindex gnus-level-killed
2353 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
2354 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
2355 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
2356 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
2357 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
2358 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
2359 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
2360 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
2361 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
2362 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
2363 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
2364 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
2365 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
2366 reasons of efficiency.
2368 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
2369 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
2371 Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to
2372 understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you
2373 subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting @kbd{L} you can have it show
2374 empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type @kbd{l} to
2375 go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed
2376 groups are hidden, in a way.
2378 Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they
2379 are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and
2380 unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for
2381 information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie
2382 and killed groups. Normally, you use @kbd{C-k} to kill the groups you
2383 aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.
2385 Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when
2386 a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie
2387 group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups,
2388 but you can type @kbd{A z} to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe
2389 the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (@kbd{A k} shows a
2390 list of killed groups.)
2392 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
2393 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
2394 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
2396 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
2397 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
2398 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
2399 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
2400 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
2401 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
2402 relevant valid ranges.
2404 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
2405 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
2406 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
2407 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
2408 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
2409 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
2412 If this variable is @code{best}, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the
2413 one with the best level.
2415 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
2416 All groups with a level less than or equal to
2417 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
2420 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
2421 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
2422 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
2423 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
2426 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
2427 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
2428 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
2429 use this level as the ``work'' level.
2431 @vindex gnus-activate-level
2432 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
2433 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
2434 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
2435 to 5. The default is 6.
2439 @section Group Score
2444 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
2445 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
2446 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
2449 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can have Gnus assign a score
2450 to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort
2451 the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on
2452 score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is
2453 called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has
2454 a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score
2455 of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the
2456 least significant part.))
2458 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
2459 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
2460 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
2461 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
2462 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
2463 action after each summary exit, you can add
2464 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
2465 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
2466 slow things down somewhat.
2469 @node Marking Groups
2470 @section Marking Groups
2471 @cindex marking groups
2473 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
2474 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
2475 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
2476 bidding on those groups.
2478 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
2479 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
2480 with the process mark and then execute the command.
2488 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
2489 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
2495 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
2496 Remove the mark from the current group
2497 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
2501 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
2502 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
2506 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
2507 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
2511 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
2512 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
2516 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
2517 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
2518 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
2521 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
2523 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
2524 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
2525 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
2526 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
2527 the command to be executed.
2530 @node Foreign Groups
2531 @section Foreign Groups
2532 @cindex foreign groups
2534 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
2535 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
2536 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
2537 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
2540 Changes from the group editing commands are stored in
2541 @file{~/.newsrc.eld} (@code{gnus-startup-file}). An alternative is the
2542 variable @code{gnus-parameters}, @xref{Group Parameters}.
2548 @findex gnus-group-make-group
2549 @cindex making groups
2550 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
2551 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
2552 to subscribe to @acronym{NNTP} groups (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
2556 @findex gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group
2557 Make an ephemeral group (@code{gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group}). Gnus
2558 will prompt you for a name, a method and an @dfn{address}.
2562 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
2563 @cindex renaming groups
2564 Rename the current group to something else
2565 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
2566 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
2572 @findex gnus-group-customize
2573 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
2577 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
2578 @cindex renaming groups
2579 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
2580 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
2584 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
2585 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
2586 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
2590 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
2591 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
2592 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
2596 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
2598 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
2599 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
2604 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
2605 Make the Gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
2609 @cindex (ding) archive
2610 @cindex archive group
2611 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
2612 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
2613 @vindex gnus-group-recent-archive-directory
2614 Make a Gnus archive group (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). By
2615 default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created
2616 (@code{gnus-group-recent-archive-directory}), but given a prefix, a full
2617 group will be created from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
2621 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
2623 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
2624 match groups to be ``included'' in the kiboze group, and a series of
2625 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
2626 @xref{Kibozed Groups}.
2630 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
2632 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
2633 @code{nneething} back end (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
2634 @xref{Anything Groups}.
2638 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
2639 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
2641 Make a group based on some file or other
2642 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2643 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
2644 Currently supported types are @code{mbox}, @code{babyl},
2645 @code{digest}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward},
2646 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts},
2647 @code{standard-digest}, @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs},
2648 @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook}, @code{oe-dbx}, and @code{mailman}. If
2649 you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file
2650 type. @xref{Document Groups}.
2654 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
2655 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
2656 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
2657 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
2661 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
2665 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
2666 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2667 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
2668 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
2669 include @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}.
2670 @xref{Web Searches}.
2672 If you use the @code{google} search engine, you can limit the search
2673 to a particular group by using a match string like
2674 @samp{shaving group:alt.sysadmin.recovery}.
2678 @findex gnus-group-make-rss-group
2679 Make a group based on an @acronym{RSS} feed
2680 (@code{gnus-group-make-rss-group}). You will be prompted for an URL.
2684 @kindex G DEL (Group)
2685 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
2686 This function will delete the current group
2687 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
2688 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
2689 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
2690 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
2691 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} groups), though.
2695 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
2696 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
2697 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
2701 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
2702 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
2703 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
2706 @xref{Select Methods}, for more information on the various select
2709 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
2710 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
2711 Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
2712 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
2713 groups from different @acronym{NNTP} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
2714 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
2718 @node Group Parameters
2719 @section Group Parameters
2720 @cindex group parameters
2722 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
2723 Here's an example group parameter list:
2726 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2730 We see that each element consists of a ``dotted pair''---the thing before
2731 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2732 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2733 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2735 Some parameters have correspondent customizable variables, each of which
2736 is an alist of regexps and values.
2738 The following group parameters can be used:
2743 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2746 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2749 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2750 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2751 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2752 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2753 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2755 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2756 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2757 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2758 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2759 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2760 list address instead.
2762 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-address-alist}.
2766 Address used when doing @kbd{a} in that group.
2769 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2772 It is totally ignored
2773 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2774 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2776 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2777 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2778 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2779 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2780 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2782 @findex gnus-mailing-list-mode
2783 @cindex mail list groups
2784 If this variable is set, @code{gnus-mailing-list-mode} is turned on when
2785 entering summary buffer.
2787 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-list-alist}.
2792 @cindex Mail-Followup-To
2793 @findex gnus-find-subscribed-addresses
2794 If this parameter is set to @code{t}, Gnus will consider the
2795 to-address and to-list parameters for this group as addresses of
2796 mailing lists you are subscribed to. Giving Gnus this information is
2797 (only) a first step in getting it to generate correct Mail-Followup-To
2798 headers for your posts to these lists. The second step is to put the
2799 following in your @file{.gnus.el}
2802 (setq message-subscribed-address-functions
2803 '(gnus-find-subscribed-addresses))
2806 @xref{Mailing Lists, ,Mailing Lists, message, The Message Manual}, for
2807 a complete treatment of available MFT support.
2811 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2812 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2813 of whether it has any unread articles.
2815 This parameter cannot be set via @code{gnus-parameters}. See
2816 @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} as an alternative.
2818 @item broken-reply-to
2819 @cindex broken-reply-to
2820 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2821 headers in this group are to be ignored, and for the header to be hidden
2822 if @code{reply-to} is part of @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}. This
2823 can be useful if you're reading a mailing list group where the listserv
2824 has inserted @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv
2825 itself. That is broken behavior. So there!
2829 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2830 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2834 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, Gnus
2835 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2836 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2841 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2842 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2843 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2844 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2845 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2846 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2847 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
2849 @strong{Caveat}: Adding @code{(gcc-self . t)} to the parameter list of
2850 @code{nntp} groups (or the like) isn't valid. An @code{nntp} server
2851 doesn't accept articles.
2855 @cindex expiring mail
2856 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2857 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2858 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2860 See also @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups}.
2863 @cindex total-expire
2864 @cindex expiring mail
2865 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2866 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2867 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2868 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2871 See also @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups}.
2875 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2876 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2877 @code{(expiry-wait . 10)}, this value will override any
2878 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function}
2879 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}) when expiring expirable messages. The value
2880 can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or the
2881 symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2884 @cindex expiry-target
2885 Where expired messages end up. This parameter overrides
2886 @code{nnmail-expiry-target}.
2889 @cindex score file group parameter
2890 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2891 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2892 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2895 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2896 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2897 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2898 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2901 @cindex admin-address
2902 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2903 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2904 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2905 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2909 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2910 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2914 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2917 Display the last @var{integer} articles in the group. This is the same as
2918 entering the group with @kbd{C-u @var{integer}}.
2921 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2925 Display articles that satisfy a predicate.
2927 Here are some examples:
2931 Display only unread articles.
2934 Display everything except expirable articles.
2936 @item [and (not reply) (not expire)]
2937 Display everything except expirable and articles you've already
2941 The available operators are @code{not}, @code{and} and @code{or}.
2942 Predicates include @code{tick}, @code{unsend}, @code{undownload},
2943 @code{unread}, @code{dormant}, @code{expire}, @code{reply},
2944 @code{killed}, @code{bookmark}, @code{score}, @code{save},
2945 @code{cache}, @code{forward}, @code{unseen} and @code{recent}.
2949 The @code{display} parameter works by limiting the summary buffer to
2950 the subset specified. You can pop the limit by using the @kbd{/ w}
2951 command (@pxref{Limiting}).
2955 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")} are
2956 arbitrary comments on the group. You can display comments in the
2957 group line (@pxref{Group Line Specification}).
2961 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
2962 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
2963 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
2965 See also @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}.
2967 @item ignored-charsets
2968 @cindex ignored-charset
2969 Elements that look like @code{(ignored-charsets x-unknown iso-8859-1)}
2970 will make @code{iso-8859-1} and @code{x-unknown} ignored; that is, the
2971 default charset will be used for decoding articles.
2973 See also @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
2976 @cindex posting-style
2977 You can store additional posting style information for this group
2978 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
2979 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
2980 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
2981 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
2983 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
2984 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
2985 like this in the group parameters:
2990 ("X-My-Header" "Funky Value")
2991 (signature "Funky Signature"))
2994 If you're using topics to organize your group buffer
2995 (@pxref{Group Topics}), note that posting styles can also be set in
2996 the topics parameters. Posting styles in topic parameters apply to all
2997 groups in this topic. More precisely, the posting-style settings for a
2998 group result from the hierarchical merging of all posting-style
2999 entries in the parameters of this group and all the topics it belongs
3005 If it is set, the value is used as the method for posting message
3006 instead of @code{gnus-post-method}.
3010 An item like @code{(banner . @var{regexp})} causes any part of an article
3011 that matches the regular expression @var{regexp} to be stripped. Instead of
3012 @var{regexp}, you can also use the symbol @code{signature} which strips the
3013 last signature or any of the elements of the alist
3014 @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}.
3018 This parameter contains a Sieve test that should match incoming mail
3019 that should be placed in this group. From this group parameter, a
3020 Sieve @samp{IF} control structure is generated, having the test as the
3021 condition and @samp{fileinto "group.name";} as the body.
3023 For example, if the @samp{INBOX.list.sieve} group has the @code{(sieve
3024 address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com")} group parameter, when
3025 translating the group parameter into a Sieve script (@pxref{Sieve
3026 Commands}) the following Sieve code is generated:
3029 if address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com" @{
3030 fileinto "INBOX.list.sieve";
3034 To generate tests for multiple email-addresses use a group parameter
3035 like @code{(sieve address "sender" ("name@@one.org" else@@two.org"))}.
3036 When generating a sieve script (@pxref{Sieve Commands}) Sieve code
3037 like the following is generated:
3040 if address "sender" ["name@@one.org", "else@@two.org"] @{
3041 fileinto "INBOX.list.sieve";
3045 See @pxref{Sieve Commands} for commands and variables that might be of
3046 interest in relation to the sieve parameter.
3048 The Sieve language is described in RFC 3028. @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve,
3049 Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
3051 @item (agent parameters)
3052 If the agent has been enabled, you can set any of the its parameters
3053 to control the behavior of the agent in individual groups. See Agent
3054 Parameters in @ref{Category Syntax}. Most users will choose to set
3055 agent parameters in either an agent category or group topic to
3056 minimize the configuration effort.
3058 @item (@var{variable} @var{form})
3059 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
3060 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
3061 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
3062 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
3063 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
3064 @code{eval}ed there.
3066 Note that this feature sets the variable locally to the summary buffer.
3067 But some variables are evaluated in the article buffer, or in the
3068 message buffer (of a reply or followup or otherwise newly created
3069 message). As a workaround, it might help to add the variable in
3070 question to @code{gnus-newsgroup-variables}. @xref{Various Summary
3071 Stuff}. So if you want to set @code{message-from-style} via the group
3072 parameters, then you may need the following statement elsewhere in your
3073 @file{~/.gnus} file:
3076 (add-to-list 'gnus-newsgroup-variables 'message-from-style)
3079 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
3080 A use for this feature is to remove a mailing list identifier tag in
3081 the subject fields of articles. E.g. if the news group
3084 nntp+news.gnus.org:gmane.text.docbook.apps
3087 has the tag @samp{DOC-BOOK-APPS:} in the subject of all articles, this
3088 tag can be removed from the article subjects in the summary buffer for
3089 the group by putting @code{(gnus-list-identifiers "DOCBOOK-APPS:")}
3090 into the group parameters for the group.
3092 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function. If you want to
3093 hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put something like
3094 @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that group.
3095 @code{dummy-variable} will be set to the (meaningless) result of the
3098 Alternatively, since the VARIABLE becomes local to the group, this
3099 pattern can be used to temporarily change a hook. For example, if the
3100 following is added to a group parameter
3103 (gnus-summary-prepared-hook
3104 '(lambda nil (local-set-key "d" (local-key-binding "n"))))
3107 when the group is entered, the 'd' key will not mark the article as
3112 Use the @kbd{G p} or the @kbd{G c} command to edit group parameters of a
3113 group. (@kbd{G p} presents you with a Lisp-based interface, @kbd{G c}
3114 presents you with a Customize-like interface. The latter helps avoid
3115 silly Lisp errors.) You might also be interested in reading about topic
3116 parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}).
3118 @vindex gnus-parameters
3119 Group parameters can be set via the @code{gnus-parameters} variable too.
3120 But some variables, such as @code{visible}, have no effect (For this
3121 case see @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} as an alternative.).
3125 (setq gnus-parameters
3127 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3128 (gnus-use-scoring nil)
3129 (gnus-summary-line-format
3130 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%d:%ub%-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
3134 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
3138 (gnus-use-scoring t))
3142 (broken-reply-to . t))))
3145 String value of parameters will be subjected to regexp substitution, as
3146 the @code{to-group} example shows.
3148 @vindex gnus-parameters-case-fold-search
3149 By default, whether comparing the group name and one of those regexps
3150 specified in @code{gnus-parameters} is done in a case-sensitive manner
3151 or a case-insensitive manner depends on the value of
3152 @code{case-fold-search} at the time when the comparison is done. The
3153 value of @code{case-fold-search} is typically @code{t}; it means, for
3154 example, the element @code{("INBOX\\.FOO" (total-expire . t))} might be
3155 applied to both the @samp{INBOX.FOO} group and the @samp{INBOX.foo}
3156 group. If you want to make those regexps always case-sensitive, set the
3157 value of the @code{gnus-parameters-case-fold-search} variable to
3158 @code{nil}. Otherwise, set it to @code{t} if you want to compare them
3159 always in a case-insensitive manner.
3161 You can define different sorting to different groups via
3162 @code{gnus-parameters}. Here is an example to sort an @acronym{NNTP}
3163 group by reverse date to see the latest news at the top and an
3164 @acronym{RSS} group by subject. In this example, the first group is the
3165 Debian daily news group @code{gmane.linux.debian.user.news} from
3166 news.gmane.org. The @acronym{RSS} group corresponds to the Debian
3167 weekly news RSS feed
3168 @url{http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main.en.rdf},
3174 '(("nntp.*gmane\\.debian\\.user\\.news"
3175 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3176 (gnus-article-sort-functions '((not gnus-article-sort-by-date)))
3177 (gnus-use-adaptive-scoring nil)
3178 (gnus-use-scoring nil))
3180 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3181 (gnus-article-sort-functions 'gnus-article-sort-by-subject)
3182 (gnus-use-adaptive-scoring nil)
3183 (gnus-use-scoring t)
3184 (gnus-score-find-score-files-function 'gnus-score-find-single)
3185 (gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%d %I%(%[ %s %]%)\n"))))
3189 @node Listing Groups
3190 @section Listing Groups
3191 @cindex group listing
3193 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
3201 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
3202 List all groups that have unread articles
3203 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
3204 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
3205 only lists groups of level five (i.e.,
3206 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
3213 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
3214 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
3215 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
3216 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
3217 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
3218 unsubscribed groups).
3222 @findex gnus-group-list-level
3223 List all unread groups on a specific level
3224 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
3225 with no unread articles.
3229 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
3230 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
3231 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
3232 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
3237 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
3238 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
3242 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
3243 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
3244 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
3248 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
3249 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
3253 @findex gnus-group-list-active
3254 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
3255 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
3256 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
3257 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
3258 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
3259 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
3260 Take the output with some grains of salt.
3264 @findex gnus-group-apropos
3265 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
3266 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
3270 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
3271 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
3272 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
3276 @findex gnus-group-list-cached
3277 List all groups with cached articles (@code{gnus-group-list-cached}).
3281 @findex gnus-group-list-dormant
3282 List all groups with dormant articles (@code{gnus-group-list-dormant}).
3286 @findex gnus-group-list-limit
3287 List groups limited within the current selection
3288 (@code{gnus-group-list-limit}).
3292 @findex gnus-group-list-flush
3293 Flush groups from the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-flush}).
3297 @findex gnus-group-list-plus
3298 List groups plus the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-plus}).
3302 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3303 @cindex visible group parameter
3304 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
3305 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
3306 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
3307 get the same effect.
3309 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
3310 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
3311 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
3312 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
3313 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
3316 @node Sorting Groups
3317 @section Sorting Groups
3318 @cindex sorting groups
3320 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
3321 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
3322 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
3323 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
3324 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
3325 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
3330 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3331 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3332 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
3334 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3335 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3336 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
3338 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
3339 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
3340 Sort by group level.
3342 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
3343 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
3344 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
3346 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3347 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3348 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
3349 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
3351 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3352 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3353 Sort by number of unread articles.
3355 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
3356 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
3357 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
3359 @item gnus-group-sort-by-server
3360 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-server
3361 Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.
3366 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
3367 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
3371 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
3372 some sorting criteria:
3376 @kindex G S a (Group)
3377 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3378 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
3379 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3382 @kindex G S u (Group)
3383 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
3384 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
3385 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3388 @kindex G S l (Group)
3389 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
3390 Sort the group buffer by group level
3391 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
3394 @kindex G S v (Group)
3395 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
3396 Sort the group buffer by group score
3397 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3400 @kindex G S r (Group)
3401 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
3402 Sort the group buffer by group rank
3403 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3406 @kindex G S m (Group)
3407 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
3408 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by back end name@*
3409 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
3412 @kindex G S n (Group)
3413 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name
3414 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3415 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name}).
3419 All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention
3420 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3422 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
3423 commands will sort in reverse order.
3425 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
3429 @kindex G P a (Group)
3430 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
3431 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
3432 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
3435 @kindex G P u (Group)
3436 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
3437 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
3438 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
3441 @kindex G P l (Group)
3442 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
3443 Sort the groups by group level
3444 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
3447 @kindex G P v (Group)
3448 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
3449 Sort the groups by group score
3450 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3453 @kindex G P r (Group)
3454 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
3455 Sort the groups by group rank
3456 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3459 @kindex G P m (Group)
3460 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
3461 Sort the groups alphabetically by back end name@*
3462 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
3465 @kindex G P n (Group)
3466 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name
3467 Sort the groups alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3468 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name}).
3471 @kindex G P s (Group)
3472 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups
3473 Sort the groups according to @code{gnus-group-sort-function}.
3477 And finally, note that you can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} to manually
3481 @node Group Maintenance
3482 @section Group Maintenance
3483 @cindex bogus groups
3488 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
3489 Find bogus groups and delete them
3490 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
3494 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
3495 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
3496 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
3497 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
3498 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
3502 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
3503 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
3504 @cindex expiring mail
3505 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
3506 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}). That is, delete
3507 all expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
3508 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3511 @kindex C-c C-M-x (Group)
3512 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
3513 @cindex expiring mail
3514 Run all expirable articles in all groups through the expiry process
3515 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
3520 @node Browse Foreign Server
3521 @section Browse Foreign Server
3522 @cindex foreign servers
3523 @cindex browsing servers
3528 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
3529 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
3530 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
3531 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
3534 @findex gnus-browse-mode
3535 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
3536 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
3537 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
3539 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
3544 @findex gnus-group-next-group
3545 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
3549 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
3550 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
3553 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
3554 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
3555 Enter the current group and display the first article
3556 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
3559 @kindex RET (Browse)
3560 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
3561 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
3565 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
3566 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
3567 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
3573 @findex gnus-browse-exit
3574 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
3578 @findex gnus-browse-describe-group
3579 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-browse-describe-group}).
3583 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
3584 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
3585 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
3590 @section Exiting Gnus
3591 @cindex exiting Gnus
3593 Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.
3598 @findex gnus-group-suspend
3599 Suspend Gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit Gnus,
3600 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
3601 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
3605 @findex gnus-group-exit
3606 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
3607 Quit Gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
3611 @findex gnus-group-quit
3612 Quit Gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
3613 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
3616 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
3617 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
3618 @vindex gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook
3619 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend Gnus and
3620 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit Gnus, while
3621 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
3627 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
3628 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
3629 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
3635 @section Group Topics
3638 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
3639 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
3640 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
3641 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
3642 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
3643 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
3647 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
3648 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group-topic,height=9cm}}
3659 2: alt.religion.emacs
3662 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3664 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3665 13: comp.sources.unix
3668 @findex gnus-topic-mode
3670 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
3671 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
3672 is a toggling command.)
3674 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
3675 dum@dots{} Nice tune, that@dots{} la la la@dots{} What, you're back?
3676 Yes, and now press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed
3677 under @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?
3680 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
3681 the hook for the group mode. Put the following line in your
3682 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
3685 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
3689 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
3690 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
3691 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
3692 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
3693 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
3697 @node Topic Commands
3698 @subsection Topic Commands
3699 @cindex topic commands
3701 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
3702 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
3703 definitions slightly.
3705 In general, the following kinds of operations are possible on topics.
3706 First of all, you want to create topics. Secondly, you want to put
3707 groups in topics and to move them around until you have an order you
3708 like. The third kind of operation is to show/hide parts of the whole
3709 shebang. You might want to hide a topic including its subtopics and
3710 groups, to get a better overview of the other groups.
3712 Here is a list of the basic keys that you might need to set up topics
3719 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
3720 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
3721 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
3725 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
3727 @findex gnus-topic-indent
3728 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3729 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
3730 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
3733 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
3734 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
3735 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3736 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
3740 The following two keys can be used to move groups and topics around.
3741 They work like the well-known cut and paste. @kbd{C-k} is like cut and
3742 @kbd{C-y} is like paste. Of course, this being Emacs, we use the terms
3743 kill and yank rather than cut and paste.
3749 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
3750 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
3751 topic will be removed along with the topic.
3755 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
3756 Yank the previously killed group or topic
3757 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
3760 So, to move a topic to the beginning of the list of topics, just hit
3761 @kbd{C-k} on it. This is like the ``cut'' part of cut and paste. Then,
3762 move the cursor to the beginning of the buffer (just below the ``Gnus''
3763 topic) and hit @kbd{C-y}. This is like the ``paste'' part of cut and
3764 paste. Like I said -- E-Z.
3766 You can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} on groups as well as on topics. So
3767 you can move topics around as well as groups.
3771 After setting up the topics the way you like them, you might wish to
3772 hide a topic, or to show it again. That's why we have the following
3779 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
3781 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
3782 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
3783 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
3784 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
3785 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
3786 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
3790 Now for a list of other commands, in no particular order.
3796 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
3797 Move the current group to some other topic
3798 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3799 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3803 @findex gnus-topic-jump-to-topic
3804 Go to a topic (@code{gnus-topic-jump-to-topic}).
3808 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
3809 Copy the current group to some other topic
3810 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3811 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3815 @findex gnus-topic-hide-topic
3816 Hide the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-hide-topic}). If given
3817 a prefix, hide the topic permanently.
3821 @findex gnus-topic-show-topic
3822 Show the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-show-topic}). If given
3823 a prefix, show the topic permanently.
3827 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
3828 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
3829 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
3830 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
3831 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
3832 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
3833 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
3836 This command uses the process/prefix convention
3837 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3841 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
3842 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3843 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
3847 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
3848 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3849 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
3853 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
3854 Toggle hiding empty topics
3855 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
3859 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
3860 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
3861 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3862 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3865 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
3866 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
3867 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
3868 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3869 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3872 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
3873 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
3874 @cindex expiring mail
3875 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the
3876 expiry process (if any)
3877 (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}). (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3881 @findex gnus-topic-rename
3882 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
3885 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
3886 @findex gnus-topic-delete
3887 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
3891 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
3892 List all groups that Gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
3893 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
3896 @kindex T M-n (Topic)
3897 @findex gnus-topic-goto-next-topic
3898 Go to the next topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-next-topic}).
3901 @kindex T M-p (Topic)
3902 @findex gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic
3903 Go to the previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic}).
3907 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
3908 @cindex group parameters
3909 @cindex topic parameters
3911 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
3912 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
3917 @node Topic Variables
3918 @subsection Topic Variables
3919 @cindex topic variables
3921 The previous section told you how to tell Gnus which topics to display.
3922 This section explains how to tell Gnus what to display about each topic.
3924 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
3925 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
3926 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3939 Number of groups in the topic.
3941 Number of unread articles in the topic.
3943 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
3946 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
3947 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
3948 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
3951 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
3952 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
3954 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
3955 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
3956 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
3960 @subsection Topic Sorting
3961 @cindex topic sorting
3963 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
3969 @kindex T S a (Topic)
3970 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3971 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
3972 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3975 @kindex T S u (Topic)
3976 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
3977 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
3978 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3981 @kindex T S l (Topic)
3982 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
3983 Sort the current topic by group level
3984 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
3987 @kindex T S v (Topic)
3988 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
3989 Sort the current topic by group score
3990 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3993 @kindex T S r (Topic)
3994 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
3995 Sort the current topic by group rank
3996 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3999 @kindex T S m (Topic)
4000 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
4001 Sort the current topic alphabetically by back end name
4002 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
4005 @kindex T S e (Topic)
4006 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server
4007 Sort the current topic alphabetically by server name
4008 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server}).
4011 @kindex T S s (Topic)
4012 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups
4013 Sort the current topic according to the function(s) given by the
4014 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable
4015 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups}).
4019 When given a prefix argument, all these commands will sort in reverse
4020 order. @xref{Sorting Groups}, for more information about group
4024 @node Topic Topology
4025 @subsection Topic Topology
4026 @cindex topic topology
4029 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
4036 2: alt.religion.emacs
4039 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
4041 8: comp.binaries.fractals
4042 13: comp.sources.unix
4046 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
4047 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
4048 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
4053 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
4054 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
4058 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
4059 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
4060 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
4061 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
4062 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
4063 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
4065 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
4066 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
4067 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
4070 @node Topic Parameters
4071 @subsection Topic Parameters
4072 @cindex topic parameters
4074 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent
4075 (and ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid
4076 topic parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}). When the agent is
4077 enabled, all agent parameters (See Agent Parameters in @ref{Category
4078 Syntax}) are also valid topic parameters.
4080 In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic
4085 When subscribing new groups by topic (@pxref{Subscription Methods}), the
4086 @code{subscribe} topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its
4087 value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that
4090 @item subscribe-level
4091 When subscribing new groups by topic (see the @code{subscribe} parameter),
4092 the group will be subscribed with the level specified in the
4093 @code{subscribe-level} instead of @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}.
4097 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
4098 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
4099 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
4100 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
4107 2: alt.religion.emacs
4111 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
4113 8: comp.binaries.fractals
4114 13: comp.sources.unix
4119 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
4120 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
4121 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
4122 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
4123 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
4124 . "religion.SCORE")}.
4126 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
4127 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
4128 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
4129 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
4130 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
4132 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
4133 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
4134 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
4135 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
4136 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
4137 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
4138 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
4139 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
4142 @node Misc Group Stuff
4143 @section Misc Group Stuff
4146 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
4147 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
4148 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
4149 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
4150 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
4157 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Group)
4158 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it key to some
4159 function or better use it as a prefix key. For example:
4162 (define-key gnus-group-mode-map (kbd "v j d")
4165 (gnus-group-jump-to-group "nndraft:drafts")))
4168 On keys reserved for users in Emacs and on keybindings in general
4169 @xref{Keymaps, Keymaps, , emacs, The Emacs Editor}.
4173 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
4174 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
4175 @xref{Server Buffer}.
4179 @findex gnus-group-post-news
4180 Start composing a message (a news by default)
4181 (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a prefix, post to the group
4182 under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
4183 Contrary to what the name of this function suggests, the prepared
4184 article might be a mail instead of a news, if a mail group is specified
4185 with the prefix argument. @xref{Composing Messages}.
4189 @findex gnus-group-mail
4190 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}). If given a prefix,
4191 use the posting style of the group under the point. If the prefix is 1,
4192 prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
4193 @xref{Composing Messages}.
4197 @findex gnus-group-news
4198 Start composing a news (@code{gnus-group-news}). If given a prefix,
4199 post to the group under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt
4200 for group to post to. @xref{Composing Messages}.
4202 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
4203 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
4204 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
4205 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
4206 for this to work though.
4210 @findex gnus-group-compact-group
4212 Compact the group under point (@code{gnus-group-compact-group}).
4213 Currently implemented only in nnml (@pxref{Mail Spool}). This removes
4214 gaps between article numbers, hence getting a correct total article
4219 Variables for the group buffer:
4223 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
4224 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
4225 is called after the group buffer has been
4228 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
4229 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
4230 is called after the group buffer is
4231 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
4234 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
4235 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
4236 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
4237 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
4239 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
4240 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
4241 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
4242 whether they are empty or not.
4244 @item gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4245 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4246 An alist of method and the charset for group names. It is used to show
4247 non-@acronym{ASCII} group names.
4251 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4252 '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))
4255 @item gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4256 @cindex UTF-8 group names
4257 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4258 An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names. It
4259 is used to show non-@acronym{ASCII} group names. @code{((".*"
4260 utf-8))} is the default value if UTF-8 is supported, otherwise the
4261 default is @code{nil}.
4265 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4266 '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)))
4271 @node Scanning New Messages
4272 @subsection Scanning New Messages
4273 @cindex new messages
4274 @cindex scanning new news
4280 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
4281 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
4282 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
4283 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
4284 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
4285 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
4290 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
4291 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
4292 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
4293 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
4294 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
4295 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
4296 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
4298 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
4299 @cindex activating groups
4301 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
4302 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
4307 @findex gnus-group-restart
4308 Restart Gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
4309 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
4310 Gnus variables, and then starts Gnus all over again.
4314 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
4315 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
4317 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
4318 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
4322 @node Group Information
4323 @subsection Group Information
4324 @cindex group information
4325 @cindex information on groups
4332 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
4333 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
4336 Try to fetch the @acronym{FAQ} for the current group
4337 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the @acronym{FAQ}
4338 from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on
4339 a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
4340 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
4341 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be
4342 used for fetching the file.
4344 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, Gnus will attempt to go
4345 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
4349 @findex gnus-group-fetch-charter
4350 @vindex gnus-group-charter-alist
4352 Try to open the charter for the current group in a web browser
4353 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-charter}). Query for a group if given a
4356 Gnus will use @code{gnus-group-charter-alist} to find the location of
4357 the charter. If no location is known, Gnus will fetch the control
4358 messages for the group, which in some cases includes the charter.
4362 @findex gnus-group-fetch-control
4363 @vindex gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url
4364 @cindex control message
4365 Fetch the control messages for the group from the archive at
4366 @code{ftp.isc.org} (@code{gnus-group-fetch-control}). Query for a
4367 group if given a prefix argument.
4369 If @code{gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url} is non-@code{nil},
4370 Gnus will open the control messages in a browser using
4371 @code{browse-url}. Otherwise they are fetched using @code{ange-ftp}
4372 and displayed in an ephemeral group.
4374 Note that the control messages are compressed. To use this command
4375 you need to turn on @code{auto-compression-mode} (@pxref{Compressed
4376 Files, ,Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Manual}).
4380 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
4382 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
4383 @cindex describing groups
4384 @cindex group description
4385 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
4386 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
4387 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
4391 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
4392 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
4393 prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
4400 @findex gnus-version
4401 Display current Gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
4405 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
4406 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
4409 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
4412 @findex gnus-info-find-node
4413 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
4417 @node Group Timestamp
4418 @subsection Group Timestamp
4420 @cindex group timestamps
4422 It can be convenient to let Gnus keep track of when you last read a
4423 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
4424 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
4427 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
4430 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
4432 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
4433 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
4436 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4437 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
4440 This will result in lines looking like:
4443 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
4444 0: custom 19961002T012713
4447 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
4448 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
4452 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4453 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
4456 If you would like greater control of the time format, you can use a
4457 user-defined format spec. Something like the following should do the
4461 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4462 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %ud\n")
4463 (defun gnus-user-format-function-d (headers)
4464 (let ((time (gnus-group-timestamp gnus-tmp-group)))
4466 (format-time-string "%b %d %H:%M" time)
4472 @subsection File Commands
4473 @cindex file commands
4479 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
4480 @vindex gnus-init-file
4481 @cindex reading init file
4482 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
4483 @file{~/.gnus.el}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
4487 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
4488 @cindex saving .newsrc
4489 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
4490 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
4491 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
4494 @c @kindex Z (Group)
4495 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
4496 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
4501 @node Sieve Commands
4502 @subsection Sieve Commands
4503 @cindex group sieve commands
4505 Sieve is a server-side mail filtering language. In Gnus you can use
4506 the @code{sieve} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to specify
4507 sieve rules that should apply to each group. Gnus provides two
4508 commands to translate all these group parameters into a proper Sieve
4509 script that can be transfered to the server somehow.
4511 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4512 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-start
4513 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-end
4514 The generated Sieve script is placed in @code{gnus-sieve-file} (by
4515 default @file{~/.sieve}). The Sieve code that Gnus generate is placed
4516 between two delimiters, @code{gnus-sieve-region-start} and
4517 @code{gnus-sieve-region-end}, so you may write additional Sieve code
4518 outside these delimiters that will not be removed the next time you
4519 regenerate the Sieve script.
4521 @vindex gnus-sieve-crosspost
4522 The variable @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} controls how the Sieve script
4523 is generated. If it is non-@code{nil} (the default) articles is
4524 placed in all groups that have matching rules, otherwise the article
4525 is only placed in the group with the first matching rule. For
4526 example, the group parameter @samp{(sieve address "sender"
4527 "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu")} will generate the following piece of Sieve
4528 code if @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is @code{nil}. (When
4529 @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is non-@code{nil}, it looks the same
4530 except that the line containing the call to @code{stop} is removed.)
4533 if address "sender" "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu" @{
4534 fileinto "INBOX.ding";
4539 @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve, Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
4545 @findex gnus-sieve-generate
4546 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4547 @cindex generating sieve script
4548 Regenerate a Sieve script from the @code{sieve} group parameters and
4549 put you into the @code{gnus-sieve-file} without saving it.
4553 @findex gnus-sieve-update
4554 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4555 @cindex updating sieve script
4556 Regenerates the Gnus managed part of @code{gnus-sieve-file} using the
4557 @code{sieve} group parameters, save the file and upload it to the
4558 server using the @code{sieveshell} program.
4563 @node Summary Buffer
4564 @chapter Summary Buffer
4565 @cindex summary buffer
4567 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
4568 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
4570 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
4571 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
4573 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
4575 You can customize the Summary Mode tool bar, see @kbd{M-x
4576 customize-apropos RET gnus-summary-tool-bar}. This feature is only
4580 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Summary)
4581 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it key to some
4582 function or better use it as a prefix key. For example:
4584 (define-key gnus-summary-mode-map (kbd "v -") "LrS") ;; lower subthread
4588 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
4589 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
4590 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
4591 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
4592 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
4593 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
4594 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
4595 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
4596 * Threading:: How threads are made.
4597 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
4598 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
4599 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
4600 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
4601 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
4602 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
4603 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
4604 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
4605 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
4606 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
4607 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
4608 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
4609 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
4610 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
4611 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
4612 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
4613 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
4614 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
4615 or reselecting the current group.
4616 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
4617 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
4618 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
4619 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
4623 @node Summary Buffer Format
4624 @section Summary Buffer Format
4625 @cindex summary buffer format
4629 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
4630 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary,width=7.5cm}}
4631 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-article,width=7.5cm}}}
4637 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
4638 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
4639 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
4640 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
4643 @findex mail-extract-address-components
4644 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
4645 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
4646 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
4647 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
4648 @code{From} header. Two pre-defined functions exist:
4649 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
4650 fast, and too simplistic solution; and
4651 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works very nicely, but is
4652 slower. The default function will return the wrong answer in 5% of the
4653 cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the other function instead:
4656 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
4657 'mail-extract-address-components)
4660 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
4661 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
4662 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
4663 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
4666 @node Summary Buffer Lines
4667 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
4669 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4670 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
4671 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
4672 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
4673 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
4675 There should always be a colon or a point position marker on the line;
4676 the cursor always moves to the point position marker or the colon after
4677 performing an operation. (Of course, Gnus wouldn't be Gnus if it wasn't
4678 possible to change this. Just write a new function
4679 @code{gnus-goto-colon} which does whatever you like with the cursor.)
4680 @xref{Positioning Point}.
4682 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n}.
4684 The following format specification characters and extended format
4685 specification(s) are understood:
4691 Subject string. List identifiers stripped,
4692 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. @xref{Article Hiding}.
4694 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
4695 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
4696 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
4698 Full @code{From} header.
4700 The name (from the @code{From} header).
4702 The name, @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header (@pxref{To
4705 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
4706 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
4707 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
4708 may be more thorough.
4710 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
4713 Number of lines in the article.
4715 Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported
4716 in some methods (like nnfolder).
4718 Pretty-printed version of the number of characters in the article;
4719 for example, @samp{1.2k} or @samp{0.4M}.
4721 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4723 A complex trn-style thread tree, showing response-connecting trace
4724 lines. A thread could be drawn like this:
4737 You can customize the appearance with the following options. Note
4738 that it is possible to make the thread display look really neat by
4739 replacing the default @acronym{ASCII} characters with graphic
4740 line-drawing glyphs.
4742 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
4743 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
4744 Used for the root of a thread. If @code{nil}, use subject
4745 instead. The default is @samp{> }.
4747 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
4748 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
4749 Used for the false root of a thread (@pxref{Loose Threads}). If
4750 @code{nil}, use subject instead. The default is @samp{> }.
4752 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
4753 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
4754 Used for a thread with just one message. If @code{nil}, use subject
4755 instead. The default is @samp{}.
4757 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
4758 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
4759 Used for drawing a vertical line. The default is @samp{| }.
4761 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
4762 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
4763 Used for indenting. The default is @samp{ }.
4765 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
4766 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
4767 Used for a leaf with brothers. The default is @samp{+-> }.
4769 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
4770 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
4771 Used for a leaf without brothers. The default is @samp{\-> }
4776 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
4777 pushes everything after it off the screen).
4779 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
4780 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4782 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
4783 for adopted articles.
4785 One space for each thread level.
4787 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
4789 Unread. @xref{Read Articles}.
4792 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
4793 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
4794 or has been saved. @xref{Other Marks}.
4797 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
4799 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
4800 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
4801 default level. If the difference between
4802 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
4803 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
4811 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
4813 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
4819 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
4820 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
4822 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
4823 article has any children.
4829 Desired cursor position (instead of after first colon).
4831 Age sensitive date format. Various date format is defined in
4832 @code{gnus-user-date-format-alist}.
4834 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
4835 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
4836 @code{gnus-user-format-function-@var{x}}, where @var{x} is the letter
4837 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
4838 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
4839 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
4842 Text between @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} will be highlighted with
4843 @code{gnus-mouse-face} when the mouse point is placed inside the area.
4844 There can only be one such area.
4846 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
4847 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will
4848 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
4849 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
4850 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
4851 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
4853 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
4854 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
4856 This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
4859 @node To From Newsgroups
4860 @subsection To From Newsgroups
4864 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
4865 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
4866 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
4867 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
4868 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
4872 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
4873 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
4874 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
4878 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4879 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
4882 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
4883 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
4886 @findex gnus-extra-header
4887 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
4888 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
4889 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
4892 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
4896 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4897 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
4898 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
4899 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
4900 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
4901 headers are used instead.
4903 To distinguish regular articles from those where the @code{From} field
4904 has been swapped, a string is prefixed to the @code{To} or
4905 @code{Newsgroups} header in the summary line. By default the string is
4906 @samp{-> } for @code{To} and @samp{=> } for @code{Newsgroups}, you can
4907 customize these strings with @code{gnus-summary-to-prefix} and
4908 @code{gnus-summary-newsgroup-prefix}.
4912 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
4913 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
4914 to include extra headers when generating overview (@acronym{NOV}) files.
4915 If you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after
4916 changing this variable, by entering the server buffer using @kbd{^},
4917 and then @kbd{g} on the appropriate mail server (e.g. nnml) to cause
4920 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4921 You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the
4922 @code{%n} spec to the @code{%f} spec in the
4923 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable.
4925 In summary, you'd typically put something like the following in
4929 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4931 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
4932 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
4933 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
4934 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4938 (The values listed above are the default values in Gnus. Alter them
4941 A note for news server administrators, or for users who wish to try to
4942 convince their news server administrator to provide some additional
4945 The above is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
4946 the @acronym{NOV} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
4947 nntp admin to add (in the usual implementation, notably INN):
4953 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
4954 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
4957 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
4958 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
4960 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
4961 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
4962 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
4963 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
4965 Here are the elements you can play with:
4971 Unprefixed group name.
4973 Current article number.
4975 Current article score.
4979 Number of unread articles in this group.
4981 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
4984 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
4985 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
4986 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
4987 and no unselected ones.
4989 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
4990 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
4992 Subject of the current article.
4994 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
4996 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
4998 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
5000 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
5002 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
5004 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
5008 @node Summary Highlighting
5009 @subsection Summary Highlighting
5013 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
5014 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
5015 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
5016 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
5017 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
5019 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
5020 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
5021 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
5022 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
5024 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
5025 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
5026 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
5027 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
5029 @item gnus-summary-highlight
5030 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
5031 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
5032 list where the elements are of the format @code{(@var{form}
5033 . @var{face})}. If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be
5034 italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable
5037 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
5038 ((> score default) . bold))
5040 As you may have guessed, if @var{form} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
5041 @var{face} will be applied to the line.
5045 @node Summary Maneuvering
5046 @section Summary Maneuvering
5047 @cindex summary movement
5049 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
5050 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
5052 None of these commands select articles.
5057 @kindex M-n (Summary)
5058 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
5059 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
5060 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
5061 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
5065 @kindex M-p (Summary)
5066 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
5067 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
5068 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
5069 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
5072 @kindex G g (Summary)
5073 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
5074 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
5075 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
5078 If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
5079 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
5080 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
5081 to the group buffer.
5083 Variables related to summary movement:
5087 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
5088 @item gnus-auto-select-next
5089 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
5090 no more unread articles after the current one, Gnus will offer to go to
5091 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
5092 empty, Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
5093 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, Gnus will select the
5094 next group with unread articles. As a special case, if this variable
5095 is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the next group without asking for
5096 confirmation. If this variable is @code{almost-quietly}, the same
5097 will happen only if you are located on the last article in the group.
5098 Finally, if this variable is @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n}
5099 command will go to the next group without confirmation. Also
5100 @pxref{Group Levels}.
5102 @item gnus-auto-select-same
5103 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
5104 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
5105 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
5106 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
5107 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
5108 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
5110 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
5112 @item gnus-summary-check-current
5113 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
5114 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
5115 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
5116 Instead, they will choose the current article.
5118 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
5119 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
5120 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
5121 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
5122 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
5123 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
5124 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
5125 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
5128 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
5129 the given number of lines from the top.
5134 @node Choosing Articles
5135 @section Choosing Articles
5136 @cindex selecting articles
5139 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
5140 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
5144 @node Choosing Commands
5145 @subsection Choosing Commands
5147 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
5148 and they all select and display an article.
5150 If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see
5151 @ref{Exiting the Summary Buffer}.
5155 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
5156 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
5157 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
5158 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
5160 If you have an article window open already and you press @kbd{SPACE}
5161 again, the article will be scrolled. This lets you conveniently
5162 @kbd{SPACE} through an entire newsgroup. @xref{Paging the Article}.
5167 @kindex G n (Summary)
5168 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
5169 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
5170 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
5175 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
5176 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
5177 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
5182 @kindex G N (Summary)
5183 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
5184 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
5189 @kindex G P (Summary)
5190 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
5191 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
5194 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
5195 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
5196 Go to the next article with the same subject
5197 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
5200 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
5201 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
5202 Go to the previous article with the same subject
5203 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
5207 @kindex G f (Summary)
5209 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
5210 Go to the first unread article
5211 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
5215 @kindex G b (Summary)
5217 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
5218 Go to the unread article with the highest score
5219 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}). If given a prefix argument,
5220 go to the first unread article that has a score over the default score.
5225 @kindex G l (Summary)
5226 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
5227 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
5230 @kindex G o (Summary)
5231 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
5233 @cindex article history
5234 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
5235 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
5236 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
5237 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
5238 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
5239 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
5244 @kindex G j (Summary)
5245 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
5246 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
5247 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
5252 @node Choosing Variables
5253 @subsection Choosing Variables
5255 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
5258 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
5259 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
5260 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
5261 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
5262 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
5263 the server and display it in the article buffer.
5265 @item gnus-select-article-hook
5266 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
5267 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. The default is
5268 @code{nil}. If you would like each article to be saved in the Agent as
5269 you read it, putting @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} on this
5272 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
5273 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
5274 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
5275 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
5276 @findex gnus-unread-mark
5277 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
5278 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
5279 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
5280 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-read-mark}. The only
5281 articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
5282 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
5283 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
5284 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
5285 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
5290 @node Paging the Article
5291 @section Scrolling the Article
5292 @cindex article scrolling
5297 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
5298 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
5299 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
5300 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
5301 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
5303 @vindex gnus-article-boring-faces
5304 @vindex gnus-article-skip-boring
5305 If @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} is non-@code{nil} and the rest of
5306 the article consists only of citations and signature, then it will be
5307 skipped; the next article will be shown instead. You can customize
5308 what is considered uninteresting with
5309 @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}. You can manually view the article's
5310 pages, no matter how boring, using @kbd{C-M-v}.
5313 @kindex DEL (Summary)
5314 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
5315 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
5318 @kindex RET (Summary)
5319 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
5320 Scroll the current article one line forward
5321 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
5324 @kindex M-RET (Summary)
5325 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-down
5326 Scroll the current article one line backward
5327 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-down}).
5331 @kindex A g (Summary)
5333 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
5334 @vindex gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
5335 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
5336 given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the
5337 article treatment functions. This will give you a ``raw'' article, just
5338 the way it came from the server.
5340 If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual charset stuff.
5341 @kbd{C-u 0 g cn-gb-2312 RET} will decode the message as if it were
5342 encoded in the @code{cn-gb-2312} charset. If you have
5345 (setq gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
5350 then you can say @kbd{C-u 1 g} to get the same effect.
5355 @kindex A < (Summary)
5356 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
5357 Scroll to the beginning of the article
5358 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
5363 @kindex A > (Summary)
5364 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
5365 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
5369 @kindex A s (Summary)
5371 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
5372 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
5373 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
5377 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
5378 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
5383 @node Reply Followup and Post
5384 @section Reply, Followup and Post
5387 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
5388 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
5389 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
5390 * Canceling and Superseding::
5394 @node Summary Mail Commands
5395 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
5397 @cindex composing mail
5399 Commands for composing a mail message:
5405 @kindex S r (Summary)
5407 @findex gnus-summary-reply
5408 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
5409 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
5410 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
5411 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
5416 @kindex S R (Summary)
5417 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
5418 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
5419 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
5420 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
5421 command uses the process/prefix convention.
5424 @kindex S w (Summary)
5425 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
5426 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
5427 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
5428 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
5429 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers. If @code{Mail-Followup-To} is
5430 present, that's used instead.
5433 @kindex S W (Summary)
5434 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
5435 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
5436 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
5437 the process/prefix convention.
5440 @kindex S v (Summary)
5441 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply
5442 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article
5443 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{very wide reply} is a reply
5444 that goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
5445 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers in all the process/prefixed
5446 articles. This command uses the process/prefix convention.
5449 @kindex S V (Summary)
5450 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original
5451 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article and include the
5452 original message (@code{gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original}). This
5453 command uses the process/prefix convention.
5456 @kindex S B r (Summary)
5457 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to
5458 Mail a reply to the author of the current article but ignore the
5459 @code{Reply-To} field (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to}).
5460 If you need this because a mailing list incorrectly sets a
5461 @code{Reply-To} header pointing to the list, you probably want to set
5462 the @code{broken-reply-to} group parameter instead, so things will work
5463 correctly. @xref{Group Parameters}.
5466 @kindex S B R (Summary)
5467 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original
5468 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
5469 original message but ignore the @code{Reply-To} field
5470 (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original}).
5474 @kindex S o m (Summary)
5475 @kindex C-c C-f (Summary)
5476 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
5477 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
5478 Forward the current article to some other person
5479 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If no prefix is given, the message
5480 is forwarded according to the value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime})
5481 and (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
5482 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
5483 as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
5484 forward as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
5485 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
5486 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
5487 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME}
5493 @kindex S m (Summary)
5494 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
5495 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
5496 Prepare a mail (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}). By default, use
5497 the posting style of the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
5498 If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
5503 @kindex S i (Summary)
5504 @findex gnus-summary-news-other-window
5505 Prepare a news (@code{gnus-summary-news-other-window}). By default,
5506 post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that. If the
5507 prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
5509 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
5510 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
5511 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
5512 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
5513 for this to work though.
5516 @kindex S D b (Summary)
5517 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
5518 @cindex bouncing mail
5519 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
5520 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
5521 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
5522 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
5523 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
5524 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, Gnus will try to fetch
5525 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
5526 very well fail, though.
5529 @kindex S D r (Summary)
5530 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
5531 Not to be confused with the previous command,
5532 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
5533 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
5534 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
5535 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
5536 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
5537 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
5538 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
5540 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
5541 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
5542 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
5543 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
5544 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muss sein!
5546 This command understands the process/prefix convention
5547 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5550 @kindex S D e (Summary)
5551 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message-edit
5553 Like the previous command, but will allow you to edit the message as
5554 if it were a new message before resending.
5557 @kindex S O m (Summary)
5558 @findex gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward
5559 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
5560 result using mail (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command
5561 uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5564 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
5565 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
5566 @cindex crossposting
5567 @cindex excessive crossposting
5568 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
5569 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
5571 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
5572 This command is provided as a way to fight back against the current
5573 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
5574 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
5575 command understands the process/prefix convention
5576 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
5580 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
5581 Manual}, for more information.
5584 @node Summary Post Commands
5585 @subsection Summary Post Commands
5587 @cindex composing news
5589 Commands for posting a news article:
5595 @kindex S p (Summary)
5596 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
5597 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
5598 Prepare for posting an article (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}). By
5599 default, post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
5600 If the prefix is 1, prompt for another group instead.
5605 @kindex S f (Summary)
5606 @findex gnus-summary-followup
5607 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
5608 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
5612 @kindex S F (Summary)
5614 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
5615 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
5616 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
5617 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
5618 process/prefix convention.
5621 @kindex S n (Summary)
5622 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
5623 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
5624 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
5627 @kindex S N (Summary)
5628 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original
5629 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
5630 message through mail and include the original message
5631 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
5632 the process/prefix convention.
5635 @kindex S o p (Summary)
5636 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
5637 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
5638 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}).
5639 If no prefix is given, the message is forwarded according to the value
5640 of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}) and
5641 (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
5642 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
5643 as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
5644 forward as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
5645 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
5646 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
5647 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section.
5650 @kindex S O p (Summary)
5651 @findex gnus-uu-digest-post-forward
5653 @cindex making digests
5654 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
5655 (@code{gnus-uu-digest-post-forward}). This command uses the
5656 process/prefix convention.
5659 @kindex S u (Summary)
5660 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
5661 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
5662 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
5663 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
5666 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
5667 Manual}, for more information.
5670 @node Summary Message Commands
5671 @subsection Summary Message Commands
5675 @kindex S y (Summary)
5676 @findex gnus-summary-yank-message
5677 Yank the current article into an already existing Message composition
5678 buffer (@code{gnus-summary-yank-message}). This command prompts for
5679 what message buffer you want to yank into, and understands the
5680 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5685 @node Canceling and Superseding
5686 @subsection Canceling Articles
5687 @cindex canceling articles
5688 @cindex superseding articles
5690 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
5691 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
5693 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
5695 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
5697 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
5698 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
5699 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
5700 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
5701 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
5702 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5704 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
5705 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
5708 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when canceling. If you
5709 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
5710 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
5712 Gnus ensures that only you can cancel your own messages using a
5713 @code{Cancel-Lock} header (@pxref{Canceling News, Canceling News, ,
5714 message, Message Manual}).
5716 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
5717 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
5718 your original article.
5720 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
5722 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
5723 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
5724 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
5727 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
5728 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
5729 have posted almost the same article twice.
5731 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
5732 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
5733 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
5734 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
5735 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
5736 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
5737 header by substituting one of those words for the word
5738 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
5739 you would do normally. The previous article will be
5740 canceled/superseded.
5742 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
5744 @node Delayed Articles
5745 @section Delayed Articles
5746 @cindex delayed sending
5747 @cindex send delayed
5749 Sometimes, you might wish to delay the sending of a message. For
5750 example, you might wish to arrange for a message to turn up just in time
5751 to remind your about the birthday of your Significant Other. For this,
5752 there is the @code{gnus-delay} package. Setup is simple:
5755 (gnus-delay-initialize)
5758 @findex gnus-delay-article
5759 Normally, to send a message you use the @kbd{C-c C-c} command from
5760 Message mode. To delay a message, use @kbd{C-c C-j}
5761 (@code{gnus-delay-article}) instead. This will ask you for how long the
5762 message should be delayed. Possible answers are:
5766 A time span. Consists of an integer and a letter. For example,
5767 @code{42d} means to delay for 42 days. Available letters are @code{m}
5768 (minutes), @code{h} (hours), @code{d} (days), @code{w} (weeks), @code{M}
5769 (months) and @code{Y} (years).
5772 A specific date. Looks like @code{YYYY-MM-DD}. The message will be
5773 delayed until that day, at a specific time (eight o'clock by default).
5774 See also @code{gnus-delay-default-hour}.
5777 A specific time of day. Given in @code{hh:mm} format, 24h, no am/pm
5778 stuff. The deadline will be at that time today, except if that time has
5779 already passed, then it's at the given time tomorrow. So if it's ten
5780 o'clock in the morning and you specify @code{11:15}, then the deadline
5781 is one hour and fifteen minutes hence. But if you specify @code{9:20},
5782 that means a time tomorrow.
5785 The action of the @code{gnus-delay-article} command is influenced by a
5786 couple of variables:
5789 @item gnus-delay-default-hour
5790 @vindex gnus-delay-default-hour
5791 When you specify a specific date, the message will be due on that hour
5792 on the given date. Possible values are integers 0 through 23.
5794 @item gnus-delay-default-delay
5795 @vindex gnus-delay-default-delay
5796 This is a string and gives the default delay. It can be of any of the
5797 formats described above.
5799 @item gnus-delay-group
5800 @vindex gnus-delay-group
5801 Delayed articles will be kept in this group on the drafts server until
5802 they are due. You probably don't need to change this. The default
5803 value is @code{"delayed"}.
5805 @item gnus-delay-header
5806 @vindex gnus-delay-header
5807 The deadline for each article will be stored in a header. This variable
5808 is a string and gives the header name. You probably don't need to
5809 change this. The default value is @code{"X-Gnus-Delayed"}.
5812 The way delaying works is like this: when you use the
5813 @code{gnus-delay-article} command, you give a certain delay. Gnus
5814 calculates the deadline of the message and stores it in the
5815 @code{X-Gnus-Delayed} header and puts the message in the
5816 @code{nndraft:delayed} group.
5818 @findex gnus-delay-send-queue
5819 And whenever you get new news, Gnus looks through the group for articles
5820 which are due and sends them. It uses the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue}
5821 function for this. By default, this function is added to the hook
5822 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But of course, you can change this.
5823 Maybe you want to use the demon to send drafts? Just tell the demon to
5824 execute the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} function.
5827 @item gnus-delay-initialize
5828 @findex gnus-delay-initialize
5829 By default, this function installs @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} in
5830 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But it accepts the optional second
5831 argument @code{no-check}. If it is non-@code{nil},
5832 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is not changed. The optional first
5833 argument is ignored.
5835 For example, @code{(gnus-delay-initialize nil t)} means to do nothing.
5836 Presumably, you want to use the demon for sending due delayed articles.
5837 Just don't forget to set that up :-)
5841 @node Marking Articles
5842 @section Marking Articles
5843 @cindex article marking
5844 @cindex article ticking
5847 There are several marks you can set on an article.
5849 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
5850 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
5851 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
5853 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
5856 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks.
5860 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
5861 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
5862 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
5863 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
5864 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
5865 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
5869 @node Unread Articles
5870 @subsection Unread Articles
5872 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
5877 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
5878 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
5880 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
5881 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
5882 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
5883 tick it. However, articles can be expired (from news servers by the
5884 news server software, Gnus itself never expires ticked messages), so if
5885 you want to keep an article forever, you'll have to make it persistent
5886 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
5889 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
5890 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
5892 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
5893 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
5894 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
5895 Otherwise (except for the visibility issue), they are just like ticked
5899 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
5900 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
5902 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
5907 @subsection Read Articles
5908 @cindex expirable mark
5910 All the following marks mark articles as read.
5915 @vindex gnus-del-mark
5916 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
5917 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
5920 @vindex gnus-read-mark
5921 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
5924 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
5925 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
5926 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
5929 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
5930 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
5933 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
5934 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
5937 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
5938 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
5941 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
5942 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
5945 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
5946 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
5949 @vindex gnus-souped-mark
5950 @sc{soup}ed article (@code{gnus-souped-mark}). @xref{SOUP}.
5953 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
5954 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
5958 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
5959 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
5960 (@code{gnus-duplicate-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
5964 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
5965 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
5967 One more special mark, though:
5971 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
5972 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
5974 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
5975 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
5976 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
5977 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by Gnus at
5983 @subsection Other Marks
5984 @cindex process mark
5987 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
5993 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
5994 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
5995 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
5996 in the article, and Gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
5997 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}.
6000 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
6001 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
6002 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
6003 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
6006 @vindex gnus-forwarded-mark
6007 All articles that you have forwarded will be marked with an @samp{F} in
6008 the second column (@code{gnus-forwarded-mark}).
6011 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
6012 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
6013 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}.
6016 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
6017 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
6018 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
6019 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
6022 @vindex gnus-recent-mark
6023 Articles that according to the server haven't been shown to the user
6024 before are marked with a @samp{N} in the second column
6025 (@code{gnus-recent-mark}). Note that not all servers support this
6026 mark, in which case it simply never appears. Compare with
6027 @code{gnus-unseen-mark}.
6030 @vindex gnus-unseen-mark
6031 Articles that haven't been seen before in Gnus by the user are marked
6032 with a @samp{.} in the second column (@code{gnus-unseen-mark}).
6033 Compare with @code{gnus-recent-mark}.
6036 @vindex gnus-downloaded-mark
6037 When using the Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}), articles may be
6038 downloaded for unplugged (offline) viewing. If you are using the
6039 @samp{%O} spec, these articles get the @samp{+} mark in that spec.
6040 (The variable @code{gnus-downloaded-mark} controls which character to
6044 @vindex gnus-undownloaded-mark
6045 When using the Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}), some articles might
6046 not have been downloaded. Such articles cannot be viewed while you
6047 are unplugged (offline). If you are using the @samp{%O} spec, these
6048 articles get the @samp{-} mark in that spec. (The variable
6049 @code{gnus-undownloaded-mark} controls which character to use.)
6052 @vindex gnus-downloadable-mark
6053 The Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}) downloads some articles
6054 automatically, but it is also possible to explicitly mark articles for
6055 download, even if they would not be downloaded automatically. Such
6056 explicitly-marked articles get the @samp{%} mark in the first column.
6057 (The variable @code{gnus-downloadable-mark} controls which character to
6061 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
6062 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
6063 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
6064 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
6065 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
6068 @vindex gnus-process-mark
6069 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
6070 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
6071 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
6072 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
6073 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
6077 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
6078 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
6079 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
6081 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
6082 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
6083 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
6087 @subsection Setting Marks
6088 @cindex setting marks
6090 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
6095 @kindex M c (Summary)
6096 @kindex M-u (Summary)
6097 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
6098 @cindex mark as unread
6099 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
6100 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
6106 @kindex M t (Summary)
6107 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
6108 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
6109 @xref{Article Caching}.
6114 @kindex M ? (Summary)
6115 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
6116 Mark the current article as dormant
6117 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}.
6121 @kindex M d (Summary)
6123 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
6124 Mark the current article as read
6125 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
6129 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
6130 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
6131 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
6136 @kindex M k (Summary)
6137 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
6138 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
6139 and then select the next unread article
6140 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
6144 @kindex M K (Summary)
6145 @kindex C-k (Summary)
6146 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
6147 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
6148 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
6151 @kindex M C (Summary)
6152 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
6153 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
6154 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
6157 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
6158 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
6159 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
6160 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
6163 @kindex M H (Summary)
6164 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
6165 Catchup the current group to point (before the point)
6166 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
6169 @kindex M h (Summary)
6170 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-from-here
6171 Catchup the current group from point (after the point)
6172 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-from-here}).
6175 @kindex C-w (Summary)
6176 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
6177 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
6178 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
6181 @kindex M V k (Summary)
6182 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
6183 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
6184 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
6188 @kindex M e (Summary)
6190 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
6191 Mark the current article as expirable
6192 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
6195 @kindex M b (Summary)
6196 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
6197 Set a bookmark in the current article
6198 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
6201 @kindex M B (Summary)
6202 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
6203 Remove the bookmark from the current article
6204 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
6207 @kindex M V c (Summary)
6208 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
6209 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
6210 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
6213 @kindex M V u (Summary)
6214 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
6215 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
6216 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
6219 @kindex M V m (Summary)
6220 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
6221 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
6222 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
6223 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
6226 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
6227 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
6228 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
6229 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
6230 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
6231 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
6232 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
6233 The default is @code{t}.
6236 @node Generic Marking Commands
6237 @subsection Generic Marking Commands
6239 Some people would like the command that ticks an article (@kbd{!}) go to
6240 the next article. Others would like it to go to the next unread
6241 article. Yet others would like it to stay on the current article. And
6242 even though I haven't heard of anybody wanting it to go to the
6243 previous (unread) article, I'm sure there are people that want that as
6246 Multiply these five behaviors with five different marking commands, and
6247 you get a potentially complex set of variable to control what each
6250 To sidestep that mess, Gnus provides commands that do all these
6251 different things. They can be found on the @kbd{M M} map in the summary
6252 buffer. Type @kbd{M M C-h} to see them all---there are too many of them
6253 to list in this manual.
6255 While you can use these commands directly, most users would prefer
6256 altering the summary mode keymap. For instance, if you would like the
6257 @kbd{!} command to go to the next article instead of the next unread
6258 article, you could say something like:
6262 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'my-alter-summary-map)
6263 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
6264 (local-set-key "!" 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-ticked-next))
6272 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
6273 (local-set-key "!" "MM!n"))
6277 @node Setting Process Marks
6278 @subsection Setting Process Marks
6279 @cindex setting process marks
6281 Process marks are displayed as @code{#} in the summary buffer, and are
6282 used for marking articles in such a way that other commands will
6283 process these articles. For instance, if you process mark four
6284 articles and then use the @kbd{*} command, Gnus will enter these four
6285 articles into the cache. For more information,
6286 @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
6293 @kindex M P p (Summary)
6294 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
6295 Mark the current article with the process mark
6296 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
6297 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
6301 @kindex M P u (Summary)
6302 @kindex M-# (Summary)
6303 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
6304 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
6307 @kindex M P U (Summary)
6308 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
6309 Remove the process mark from all articles
6310 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
6313 @kindex M P i (Summary)
6314 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
6315 Invert the list of process marked articles
6316 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
6319 @kindex M P R (Summary)
6320 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
6321 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
6322 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
6325 @kindex M P G (Summary)
6326 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp
6327 Unmark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
6328 expression (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp}).
6331 @kindex M P r (Summary)
6332 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
6333 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
6336 @kindex M P g (Summary)
6337 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-region
6338 Unmark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-region}).
6341 @kindex M P t (Summary)
6342 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
6343 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
6344 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
6347 @kindex M P T (Summary)
6348 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
6349 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
6350 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
6353 @kindex M P v (Summary)
6354 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
6355 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
6356 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
6359 @kindex M P s (Summary)
6360 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
6361 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
6364 @kindex M P S (Summary)
6365 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
6366 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
6367 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
6370 @kindex M P a (Summary)
6371 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
6372 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}).
6375 @kindex M P b (Summary)
6376 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
6377 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
6378 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
6381 @kindex M P k (Summary)
6382 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
6383 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
6384 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
6387 @kindex M P y (Summary)
6388 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
6389 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
6390 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
6393 @kindex M P w (Summary)
6394 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
6395 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
6396 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
6400 Also see the @kbd{&} command in @ref{Searching for Articles}, for how to
6401 set process marks based on article body contents.
6408 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
6409 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
6410 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
6413 All limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched
6414 from the servers. None of these commands query the server for
6415 additional articles.
6421 @kindex / / (Summary)
6422 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
6423 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
6424 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}). If given a prefix, exclude
6428 @kindex / a (Summary)
6429 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
6430 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
6431 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}). If given a prefix, exclude
6435 @kindex / R (Summary)
6436 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-recipient
6437 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some recipient
6438 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-recipient}). If given a prefix, exclude
6442 @kindex / S (Summary)
6443 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-singletons
6444 Limit the summary buffer to articles that aren't part of any displayed
6445 threads (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-singletons}). If given a prefix,
6446 limit to articles that are part of displayed threads.
6449 @kindex / x (Summary)
6450 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-extra
6451 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match one of the ``extra''
6452 headers (@pxref{To From Newsgroups})
6453 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-extra}). If given a prefix, exclude
6458 @kindex / u (Summary)
6460 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
6461 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
6462 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
6463 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
6464 dormant articles will also be excluded.
6467 @kindex / m (Summary)
6468 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
6469 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have been marked
6470 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
6473 @kindex / t (Summary)
6474 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
6475 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
6476 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-age}). If given a prefix, limit to
6477 articles younger than that number of days.
6480 @kindex / n (Summary)
6481 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
6482 With prefix @samp{n}, limit the summary buffer to the next @samp{n}
6483 articles. If not given a prefix, use the process marked articles
6484 instead. (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}).
6487 @kindex / w (Summary)
6488 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
6489 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
6490 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
6494 @kindex / . (Summary)
6495 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen
6496 Limit the summary buffer to the unseen articles
6497 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen}).
6500 @kindex / v (Summary)
6501 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
6502 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
6503 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
6506 @kindex / p (Summary)
6507 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate
6508 Limit the summary buffer to articles that satisfy the @code{display}
6509 group parameter predicate
6510 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate}). @xref{Group
6511 Parameters}, for more on this predicate.
6514 @kindex / r (Summary)
6515 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-replied
6516 Limit the summary buffer to replied articles
6517 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-replied}). If given a prefix, exclude
6522 @kindex M S (Summary)
6523 @kindex / E (Summary)
6524 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
6525 Include all expunged articles in the limit
6526 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
6529 @kindex / D (Summary)
6530 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
6531 Include all dormant articles in the limit
6532 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
6535 @kindex / * (Summary)
6536 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
6537 Include all cached articles in the limit
6538 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
6541 @kindex / d (Summary)
6542 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
6543 Exclude all dormant articles from the limit
6544 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
6547 @kindex / M (Summary)
6548 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks
6549 Exclude all marked articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks}).
6552 @kindex / T (Summary)
6553 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
6554 Include all the articles in the current thread in the limit.
6557 @kindex / c (Summary)
6558 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
6559 Exclude all dormant articles that have no children from the limit@*
6560 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
6563 @kindex / C (Summary)
6564 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
6565 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
6566 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
6567 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
6570 @kindex / N (Summary)
6571 @findex gnus-summary-insert-new-articles
6572 Insert all new articles in the summary buffer. It scans for new emails
6573 if @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} is non-@code{nil}.
6576 @kindex / o (Summary)
6577 @findex gnus-summary-insert-old-articles
6578 Insert all old articles in the summary buffer. If given a numbered
6579 prefix, fetch this number of articles.
6582 @kindex / b (Summary)
6583 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-bodies
6584 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have bodies that match a
6585 certain regexp (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-bodies}). If given a
6586 prefix, reverse the limit. This command is quite slow since it
6587 requires selecting each article to find the matches.
6590 @kindex / h (Summary)
6591 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-headers
6592 Like the previous command, only limit to headers instead
6593 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-headers}).
6601 @cindex article threading
6603 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
6604 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
6605 hierarchical fashion.
6607 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
6608 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
6609 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
6610 or simply missing. Weird news propagation exacerbates the problem,
6611 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
6612 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
6613 @ref{Customizing Threading}.
6615 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
6619 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
6622 A tree-like article structure.
6625 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
6628 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
6629 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
6630 summary buffer. We then typically have many sub-threads that really
6631 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
6632 called loose threads.
6634 @item thread gathering
6635 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
6637 @item sparse threads
6638 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
6639 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
6645 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
6646 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
6650 @node Customizing Threading
6651 @subsection Customizing Threading
6652 @cindex customizing threading
6655 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
6656 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
6657 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
6658 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
6663 @subsubsection Loose Threads
6666 @cindex loose threads
6669 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
6670 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
6671 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
6672 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
6673 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
6674 read or killed the root in a previous session.
6676 When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
6677 something. This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
6678 There are four possible values:
6682 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
6683 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-adopt,width=7.5cm}}
6684 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-empty,width=7.5cm}}}
6685 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-none,width=7.5cm}}}
6686 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-dummy,width=7.5cm}}}
6691 @cindex adopting articles
6696 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
6697 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
6698 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
6699 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
6702 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
6703 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root-always
6704 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
6705 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
6706 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
6707 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
6708 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
6709 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
6710 If you want all threads to have a dummy root, even the non-gathered
6711 ones, set @code{gnus-summary-make-false-root-always} to @code{t}.
6714 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
6715 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
6716 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
6720 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
6721 display them after one another.
6724 Don't gather loose threads.
6727 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
6728 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
6729 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
6730 variable is @code{nil}, Gnus requires an exact match between the
6731 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
6732 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
6733 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
6734 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
6735 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
6736 variable to a really low number, you'll find that Gnus will gather
6737 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
6739 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
6740 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, Gnus will
6741 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
6744 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
6745 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
6746 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
6747 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
6748 simplification is used.
6750 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6751 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6752 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
6753 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
6755 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
6757 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6763 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
6764 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
6765 "answer" "reference" "announce"
6766 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
6771 (mapconcat 'identity
6772 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
6774 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
6777 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
6780 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
6781 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
6782 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
6783 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
6784 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
6785 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
6787 Useful functions to put in this list include:
6790 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
6791 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
6792 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
6794 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
6795 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
6798 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
6799 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
6800 Remove excessive whitespace.
6802 @item gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
6803 @findex gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
6804 Remove all whitespace.
6807 You may also write your own functions, of course.
6810 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
6811 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
6812 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
6813 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
6814 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
6815 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
6816 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
6817 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
6819 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6820 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6821 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
6822 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
6823 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
6824 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
6825 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
6826 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
6827 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
6831 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
6832 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
6833 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
6834 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
6836 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
6837 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
6838 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
6841 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
6845 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6846 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
6852 @node Filling In Threads
6853 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
6856 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
6857 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
6858 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
6859 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you would
6860 like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still connect as
6861 many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable to
6862 @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than that
6863 number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case, fetching
6864 old headers only works if the back end you are using carries overview
6865 files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool},
6866 @code{nnml}, and @code{nnmaildir}. Also remember that if the root of
6867 the thread has been expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can
6870 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
6871 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
6872 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
6874 @item gnus-fetch-old-ephemeral-headers
6875 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-ephemeral-headers
6876 Same as @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}, but only used for ephemeral
6879 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
6880 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
6881 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
6882 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
6883 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
6884 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
6885 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where Gnus guesses that an article
6886 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
6887 lines. If you select a gap, Gnus will try to fetch the article in
6888 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, Gnus will display all these
6889 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
6890 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, Gnus won't cut
6891 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
6892 @code{nil} by default.
6894 @item gnus-read-all-available-headers
6895 @vindex gnus-read-all-available-headers
6896 This is a rather obscure variable that few will find useful. It's
6897 intended for those non-news newsgroups where the back end has to fetch
6898 quite a lot to present the summary buffer, and where it's impossible to
6899 go back to parents of articles. This is mostly the case in the
6900 web-based groups, like the @code{nnultimate} groups.
6902 If you don't use those, then it's safe to leave this as the default
6903 @code{nil}. If you want to use this variable, it should be a regexp
6904 that matches the group name, or @code{t} for all groups.
6909 @node More Threading
6910 @subsubsection More Threading
6913 @item gnus-show-threads
6914 @vindex gnus-show-threads
6915 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
6916 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
6917 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
6918 slower and more awkward.
6920 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6921 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6922 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
6925 This can also be a predicate specifier (@pxref{Predicate Specifiers}).
6926 Available predicates are @code{gnus-article-unread-p} and
6927 @code{gnus-article-unseen-p}.
6932 (setq gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6933 '(or gnus-article-unread-p
6934 gnus-article-unseen-p))
6937 (It's a pretty nonsensical example, since all unseen articles are also
6938 unread, but you get my drift.)
6941 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
6942 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
6943 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
6944 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
6945 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
6946 threads are expunged.
6948 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
6949 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
6950 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
6953 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6954 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6955 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
6956 this variable is non-@code{nil}, which is the default, the subject
6957 change is ignored. If it is @code{nil}, a change in the subject will
6958 result in a new thread.
6960 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
6961 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
6962 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
6965 @item gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6966 @vindex gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6967 Sometimes, particularly with mailing lists, the order in which mails
6968 arrive locally is not necessarily the same as the order in which they
6969 arrived on the mailing list. Consequently, when sorting sub-threads
6970 using the default @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number}, responses can end
6971 up appearing before the article to which they are responding to.
6972 Setting this variable to an alternate value
6973 (e.g. @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}), in a group's parameters or in an
6974 appropriate hook (e.g. @code{gnus-summary-generate-hook}) can produce a
6975 more logical sub-thread ordering in such instances.
6980 @node Low-Level Threading
6981 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
6985 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
6986 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
6987 Hook run before parsing any headers.
6989 @item gnus-alter-header-function
6990 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
6991 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
6992 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
6993 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
6994 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
6995 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
6996 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
6997 meaningful. Here's one example:
7000 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
7002 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
7003 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
7005 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
7007 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
7014 @node Thread Commands
7015 @subsection Thread Commands
7016 @cindex thread commands
7022 @kindex T k (Summary)
7023 @kindex C-M-k (Summary)
7024 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
7025 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
7026 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
7027 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
7032 @kindex T l (Summary)
7033 @kindex C-M-l (Summary)
7034 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
7035 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
7036 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
7039 @kindex T i (Summary)
7040 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
7041 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
7042 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
7045 @kindex T # (Summary)
7046 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
7047 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
7048 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
7051 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
7052 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
7053 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
7054 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
7057 @kindex T T (Summary)
7058 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
7059 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
7062 @kindex T s (Summary)
7063 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
7064 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any@*
7065 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
7068 @kindex T h (Summary)
7069 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
7070 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
7073 @kindex T S (Summary)
7074 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
7075 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
7078 @kindex T H (Summary)
7079 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
7080 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
7083 @kindex T t (Summary)
7084 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
7085 Re-thread the current article's thread
7086 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
7087 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
7090 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
7091 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
7092 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
7093 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
7096 @kindex T M-^ (Summary)
7097 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-children
7098 Make the current article the parent of the marked articles
7099 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-children}).
7103 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
7104 understand the numeric prefix.
7109 @kindex T n (Summary)
7111 @kindex C-M-n (Summary)
7113 @kindex M-down (Summary)
7114 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
7115 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
7118 @kindex T p (Summary)
7120 @kindex C-M-p (Summary)
7122 @kindex M-up (Summary)
7123 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
7124 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
7127 @kindex T d (Summary)
7128 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
7129 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
7132 @kindex T u (Summary)
7133 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
7134 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
7137 @kindex T o (Summary)
7138 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
7139 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
7142 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
7143 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
7144 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
7145 a command like @kbd{T k} (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
7146 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
7147 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
7148 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
7149 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
7150 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
7151 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
7152 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
7153 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
7157 @node Sorting the Summary Buffer
7158 @section Sorting the Summary Buffer
7160 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
7161 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
7162 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date-reverse
7163 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
7164 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
7165 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
7166 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-recipient
7167 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
7168 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-random
7169 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
7170 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number
7171 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date
7172 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
7173 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which can be either a single
7174 function, a list of functions, or a list containing functions and
7175 @code{(not some-function)} elements.
7177 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
7178 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
7179 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-recipient},
7180 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
7181 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date-reverse},
7182 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score},
7183 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number},
7184 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date},
7185 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-random} and
7186 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
7188 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
7189 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
7190 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread.
7192 If you use more than one function, the primary sort key should be the
7193 last function in the list. You should probably always include
7194 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
7195 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
7196 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
7197 ascending article order.
7199 If you would like to sort by reverse score, then by subject, and finally
7200 by number, you could do something like:
7203 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
7204 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
7205 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
7206 (not gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score)))
7209 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
7210 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
7211 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
7212 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
7213 which the articles arrived.
7215 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
7219 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
7220 '((not gnus-thread-sort-by-number)
7221 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
7224 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
7225 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
7226 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
7227 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
7230 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
7231 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
7232 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
7233 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
7234 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
7235 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-random
7236 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
7237 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or
7238 other, you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions}
7239 variable. It is very similar to the
7240 @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that it uses slightly
7241 different functions for article comparison. Available sorting
7242 predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
7243 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author},
7244 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date},
7245 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-random}, and
7246 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
7248 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
7252 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
7253 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
7254 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
7257 You can define group specific sorting via @code{gnus-parameters},
7258 @xref{Group Parameters}.
7261 @node Asynchronous Fetching
7262 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
7263 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
7264 @cindex article pre-fetch
7267 If you read your news from an @acronym{NNTP} server that's far away, the
7268 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
7269 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
7270 article appears. Why can't Gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
7271 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
7273 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
7274 article fetching, especially the way Gnus does it.
7276 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
7277 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
7278 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
7279 article 3, but since Gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
7280 connection is blocked.
7282 To avoid these situations, Gnus will open two (count 'em two)
7283 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
7284 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
7285 extra connection takes some time, so Gnus startup will be slower.
7287 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
7288 the link between your machine and the @acronym{NNTP} server will become more
7289 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
7290 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
7293 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing@dots{} unless
7296 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
7297 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
7298 happen automatically.
7300 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
7301 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
7302 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
7303 that when you read an article in the group, the back end will pre-fetch
7304 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the back end will
7305 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
7306 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
7308 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
7309 @findex gnus-async-read-p
7310 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
7311 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p}
7312 variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This
7313 function should return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is
7314 to be pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-read-p}, which
7315 returns @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an
7316 article data structure as the only parameter.
7318 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter
7319 than 100 lines, you could say something like:
7322 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
7323 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
7324 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
7325 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
7328 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
7331 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
7332 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down Gnus too much.
7333 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
7335 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
7336 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
7337 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
7338 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
7342 Remove articles when they are read.
7345 Remove articles when exiting the group.
7348 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
7350 @c @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
7351 @c If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
7352 @c from the next group.
7355 @node Article Caching
7356 @section Article Caching
7357 @cindex article caching
7360 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @acronym{NNTP} connection, you may
7361 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
7362 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
7363 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
7364 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
7366 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
7368 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
7369 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
7370 @vindex gnus-use-cache
7371 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
7372 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
7373 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
7374 cache is flat or hierarchical is controlled by the
7375 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
7377 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
7378 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
7379 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
7380 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
7381 as dormant, and don't worry.
7383 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
7385 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
7386 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
7387 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
7388 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
7389 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
7390 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
7391 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
7392 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
7393 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
7394 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
7396 @findex gnus-jog-cache
7397 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
7398 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
7399 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
7400 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
7401 command if 1) your connection to the @acronym{NNTP} server is really, really,
7402 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
7403 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
7404 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
7405 not then be downloaded by this command.
7407 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
7408 @vindex gnus-cacheable-groups
7409 It is likely that you do not want caching on all groups. For instance,
7410 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
7411 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
7412 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.
7414 To limit the caching, you could set @code{gnus-cacheable-groups} to a
7415 regexp of groups to cache, @samp{^nntp} for instance, or set the
7416 @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to @samp{^nnml}, for instance.
7417 Both variables are @code{nil} by default. If a group matches both
7418 variables, the group is not cached.
7420 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
7421 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
7422 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
7423 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
7424 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
7425 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, Gnus
7426 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
7427 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @acronym{NOV}
7428 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
7431 @findex gnus-cache-move-cache
7432 @code{gnus-cache-move-cache} will move your whole
7433 @code{gnus-cache-directory} to some other location. You get asked to
7434 where, isn't that cool?
7436 @node Persistent Articles
7437 @section Persistent Articles
7438 @cindex persistent articles
7440 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
7441 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
7442 useful in my opinion.
7444 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
7445 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
7446 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
7447 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
7448 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
7449 the expiry going on at the news server.
7451 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
7452 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
7453 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
7459 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
7460 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
7463 @kindex M-* (Summary)
7464 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
7465 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
7466 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
7470 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
7472 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
7473 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
7474 interested in persistent articles:
7477 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
7481 @node Article Backlog
7482 @section Article Backlog
7484 @cindex article backlog
7486 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
7487 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
7488 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where Gnus will buffer
7489 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
7490 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
7491 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
7492 that, turning the backlog on will slow Gnus down a little bit, and
7493 increase memory usage some.
7495 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
7496 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, Gnus will store
7497 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
7498 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, Gnus will store
7499 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
7500 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
7501 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
7503 The default value is 20.
7506 @node Saving Articles
7507 @section Saving Articles
7508 @cindex saving articles
7510 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
7511 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
7512 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
7513 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
7514 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
7516 For the commands listed here, the target is a file. If you want to
7517 save to a group, see the @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article})
7518 command (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
7520 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
7521 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will not delete
7522 unwanted headers before saving the article.
7524 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
7525 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
7526 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
7527 deleted before saving.
7533 @kindex O o (Summary)
7535 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
7536 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
7537 Save the current article using the default article saver
7538 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
7541 @kindex O m (Summary)
7542 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
7543 Save the current article in a Unix mail box (mbox) file
7544 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
7547 @kindex O r (Summary)
7548 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
7549 Save the current article in Rmail format
7550 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}).
7553 @kindex O f (Summary)
7554 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
7555 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
7556 Save the current article in plain file format
7557 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
7560 @kindex O F (Summary)
7561 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
7562 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
7563 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
7566 @kindex O b (Summary)
7567 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
7568 Save the current article body in plain file format
7569 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
7572 @kindex O h (Summary)
7573 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
7574 Save the current article in mh folder format
7575 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
7578 @kindex O v (Summary)
7579 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
7580 Save the current article in a VM folder
7581 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
7585 @kindex O p (Summary)
7587 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
7588 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
7589 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
7590 If given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), include the
7591 complete headers in the piped output.
7594 @kindex O P (Summary)
7595 @findex gnus-summary-muttprint
7596 @vindex gnus-summary-muttprint-program
7597 Save the current article into muttprint. That is, print it using the
7598 external program @uref{http://muttprint.sourceforge.net/,
7599 Muttprint}. The program name and options to use is controlled by the
7600 variable @code{gnus-summary-muttprint-program}.
7601 (@code{gnus-summary-muttprint}).
7605 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
7606 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
7607 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
7608 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
7609 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
7610 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
7611 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
7612 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
7613 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
7614 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
7615 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
7616 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
7620 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
7621 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
7622 Gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the eight ready-made
7623 functions below, or you can create your own.
7627 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
7628 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
7629 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
7630 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
7631 This is the default format, @dfn{Babyl}. Uses the function in the
7632 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7633 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
7635 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
7636 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
7637 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
7638 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
7639 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7640 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
7642 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
7643 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
7644 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
7645 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
7646 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
7647 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7648 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7650 @item gnus-summary-write-to-file
7651 @findex gnus-summary-write-to-file
7652 Write the article straight to an ordinary file. The file is
7653 overwritten if it exists. Uses the function in the
7654 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7655 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7657 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
7658 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
7659 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
7660 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7661 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7663 @item gnus-summary-write-body-to-file
7664 @findex gnus-summary-write-body-to-file
7665 Write the article body straight to an ordinary file. The file is
7666 overwritten if it exists. Uses the function in the
7667 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7668 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7670 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
7671 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
7672 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
7673 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
7674 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
7677 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
7678 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
7679 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
7680 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
7681 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
7683 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
7684 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
7685 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
7686 reader to use this setting.
7689 The symbol of each function may have the following properties:
7693 The value non-@code{nil} means save decoded articles. This is
7694 meaningful only with @code{gnus-summary-save-in-file},
7695 @code{gnus-summary-save-body-in-file},
7696 @code{gnus-summary-write-to-file}, and
7697 @code{gnus-summary-write-body-to-file}.
7700 The value specifies an alternative function which appends, not
7701 overwrites, articles to a file. This implies that when saving many
7702 articles at a time, @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} is bound to
7703 @code{t} and all articles are saved in a single file. This is
7704 meaningful only with @code{gnus-summary-write-to-file} and
7705 @code{gnus-summary-write-body-to-file}.
7708 The value specifies the symbol of a variable of which the value
7709 specifies headers to be saved. If it is omitted,
7710 @code{gnus-save-all-headers} and @code{gnus-saved-headers} control what
7711 headers should be saved.
7714 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
7715 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
7716 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
7717 @env{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
7720 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
7721 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
7722 available functions that generate names:
7726 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
7727 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
7728 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
7730 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
7731 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
7732 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
7734 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
7735 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
7736 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
7738 @item gnus-plain-save-name
7739 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
7740 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
7742 @item gnus-sender-save-name
7743 @findex gnus-sender-save-name
7744 File names like @file{~/News/larsi}.
7747 @vindex gnus-split-methods
7748 You can have Gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
7749 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
7750 save articles related to Gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
7751 related to VM in @file{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
7755 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
7756 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
7757 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
7758 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
7761 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
7762 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
7763 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
7764 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
7765 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
7766 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
7767 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
7768 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
7769 called returns a string or a list of strings.
7771 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
7772 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
7773 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
7774 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
7776 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
7777 means that Gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
7778 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
7781 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
7782 lots of mail groups called things like
7783 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
7784 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
7785 following will do just that:
7788 (defun my-save-name (group)
7789 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
7790 (substring group (match-end 0))))
7792 (setq gnus-split-methods
7793 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
7798 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
7799 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
7800 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
7801 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
7802 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
7803 all the files in the top level directory
7804 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
7805 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
7806 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
7807 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
7809 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
7810 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
7811 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
7812 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
7813 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
7816 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
7820 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; @r{to get a hierarchy}
7821 (setq gnus-default-article-saver
7822 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; @r{no encoding}
7825 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
7826 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
7827 the top level directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
7828 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
7831 @node Decoding Articles
7832 @section Decoding Articles
7833 @cindex decoding articles
7835 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
7836 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
7839 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
7840 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
7841 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
7842 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
7843 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
7844 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
7848 @cindex article series
7849 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
7850 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
7851 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
7852 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
7853 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
7855 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
7856 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
7857 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
7859 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, Gnus
7860 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
7861 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
7863 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
7864 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
7865 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
7868 @node Uuencoded Articles
7869 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
7871 @cindex uuencoded articles
7876 @kindex X u (Summary)
7877 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
7878 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
7879 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
7882 @kindex X U (Summary)
7883 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
7884 Uudecodes and saves the current series
7885 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
7888 @kindex X v u (Summary)
7889 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
7890 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
7893 @kindex X v U (Summary)
7894 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
7895 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
7896 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
7900 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
7901 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
7902 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
7903 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
7904 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
7906 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
7907 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
7908 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
7909 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
7912 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
7913 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
7914 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
7915 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
7916 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
7917 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
7921 @node Shell Archives
7922 @subsection Shell Archives
7924 @cindex shell archives
7925 @cindex shared articles
7927 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
7928 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
7929 some commands to deal with these:
7934 @kindex X s (Summary)
7935 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
7936 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
7939 @kindex X S (Summary)
7940 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
7941 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
7944 @kindex X v s (Summary)
7945 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
7946 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
7949 @kindex X v S (Summary)
7950 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
7951 Unshars, views and saves the current series
7952 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
7956 @node PostScript Files
7957 @subsection PostScript Files
7963 @kindex X p (Summary)
7964 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
7965 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
7968 @kindex X P (Summary)
7969 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
7970 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
7971 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
7974 @kindex X v p (Summary)
7975 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
7976 View the current PostScript series
7977 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
7980 @kindex X v P (Summary)
7981 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
7982 View and save the current PostScript series
7983 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
7988 @subsection Other Files
7992 @kindex X o (Summary)
7993 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
7994 Save the current series
7995 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
7998 @kindex X b (Summary)
7999 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
8000 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
8001 doesn't really work yet.
8005 @node Decoding Variables
8006 @subsection Decoding Variables
8008 Adjective, not verb.
8011 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
8012 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
8013 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
8017 @node Rule Variables
8018 @subsubsection Rule Variables
8019 @cindex rule variables
8021 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
8022 variables are of the form
8025 (list '(regexp1 command2)
8032 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
8033 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
8035 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
8036 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @file{.au} sound file, you could
8039 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
8040 (list '("\\\\.au$" "sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio")))
8043 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
8044 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
8045 This variable is consulted if Gnus couldn't make any matches from the
8046 user and default view rules.
8048 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
8049 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
8050 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
8055 @node Other Decode Variables
8056 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
8059 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
8061 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
8062 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
8063 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
8064 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
8065 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
8069 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
8070 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
8073 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
8074 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
8075 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
8078 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
8079 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
8080 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
8081 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
8082 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
8085 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
8086 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
8087 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
8089 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
8090 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
8091 Files with a @acronym{MIME} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
8092 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
8093 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @acronym{MIME} package (yet), so this is slightly
8096 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
8097 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
8098 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
8100 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
8101 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
8102 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
8103 looking for files to display.
8105 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
8106 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
8107 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
8110 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
8111 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
8112 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
8115 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
8116 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
8117 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
8120 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
8121 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
8122 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
8125 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
8126 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
8127 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
8128 decoded articles as unread.
8130 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
8131 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
8132 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
8133 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
8135 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
8136 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
8137 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
8139 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
8140 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
8142 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
8143 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @acronym{MIME}
8144 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
8145 @code{metamail} for viewing.
8147 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
8148 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
8149 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
8150 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
8151 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
8152 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC 1153---no easy way
8153 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
8154 simply dropped them.
8159 @node Uuencoding and Posting
8160 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
8164 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
8165 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
8166 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
8167 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
8168 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
8169 for you when you post the article.
8171 @item gnus-uu-post-length
8172 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
8173 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
8174 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
8176 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
8177 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
8178 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
8179 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
8180 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
8181 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
8182 think that counts@dots{}) Default is @code{nil}.
8184 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
8185 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
8186 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
8187 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
8188 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
8189 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
8190 Default is @code{t}.
8196 @subsection Viewing Files
8197 @cindex viewing files
8198 @cindex pseudo-articles
8200 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, Gnus will attempt
8201 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
8202 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
8203 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, Gnus will
8204 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
8205 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
8206 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
8208 Finally, Gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
8209 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
8210 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
8211 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
8213 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
8214 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
8215 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
8217 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
8218 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
8219 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
8220 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
8221 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
8223 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
8224 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
8225 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
8226 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
8227 a list of parameters to that command.
8229 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
8230 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
8231 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
8233 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
8234 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
8235 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
8238 @node Article Treatment
8239 @section Article Treatment
8241 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
8242 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
8243 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
8244 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
8245 these articles easier.
8248 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
8249 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
8250 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
8251 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
8252 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
8253 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
8254 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
8255 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
8256 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
8257 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
8258 * Article Miscellanea:: Various other stuff.
8262 @node Article Highlighting
8263 @subsection Article Highlighting
8264 @cindex highlighting
8266 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
8267 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
8272 @kindex W H a (Summary)
8273 @findex gnus-article-highlight
8274 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
8275 Do much highlighting of the current article
8276 (@code{gnus-article-highlight}). This function highlights header, cited
8277 text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.
8280 @kindex W H h (Summary)
8281 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
8282 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
8283 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
8284 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
8285 variable, which is a list where each element has the form
8286 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{name} @var{content})}.
8287 @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
8288 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
8289 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
8290 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
8291 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
8294 @kindex W H c (Summary)
8295 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
8296 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
8298 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
8301 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
8303 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
8304 If the article size in bytes is bigger than this variable (which is
8305 25000 by default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
8307 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
8308 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
8309 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
8311 @item gnus-cite-face-list
8312 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
8313 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
8314 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
8315 Gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
8316 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
8318 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
8319 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
8320 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
8322 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
8323 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
8324 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
8326 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
8327 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
8328 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
8329 that it's a citation.
8331 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
8332 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
8333 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
8335 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
8336 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
8337 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
8339 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
8340 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
8341 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
8342 cited text belonging to the attribution.
8344 @item gnus-cite-ignore-quoted-from
8345 @vindex gnus-cite-ignore-quoted-from
8346 If non-@code{nil}, no citation highlighting will be performed on lines
8347 beginning with @samp{>From }. Those lines may have been quoted by MTAs
8348 in order not to mix up with the envelope From line. The default value
8355 @kindex W H s (Summary)
8356 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
8357 @vindex gnus-signature-face
8358 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
8359 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
8360 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
8361 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
8362 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
8367 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to highlight articles automatically.
8370 @node Article Fontisizing
8371 @subsection Article Fontisizing
8373 @cindex article emphasis
8375 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
8376 @kindex W e (Summary)
8377 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
8378 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*} or @samp{/this/}. Gnus can make
8379 this look nicer by running the article through the @kbd{W e}
8380 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
8382 @vindex gnus-emphasis-alist
8383 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
8384 @code{gnus-emphasis-alist} variable. This is an alist where the first
8385 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
8386 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
8387 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
8388 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
8389 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
8393 (setq gnus-emphasis-alist
8394 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
8395 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
8404 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
8405 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
8406 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
8407 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
8408 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
8409 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
8410 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
8411 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
8412 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
8413 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
8414 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
8415 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
8416 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
8418 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
8419 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
8420 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
8424 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
8427 @vindex gnus-group-highlight-words-alist
8429 If you want to highlight arbitrary words, you can use the
8430 @code{gnus-group-highlight-words-alist} variable, which uses the same
8431 syntax as @code{gnus-emphasis-alist}. The @code{highlight-words} group
8432 parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) can also be used.
8434 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to fontize articles automatically.
8437 @node Article Hiding
8438 @subsection Article Hiding
8439 @cindex article hiding
8441 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
8442 too much cruft in most articles.
8447 @kindex W W a (Summary)
8448 @findex gnus-article-hide
8449 Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
8450 (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}). In particular, this function will hide
8451 headers, @acronym{PGP}, cited text and the signature.
8454 @kindex W W h (Summary)
8455 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
8456 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}). @xref{Hiding
8460 @kindex W W b (Summary)
8461 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
8462 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
8463 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
8466 @kindex W W s (Summary)
8467 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
8468 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
8472 @kindex W W l (Summary)
8473 @findex gnus-article-hide-list-identifiers
8474 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
8475 Strip list identifiers specified in @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. These
8476 are strings some mailing list servers add to the beginning of all
8477 @code{Subject} headers---for example, @samp{[zebra 4711]}. Any leading
8478 @samp{Re: } is skipped before stripping. @code{gnus-list-identifiers}
8479 may not contain @code{\\(..\\)}.
8483 @item gnus-list-identifiers
8484 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
8485 A regular expression that matches list identifiers to be removed from
8486 subject. This can also be a list of regular expressions.
8491 @kindex W W P (Summary)
8492 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
8493 Hide @acronym{PEM} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
8494 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
8497 @kindex W W B (Summary)
8498 @findex gnus-article-strip-banner
8499 @vindex gnus-article-banner-alist
8500 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8503 @cindex stripping advertisements
8504 @cindex advertisements
8505 Strip the banner specified by the @code{banner} group parameter
8506 (@code{gnus-article-strip-banner}). This is mainly used to hide those
8507 annoying banners and/or signatures that some mailing lists and moderated
8508 groups adds to all the messages. The way to use this function is to add
8509 the @code{banner} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to the
8510 group you want banners stripped from. The parameter either be a string,
8511 which will be interpreted as a regular expression matching text to be
8512 removed, or the symbol @code{signature}, meaning that the (last)
8513 signature should be removed, or other symbol, meaning that the
8514 corresponding regular expression in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist} is
8517 Regardless of a group, you can hide things like advertisements only when
8518 the sender of an article has a certain mail address specified in
8519 @code{gnus-article-address-banner-alist}.
8523 @item gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8524 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8525 Alist of mail addresses and banners. Each element has the form
8526 @code{(@var{address} . @var{banner})}, where @var{address} is a regexp
8527 matching a mail address in the From header, @var{banner} is one of a
8528 symbol @code{signature}, an item in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist},
8529 a regexp and @code{nil}. If @var{address} matches author's mail
8530 address, it will remove things like advertisements. For example, if a
8531 sender has the mail address @samp{hail@@yoo-hoo.co.jp} and there is a
8532 banner something like @samp{Do You Yoo-hoo!?} in all articles he
8533 sends, you can use the following element to remove them:
8536 ("@@yoo-hoo\\.co\\.jp\\'" .
8537 "\n_+\nDo You Yoo-hoo!\\?\n.*\n.*\n")
8543 @kindex W W c (Summary)
8544 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
8545 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
8546 customizing the hiding:
8550 @item gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
8551 @itemx gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
8552 @vindex gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
8553 @vindex gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
8554 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
8555 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
8556 by these format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
8561 Starting point of the hidden text.
8563 Ending point of the hidden text.
8565 Number of characters in the hidden region.
8567 Number of lines of hidden text.
8570 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
8571 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
8572 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave
8573 shown. This can also be a cons cell with the number of lines at the top
8574 and bottom of the text, respectively, to remain visible.
8579 @kindex W W C-c (Summary)
8580 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe
8582 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe}) depending on the
8583 following two variables:
8586 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
8587 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
8588 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
8589 50), hide the cited text.
8591 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
8592 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
8593 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
8598 @kindex W W C (Summary)
8599 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
8600 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
8601 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
8602 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
8603 have happen automatically (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
8607 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
8608 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
8609 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
8611 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
8612 citation customization.
8614 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to hide article elements
8618 @node Article Washing
8619 @subsection Article Washing
8621 @cindex article washing
8623 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
8624 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
8626 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
8627 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
8630 @xref{Customizing Articles}, if you want to change how Gnus displays
8631 articles by default.
8636 This is not really washing, it's sort of the opposite of washing. If
8637 you type this, you see the article exactly as it exists on disk or on
8641 Force redisplaying of the current article
8642 (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). This is also not really washing.
8643 If you type this, you see the article without any previously applied
8644 interactive Washing functions but with all default treatments
8645 (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
8648 @kindex W l (Summary)
8649 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
8650 Remove page breaks from the current article
8651 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}). @xref{Misc Article}, for page
8655 @kindex W r (Summary)
8656 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
8657 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
8658 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
8659 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
8660 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
8661 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
8663 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
8664 positions in the alphabet, e. g. @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
8665 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
8666 is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
8669 @kindex W m (Summary)
8670 @findex gnus-summary-morse-message
8671 Morse decode the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-morse-message}).
8674 @kindex W i (Summary)
8675 @findex gnus-summary-idna-message
8676 Decode IDNA encoded domain names in the current articles. IDNA
8677 encoded domain names looks like @samp{xn--bar}. If a string remain
8678 unencoded after running invoking this, it is likely an invalid IDNA
8679 string (@samp{xn--bar} is invalid). You must have GNU Libidn
8680 (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/}) installed for this command
8685 @kindex W t (Summary)
8687 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
8688 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
8689 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
8692 @kindex W v (Summary)
8693 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-headers
8694 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
8695 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-headers}).
8698 @kindex W o (Summary)
8699 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
8700 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
8703 @kindex W d (Summary)
8704 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
8705 @vindex gnus-article-dumbquotes-map
8707 @cindex M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s
8709 Treat M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s according to
8710 @code{gnus-article-dumbquotes-map}
8711 (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}). Note that this function guesses
8712 whether a character is a sm*rtq**t* or not, so it should only be used
8715 Sm*rtq**t*s are M****s***'s unilateral extension to the character map in
8716 an attempt to provide more quoting characters. If you see something
8717 like @code{\222} or @code{\264} where you're expecting some kind of
8718 apostrophe or quotation mark, then try this wash.
8721 @kindex W Y f (Summary)
8722 @findex gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article
8723 @cindex Outlook Express
8724 Full deuglify of broken Outlook (Express) articles: Treat dumbquotes,
8725 unwrap lines, repair attribution and rearrange citation.
8726 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article}).
8729 @kindex W Y u (Summary)
8730 @findex gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines
8731 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min
8732 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max
8733 Unwrap lines that appear to be wrapped citation lines. You can control
8734 what lines will be unwrapped by frobbing
8735 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min} and
8736 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max}, indicating the minimum and
8737 maximum length of an unwrapped citation line.
8738 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines}).
8741 @kindex W Y a (Summary)
8742 @findex gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution
8743 Repair a broken attribution line.@*
8744 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution}).
8747 @kindex W Y c (Summary)
8748 @findex gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation
8749 Repair broken citations by rearranging the text.
8750 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation}).
8753 @kindex W w (Summary)
8754 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
8755 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}).
8757 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
8761 @kindex W Q (Summary)
8762 @findex gnus-article-fill-long-lines
8763 Fill long lines (@code{gnus-article-fill-long-lines}).
8766 @kindex W C (Summary)
8767 @findex gnus-article-capitalize-sentences
8768 Capitalize the first word in each sentence
8769 (@code{gnus-article-capitalize-sentences}).
8772 @kindex W c (Summary)
8773 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
8774 Translate CRLF pairs (i. e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines) into LF
8775 (this takes care of DOS line endings), and then translate any remaining
8776 CRs into LF (this takes care of Mac line endings)
8777 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
8780 @kindex W q (Summary)
8781 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
8782 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
8783 Quoted-Printable is one common @acronym{MIME} encoding employed when
8784 sending non-@acronym{ASCII} (i.e., 8-bit) articles. It typically
8785 makes strings like @samp{d@'ej@`a vu} look like @samp{d=E9j=E0 vu},
8786 which doesn't look very readable to me. Note that this is usually
8787 done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
8788 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding
8789 has been done. If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8792 @kindex W 6 (Summary)
8793 @findex gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable
8794 Treat base64 (@code{gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable}). Base64 is
8795 one common @acronym{MIME} encoding employed when sending
8796 non-@acronym{ASCII} (i.e., 8-bit) articles. Note that this is
8797 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
8798 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding
8799 has been done. If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8802 @kindex W Z (Summary)
8803 @findex gnus-article-decode-HZ
8804 Treat HZ or HZP (@code{gnus-article-decode-HZ}). HZ (or HZP) is one
8805 common encoding employed when sending Chinese articles. It typically
8806 makes strings look like @samp{~@{<:Ky2;S@{#,NpJ)l6HK!#~@}}.
8809 @kindex W A (Summary)
8810 @findex gnus-article-treat-ansi-sequences
8811 @cindex @acronym{ANSI} control sequences
8812 Translate @acronym{ANSI} SGR control sequences into overlays or
8813 extents (@code{gnus-article-treat-ansi-sequences}). @acronym{ANSI}
8814 sequences are used in some Chinese hierarchies for highlighting.
8817 @kindex W u (Summary)
8818 @findex gnus-article-unsplit-urls
8819 Remove newlines from within URLs. Some mailers insert newlines into
8820 outgoing email messages to keep lines short. This reformatting can
8821 split long URLs onto multiple lines. Repair those URLs by removing
8822 the newlines (@code{gnus-article-unsplit-urls}).
8825 @kindex W h (Summary)
8826 @findex gnus-article-wash-html
8827 Treat @acronym{HTML} (@code{gnus-article-wash-html}). Note that this is
8828 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
8829 @code{Content-Type} header that says that the message is @acronym{HTML}.
8831 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for. If it is a number,
8832 the charset defined in @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist}
8833 (@pxref{Paging the Article}) will be used.
8835 @vindex gnus-article-wash-function
8836 The default is to use the function specified by
8837 @code{mm-text-html-renderer} (@pxref{Display Customization, ,Display
8838 Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}) to convert the
8839 @acronym{HTML}, but this is controlled by the
8840 @code{gnus-article-wash-function} variable. Pre-defined functions you
8848 Use @uref{http://emacs-w3m.namazu.org/, emacs-w3m}.
8850 @item w3m-standalone
8851 Use @uref{http://w3m.sourceforge.net/, w3m}.
8854 Use @uref{http://links.sf.net/, Links}.
8857 Use @uref{http://lynx.isc.org/, Lynx}.
8860 Use html2text---a simple @acronym{HTML} converter included with Gnus.
8865 @kindex W b (Summary)
8866 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
8867 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
8868 @xref{Article Buttons}.
8871 @kindex W B (Summary)
8872 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
8873 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
8874 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
8877 @kindex W p (Summary)
8878 @findex gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig
8879 Verify a signed control message
8880 (@code{gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig}). Control messages such as
8881 @code{newgroup} and @code{checkgroups} are usually signed by the
8882 hierarchy maintainer. You need to add the @acronym{PGP} public key of
8883 the maintainer to your keyring to verify the
8884 message.@footnote{@acronym{PGP} keys for many hierarchies are
8885 available at @uref{ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README.html}}
8888 @kindex W s (Summary)
8889 @findex gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt
8890 Verify a signed (@acronym{PGP}, @acronym{PGP/MIME} or
8891 @acronym{S/MIME}) message
8892 (@code{gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt}). @xref{Security}.
8895 @kindex W a (Summary)
8896 @findex gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body
8897 Strip headers like the @code{X-No-Archive} header from the beginning of
8898 article bodies (@code{gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body}).
8901 @kindex W E l (Summary)
8902 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
8903 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
8904 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
8907 @kindex W E m (Summary)
8908 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
8909 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
8910 lines with a single empty line.
8911 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
8914 @kindex W E t (Summary)
8915 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
8916 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
8917 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
8920 @kindex W E a (Summary)
8921 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
8922 Do all the three commands above
8923 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
8926 @kindex W E A (Summary)
8927 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
8928 Remove all blank lines
8929 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
8932 @kindex W E s (Summary)
8933 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
8934 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
8935 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
8938 @kindex W E e (Summary)
8939 @findex gnus-article-strip-trailing-space
8940 Remove all white space from the end of all lines of the article
8941 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-trailing-space}).
8945 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to wash articles automatically.
8948 @node Article Header
8949 @subsection Article Header
8951 These commands perform various transformations of article header.
8956 @kindex W G u (Summary)
8957 @findex gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers
8958 Unfold folded header lines (@code{gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers}).
8961 @kindex W G n (Summary)
8962 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups
8963 Fold the @code{Newsgroups} and @code{Followup-To} headers
8964 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups}).
8967 @kindex W G f (Summary)
8968 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-headers
8969 Fold all the message headers
8970 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-headers}).
8973 @kindex W E w (Summary)
8974 @findex gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace
8975 Remove excessive whitespace from all headers
8976 (@code{gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace}).
8981 @node Article Buttons
8982 @subsection Article Buttons
8985 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
8986 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
8987 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
8988 button on these references.
8990 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
8991 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
8992 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links, man pages and
8993 Emacs or Gnus related references. This is controlled by two variables,
8994 one that handles article bodies and one that handles article heads:
8998 @item gnus-button-alist
8999 @vindex gnus-button-alist
9000 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
9003 (@var{regexp} @var{button-par} @var{use-p} @var{function} @var{data-par})
9009 All text that match this regular expression (case insensitive) will be
9010 considered an external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches
9011 embedded URLs: @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}. This can also be a
9012 variable containing a regexp, useful variables to use include
9013 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp} and @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp}.
9016 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
9017 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
9018 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
9021 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
9022 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
9023 avoid false matches. Often variables named
9024 @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} are used here, @xref{Article Button
9025 Levels}, but any other form may be used too.
9027 @c @code{use-p} is @code{eval}ed only if @code{regexp} matches.
9030 This function will be called when you click on this button.
9033 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
9034 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
9038 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
9041 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
9044 @item gnus-header-button-alist
9045 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
9046 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
9047 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
9048 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
9051 (@var{header} @var{regexp} @var{button-par} @var{use-p} @var{function} @var{data-par})
9054 @var{header} is a regular expression.
9057 @subsubsection Related variables and functions
9060 @item gnus-button-@var{*}-level
9061 @xref{Article Button Levels}.
9063 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-browse-level
9065 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
9066 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
9067 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
9068 default values of the variables above.
9070 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-man-level
9072 @item gnus-button-man-handler
9073 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
9074 The function to use for displaying man pages. It must take at least one
9075 argument with a string naming the man page.
9077 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-message-level
9079 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
9080 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
9081 Regular expression that matches a message ID or a mail address.
9083 @item gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
9084 @vindex gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
9085 This variable determines what to do when the button on a string as
9086 @samp{foo123@@bar.invalid} is pushed. Strings like this can be either a
9087 message ID or a mail address. If it is one of the symbols @code{mid} or
9088 @code{mail}, Gnus will always assume that the string is a message ID or
9089 a mail address, respectively. If this variable is set to the symbol
9090 @code{ask}, always query the user what do do. If it is a function, this
9091 function will be called with the string as its only argument. The
9092 function must return @code{mid}, @code{mail}, @code{invalid} or
9093 @code{ask}. The default value is the function
9094 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
9096 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
9097 @findex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
9098 Function that guesses whether its argument is a message ID or a mail
9099 address. Returns @code{mid} if it's a message IDs, @code{mail} if
9100 it's a mail address, @code{ask} if unsure and @code{invalid} if the
9103 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
9104 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
9105 An alist of @code{(RATE . REGEXP)} pairs used by the function
9106 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
9108 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-tex-level
9110 @item gnus-button-ctan-handler
9111 @findex gnus-button-ctan-handler
9112 The function to use for displaying CTAN links. It must take one
9113 argument, the string naming the URL.
9116 @vindex gnus-ctan-url
9117 Top directory of a CTAN (Comprehensive TeX Archive Network) archive used
9118 by @code{gnus-button-ctan-handler}.
9122 @item gnus-article-button-face
9123 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
9124 Face used on buttons.
9126 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
9127 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
9128 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
9132 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to buttonize articles automatically.
9135 @node Article Button Levels
9136 @subsection Article button levels
9137 @cindex button levels
9138 The higher the value of the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level},
9139 the more buttons will appear. If the level is zero, no corresponding
9140 buttons are displayed. With the default value (which is 5) you should
9141 already see quite a lot of buttons. With higher levels, you will see
9142 more buttons, but you may also get more false positives. To avoid them,
9143 you can set the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} local to
9144 specific groups (@pxref{Group Parameters}). Here's an example for the
9145 variable @code{gnus-parameters}:
9148 ;; @r{increase @code{gnus-button-*-level} in some groups:}
9149 (setq gnus-parameters
9150 '(("\\<\\(emacs\\|gnus\\)\\>" (gnus-button-emacs-level 10))
9151 ("\\<unix\\>" (gnus-button-man-level 10))
9152 ("\\<tex\\>" (gnus-button-tex-level 10))))
9157 @item gnus-button-browse-level
9158 @vindex gnus-button-browse-level
9159 Controls the display of references to message IDs, mail addresses and
9160 news URLs. Related variables and functions include
9161 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp}, @code{browse-url}, and
9162 @code{browse-url-browser-function}.
9164 @item gnus-button-emacs-level
9165 @vindex gnus-button-emacs-level
9166 Controls the display of Emacs or Gnus references. Related functions are
9167 @code{gnus-button-handle-custom},
9168 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-function},
9169 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-variable},
9170 @code{gnus-button-handle-symbol},
9171 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-key},
9172 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos},
9173 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-command},
9174 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-variable},
9175 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-documentation}, and
9176 @code{gnus-button-handle-library}.
9178 @item gnus-button-man-level
9179 @vindex gnus-button-man-level
9180 Controls the display of references to (Unix) man pages.
9181 See @code{gnus-button-man-handler}.
9183 @item gnus-button-message-level
9184 @vindex gnus-button-message-level
9185 Controls the display of message IDs, mail addresses and news URLs.
9186 Related variables and functions include
9187 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp},
9188 @code{gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail},
9189 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}, and
9190 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist}.
9192 @item gnus-button-tex-level
9193 @vindex gnus-button-tex-level
9194 Controls the display of references to @TeX{} or LaTeX stuff, e.g. for CTAN
9195 URLs. See the variables @code{gnus-ctan-url},
9196 @code{gnus-button-ctan-handler},
9197 @code{gnus-button-ctan-directory-regexp}, and
9198 @code{gnus-button-handle-ctan-bogus-regexp}.
9204 @subsection Article Date
9206 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
9207 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
9208 when the article was sent.
9213 @kindex W T u (Summary)
9214 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
9215 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
9216 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
9219 @kindex W T i (Summary)
9220 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
9222 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
9223 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
9226 @kindex W T l (Summary)
9227 @findex gnus-article-date-local
9228 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
9231 @kindex W T p (Summary)
9232 @findex gnus-article-date-english
9233 Display the date in a format that's easily pronounceable in English
9234 (@code{gnus-article-date-english}).
9237 @kindex W T s (Summary)
9238 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
9239 @findex gnus-article-date-user
9240 @findex format-time-string
9241 Display the date using a user-defined format
9242 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
9243 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
9244 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
9245 for a list of possible format specs.
9248 @kindex W T e (Summary)
9249 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
9250 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
9251 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
9252 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
9253 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). It looks something like:
9256 X-Sent: 6 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes, 8 seconds ago
9259 @vindex gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header
9260 The value of @code{gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header} determines
9261 whether this header will just be added below the old Date one, or will
9264 An advantage of using Gnus to read mail is that it converts simple bugs
9265 into wonderful absurdities.
9267 If you want to have this line updated continually, you can put
9270 (gnus-start-date-timer)
9273 in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file, or you can run it off of some hook. If
9274 you want to stop the timer, you can use the @code{gnus-stop-date-timer}
9278 @kindex W T o (Summary)
9279 @findex gnus-article-date-original
9280 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
9281 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
9282 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
9283 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
9284 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
9288 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to display the date in your
9289 preferred format automatically.
9292 @node Article Display
9293 @subsection Article Display
9298 These commands add various frivolous display gimmicks to the article
9299 buffer in Emacs versions that support them.
9301 @code{X-Face} headers are small black-and-white images supplied by the
9302 message headers (@pxref{X-Face}).
9304 @code{Face} headers are small colored images supplied by the message
9305 headers (@pxref{Face}).
9307 Smileys are those little @samp{:-)} symbols that people like to litter
9308 their messages with (@pxref{Smileys}).
9310 Picons, on the other hand, reside on your own system, and Gnus will
9311 try to match the headers to what you have (@pxref{Picons}).
9313 All these functions are toggles---if the elements already exist,
9318 @kindex W D x (Summary)
9319 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
9320 Display an @code{X-Face} in the @code{From} header.
9321 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}).
9324 @kindex W D d (Summary)
9325 @findex gnus-article-display-face
9326 Display a @code{Face} in the @code{From} header.
9327 (@code{gnus-article-display-face}).
9330 @kindex W D s (Summary)
9331 @findex gnus-treat-smiley
9332 Display smileys (@code{gnus-treat-smiley}).
9335 @kindex W D f (Summary)
9336 @findex gnus-treat-from-picon
9337 Piconify the @code{From} header (@code{gnus-treat-from-picon}).
9340 @kindex W D m (Summary)
9341 @findex gnus-treat-mail-picon
9342 Piconify all mail headers (i. e., @code{Cc}, @code{To})
9343 (@code{gnus-treat-mail-picon}).
9346 @kindex W D n (Summary)
9347 @findex gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon
9348 Piconify all news headers (i. e., @code{Newsgroups} and
9349 @code{Followup-To}) (@code{gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon}).
9352 @kindex W D D (Summary)
9353 @findex gnus-article-remove-images
9354 Remove all images from the article buffer
9355 (@code{gnus-article-remove-images}).
9361 @node Article Signature
9362 @subsection Article Signature
9364 @cindex article signature
9366 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
9367 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
9368 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
9369 that says what is to be considered a signature is
9370 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
9371 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
9372 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
9373 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
9374 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
9377 (setq gnus-signature-separator
9378 '("^-- $" ; @r{The standard}
9379 "^-- *$" ; @r{A common mangling}
9380 "^-------*$" ; @r{Many people just use a looong}
9381 ; @r{line of dashes. Shame!}
9382 "^ *--------*$" ; @r{Double-shame!}
9383 "^________*$" ; @r{Underscores are also popular}
9384 "^========*$")) ; @r{Pervert!}
9387 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
9390 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
9391 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
9392 signature when displaying articles.
9396 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
9399 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
9402 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
9403 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
9405 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
9406 in question is not a signature.
9409 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
9410 listed above. Here's an example:
9413 (setq gnus-signature-limit
9414 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
9417 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
9418 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
9419 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
9420 signature after all.
9423 @node Article Miscellanea
9424 @subsection Article Miscellanea
9428 @kindex A t (Summary)
9429 @findex gnus-article-babel
9430 Translate the article from one language to another
9431 (@code{gnus-article-babel}).
9437 @section MIME Commands
9438 @cindex MIME decoding
9440 @cindex viewing attachments
9442 The following commands all understand the numerical prefix. For
9443 instance, @kbd{3 K v} means ``view the third @acronym{MIME} part''.
9449 @kindex K v (Summary)
9450 View the @acronym{MIME} part.
9453 @kindex K o (Summary)
9454 Save the @acronym{MIME} part.
9457 @kindex K O (Summary)
9458 Prompt for a file name, then save the @acronym{MIME} part and strip it
9459 from the article. The stripped @acronym{MIME} object will be referred
9460 via the message/external-body @acronym{MIME} type.
9463 @kindex K r (Summary)
9464 Replace the @acronym{MIME} part with an external body.
9467 @kindex K d (Summary)
9468 Delete the @acronym{MIME} part and add some information about the
9472 @kindex K c (Summary)
9473 Copy the @acronym{MIME} part.
9476 @kindex K e (Summary)
9477 View the @acronym{MIME} part externally.
9480 @kindex K i (Summary)
9481 View the @acronym{MIME} part internally.
9484 @kindex K | (Summary)
9485 Pipe the @acronym{MIME} part to an external command.
9488 The rest of these @acronym{MIME} commands do not use the numerical prefix in
9493 @kindex K b (Summary)
9494 Make all the @acronym{MIME} parts have buttons in front of them. This is
9495 mostly useful if you wish to save (or perform other actions) on inlined
9499 @kindex K m (Summary)
9500 @findex gnus-summary-repair-multipart
9501 Some multipart messages are transmitted with missing or faulty headers.
9502 This command will attempt to ``repair'' these messages so that they can
9503 be viewed in a more pleasant manner
9504 (@code{gnus-summary-repair-multipart}).
9507 @kindex X m (Summary)
9508 @findex gnus-summary-save-parts
9509 Save all parts matching a @acronym{MIME} type to a directory
9510 (@code{gnus-summary-save-parts}). Understands the process/prefix
9511 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
9514 @kindex M-t (Summary)
9515 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized
9516 Toggle the buttonized display of the article buffer
9517 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized}).
9520 @kindex W M w (Summary)
9521 @findex gnus-article-decode-mime-words
9522 Decode RFC 2047-encoded words in the article headers
9523 (@code{gnus-article-decode-mime-words}).
9526 @kindex W M c (Summary)
9527 @findex gnus-article-decode-charset
9528 Decode encoded article bodies as well as charsets
9529 (@code{gnus-article-decode-charset}).
9531 This command looks in the @code{Content-Type} header to determine the
9532 charset. If there is no such header in the article, you can give it a
9533 prefix, which will prompt for the charset to decode as. In regional
9534 groups where people post using some common encoding (but do not
9535 include @acronym{MIME} headers), you can set the @code{charset} group/topic
9536 parameter to the required charset (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
9539 @kindex W M v (Summary)
9540 @findex gnus-mime-view-all-parts
9541 View all the @acronym{MIME} parts in the current article
9542 (@code{gnus-mime-view-all-parts}).
9549 @item gnus-ignored-mime-types
9550 @vindex gnus-ignored-mime-types
9551 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
9552 this list will be completely ignored by Gnus. The default value is
9555 To have all Vcards be ignored, you'd say something like this:
9558 (setq gnus-ignored-mime-types
9562 @item gnus-article-loose-mime
9563 @vindex gnus-article-loose-mime
9564 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus won't require the @samp{MIME-Version} header
9565 before interpreting the message as a @acronym{MIME} message. This helps
9566 when reading messages from certain broken mail user agents. The
9567 default is @code{nil}.
9569 @item gnus-article-emulate-mime
9570 @vindex gnus-article-emulate-mime
9573 There are other, non-@acronym{MIME} encoding methods used. The most common
9574 is @samp{uuencode}, but yEncode is also getting to be popular. If
9575 this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will look in message bodies to
9576 see if it finds these encodings, and if so, it'll run them through the
9577 Gnus @acronym{MIME} machinery. The default is @code{t}. Only
9578 single-part yEnc encoded attachments can be decoded. There's no support
9579 for encoding in Gnus.
9581 @item gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
9582 @vindex gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
9583 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
9584 this list won't have @acronym{MIME} buttons inserted unless they aren't
9585 displayed or this variable is overridden by
9586 @code{gnus-buttonized-mime-types}. The default value is
9587 @code{(".*/.*")}. This variable is only used when
9588 @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing} is @code{nil}.
9590 @item gnus-buttonized-mime-types
9591 @vindex gnus-buttonized-mime-types
9592 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
9593 this list will have @acronym{MIME} buttons inserted unless they aren't
9594 displayed. This variable overrides
9595 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types}. The default value is @code{nil}.
9596 This variable is only used when @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing}
9599 To see e.g. security buttons but no other buttons, you could set this
9600 variable to @code{("multipart/signed")} and leave
9601 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types} at the default value.
9603 You could also add @code{"multipart/alternative"} to this list to
9604 display radio buttons that allow you to choose one of two media types
9605 those mails include. See also @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives}
9606 (@pxref{Display Customization, ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The
9607 Emacs MIME Manual}).
9609 @item gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
9610 @vindex gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
9611 If this is non-@code{nil}, then all @acronym{MIME} parts get buttons. The
9612 default value is @code{nil}.
9614 @item gnus-article-mime-part-function
9615 @vindex gnus-article-mime-part-function
9616 For each @acronym{MIME} part, this function will be called with the @acronym{MIME}
9617 handle as the parameter. The function is meant to be used to allow
9618 users to gather information from the article (e. g., add Vcard info to
9619 the bbdb database) or to do actions based on parts (e. g., automatically
9620 save all jpegs into some directory).
9622 Here's an example function the does the latter:
9625 (defun my-save-all-jpeg-parts (handle)
9626 (when (equal (car (mm-handle-type handle)) "image/jpeg")
9628 (insert (mm-get-part handle))
9629 (write-region (point-min) (point-max)
9630 (read-file-name "Save jpeg to: ")))))
9631 (setq gnus-article-mime-part-function
9632 'my-save-all-jpeg-parts)
9635 @vindex gnus-mime-multipart-functions
9636 @item gnus-mime-multipart-functions
9637 Alist of @acronym{MIME} multipart types and functions to handle them.
9639 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed
9640 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed
9641 Display "multipart/alternative" parts as "multipart/mixed".
9643 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed
9644 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed
9645 Display "multipart/related" parts as "multipart/mixed".
9647 If displaying "text/html" is discouraged, see
9648 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives}, images or other material inside a
9649 "multipart/related" part might be overlooked when this variable is
9650 @code{nil}. @ref{Display Customization, Display Customization, ,
9651 emacs-mime, Emacs-Mime Manual}.
9653 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-as-mixed
9654 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-as-mixed
9655 Display "multipart" parts as "multipart/mixed". If @code{t}, it
9656 overrides @code{nil} values of
9657 @code{gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed} and
9658 @code{gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed}.
9660 @vindex mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9661 @item mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9662 List of functions used for rewriting file names of @acronym{MIME} parts.
9663 Each function takes a file name as input and returns a file name.
9665 Ready-made functions include@*
9666 @code{mm-file-name-delete-whitespace},
9667 @code{mm-file-name-trim-whitespace},
9668 @code{mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace}, and
9669 @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace}. The later uses the value of
9670 the variable @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace} to replace each
9671 whitespace character in a file name with that string; default value
9672 is @code{"_"} (a single underscore).
9673 @findex mm-file-name-delete-whitespace
9674 @findex mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
9675 @findex mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
9676 @findex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
9677 @vindex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
9679 The standard functions @code{capitalize}, @code{downcase},
9680 @code{upcase}, and @code{upcase-initials} may be useful, too.
9682 Everybody knows that whitespace characters in file names are evil,
9683 except those who don't know. If you receive lots of attachments from
9684 such unenlightened users, you can make live easier by adding
9687 (setq mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9688 '(mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
9689 mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
9690 mm-file-name-replace-whitespace))
9694 to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
9703 People use different charsets, and we have @acronym{MIME} to let us know what
9704 charsets they use. Or rather, we wish we had. Many people use
9705 newsreaders and mailers that do not understand or use @acronym{MIME}, and
9706 just send out messages without saying what character sets they use. To
9707 help a bit with this, some local news hierarchies have policies that say
9708 what character set is the default. For instance, the @samp{fj}
9709 hierarchy uses @code{iso-2022-jp}.
9711 @vindex gnus-group-charset-alist
9712 This knowledge is encoded in the @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}
9713 variable, which is an alist of regexps (use the first item to match full
9714 group names) and default charsets to be used when reading these groups.
9716 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets
9717 In addition, some people do use soi-disant @acronym{MIME}-aware agents that
9718 aren't. These blithely mark messages as being in @code{iso-8859-1}
9719 even if they really are in @code{koi-8}. To help here, the
9720 @code{gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets} variable can be used. The
9721 charsets that are listed here will be ignored. The variable can be
9722 set on a group-by-group basis using the group parameters (@pxref{Group
9723 Parameters}). The default value is @code{(unknown-8bit x-unknown)},
9724 which includes values some agents insist on having in there.
9726 @vindex gnus-group-posting-charset-alist
9727 When posting, @code{gnus-group-posting-charset-alist} is used to
9728 determine which charsets should not be encoded using the @acronym{MIME}
9729 encodings. For instance, some hierarchies discourage using
9730 quoted-printable header encoding.
9732 This variable is an alist of regexps and permitted unencoded charsets
9733 for posting. Each element of the alist has the form @code{(}@var{test
9734 header body-list}@code{)}, where:
9738 is either a regular expression matching the newsgroup header or a
9741 is the charset which may be left unencoded in the header (@code{nil}
9742 means encode all charsets),
9744 is a list of charsets which may be encoded using 8bit content-transfer
9745 encoding in the body, or one of the special values @code{nil} (always
9746 encode using quoted-printable) or @code{t} (always use 8bit).
9753 @cindex coding system aliases
9754 @cindex preferred charset
9756 @xref{Encoding Customization, , Encoding Customization, emacs-mime,
9757 The Emacs MIME Manual}, for additional variables that control which
9758 MIME charsets are used when sending messages.
9760 Other charset tricks that may be useful, although not Gnus-specific:
9762 If there are several @acronym{MIME} charsets that encode the same Emacs
9763 charset, you can choose what charset to use by saying the following:
9766 (put-charset-property 'cyrillic-iso8859-5
9767 'preferred-coding-system 'koi8-r)
9770 This means that Russian will be encoded using @code{koi8-r} instead of
9771 the default @code{iso-8859-5} @acronym{MIME} charset.
9773 If you want to read messages in @code{koi8-u}, you can cheat and say
9776 (define-coding-system-alias 'koi8-u 'koi8-r)
9779 This will almost do the right thing.
9781 And finally, to read charsets like @code{windows-1251}, you can say
9785 (codepage-setup 1251)
9786 (define-coding-system-alias 'windows-1251 'cp1251)
9790 @node Article Commands
9791 @section Article Commands
9798 @kindex A P (Summary)
9799 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
9800 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
9801 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
9802 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will
9803 be run just before printing the buffer. An alternative way to print
9804 article is to use Muttprint (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
9809 @node Summary Sorting
9810 @section Summary Sorting
9811 @cindex summary sorting
9813 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
9814 can't really see why you'd want that.
9819 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
9820 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
9821 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
9824 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
9825 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
9826 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
9829 @kindex C-c C-s C-t (Summary)
9830 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-recipient
9831 Sort by recipient (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-recipient}).
9834 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
9835 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
9836 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
9839 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
9840 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
9841 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
9844 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
9845 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
9846 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
9849 @kindex C-c C-s C-c (Summary)
9850 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-chars
9851 Sort by article length (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-chars}).
9854 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
9855 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
9856 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
9859 @kindex C-c C-s C-r (Summary)
9860 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-random
9861 Randomize (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-random}).
9864 @kindex C-c C-s C-o (Summary)
9865 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-original
9866 Sort using the default sorting method
9867 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-original}).
9870 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
9871 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
9872 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
9873 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
9874 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
9878 @node Finding the Parent
9879 @section Finding the Parent
9880 @cindex parent articles
9881 @cindex referring articles
9886 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
9887 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
9888 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
9889 if the current group is fetched by @acronym{NNTP}, the parent hasn't expired
9890 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
9891 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
9892 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
9893 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
9894 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
9896 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
9897 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
9898 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, Gnus will fetch the parent, the
9899 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
9900 @kbd{-3 ^}, Gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
9904 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
9905 @kindex A R (Summary)
9906 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
9907 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
9910 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
9911 @kindex A T (Summary)
9912 Display the full thread where the current article appears
9913 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
9914 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
9915 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
9916 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
9917 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
9918 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
9920 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
9921 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i. e.,
9922 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
9923 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
9924 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
9925 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
9928 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
9929 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
9931 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
9932 You can also ask Gnus for an arbitrary article, no matter what group it
9933 belongs to. @kbd{M-^} (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you
9934 for a @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read
9935 thingies that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}.
9936 You have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
9938 Gnus looks for the @code{Message-ID} in the headers that have already
9939 been fetched, but also tries all the select methods specified by
9940 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} if it is not found.
9943 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
9944 If the group you are reading is located on a back end that does not
9945 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
9946 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @acronym{NNTP} method. It
9947 would, perhaps, be best if the @acronym{NNTP} server you consult is the one
9948 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
9951 It can also be a list of select methods, as well as the special symbol
9952 @code{current}, which means to use the current select method. If it
9953 is a list, Gnus will try all the methods in the list until it finds a
9956 Here's an example setting that will first try the current method, and
9957 then ask Google if that fails:
9960 (setq gnus-refer-article-method
9962 (nnweb "google" (nnweb-type google))))
9965 Most of the mail back ends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but
9966 do not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox},
9967 @code{nnbabyl}, @code{nnmaildir}, @code{nnml}, are able to locate
9968 articles from any groups, while @code{nnfolder}, and @code{nnimap} are
9969 only able to locate articles that have been posted to the current
9970 group. (Anything else would be too time consuming.) @code{nnmh} does
9971 not support this at all.
9974 @node Alternative Approaches
9975 @section Alternative Approaches
9977 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
9978 Gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
9981 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
9982 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
9987 @subsection Pick and Read
9988 @cindex pick and read
9990 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
9991 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
9992 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
9993 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
9995 @findex gnus-pick-mode
9996 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
9997 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
9998 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
9999 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
10000 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
10002 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
10007 @findex gnus-pick-article-or-thread
10008 Pick the article or thread on the current line
10009 (@code{gnus-pick-article-or-thread}). If the variable
10010 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key selects the
10011 entire thread when used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise,
10012 it selects just the article. If given a numerical prefix, go to that
10013 thread or article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
10014 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
10017 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
10018 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
10019 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
10020 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
10024 @findex gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread.
10025 Unpick the thread or article
10026 (@code{gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread}). If the variable
10027 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key unpicks the
10028 thread if used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise it unpicks
10029 just the article. You can give this key a numerical prefix to unpick
10030 the thread or article at that line.
10034 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
10035 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
10036 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
10037 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
10038 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
10039 will still be visible when you are reading.
10043 All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
10044 pick-mode, with the exception of @kbd{u}. However @kbd{!} is available
10045 which is mapped to the same function
10046 @code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}.
10048 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
10051 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
10054 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
10055 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
10057 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
10058 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
10059 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
10061 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
10062 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
10063 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
10064 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
10065 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
10066 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
10067 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
10070 @node Binary Groups
10071 @subsection Binary Groups
10072 @cindex binary groups
10074 @findex gnus-binary-mode
10075 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
10076 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
10077 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
10078 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
10079 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
10080 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
10083 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
10084 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
10085 command, when you have turned on this mode
10086 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
10088 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
10089 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
10093 @section Tree Display
10096 @vindex gnus-use-trees
10097 If you don't like the normal Gnus summary display, you might try setting
10098 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
10099 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
10100 in the tree buffer.
10102 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
10105 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
10106 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
10107 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
10109 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
10110 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
10111 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers (@pxref{Mode
10112 Line Formatting}). The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list
10113 of valid specs, @pxref{Summary Buffer Mode Line}.
10115 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
10116 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
10117 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
10118 default is @code{modeline}.
10120 @item gnus-tree-line-format
10121 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
10122 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
10123 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
10124 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
10125 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
10126 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
10132 The name of the poster.
10134 The @code{From} header.
10136 The number of the article.
10138 The opening bracket.
10140 The closing bracket.
10145 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
10147 Variables related to the display are:
10150 @item gnus-tree-brackets
10151 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
10152 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
10153 ``sparse'' articles. The format is
10155 ((@var{real-open} . @var{real-close})
10156 (@var{sparse-open} . @var{sparse-close})
10157 (@var{dummy-open} . @var{dummy-close}))
10159 and the default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
10161 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
10162 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
10163 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
10164 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
10168 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
10169 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
10170 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will try to keep the tree
10171 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other Gnus
10172 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
10173 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
10174 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
10175 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
10176 other windows displayed next to it.
10178 You may also wish to add the following hook to keep the window minimized
10182 (add-hook 'gnus-configure-windows-hook
10183 'gnus-tree-perhaps-minimize)
10186 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
10187 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
10188 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
10189 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
10190 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
10191 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
10192 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
10196 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
10199 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
10209 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
10214 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
10215 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
10217 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
10219 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
10225 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
10226 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
10227 following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
10230 (setq gnus-use-trees t
10231 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
10232 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
10233 (gnus-add-configuration
10237 (summary 0.75 point)
10242 @xref{Window Layout}.
10245 @node Mail Group Commands
10246 @section Mail Group Commands
10247 @cindex mail group commands
10249 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
10250 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
10252 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
10253 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
10258 @kindex B e (Summary)
10259 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
10260 @cindex expiring mail
10261 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
10262 process (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}). That is, delete all
10263 expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
10264 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
10267 @kindex B C-M-e (Summary)
10268 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
10269 @cindex expiring mail
10270 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
10271 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
10272 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
10273 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
10276 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
10277 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
10278 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
10279 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
10280 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
10281 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
10284 @kindex B m (Summary)
10286 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
10287 @vindex gnus-preserve-marks
10288 Move the article from one mail group to another
10289 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}). Marks will be preserved if
10290 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
10293 @kindex B c (Summary)
10295 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
10296 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
10297 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
10298 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}). Marks will be preserved if
10299 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
10302 @kindex B B (Summary)
10303 @cindex crosspost mail
10304 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
10305 Crosspost the current article to some other group
10306 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
10307 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
10308 be properly updated.
10311 @kindex B i (Summary)
10312 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
10313 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
10314 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
10315 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
10318 @kindex B I (Summary)
10319 @findex gnus-summary-create-article
10320 Create an empty article in the current mail newsgroups
10321 (@code{gnus-summary-create-article}). You will be prompted for a
10322 @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
10325 @kindex B r (Summary)
10326 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
10327 @vindex gnus-summary-respool-default-method
10328 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-respool-article}).
10329 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
10330 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
10331 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
10332 Marks will be preserved if @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil}
10333 (which is the default).
10337 @kindex B w (Summary)
10338 @kindex e (Summary)
10339 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
10340 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
10341 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article-done
10342 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
10343 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
10344 (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
10345 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, Gnus won't re-highlight the article.
10348 @kindex B q (Summary)
10349 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
10350 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
10351 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
10352 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
10355 @kindex B t (Summary)
10356 @findex gnus-summary-respool-trace
10357 Similarly, this command will display all fancy splitting patterns used
10358 when respooling, if any (@code{gnus-summary-respool-trace}).
10361 @kindex B p (Summary)
10362 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
10363 Some people have a tendency to send you ``courtesy'' copies when they
10364 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
10365 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
10366 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
10367 article from your news server (or rather, from
10368 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
10369 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
10370 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
10371 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
10372 just not have arrived yet.
10375 @kindex K E (Summary)
10376 @findex gnus-article-encrypt-body
10377 @vindex gnus-article-encrypt-protocol
10378 Encrypt the body of an article (@code{gnus-article-encrypt-body}).
10379 The body is encrypted with the encryption protocol specified by the
10380 variable @code{gnus-article-encrypt-protocol}.
10384 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
10385 @cindex moving articles
10386 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have Gnus
10387 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
10388 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
10389 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
10390 suggestions you find reasonable. (Note that
10391 @code{gnus-move-split-methods} uses group names where
10392 @code{gnus-split-methods} uses file names.)
10395 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
10396 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
10397 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
10398 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
10402 @node Various Summary Stuff
10403 @section Various Summary Stuff
10406 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
10407 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
10408 * Summary Generation Commands::
10409 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
10413 @vindex gnus-summary-display-while-building
10414 @item gnus-summary-display-while-building
10415 If non-@code{nil}, show and update the summary buffer as it's being
10416 built. If @code{t}, update the buffer after every line is inserted.
10417 If the value is an integer, @var{n}, update the display every @var{n}
10418 lines. The default is @code{nil}.
10420 @vindex gnus-summary-display-arrow
10421 @item gnus-summary-display-arrow
10422 If non-@code{nil}, display an arrow in the fringe to indicate the
10425 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
10426 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
10427 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
10429 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
10430 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
10431 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
10432 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
10433 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
10434 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
10437 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
10438 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
10439 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
10440 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
10441 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
10443 @vindex gnus-summary-prepared-hook
10444 @item gnus-summary-prepared-hook
10445 A hook called as the very last thing after the summary buffer has been
10448 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
10449 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
10450 When Gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
10451 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
10452 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
10453 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
10454 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), Gnus will rename the
10455 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
10456 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
10457 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
10459 @vindex gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
10460 @item gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
10461 This function, which takes two parameters (the group name and the list
10462 of articles to be selected), is called to allow the user to alter the
10463 list of articles to be selected.
10465 For instance, the following function adds the list of cached articles to
10466 the list in one particular group:
10469 (defun my-add-cached-articles (group articles)
10470 (if (string= group "some.group")
10471 (append gnus-newsgroup-cached articles)
10475 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-variables
10476 @item gnus-newsgroup-variables
10477 A list of newsgroup (summary buffer) local variables, or cons of
10478 variables and their default expressions to be evalled (when the default
10479 values are not @code{nil}), that should be made global while the summary
10482 Note: The default expressions will be evaluated (using function
10483 @code{eval}) before assignment to the local variable rather than just
10484 assigned to it. If the default expression is the symbol @code{global},
10485 that symbol will not be evaluated but the global value of the local
10486 variable will be used instead.
10488 These variables can be used to set variables in the group parameters
10489 while still allowing them to affect operations done in other
10490 buffers. For example:
10493 (setq gnus-newsgroup-variables
10494 '(message-use-followup-to
10495 (gnus-visible-headers .
10496 "^From:\\|^Newsgroups:\\|^Subject:\\|^Date:\\|^To:")))
10499 Also @pxref{Group Parameters}.
10503 @node Summary Group Information
10504 @subsection Summary Group Information
10509 @kindex H f (Summary)
10510 @findex gnus-summary-fetch-faq
10511 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
10512 Try to fetch the @acronym{FAQ} (list of frequently asked questions)
10513 for the current group (@code{gnus-summary-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try
10514 to get the @acronym{FAQ} from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which
10515 is usually a directory on a remote machine. This variable can also be
10516 a list of directories. In that case, giving a prefix to this command
10517 will allow you to choose between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp}
10518 or @code{efs} will probably be used for fetching the file.
10521 @kindex H d (Summary)
10522 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
10523 Give a brief description of the current group
10524 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
10525 rereading the description from the server.
10528 @kindex H h (Summary)
10529 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
10530 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
10531 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
10534 @kindex H i (Summary)
10535 @findex gnus-info-find-node
10536 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
10540 @node Searching for Articles
10541 @subsection Searching for Articles
10546 @kindex M-s (Summary)
10547 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
10548 Search through all subsequent (raw) articles for a regexp
10549 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
10552 @kindex M-r (Summary)
10553 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
10554 Search through all previous (raw) articles for a regexp
10555 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
10558 @kindex M-S (Summary)
10559 @findex gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-forward
10560 Repeat the previous search forwards
10561 (@code{gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-forward}).
10564 @kindex M-R (Summary)
10565 @findex gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-backward
10566 Repeat the previous search backwards
10567 (@code{gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-backward}).
10570 @kindex & (Summary)
10571 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
10572 This command will prompt you for a header, a regular expression to match
10573 on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
10574 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If the header is an empty
10575 string, the match is done on the entire article. If given a prefix,
10576 search backward instead.
10578 For instance, @kbd{& RET some.*string RET #} will put the process mark on
10579 all articles that have heads or bodies that match @samp{some.*string}.
10582 @kindex M-& (Summary)
10583 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
10584 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
10585 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
10588 @node Summary Generation Commands
10589 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
10594 @kindex Y g (Summary)
10595 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
10596 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
10599 @kindex Y c (Summary)
10600 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
10601 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
10602 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
10605 @kindex Y d (Summary)
10606 @findex gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles
10607 Pull all dormant articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
10608 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles}).
10611 @kindex Y t (Summary)
10612 @findex gnus-summary-insert-ticked-articles
10613 Pull all ticked articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
10614 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-ticked-articles}).
10619 @node Really Various Summary Commands
10620 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
10626 @kindex C-d (Summary)
10627 @kindex A D (Summary)
10628 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
10629 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
10630 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
10631 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
10632 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
10633 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
10634 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
10635 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
10638 @vindex gnus-auto-select-on-ephemeral-exit
10639 The variable @code{gnus-auto-select-on-ephemeral-exit} controls what
10640 article should be selected after exiting a digest group. Valid values
10645 Select the next article.
10648 Select the next unread article.
10650 @item next-noselect
10651 Move the cursor to the next article. This is the default.
10653 @item next-unread-noselect
10654 Move the cursor to the next unread article.
10657 If it has any other value or there is no next (unread) article, the
10658 article selected before entering to the digest group will appear.
10661 @kindex C-M-d (Summary)
10662 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
10663 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
10664 several documents into one biiig group
10665 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
10666 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
10667 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
10668 command understands the process/prefix convention
10669 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
10672 @kindex C-t (Summary)
10673 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
10674 Toggle truncation of summary lines
10675 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
10676 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
10677 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
10680 @kindex = (Summary)
10681 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
10682 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
10683 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
10686 @kindex C-M-e (Summary)
10687 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
10688 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
10689 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
10692 @kindex C-M-a (Summary)
10693 @findex gnus-summary-customize-parameters
10694 Customize the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
10695 group (@code{gnus-summary-customize-parameters}).
10700 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
10701 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
10702 @cindex summary exit
10703 @cindex exiting groups
10705 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
10706 group and return you to the group buffer.
10713 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
10714 @kindex Z Q (Summary)
10715 @kindex q (Summary)
10716 @findex gnus-summary-exit
10717 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
10718 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
10719 @vindex gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook
10720 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
10721 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
10722 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
10723 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
10724 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
10725 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
10726 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
10727 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
10731 @kindex Z E (Summary)
10732 @kindex Q (Summary)
10733 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
10734 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
10735 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
10739 @kindex Z c (Summary)
10740 @kindex c (Summary)
10741 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
10742 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
10743 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
10744 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
10747 @kindex Z C (Summary)
10748 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
10749 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
10750 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
10753 @kindex Z n (Summary)
10754 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
10755 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
10756 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
10759 @kindex Z p (Summary)
10760 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-prev-group
10761 Mark all articles as read and go to the previous group
10762 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-prev-group}).
10766 @kindex Z R (Summary)
10767 @kindex C-x C-s (Summary)
10768 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
10769 Exit this group, and then enter it again
10770 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
10771 all articles, both read and unread.
10775 @kindex Z G (Summary)
10776 @kindex M-g (Summary)
10777 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
10778 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
10779 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
10780 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
10781 articles, both read and unread.
10784 @kindex Z N (Summary)
10785 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
10786 Exit the group and go to the next group
10787 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
10790 @kindex Z P (Summary)
10791 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
10792 Exit the group and go to the previous group
10793 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
10796 @kindex Z s (Summary)
10797 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
10798 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
10799 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
10800 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
10801 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
10804 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
10805 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current group
10806 with an ``updating'' exit. For instance @kbd{Q}
10807 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}) does not call this hook.
10809 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
10810 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
10811 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
10812 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
10813 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
10814 If you do that, Gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
10815 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
10816 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
10817 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
10818 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
10819 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
10820 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
10822 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
10824 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
10825 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
10826 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
10827 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
10828 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
10829 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
10830 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
10831 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
10832 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
10835 @node Crosspost Handling
10836 @section Crosspost Handling
10840 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
10841 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
10842 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
10843 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
10844 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
10845 heinous crime. You may want to try NoCeM handling to filter out spam
10848 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
10849 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
10850 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
10851 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
10852 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
10854 @cindex cross-posting
10856 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
10857 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
10858 correctly is if you use an @acronym{NNTP} server that supports @sc{xover}
10859 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
10860 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @acronym{NOV} lines. This is
10861 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
10862 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
10863 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
10864 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
10865 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
10866 the cross reference mechanism.
10868 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
10869 @cindex overview.fmt
10870 To check whether your @acronym{NNTP} server includes the @code{Xref} header
10871 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
10872 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
10873 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
10874 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
10875 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
10878 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
10879 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
10880 set @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
10885 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
10888 @node Duplicate Suppression
10889 @section Duplicate Suppression
10891 By default, Gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
10892 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
10893 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
10894 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
10899 The @acronym{NNTP} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
10900 is evil and not very common.
10903 The @acronym{NNTP} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
10904 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
10907 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
10908 different @acronym{NNTP} servers.
10911 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
10914 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
10915 well, but these four are the most common situations.
10917 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
10918 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
10919 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
10920 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
10921 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
10922 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
10923 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
10926 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
10927 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
10928 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
10929 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
10930 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
10931 saw the article in.
10934 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
10935 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
10936 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
10938 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
10939 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
10940 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
10941 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
10942 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single Gnus
10943 session are suppressed.
10945 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
10946 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
10947 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
10948 suppression list. The default is 10000.
10950 @item gnus-duplicate-file
10951 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
10952 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
10953 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
10956 If you have a tendency to stop and start Gnus often, setting
10957 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
10958 you leave Gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
10959 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
10960 so that means that if you stop and start Gnus often, you should set
10961 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
10962 to you to figure out, I think.
10967 Gnus is able to verify signed messages or decrypt encrypted messages.
10968 The formats that are supported are @acronym{PGP}, @acronym{PGP/MIME}
10969 and @acronym{S/MIME}, however you need some external programs to get
10974 To handle @acronym{PGP} and @acronym{PGP/MIME} messages, you have to
10975 install an OpenPGP implementation such as GnuPG. The Lisp interface
10976 to GnuPG included with Gnus is called PGG (@pxref{Top, ,PGG, pgg, PGG
10977 Manual}), but Mailcrypt and gpg.el are also supported.
10980 To handle @acronym{S/MIME} message, you need to install OpenSSL. OpenSSL 0.9.6
10981 or newer is recommended.
10985 The variables that control security functionality on reading messages
10989 @item mm-verify-option
10990 @vindex mm-verify-option
10991 Option of verifying signed parts. @code{never}, not verify;
10992 @code{always}, always verify; @code{known}, only verify known
10993 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
10995 @item mm-decrypt-option
10996 @vindex mm-decrypt-option
10997 Option of decrypting encrypted parts. @code{never}, no decryption;
10998 @code{always}, always decrypt; @code{known}, only decrypt known
10999 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
11002 @vindex mml1991-use
11003 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for
11004 @acronym{PGP} messages. The default is @code{pgg}, but
11005 @code{mailcrypt} and @code{gpg} are also supported although
11009 @vindex mml2015-use
11010 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for
11011 @acronym{PGP/MIME} messages. The default is @code{pgg}, but
11012 @code{mailcrypt} and @code{gpg} are also supported although
11017 By default the buttons that display security information are not
11018 shown, because they clutter reading the actual e-mail. You can type
11019 @kbd{K b} manually to display the information. Use the
11020 @code{gnus-buttonized-mime-types} and
11021 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types} variables to control this
11022 permanently. @ref{MIME Commands} for further details, and hints on
11023 how to customize these variables to always display security
11026 @cindex snarfing keys
11027 @cindex importing PGP keys
11028 @cindex PGP key ring import
11029 Snarfing OpenPGP keys (i.e., importing keys from articles into your
11030 key ring) is not supported explicitly through a menu item or command,
11031 rather Gnus do detect and label keys as @samp{application/pgp-keys},
11032 allowing you to specify whatever action you think is appropriate
11033 through the usual @acronym{MIME} infrastructure. You can use a
11034 @file{~/.mailcap} entry (@pxref{mailcap, , mailcap, emacs-mime, The
11035 Emacs MIME Manual}) such as the following to import keys using GNU
11036 Privacy Guard when you click on the @acronym{MIME} button
11037 (@pxref{Using MIME}).
11040 application/pgp-keys; gpg --import --interactive --verbose; needsterminal
11043 This happens to also be the default action defined in
11044 @code{mailcap-mime-data}.
11046 More information on how to set things for sending outgoing signed and
11047 encrypted messages up can be found in the message manual
11048 (@pxref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}).
11051 @section Mailing List
11052 @cindex mailing list
11055 @kindex A M (summary)
11056 @findex gnus-mailing-list-insinuate
11057 Gnus understands some mailing list fields of RFC 2369. To enable it,
11058 add a @code{to-list} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}),
11059 possibly using @kbd{A M} (@code{gnus-mailing-list-insinuate}) in the
11062 That enables the following commands to the summary buffer:
11067 @kindex C-c C-n h (Summary)
11068 @findex gnus-mailing-list-help
11069 Send a message to fetch mailing list help, if List-Help field exists.
11072 @kindex C-c C-n s (Summary)
11073 @findex gnus-mailing-list-subscribe
11074 Send a message to subscribe the mailing list, if List-Subscribe field exists.
11077 @kindex C-c C-n u (Summary)
11078 @findex gnus-mailing-list-unsubscribe
11079 Send a message to unsubscribe the mailing list, if List-Unsubscribe
11083 @kindex C-c C-n p (Summary)
11084 @findex gnus-mailing-list-post
11085 Post to the mailing list, if List-Post field exists.
11088 @kindex C-c C-n o (Summary)
11089 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
11090 Send a message to the mailing list owner, if List-Owner field exists.
11093 @kindex C-c C-n a (Summary)
11094 @findex gnus-mailing-list-archive
11095 Browse the mailing list archive, if List-Archive field exists.
11100 @node Article Buffer
11101 @chapter Article Buffer
11102 @cindex article buffer
11104 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
11105 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
11106 tell Gnus otherwise.
11109 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
11110 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @acronym{MIME} before reading them.
11111 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
11112 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
11113 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
11117 @node Hiding Headers
11118 @section Hiding Headers
11119 @cindex hiding headers
11120 @cindex deleting headers
11122 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
11123 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
11125 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
11126 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
11127 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
11128 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
11129 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
11130 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
11131 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseam---and you'll probably want to get rid
11132 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
11133 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
11135 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
11139 @item gnus-visible-headers
11140 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
11141 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
11142 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
11143 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
11145 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
11146 the article and the subject, you'd say:
11149 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
11152 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
11155 @item gnus-ignored-headers
11156 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
11157 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
11158 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
11159 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
11160 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
11162 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} line
11163 and the @code{Xref} line, you might say:
11166 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
11169 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
11172 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
11173 variable will have no effect.
11177 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
11178 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
11179 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
11180 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
11181 the headers are to be displayed.
11183 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
11184 and then the subject, you might say something like:
11187 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
11190 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
11191 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
11193 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
11194 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
11195 You can hide further boring headers by setting
11196 @code{gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers} to @code{head}. What this function
11197 does depends on the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a
11198 list, but this list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead it
11199 lists various @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove
11202 These conditions are:
11205 Remove all empty headers.
11207 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
11208 @code{Newsgroups} header.
11210 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same addresses as
11211 the @code{From} header, or if the @code{broken-reply-to} group
11214 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
11217 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
11218 the current group's @code{to-address} parameter.
11220 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
11221 the current group's @code{to-list} parameter.
11223 Remove the @code{Cc} header if it only contains the address identical to
11224 the current group's @code{to-list} parameter.
11226 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
11229 Remove the @code{To} and/or @code{Cc} header if it is very long.
11231 Remove all @code{To} and/or @code{Cc} headers if there are more than one.
11234 To include these three elements, you could say something like:
11237 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
11238 '(empty followup-to reply-to))
11241 This is also the default value for this variable.
11245 @section Using MIME
11246 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
11248 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
11249 while people stand around yawning.
11251 @acronym{MIME}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
11252 while all newsreaders die of fear.
11254 @acronym{MIME} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
11255 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
11256 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
11258 @vindex gnus-display-mime-function
11259 @findex gnus-display-mime
11260 Gnus pushes @acronym{MIME} articles through @code{gnus-display-mime-function}
11261 to display the @acronym{MIME} parts. This is @code{gnus-display-mime} by
11262 default, which creates a bundle of clickable buttons that can be used to
11263 display, save and manipulate the @acronym{MIME} objects.
11265 The following commands are available when you have placed point over a
11266 @acronym{MIME} button:
11269 @findex gnus-article-press-button
11270 @item RET (Article)
11271 @kindex RET (Article)
11272 @itemx BUTTON-2 (Article)
11273 Toggle displaying of the @acronym{MIME} object
11274 (@code{gnus-article-press-button}). If built-in viewers can not display
11275 the object, Gnus resorts to external viewers in the @file{mailcap}
11276 files. If a viewer has the @samp{copiousoutput} specification, the
11277 object is displayed inline.
11279 @findex gnus-mime-view-part
11280 @item M-RET (Article)
11281 @kindex M-RET (Article)
11283 Prompt for a method, and then view the @acronym{MIME} object using this
11284 method (@code{gnus-mime-view-part}).
11286 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-type
11288 @kindex t (Article)
11289 View the @acronym{MIME} object as if it were a different @acronym{MIME} media type
11290 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-type}).
11292 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset
11294 @kindex C (Article)
11295 Prompt for a charset, and then view the @acronym{MIME} object using this
11296 charset (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset}).
11298 @findex gnus-mime-save-part
11300 @kindex o (Article)
11301 Prompt for a file name, and then save the @acronym{MIME} object
11302 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part}).
11304 @findex gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip
11305 @item C-o (Article)
11306 @kindex C-o (Article)
11307 Prompt for a file name, then save the @acronym{MIME} object and strip it from
11308 the article. Then proceed to article editing, where a reasonable
11309 suggestion is being made on how the altered article should look
11310 like. The stripped @acronym{MIME} object will be referred via the
11311 message/external-body @acronym{MIME} type.
11312 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip}).
11314 @findex gnus-mime-replace-part
11316 @kindex r (Article)
11317 Prompt for a file name, replace the @acronym{MIME} object with an
11318 external body refering to the file via the message/external-body
11319 @acronym{MIME} type. (@code{gnus-mime-replace-part}).
11321 @findex gnus-mime-delete-part
11323 @kindex d (Article)
11324 Delete the @acronym{MIME} object from the article and replace it with some
11325 information about the removed @acronym{MIME} object
11326 (@code{gnus-mime-delete-part}).
11328 @c FIXME: gnus-auto-select-part should be documented here
11330 @findex gnus-mime-copy-part
11332 @kindex c (Article)
11333 Copy the @acronym{MIME} object to a fresh buffer and display this buffer
11334 (@code{gnus-mime-copy-part}). If given a prefix, copy the raw contents
11335 without decoding. If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual
11336 charset stuff (see @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist} in
11337 @ref{Paging the Article}). Compressed files like @file{.gz} and
11338 @file{.bz2} are automatically decompressed if
11339 @code{auto-compression-mode} is enabled (@pxref{Compressed Files,,
11340 Accessing Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Editor}).
11342 @findex gnus-mime-print-part
11344 @kindex p (Article)
11345 Print the @acronym{MIME} object (@code{gnus-mime-print-part}). This
11346 command respects the @samp{print=} specifications in the
11347 @file{.mailcap} file.
11349 @findex gnus-mime-inline-part
11351 @kindex i (Article)
11352 Insert the contents of the @acronym{MIME} object into the buffer
11353 (@code{gnus-mime-inline-part}) as text/plain. If given a prefix, insert
11354 the raw contents without decoding. If given a numerical prefix, you can
11355 do semi-manual charset stuff (see
11356 @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist} in @ref{Paging the
11357 Article}). Compressed files like @file{.gz} and @file{.bz2} are
11358 automatically decompressed depending on @code{jka-compr} regardless of
11359 @code{auto-compression-mode} (@pxref{Compressed Files,, Accessing
11360 Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Editor}).
11362 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-internally
11364 @kindex E (Article)
11365 View the @acronym{MIME} object with an internal viewer. If no internal
11366 viewer is available, use an external viewer
11367 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-internally}).
11369 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-externally
11371 @kindex e (Article)
11372 View the @acronym{MIME} object with an external viewer.
11373 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-externally}).
11375 @findex gnus-mime-pipe-part
11377 @kindex | (Article)
11378 Output the @acronym{MIME} object to a process (@code{gnus-mime-pipe-part}).
11380 @findex gnus-mime-action-on-part
11382 @kindex . (Article)
11383 Interactively run an action on the @acronym{MIME} object
11384 (@code{gnus-mime-action-on-part}).
11388 Gnus will display some @acronym{MIME} objects automatically. The way Gnus
11389 determines which parts to do this with is described in the Emacs
11390 @acronym{MIME} manual.
11392 It might be best to just use the toggling functions from the article
11393 buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance, you enter the
11394 group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it, @acronym{MIME} has
11395 decoded the sound file in the article and some horrible sing-a-long song
11396 comes screaming out your speakers, and you can't find the volume button,
11397 because there isn't one, and people are starting to look at you, and you
11398 try to stop the program, but you can't, and you can't find the program
11399 to control the volume, and everybody else in the room suddenly decides
11400 to look at you disdainfully, and you'll feel rather stupid.)
11402 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
11404 Also @pxref{MIME Commands}.
11407 @node Customizing Articles
11408 @section Customizing Articles
11409 @cindex article customization
11411 A slew of functions for customizing how the articles are to look like
11412 exist. You can call these functions interactively
11413 (@pxref{Article Washing}), or you can have them
11414 called automatically when you select the articles.
11416 To have them called automatically, you should set the corresponding
11417 ``treatment'' variable. For instance, to have headers hidden, you'd set
11418 @code{gnus-treat-hide-headers}. Below is a list of variables that can
11419 be set, but first we discuss the values these variables can have.
11421 Note: Some values, while valid, make little sense. Check the list below
11422 for sensible values.
11426 @code{nil}: Don't do this treatment.
11429 @code{t}: Do this treatment on all body parts.
11432 @code{head}: Do the treatment on the headers.
11435 @code{first}: Do this treatment on the first body part.
11438 @code{last}: Do this treatment on the last body part.
11441 An integer: Do this treatment on all body parts that have a length less
11445 A list of strings: Do this treatment on all body parts that are in
11446 articles that are read in groups that have names that match one of the
11447 regexps in the list.
11450 A list where the first element is not a string:
11452 The list is evaluated recursively. The first element of the list is a
11453 predicate. The following predicates are recognized: @code{or},
11454 @code{and}, @code{not} and @code{typep}. Here's an example:
11458 (typep "text/x-vcard"))
11463 You may have noticed that the word @dfn{part} is used here. This refers
11464 to the fact that some messages are @acronym{MIME} multipart articles that may
11465 be divided into several parts. Articles that are not multiparts are
11466 considered to contain just a single part.
11468 @vindex gnus-article-treat-types
11469 Are the treatments applied to all sorts of multipart parts? Yes, if you
11470 want to, but by default, only @samp{text/plain} parts are given the
11471 treatment. This is controlled by the @code{gnus-article-treat-types}
11472 variable, which is a list of regular expressions that are matched to the
11473 type of the part. This variable is ignored if the value of the
11474 controlling variable is a predicate list, as described above.
11477 @c Avoid sort of redundant entries in the same section for the printed
11478 @c manual, but add them in info to allow `i gnus-treat-foo-bar RET' or
11480 @vindex gnus-treat-buttonize
11481 @vindex gnus-treat-buttonize-head
11482 @vindex gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences
11483 @vindex gnus-treat-overstrike
11484 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-cr
11485 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body
11486 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines
11487 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines
11488 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-pem
11489 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines
11490 @vindex gnus-treat-unsplit-urls
11491 @vindex gnus-treat-wash-html
11492 @vindex gnus-treat-date-english
11493 @vindex gnus-treat-date-iso8601
11494 @vindex gnus-treat-date-lapsed
11495 @vindex gnus-treat-date-local
11496 @vindex gnus-treat-date-original
11497 @vindex gnus-treat-date-user-defined
11498 @vindex gnus-treat-date-ut
11499 @vindex gnus-treat-from-picon
11500 @vindex gnus-treat-mail-picon
11501 @vindex gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon
11502 @vindex gnus-treat-display-smileys
11503 @vindex gnus-treat-body-boundary
11504 @vindex gnus-treat-display-x-face
11505 @vindex gnus-treat-display-face
11506 @vindex gnus-treat-emphasize
11507 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-article
11508 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-long-lines
11509 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers
11510 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation
11511 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe
11512 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-headers
11513 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-signature
11514 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-banner
11515 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers
11516 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-citation
11517 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-headers
11518 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-signature
11519 @vindex gnus-treat-play-sounds
11520 @vindex gnus-treat-translate
11521 @vindex gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig
11522 @vindex gnus-treat-unfold-headers
11523 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-headers
11524 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups
11525 @vindex gnus-treat-leading-whitespace
11528 The following treatment options are available. The easiest way to
11529 customize this is to examine the @code{gnus-article-treat} customization
11530 group. Values in parenthesis are suggested sensible values. Others are
11531 possible but those listed are probably sufficient for most people.
11534 @item gnus-treat-buttonize (t, integer)
11535 @item gnus-treat-buttonize-head (head)
11537 @xref{Article Buttons}.
11539 @item gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences (t, integer)
11540 @item gnus-treat-overstrike (t, integer)
11541 @item gnus-treat-strip-cr (t, integer)
11542 @item gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body (t, integer)
11543 @item gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines (t, first, integer)
11544 @item gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines (t, integer)
11545 @item gnus-treat-strip-pem (t, last, integer)
11546 @item gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines (t, last, integer)
11547 @item gnus-treat-unsplit-urls (t, integer)
11548 @item gnus-treat-wash-html (t, integer)
11550 @xref{Article Washing}.
11552 @item gnus-treat-date-english (head)
11553 @item gnus-treat-date-iso8601 (head)
11554 @item gnus-treat-date-lapsed (head)
11555 @item gnus-treat-date-local (head)
11556 @item gnus-treat-date-original (head)
11557 @item gnus-treat-date-user-defined (head)
11558 @item gnus-treat-date-ut (head)
11560 @xref{Article Date}.
11562 @item gnus-treat-from-picon (head)
11563 @item gnus-treat-mail-picon (head)
11564 @item gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon (head)
11568 @item gnus-treat-display-smileys (t, integer)
11570 @item gnus-treat-body-boundary (head)
11572 @vindex gnus-body-boundary-delimiter
11573 Adds a delimiter between header and body, the string used as delimiter
11574 is controlled by @code{gnus-body-boundary-delimiter}.
11578 @vindex gnus-treat-display-x-face
11579 @item gnus-treat-display-x-face (head)
11583 @vindex gnus-treat-display-face
11584 @item gnus-treat-display-face (head)
11588 @vindex gnus-treat-emphasize
11589 @item gnus-treat-emphasize (t, head, integer)
11590 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-article
11591 @item gnus-treat-fill-article (t, integer)
11592 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-long-lines
11593 @item gnus-treat-fill-long-lines (t, integer)
11594 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers
11595 @item gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers (head)
11596 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation
11597 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation (t, integer)
11598 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe
11599 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe (t, integer)
11600 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-headers
11601 @item gnus-treat-hide-headers (head)
11602 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-signature
11603 @item gnus-treat-hide-signature (t, last)
11604 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-banner
11605 @item gnus-treat-strip-banner (t, last)
11606 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers
11607 @item gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers (head)
11609 @xref{Article Hiding}.
11611 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-citation
11612 @item gnus-treat-highlight-citation (t, integer)
11613 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-headers
11614 @item gnus-treat-highlight-headers (head)
11615 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-signature
11616 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last, integer)
11618 @xref{Article Highlighting}.
11620 @vindex gnus-treat-play-sounds
11621 @item gnus-treat-play-sounds
11622 @vindex gnus-treat-translate
11623 @item gnus-treat-translate
11624 @item gnus-treat-ansi-sequences (t)
11625 @vindex gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig
11626 @item gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig (head)
11628 @vindex gnus-treat-unfold-headers
11629 @item gnus-treat-unfold-headers (head)
11630 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-headers
11631 @item gnus-treat-fold-headers (head)
11632 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups
11633 @item gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups (head)
11634 @vindex gnus-treat-leading-whitespace
11635 @item gnus-treat-leading-whitespace (head)
11637 @xref{Article Header}.
11642 @vindex gnus-part-display-hook
11643 You can, of course, write your own functions to be called from
11644 @code{gnus-part-display-hook}. The functions are called narrowed to the
11645 part, and you can do anything you like, pretty much. There is no
11646 information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can change
11650 @node Article Keymap
11651 @section Article Keymap
11653 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
11654 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
11655 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
11656 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
11659 @kindex v (Article)
11660 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Article)
11661 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it key to some
11662 function or better use it as a prefix key.
11664 A few additional keystrokes are available:
11669 @kindex SPACE (Article)
11670 @findex gnus-article-next-page
11671 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
11672 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h SPACE h}.
11675 @kindex DEL (Article)
11676 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
11677 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
11678 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h DEL h}.
11681 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
11682 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
11683 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
11684 @kbd{C-c ^}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
11685 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
11688 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
11689 @findex gnus-article-mail
11690 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
11691 given a prefix, include the mail.
11694 @kindex s (Article)
11695 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
11696 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
11697 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
11700 @kindex ? (Article)
11701 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
11702 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
11703 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
11706 @kindex TAB (Article)
11707 @findex gnus-article-next-button
11708 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
11709 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
11712 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
11713 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
11714 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
11717 @kindex R (Article)
11718 @findex gnus-article-reply-with-original
11719 Send a reply to the current article and yank the current article
11720 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}). If given a prefix, make a
11721 wide reply. If the region is active, only yank the text in the
11725 @kindex F (Article)
11726 @findex gnus-article-followup-with-original
11727 Send a followup to the current article and yank the current article
11728 (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}). If given a prefix, make
11729 a wide reply. If the region is active, only yank the text in the
11737 @section Misc Article
11741 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
11742 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
11743 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
11744 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
11747 @vindex gnus-article-decode-hook
11748 @item gnus-article-decode-hook
11749 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
11750 Hook used to decode @acronym{MIME} articles. The default value is
11751 @code{(article-decode-charset article-decode-encoded-words)}
11753 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
11754 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
11755 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
11756 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
11757 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
11758 the contents of the article buffer.
11760 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
11761 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
11762 Hook called in article mode buffers.
11764 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
11765 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
11766 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
11767 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
11769 @vindex gnus-article-over-scroll
11770 @item gnus-article-over-scroll
11771 If non-@code{nil}, allow scrolling the article buffer even when there
11772 no more new text to scroll in. The default is @code{nil}.
11774 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
11775 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
11776 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
11777 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Summary Buffer Mode
11778 Line}). It accepts the same format specifications as that variable,
11779 with two extensions:
11784 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
11785 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
11786 performed. The characters and their meaning:
11791 Displayed when cited text may be hidden in the article buffer.
11794 Displayed when headers are hidden in the article buffer.
11797 Displayed when article is digitally signed or encrypted, and Gnus has
11798 hidden the security headers. (N.B. does not tell anything about
11799 security status, i.e. good or bad signature.)
11802 Displayed when the signature has been hidden in the Article buffer.
11805 Displayed when Gnus has treated overstrike characters in the article buffer.
11808 Displayed when Gnus has treated emphasised strings in the article buffer.
11813 The number of @acronym{MIME} parts in the article.
11817 @vindex gnus-break-pages
11819 @item gnus-break-pages
11820 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
11821 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
11822 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
11823 paging will not be done.
11825 @item gnus-page-delimiter
11826 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
11827 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
11831 @cindex internationalized domain names
11832 @vindex gnus-use-idna
11833 @item gnus-use-idna
11834 This variable controls whether Gnus performs IDNA decoding of
11835 internationalized domain names inside @samp{From}, @samp{To} and
11836 @samp{Cc} headers. @xref{IDNA, ,IDNA,message, The Message Manual},
11837 for how to compose such messages. This requires
11838 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/, GNU Libidn}, and this
11839 variable is only enabled if you have installed it.
11844 @node Composing Messages
11845 @chapter Composing Messages
11846 @cindex composing messages
11849 @cindex sending mail
11854 @cindex using s/mime
11855 @cindex using smime
11857 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
11858 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
11859 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the
11860 article by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Overview, message,
11861 Message Manual}. Where the message will be posted/mailed to depends
11862 on your setup (@pxref{Posting Server}).
11865 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
11866 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
11867 * POP before SMTP:: You cannot send a mail unless you read a mail.
11868 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
11869 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
11870 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
11871 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
11872 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
11873 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
11876 Also @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
11877 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
11883 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
11886 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
11887 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
11888 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
11889 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched. If
11890 @code{nil} include all headers.
11892 @item gnus-add-to-list
11893 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
11894 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
11895 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
11897 @item gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
11898 @vindex gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
11899 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you for a confirmation when you are
11900 about to reply to news articles by mail. If it is @code{nil}, nothing
11901 interferes in what you want to do. This can also be a function
11902 receiving the group name as the only parameter which should return
11903 non-@code{nil} if a confirmation is needed, or a regular expression
11904 matching group names, where confirmation should be asked for.
11906 If you find yourself never wanting to reply to mail, but occasionally
11907 press @kbd{R} anyway, this variable might be for you.
11909 @item gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
11910 @vindex gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
11911 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus also requests confirmation according to
11912 @code{gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news} when replying to mail. This is
11913 useful for treating mailing lists like newsgroups.
11918 @node Posting Server
11919 @section Posting Server
11921 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
11922 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
11924 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
11926 It can be quite complicated.
11928 @vindex gnus-post-method
11929 When posting news, Message usually invokes @code{message-send-news}
11930 (@pxref{News Variables, , News Variables, message, Message Manual}).
11931 Normally, Gnus will post using the same select method as you're
11932 reading from (which might be convenient if you're reading lots of
11933 groups from different private servers). However. If the server
11934 you're reading from doesn't allow posting, just reading, you probably
11935 want to use some other server to post your (extremely intelligent and
11936 fabulously interesting) articles. You can then set the
11937 @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
11940 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
11943 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
11944 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
11945 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
11946 the ``current'' server, to get back the default behavior, for posting.
11948 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
11949 Gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
11951 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
11952 If that's the case, Gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
11955 Finally, if you want to always post using the native select method,
11956 you can set this variable to @code{native}.
11958 When sending mail, Message invokes @code{message-send-mail-function}.
11959 The default function, @code{message-send-mail-with-sendmail}, pipes
11960 your article to the @code{sendmail} binary for further queuing and
11961 sending. When your local system is not configured for sending mail
11962 using @code{sendmail}, and you have access to a remote @acronym{SMTP}
11963 server, you can set @code{message-send-mail-function} to
11964 @code{smtpmail-send-it} and make sure to setup the @code{smtpmail}
11965 package correctly. An example:
11968 (setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it
11969 smtpmail-default-smtp-server "YOUR SMTP HOST")
11972 To the thing similar to this, there is
11973 @code{message-smtpmail-send-it}. It is useful if your @acronym{ISP}
11974 requires the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication.
11975 @xref{POP before SMTP}.
11977 Other possible choices for @code{message-send-mail-function} includes
11978 @code{message-send-mail-with-mh}, @code{message-send-mail-with-qmail},
11979 and @code{feedmail-send-it}.
11981 @node POP before SMTP
11982 @section POP before SMTP
11983 @cindex pop before smtp
11984 @findex message-smtpmail-send-it
11985 @findex mail-source-touch-pop
11987 Does your @acronym{ISP} require the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP}
11988 authentication? It is whether you need to connect to the @acronym{POP}
11989 mail server within a certain time before sending mails. If so, there is
11990 a convenient way. To do that, put the following lines in your
11991 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
11994 (setq message-send-mail-function 'message-smtpmail-send-it)
11995 (add-hook 'message-send-mail-hook 'mail-source-touch-pop)
11999 It means to let Gnus connect to the @acronym{POP} mail server in advance
12000 whenever you send a mail. The @code{mail-source-touch-pop} function
12001 does only a @acronym{POP} authentication according to the value of
12002 @code{mail-sources} without fetching mails, just before sending a mail.
12003 Note that you have to use @code{message-smtpmail-send-it} which runs
12004 @code{message-send-mail-hook} rather than @code{smtpmail-send-it} and
12005 set the value of @code{mail-sources} for a @acronym{POP} connection
12006 correctly. @xref{Mail Sources}.
12008 If you have two or more @acronym{POP} mail servers set in
12009 @code{mail-sources}, you may want to specify one of them to
12010 @code{mail-source-primary-source} as the @acronym{POP} mail server to be
12011 used for the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication. If it
12012 is your primary @acronym{POP} mail server (i.e., you are fetching mails
12013 mainly from that server), you can set it permanently as follows:
12016 (setq mail-source-primary-source
12017 '(pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
12018 :password "secret"))
12022 Otherwise, bind it dynamically only when performing the
12023 @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication as follows:
12026 (add-hook 'message-send-mail-hook
12028 (let ((mail-source-primary-source
12029 '(pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
12030 :password "secret")))
12031 (mail-source-touch-pop))))
12034 @node Mail and Post
12035 @section Mail and Post
12037 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
12041 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
12042 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
12043 @cindex mailing lists
12045 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
12046 gatewayed to the @acronym{NNTP} server, you can read those groups without
12047 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
12048 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
12049 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
12050 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
12051 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
12052 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
12053 still a pain, though.
12055 @item gnus-user-agent
12056 @vindex gnus-user-agent
12059 This variable controls which information should be exposed in the
12060 User-Agent header. It can be a list of symbols or a string. Valid
12061 symbols are @code{gnus} (show Gnus version) and @code{emacs} (show Emacs
12062 version). In addition to the Emacs version, you can add @code{codename}
12063 (show (S)XEmacs codename) or either @code{config} (show system
12064 configuration) or @code{type} (show system type). If you set it to a
12065 string, be sure to use a valid format, see RFC 2616.
12069 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
12070 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
12071 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
12074 @findex ispell-message
12076 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
12079 If you want to change the @code{ispell} dictionary based on what group
12080 you're in, you could say something like the following:
12083 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
12087 "^de\\." (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
12088 (ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch"))
12090 (ispell-change-dictionary "english")))))
12093 Modify to suit your needs.
12095 @vindex gnus-message-highlight-citation
12096 If @code{gnus-message-highlight-citation} is t, different levels of
12097 citations are highlighted like in Gnus article buffers also in message
12100 @node Archived Messages
12101 @section Archived Messages
12102 @cindex archived messages
12103 @cindex sent messages
12105 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
12106 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
12107 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
12108 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}, which
12111 For archiving interesting messages in a group you read, see the
12112 @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}) command (@pxref{Mail
12115 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
12116 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server Gnus is to
12117 use to store sent messages. The default is:
12120 (nnfolder "archive"
12121 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
12122 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
12123 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
12124 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
12127 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
12128 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likable select method
12129 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
12130 directory chosen, you could say something like:
12133 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
12134 '(nnfolder "archive"
12135 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
12136 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
12137 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
12140 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
12142 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
12143 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
12144 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
12146 This variable can be used to do the following:
12150 Messages will be saved in that group.
12152 Note that you can include a select method in the group name, then the
12153 message will not be stored in the select method given by
12154 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, but in the select method specified
12155 by the group name, instead. Suppose @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
12156 has the default value shown above. Then setting
12157 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{"foo"} means that outgoing
12158 messages are stored in @samp{nnfolder+archive:foo}, but if you use the
12159 value @code{"nnml:foo"}, then outgoing messages will be stored in
12162 @item a list of strings
12163 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
12165 @item an alist of regexps, functions and forms
12166 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
12169 No message archiving will take place. This is the default.
12174 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
12176 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
12179 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
12181 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
12184 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
12186 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
12187 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
12188 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
12189 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
12192 More complex stuff:
12194 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
12195 '((if (message-news-p)
12200 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
12201 messages in one file per month:
12204 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
12205 '((if (message-news-p)
12207 (concat "mail." (format-time-string "%Y-%m")))))
12210 @c (XEmacs 19.13 doesn't have @code{format-time-string}, so you'll have to
12211 @c use a different value for @code{gnus-message-archive-group} there.)
12213 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
12214 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
12215 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
12216 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
12217 Gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
12218 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
12219 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
12220 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
12221 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
12222 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
12224 That's the default method of archiving sent messages. Gnus offers a
12225 different way for the people who don't like the default method. In that
12226 case you should set @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{nil};
12227 this will disable archiving.
12230 @item gnus-outgoing-message-group
12231 @vindex gnus-outgoing-message-group
12232 All outgoing messages will be put in this group. If you want to store
12233 all your outgoing mail and articles in the group @samp{nnml:archive},
12234 you set this variable to that value. This variable can also be a list of
12237 If you want to have greater control over what group to put each
12238 message in, you can set this variable to a function that checks the
12239 current newsgroup name and then returns a suitable group name (or list
12242 This variable can be used instead of @code{gnus-message-archive-group},
12243 but the latter is the preferred method.
12245 @item gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
12246 @vindex gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
12247 If non-@code{nil}, automatically mark @code{Gcc} articles as read.
12249 @item gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
12250 @vindex gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
12251 If @code{nil}, attach files as normal parts in Gcc copies; if a regexp
12252 and matches the Gcc group name, attach files as external parts; if it is
12253 @code{all}, attach local files as external parts; if it is other
12254 non-@code{nil}, the behavior is the same as @code{all}, but it may be
12255 changed in the future.
12260 @node Posting Styles
12261 @section Posting Styles
12262 @cindex posting styles
12265 All them variables, they make my head swim.
12267 So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
12268 on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
12269 and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
12272 @vindex gnus-posting-styles
12273 One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
12274 variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
12275 came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
12276 a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
12281 (signature "Peace and happiness")
12282 (organization "What me?"))
12284 (signature "Death to everybody"))
12285 ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
12286 (organization "Emacs is it")))
12289 As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
12290 @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
12291 ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
12292 over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
12293 applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
12294 the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
12295 @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
12296 signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
12298 The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
12299 string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
12300 If it is the form @code{(header @var{match} @var{regexp})}, then Gnus
12301 will look in the original article for a header whose name is
12302 @var{match} and compare that @var{regexp}. @var{match} and
12303 @var{regexp} are strings. (The original article is the one you are
12304 replying or following up to. If you are not composing a reply or a
12305 followup, then there is nothing to match against.) If the
12306 @code{match} is a function symbol, that function will be called with
12307 no arguments. If it's a variable symbol, then the variable will be
12308 referenced. If it's a list, then that list will be @code{eval}ed. In
12309 any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil} value, then the style is
12310 said to @dfn{match}.
12312 Each style may contain an arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
12313 attribute consists of a @code{(@var{name} @var{value})} pair. In
12314 addition, you can also use the @code{(@var{name} :file @var{value})}
12315 form or the @code{(@var{name} :value @var{value})} form. Where
12316 @code{:file} signifies @var{value} represents a file name and its
12317 contents should be used as the attribute value, @code{:value} signifies
12318 @var{value} does not represent a file name explicitly. The attribute
12319 name can be one of:
12322 @item @code{signature}
12323 @item @code{signature-file}
12324 @item @code{x-face-file}
12325 @item @code{address}, overriding @code{user-mail-address}
12326 @item @code{name}, overriding @code{(user-full-name)}
12330 Note that the @code{signature-file} attribute honors the variable
12331 @code{message-signature-directory}.
12333 The attribute name can also be a string or a symbol. In that case,
12334 this will be used as a header name, and the value will be inserted in
12335 the headers of the article; if the value is @code{nil}, the header
12336 name will be removed. If the attribute name is @code{eval}, the form
12337 is evaluated, and the result is thrown away.
12339 The attribute value can be a string (used verbatim), a function with
12340 zero arguments (the return value will be used), a variable (its value
12341 will be used) or a list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value
12342 will be used). The functions and sexps are called/@code{eval}ed in the
12343 message buffer that is being set up. The headers of the current article
12344 are available through the @code{message-reply-headers} variable, which
12345 is a vector of the following headers: number subject from date id
12346 references chars lines xref extra.
12348 @vindex message-reply-headers
12350 If you wish to check whether the message you are about to compose is
12351 meant to be a news article or a mail message, you can check the values
12352 of the @code{message-news-p} and @code{message-mail-p} functions.
12354 @findex message-mail-p
12355 @findex message-news-p
12357 So here's a new example:
12360 (setq gnus-posting-styles
12362 (signature-file "~/.signature")
12364 (x-face-file "~/.xface")
12365 (x-url (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
12366 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
12368 (signature my-funny-signature-randomizer))
12369 ((equal (system-name) "gnarly") ;; @r{A form}
12370 (signature my-quote-randomizer))
12371 (message-news-p ;; @r{A function symbol}
12372 (signature my-news-signature))
12373 (window-system ;; @r{A value symbol}
12374 ("X-Window-System" (format "%s" window-system)))
12375 ;; @r{If I'm replying to Larsi, set the Organization header.}
12376 ((header "from" "larsi.*org")
12377 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
12378 ((posting-from-work-p) ;; @r{A user defined function}
12379 (signature-file "~/.work-signature")
12380 (address "user@@bar.foo")
12381 (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
12382 (organization "Important Work, Inc"))
12384 (From (save-excursion
12385 (set-buffer gnus-article-buffer)
12386 (message-fetch-field "to"))))
12388 (signature-file "~/.mail-signature"))))
12391 The @samp{nnml:.*} rule means that you use the @code{To} address as the
12392 @code{From} address in all your outgoing replies, which might be handy
12393 if you fill many roles.
12394 You may also use @code{message-alternative-emails} instead.
12395 @xref{Message Headers, ,Message Headers, message, Message Manual}.
12401 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
12402 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
12403 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
12404 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
12405 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
12407 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
12408 some sort using the Gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
12409 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
12410 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
12411 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
12415 @vindex nndraft-directory
12416 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
12417 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
12418 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
12419 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
12420 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
12421 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
12423 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
12424 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
12425 unsubscribe it. The special properties of the draft group comes from
12426 a group property (@pxref{Group Parameters}), and if lost the group
12427 behaves like any other group. This means the commands below will not
12428 be available. To restore the special properties of the group, the
12429 simplest way is to kill the group, using @kbd{C-k}, and restart
12430 Gnus. The group is automatically created again with the
12431 correct parameters. The content of the group is not lost.
12433 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
12434 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
12435 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
12436 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
12437 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
12438 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
12439 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
12440 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
12441 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
12442 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
12443 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
12444 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
12445 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
12446 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
12448 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
12449 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
12450 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
12452 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
12453 @kindex D e (Draft)
12454 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
12455 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
12456 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
12458 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
12461 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
12462 @kindex D s (Draft)
12463 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
12464 @kindex D S (Draft)
12465 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
12466 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
12467 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
12468 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
12469 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
12472 @findex gnus-draft-toggle-sending
12473 @kindex D t (Draft)
12474 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
12475 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
12476 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
12479 @node Rejected Articles
12480 @section Rejected Articles
12481 @cindex rejected articles
12483 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
12484 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
12485 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
12486 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
12488 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of Gnus.
12489 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
12490 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
12491 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So Gnus saves these
12492 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
12494 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
12495 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
12496 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
12498 @node Signing and encrypting
12499 @section Signing and encrypting
12501 @cindex using s/mime
12502 @cindex using smime
12504 Gnus can digitally sign and encrypt your messages, using vanilla
12505 @acronym{PGP} format or @acronym{PGP/MIME} or @acronym{S/MIME}. For
12506 decoding such messages, see the @code{mm-verify-option} and
12507 @code{mm-decrypt-option} options (@pxref{Security}).
12509 @vindex gnus-message-replysign
12510 @vindex gnus-message-replyencrypt
12511 @vindex gnus-message-replysignencrypted
12512 Often, you would like to sign replies to people who send you signed
12513 messages. Even more often, you might want to encrypt messages which
12514 are in reply to encrypted messages. Gnus offers
12515 @code{gnus-message-replysign} to enable the former, and
12516 @code{gnus-message-replyencrypt} for the latter. In addition, setting
12517 @code{gnus-message-replysignencrypted} (on by default) will sign
12518 automatically encrypted messages.
12520 Instructing @acronym{MML} to perform security operations on a
12521 @acronym{MIME} part is done using the @kbd{C-c C-m s} key map for
12522 signing and the @kbd{C-c C-m c} key map for encryption, as follows.
12527 @kindex C-c C-m s s (Message)
12528 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-smime
12530 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{S/MIME}.
12533 @kindex C-c C-m s o (Message)
12534 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
12536 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{PGP}.
12539 @kindex C-c C-m s p (Message)
12540 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
12542 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{PGP/MIME}.
12545 @kindex C-c C-m c s (Message)
12546 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-smime
12548 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{S/MIME}.
12551 @kindex C-c C-m c o (Message)
12552 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgp
12554 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{PGP}.
12557 @kindex C-c C-m c p (Message)
12558 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgpmime
12560 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{PGP/MIME}.
12563 @kindex C-c C-m C-n (Message)
12564 @findex mml-unsecure-message
12565 Remove security related @acronym{MML} tags from message.
12569 @xref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}, for more information.
12571 @node Select Methods
12572 @chapter Select Methods
12573 @cindex foreign groups
12574 @cindex select methods
12576 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
12577 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
12578 @acronym{NNTP} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
12579 personal mail group.
12581 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
12582 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
12583 list where the first element says what back end to use (e.g. @code{nntp},
12584 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
12585 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
12586 value may have special meaning for the back end in question.
12588 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
12589 we do just that (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
12591 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the back end will recognize the
12594 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @acronym{NNTP} server
12595 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
12596 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
12597 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
12598 back end just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
12600 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
12603 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
12604 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
12605 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
12606 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
12607 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @acronym{IMAP} client.
12608 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
12609 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
12610 * Email Based Diary:: Using mails to manage diary events in Gnus.
12611 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
12615 @node Server Buffer
12616 @section Server Buffer
12618 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
12619 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
12620 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
12621 one back end or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
12622 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
12623 back end represents a virtual server.
12625 For instance, the @code{nntp} back end may be used to connect to several
12626 different actual @acronym{NNTP} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
12627 on the same actual @acronym{NNTP} server. You tell Gnus which back end to
12628 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
12630 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
12631 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
12632 @acronym{NNTP} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
12633 hangs if queried for @acronym{NOV} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
12634 Anyway, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
12635 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
12636 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
12638 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
12639 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
12642 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
12643 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
12644 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
12645 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
12646 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
12647 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
12648 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
12651 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
12652 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
12655 @node Server Buffer Format
12656 @subsection Server Buffer Format
12657 @cindex server buffer format
12659 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
12660 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
12661 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
12662 variable, with some simple extensions:
12667 How the news is fetched---the back end name.
12670 The name of this server.
12673 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
12676 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
12679 Whether this server is agentized.
12682 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
12683 The mode line can also be customized by using the
12684 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable (@pxref{Mode Line
12685 Formatting}). The following specs are understood:
12695 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
12698 @node Server Commands
12699 @subsection Server Commands
12700 @cindex server commands
12706 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Server)
12707 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it key to some
12708 function or better use it as a prefix key.
12712 @findex gnus-server-add-server
12713 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
12717 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
12718 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
12721 @kindex SPACE (Server)
12722 @findex gnus-server-read-server
12723 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
12727 @findex gnus-server-exit
12728 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
12732 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
12733 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
12737 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
12738 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
12742 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
12743 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
12747 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
12748 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
12752 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
12753 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
12754 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
12759 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
12760 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
12761 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
12762 a mail back end that has gotten out of sync.
12766 @findex gnus-server-compact-server
12768 Compact all groups in the server under point
12769 (@code{gnus-server-compact-server}). Currently implemented only in
12770 nnml (@pxref{Mail Spool}). This removes gaps between article numbers,
12771 hence getting a correct total article count.
12776 @node Example Methods
12777 @subsection Example Methods
12779 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
12782 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
12785 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
12791 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
12792 back end, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
12795 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
12796 @code{(@var{variable} @var{form})} pairs.
12798 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
12799 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
12803 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
12806 You should read the documentation to each back end to find out what
12807 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
12809 @code{nnmh} is a mail back end that reads a spool-like structure. Say
12810 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
12811 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
12815 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
12818 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
12821 Here's the method for a public spool:
12825 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
12826 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
12832 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @acronym{NNTP}
12833 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
12834 on the firewall machine and telnet from there to the @acronym{NNTP} server.
12835 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
12836 should probably look something like this:
12840 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet)
12841 (nntp-via-address "the.firewall.machine")
12842 (nntp-address "the.real.nntp.host")
12843 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
12846 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
12847 compressed connection over the modem line, you could add the following
12848 configuration to the example above:
12851 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
12854 See also @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches}. Here's an example for
12855 an indirect connection:
12857 (setq gnus-select-method
12859 (nntp-address "news.server.example")
12860 (nntp-via-user-name "intermediate_user_name")
12861 (nntp-via-address "intermediate.host.example")
12862 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
12863 (nntp-end-of-line "\n")
12864 (nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches ("-C" "-t" "-e" "none"))
12865 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet)))
12868 If you're behind a firewall, but have direct access to the outside world
12869 through a wrapper command like "runsocks", you could open a socksified
12870 telnet connection to the news server as follows:
12874 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
12875 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-telnet)
12876 (nntp-address "the.news.server")
12877 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
12880 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
12881 provide automatic authorization, of course. And to get a compressed
12882 connection, you have to have the @samp{Compression} option in the
12883 @code{ssh} @file{config} file.
12886 @node Creating a Virtual Server
12887 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
12889 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
12890 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
12892 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
12893 would probably be best to use @code{nnml} to read the cache. You
12894 could also use @code{nnspool} or @code{nnmh}, though.
12896 Type @kbd{a nnml RET cache RET}.
12898 You should now have a brand new @code{nnml} virtual server called
12899 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
12900 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
12901 will contain the following:
12911 (nnml-directory "~/News/cache/")
12912 (nnml-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
12915 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
12916 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
12917 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
12920 @node Server Variables
12921 @subsection Server Variables
12922 @cindex server variables
12923 @cindex server parameters
12925 One sticky point when defining variables (both on back ends and in Emacs
12926 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
12927 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
12928 change the ``base'' variable after the variables have been loaded, you
12929 won't change the ``derived'' variables.
12931 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
12932 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
12933 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
12934 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
12935 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
12936 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
12937 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
12938 variables for each back end, see each back end's section later in this
12939 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
12943 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
12944 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
12945 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
12948 Server variables are often called @dfn{server parameters}.
12950 @node Servers and Methods
12951 @subsection Servers and Methods
12953 Wherever you would normally use a select method
12954 (e.g. @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
12955 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
12956 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
12960 @node Unavailable Servers
12961 @subsection Unavailable Servers
12963 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
12964 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
12965 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
12966 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
12967 actually the case or not.
12969 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
12970 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
12971 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
12972 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
12973 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
12974 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
12975 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
12976 it will regard that server as ``down''.
12978 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
12979 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
12981 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{Server Buffer}) and poke it
12982 with the following commands:
12988 @findex gnus-server-open-server
12989 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
12990 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
12994 @findex gnus-server-close-server
12995 Close the connection (if any) to the server
12996 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
13000 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
13001 Mark the current server as unreachable
13002 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
13005 @kindex M-o (Server)
13006 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
13007 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
13008 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
13011 @kindex M-c (Server)
13012 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
13013 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
13014 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
13018 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
13019 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
13020 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
13024 @findex gnus-server-offline-server
13025 Set server status to offline (@code{gnus-server-offline-server}).
13031 @section Getting News
13032 @cindex reading news
13033 @cindex news back ends
13035 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
13036 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @acronym{NNTP} server,
13037 or it can read from a local spool.
13040 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @acronym{NNTP} server.
13041 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
13049 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @acronym{NNTP} server is rather easy.
13050 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @acronym{NNTP}
13051 server as the, uhm, address.
13053 If the @acronym{NNTP} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
13054 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
13055 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
13056 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
13058 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
13059 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
13060 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
13062 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
13067 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
13068 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
13069 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
13071 @cindex authentication
13072 @cindex nntp authentication
13073 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
13074 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
13075 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
13076 commands to the @acronym{NNTP} server after it has been contacted. By
13077 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
13078 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
13079 present in this hook.
13081 @item nntp-authinfo-function
13082 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
13083 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
13084 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
13085 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @acronym{NNTP}
13086 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
13087 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
13088 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
13089 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
13090 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
13091 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
13092 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
13096 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
13099 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs.
13101 The valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password},
13102 @samp{default}. In addition Gnus introduces two new tokens, not present
13103 in the original @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp} syntax, namely @samp{port} and
13104 @samp{force}. (This is the only way the @file{.authinfo} file format
13105 deviates from the @file{.netrc} file format.) @samp{port} is used to
13106 indicate what port on the server the credentials apply to and
13107 @samp{force} is explained below.
13111 Here's an example file:
13114 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
13115 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
13118 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
13119 have to be first, for instance.
13121 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
13122 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
13123 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
13124 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
13125 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
13126 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
13127 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
13129 You can also add @samp{default} lines that will apply to all servers
13130 that don't have matching @samp{machine} lines.
13136 This will force sending @samp{AUTHINFO} commands to all servers not
13137 previously mentioned.
13139 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
13141 @item nntp-server-action-alist
13142 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
13143 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
13144 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
13145 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
13148 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
13149 '(("innd" (ding))))
13152 You probably don't want to do that, though.
13154 The default value is
13157 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
13158 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook
13159 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
13162 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
13163 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
13165 @item nntp-maximum-request
13166 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
13167 If the @acronym{NNTP} server doesn't support @acronym{NOV} headers, this back end
13168 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
13169 speed things up, the back end sends lots of these commands without
13170 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
13171 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
13172 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
13174 @item nntp-connection-timeout
13175 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
13176 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
13177 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @acronym{NNTP} servers not
13178 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
13179 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
13180 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
13181 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} back end should wait for a
13182 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
13183 no timeouts are done.
13185 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
13186 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
13187 If the @acronym{NNTP} server does not support @acronym{NOV}, you could set this
13188 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @acronym{NOV}
13191 @item nntp-xover-commands
13192 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
13193 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
13195 List of strings used as commands to fetch @acronym{NOV} lines from a
13196 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
13200 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
13201 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @acronym{NOV} lines to
13202 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
13203 if you have read articles 2-5000 in the group, and only want to read
13204 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @acronym{NOV}
13205 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
13206 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
13207 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
13208 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
13209 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
13210 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
13212 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
13213 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
13214 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @acronym{NNTP} server.
13216 @item nntp-record-commands
13217 @vindex nntp-record-commands
13218 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
13219 @acronym{NNTP} server (along with a timestamp) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
13220 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@acronym{NNTP} connection
13221 that doesn't seem to work.
13223 @item nntp-open-connection-function
13224 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
13225 It is possible to customize how the connection to the nntp server will
13226 be opened. If you specify an @code{nntp-open-connection-function}
13227 parameter, Gnus will use that function to establish the connection.
13228 Seven pre-made functions are supplied. These functions can be grouped
13229 in two categories: direct connection functions (four pre-made), and
13230 indirect ones (three pre-made).
13232 @item nntp-never-echoes-commands
13233 @vindex nntp-never-echoes-commands
13234 Non-@code{nil} means the nntp server never echoes commands. It is
13235 reported that some nntps server doesn't echo commands. So, you may want
13236 to set this to non-@code{nil} in the method for such a server setting
13237 @code{nntp-open-connection-function} to @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream} for
13238 example. The default value is @code{nil}. Note that the
13239 @code{nntp-open-connection-functions-never-echo-commands} variable
13240 overrides the @code{nil} value of this variable.
13242 @item nntp-open-connection-functions-never-echo-commands
13243 @vindex nntp-open-connection-functions-never-echo-commands
13244 List of functions that never echo commands. Add or set a function which
13245 you set to @code{nntp-open-connection-function} to this list if it does
13246 not echo commands. Note that a non-@code{nil} value of the
13247 @code{nntp-never-echoes-commands} variable overrides this variable. The
13248 default value is @code{(nntp-open-network-stream)}.
13250 @item nntp-prepare-post-hook
13251 @vindex nntp-prepare-post-hook
13252 A hook run just before posting an article. If there is no
13253 @code{Message-ID} header in the article and the news server provides the
13254 recommended ID, it will be added to the article before running this
13255 hook. It is useful to make @code{Cancel-Lock} headers even if you
13256 inhibit Gnus to add a @code{Message-ID} header, you could say:
13259 (add-hook 'nntp-prepare-post-hook 'canlock-insert-header)
13262 Note that not all servers support the recommended ID. This works for
13263 INN versions 2.3.0 and later, for instance.
13268 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
13269 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
13270 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
13271 * NNTP marks:: Storing marks for @acronym{NNTP} servers.
13275 @node Direct Functions
13276 @subsubsection Direct Functions
13277 @cindex direct connection functions
13279 These functions are called direct because they open a direct connection
13280 between your machine and the @acronym{NNTP} server. The behavior of these
13281 functions is also affected by commonly understood variables
13282 (@pxref{Common Variables}).
13285 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
13286 @item nntp-open-network-stream
13287 This is the default, and simply connects to some port or other on the
13290 @findex nntp-open-tls-stream
13291 @item nntp-open-tls-stream
13292 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
13293 this you must have @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/, GNUTLS}
13294 installed. You then define a server as follows:
13297 ;; @r{"nntps" is port 563 and is predefined in our @file{/etc/services}}
13298 ;; @r{however, @samp{gnutls-cli -p} doesn't like named ports.}
13300 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
13301 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-tls-stream)
13302 (nntp-port-number )
13303 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
13306 @findex nntp-open-ssl-stream
13307 @item nntp-open-ssl-stream
13308 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
13309 this you must have @uref{http://www.openssl.org, OpenSSL} or
13310 @uref{ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL, SSLeay} installed. You
13311 then define a server as follows:
13314 ;; @r{"snews" is port 563 and is predefined in our @file{/etc/services}}
13315 ;; @r{however, @samp{openssl s_client -port} doesn't like named ports.}
13317 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
13318 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-ssl-stream)
13319 (nntp-port-number 563)
13320 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
13323 @findex nntp-open-telnet-stream
13324 @item nntp-open-telnet-stream
13325 Opens a connection to an @acronym{NNTP} server by simply @samp{telnet}'ing
13326 it. You might wonder why this function exists, since we have the
13327 default @code{nntp-open-network-stream} which would do the job. (One
13328 of) the reason(s) is that if you are behind a firewall but have direct
13329 connections to the outside world thanks to a command wrapper like
13330 @code{runsocks}, you can use it like this:
13334 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
13335 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-telnet-stream)
13336 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
13339 With the default method, you would need to wrap your whole Emacs
13340 session, which is not a good idea.
13344 @node Indirect Functions
13345 @subsubsection Indirect Functions
13346 @cindex indirect connection functions
13348 These functions are called indirect because they connect to an
13349 intermediate host before actually connecting to the @acronym{NNTP} server.
13350 All of these functions and related variables are also said to belong to
13351 the ``via'' family of connection: they're all prefixed with ``via'' to make
13352 things cleaner. The behavior of these functions is also affected by
13353 commonly understood variables (@pxref{Common Variables}).
13356 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
13357 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
13358 Does an @samp{rlogin} on a remote system, and then does a @samp{telnet}
13359 to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from there. This is useful for instance if
13360 you need to connect to a firewall machine first.
13362 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet}-specific variables:
13365 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
13366 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
13367 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
13368 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
13370 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
13371 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
13372 List of strings to be used as the switches to
13373 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. The default is @code{nil}. If you use
13374 @samp{ssh} for @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}, you may set this to
13375 @samp{("-C")} in order to compress all data connections, otherwise set
13376 this to @samp{("-t" "-e" "none")} or @samp{("-C" "-t" "-e" "none")} if
13377 the telnet command requires a pseudo-tty allocation on an intermediate
13381 Note that you may want to change the value for @code{nntp-end-of-line}
13382 to @samp{\n} (@pxref{Common Variables}).
13384 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat
13385 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat
13386 Does essentially the same, but uses
13387 @uref{http://netcat.sourceforge.net/, netcat} instead of @samp{telnet}
13388 to connect to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from the intermediate host.
13390 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat}-specific variables:
13393 @item nntp-via-netcat-command
13394 @vindex nntp-via-netcat-command
13395 Command used to connect to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from the
13396 intermediate host. The default is @samp{nc}. You can also use other
13397 programs like @uref{http://www.imasy.or.jp/~gotoh/ssh/connect.html,
13400 @item nntp-via-netcat-switches
13401 @vindex nntp-via-netcat-switches
13402 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
13403 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @code{nil}.
13405 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
13406 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
13407 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
13408 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
13410 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
13411 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
13412 List of strings to be used as the switches to
13413 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. The default is @code{nil}.
13416 @item nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
13417 @findex nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
13418 Does essentially the same, but uses @samp{telnet} instead of
13419 @samp{rlogin} to connect to the intermediate host.
13421 @code{nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet}-specific variables:
13424 @item nntp-via-telnet-command
13425 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-command
13426 Command used to @code{telnet} the intermediate host. The default is
13429 @item nntp-via-telnet-switches
13430 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-switches
13431 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
13432 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @samp{("-8")}.
13434 @item nntp-via-user-password
13435 @vindex nntp-via-user-password
13436 Password to use when logging in on the intermediate host.
13438 @item nntp-via-envuser
13439 @vindex nntp-via-envuser
13440 If non-@code{nil}, the intermediate @code{telnet} session (client and
13441 server both) will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for
13442 login name. This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
13444 @item nntp-via-shell-prompt
13445 @vindex nntp-via-shell-prompt
13446 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the intermediate host. The default
13447 is @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
13451 Note that you may want to change the value for @code{nntp-end-of-line}
13452 to @samp{\n} (@pxref{Common Variables}).
13456 Here are some additional variables that are understood by all the above
13461 @item nntp-via-user-name
13462 @vindex nntp-via-user-name
13463 User name to use when connecting to the intermediate host.
13465 @item nntp-via-address
13466 @vindex nntp-via-address
13467 Address of the intermediate host to connect to.
13472 @node Common Variables
13473 @subsubsection Common Variables
13475 The following variables affect the behavior of all, or several of the
13476 pre-made connection functions. When not specified, all functions are
13477 affected (the values of the following variables will be used as the
13478 default if each virtual @code{nntp} server doesn't specify those server
13479 variables individually).
13483 @item nntp-pre-command
13484 @vindex nntp-pre-command
13485 A command wrapper to use when connecting through a non native
13486 connection function (all except @code{nntp-open-network-stream},
13487 @code{nntp-open-tls-stream}, and @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream}). This is
13488 where you would put a @samp{SOCKS} wrapper for instance.
13491 @vindex nntp-address
13492 The address of the @acronym{NNTP} server.
13494 @item nntp-port-number
13495 @vindex nntp-port-number
13496 Port number to connect to the @acronym{NNTP} server. The default is
13497 @samp{nntp}. If you use @acronym{NNTP} over
13498 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}, you may want to use integer ports rather
13499 than named ports (i.e, use @samp{563} instead of @samp{snews} or
13500 @samp{nntps}), because external @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} tools may
13501 not work with named ports.
13503 @item nntp-end-of-line
13504 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
13505 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @acronym{NNTP}
13506 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
13507 using a non native telnet connection function.
13509 @item nntp-telnet-command
13510 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
13511 Command to use when connecting to the @acronym{NNTP} server through
13512 @samp{telnet}. This is @emph{not} for an intermediate host. This is
13513 just for the real @acronym{NNTP} server. The default is
13516 @item nntp-telnet-switches
13517 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
13518 A list of switches to pass to @code{nntp-telnet-command}. The default
13524 @subsubsection NNTP marks
13525 @cindex storing NNTP marks
13527 Gnus stores marks (@pxref{Marking Articles}) for @acronym{NNTP}
13528 servers in marks files. A marks file records what marks you have set
13529 in a group and each file is specific to the corresponding server.
13530 Marks files are stored in @file{~/News/marks}
13531 (@code{nntp-marks-directory}) under a classic hierarchy resembling
13532 that of a news server, for example marks for the group
13533 @samp{gmane.discuss} on the news.gmane.org server will be stored in
13534 the file @file{~/News/marks/news.gmane.org/gmane/discuss/.marks}.
13536 Marks files are useful because you can copy the @file{~/News/marks}
13537 directory (using rsync, scp or whatever) to another Gnus installation,
13538 and it will realize what articles you have read and marked. The data
13539 in @file{~/News/marks} has priority over the same data in
13540 @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
13542 Note that marks files are very much server-specific: Gnus remembers
13543 the article numbers so if you don't use the same servers on both
13544 installations things are most likely to break (most @acronym{NNTP}
13545 servers do not use the same article numbers as any other server).
13546 However, if you use servers A, B, C on one installation and servers A,
13547 D, E on the other, you can sync the marks files for A and then you'll
13548 get synchronization for that server between the two installations.
13550 Using @acronym{NNTP} marks can possibly incur a performance penalty so
13551 if Gnus feels sluggish, try setting the @code{nntp-marks-is-evil}
13552 variable to @code{t}. Marks will then be stored in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
13558 @item nntp-marks-is-evil
13559 @vindex nntp-marks-is-evil
13560 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any marks files. The
13561 default is @code{nil}.
13563 @item nntp-marks-directory
13564 @vindex nntp-marks-directory
13565 The directory where marks for nntp groups will be stored.
13571 @subsection News Spool
13575 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
13576 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
13577 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
13580 Anyway, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
13581 anything else) as the address.
13583 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
13584 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
13585 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
13586 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
13590 @item nnspool-inews-program
13591 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
13592 Program used to post an article.
13594 @item nnspool-inews-switches
13595 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
13596 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
13598 @item nnspool-spool-directory
13599 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
13600 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
13601 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
13603 @item nnspool-nov-directory
13604 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
13605 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @acronym{NOV} files. This is normally@*
13606 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
13608 @item nnspool-lib-dir
13609 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
13610 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
13612 @item nnspool-active-file
13613 @vindex nnspool-active-file
13614 The name of the active file.
13616 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
13617 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
13618 The name of the group descriptions file.
13620 @item nnspool-history-file
13621 @vindex nnspool-history-file
13622 The name of the news history file.
13624 @item nnspool-active-times-file
13625 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
13626 The name of the active date file.
13628 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
13629 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
13630 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @acronym{NOV} files
13633 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
13634 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
13636 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
13637 relevant portion from the overview file. If @code{nil},
13638 @code{nnspool} will load the entire file into a buffer and process it
13645 @section Getting Mail
13646 @cindex reading mail
13649 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
13653 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
13654 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
13655 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
13656 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
13657 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
13658 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
13659 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
13660 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
13661 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
13662 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
13663 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
13664 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
13665 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
13669 @node Mail in a Newsreader
13670 @subsection Mail in a Newsreader
13672 If you are used to traditional mail readers, but have decided to switch
13673 to reading mail with Gnus, you may find yourself experiencing something
13674 of a culture shock.
13676 Gnus does not behave like traditional mail readers. If you want to make
13677 it behave that way, you can, but it's an uphill battle.
13679 Gnus, by default, handles all its groups using the same approach. This
13680 approach is very newsreaderly---you enter a group, see the new/unread
13681 messages, and when you read the messages, they get marked as read, and
13682 you don't see them any more. (Unless you explicitly ask for them.)
13684 In particular, you do not do anything explicitly to delete messages.
13686 Does this mean that all the messages that have been marked as read are
13687 deleted? How awful!
13689 But, no, it means that old messages are @dfn{expired} according to some
13690 scheme or other. For news messages, the expire process is controlled by
13691 the news administrator; for mail, the expire process is controlled by
13692 you. The expire process for mail is covered in depth in @ref{Expiring
13695 What many Gnus users find, after using it a while for both news and
13696 mail, is that the transport mechanism has very little to do with how
13697 they want to treat a message.
13699 Many people subscribe to several mailing lists. These are transported
13700 via @acronym{SMTP}, and are therefore mail. But we might go for weeks without
13701 answering, or even reading these messages very carefully. We may not
13702 need to save them because if we should need to read one again, they are
13703 archived somewhere else.
13705 Some people have local news groups which have only a handful of readers.
13706 These are transported via @acronym{NNTP}, and are therefore news. But we may need
13707 to read and answer a large fraction of the messages very carefully in
13708 order to do our work. And there may not be an archive, so we may need
13709 to save the interesting messages the same way we would personal mail.
13711 The important distinction turns out to be not the transport mechanism,
13712 but other factors such as how interested we are in the subject matter,
13713 or how easy it is to retrieve the message if we need to read it again.
13715 Gnus provides many options for sorting mail into ``groups'' which behave
13716 like newsgroups, and for treating each group (whether mail or news)
13719 Some users never get comfortable using the Gnus (ahem) paradigm and wish
13720 that Gnus should grow up and be a male, er, mail reader. It is possible
13721 to whip Gnus into a more mailreaderly being, but, as said before, it's
13722 not easy. People who prefer proper mail readers should try @sc{vm}
13723 instead, which is an excellent, and proper, mail reader.
13725 I don't mean to scare anybody off, but I want to make it clear that you
13726 may be required to learn a new way of thinking about messages. After
13727 you've been subjected to The Gnus Way, you will come to love it. I can
13728 guarantee it. (At least the guy who sold me the Emacs Subliminal
13729 Brain-Washing Functions that I've put into Gnus did guarantee it. You
13730 Will Be Assimilated. You Love Gnus. You Love The Gnus Mail Way.
13734 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
13735 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
13737 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
13738 mail back end of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
13739 and things will happen automatically.
13741 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a ``one file per
13742 mail'' back end), you could put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
13745 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
13748 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this back end will be queried for new
13749 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
13750 directory, which is @file{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
13751 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
13752 like any other group.
13754 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
13757 (setq nnmail-split-methods
13758 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
13759 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
13763 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
13764 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
13765 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
13768 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
13769 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
13770 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Back End} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
13773 @node Splitting Mail
13774 @subsection Splitting Mail
13775 @cindex splitting mail
13776 @cindex mail splitting
13777 @cindex mail filtering (splitting)
13779 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
13780 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
13781 to be split into groups.
13784 (setq nnmail-split-methods
13785 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
13786 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
13787 ("mail.other" "")))
13790 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
13791 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
13792 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
13793 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
13794 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
13795 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
13796 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
13799 ("list.\\1" "From:.* \\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
13803 In that case, @code{nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded} controls whether
13804 the inserted text should be made lowercase. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
13806 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
13807 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
13808 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
13809 mail belongs in that group.
13811 @cindex @samp{bogus} group
13812 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
13813 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{""} so that it matches any mails
13814 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
13815 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first rule
13816 to make a match will ``win'', unless you have crossposting enabled. In
13817 that case, all matching rules will ``win''.) If no rule matched, the mail
13818 will end up in the @samp{bogus} group. When new groups are created by
13819 splitting mail, you may want to run @code{gnus-group-find-new-groups} to
13820 see the new groups. This also applies to the @samp{bogus} group.
13822 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
13823 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
13824 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
13825 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
13826 thinks should carry this mail message.
13828 Note that the mail back ends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
13829 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
13830 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
13831 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
13833 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
13834 The mail back ends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
13835 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
13836 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
13837 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{""}) group.
13839 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
13842 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
13843 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
13844 links. If that's the case for you, set
13845 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
13846 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
13848 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
13849 @findex nnmail-split-history
13850 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
13851 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command. If you wish to see
13852 where re-spooling messages would put the messages, you can use
13853 @code{gnus-summary-respool-trace} and related commands (@pxref{Mail
13856 @vindex nnmail-split-header-length-limit
13857 Header lines longer than the value of
13858 @code{nnmail-split-header-length-limit} are excluded from the split
13861 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-charset
13862 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes
13863 By default, splitting @acronym{MIME}-decodes headers so you
13864 can match on non-@acronym{ASCII} strings. The
13865 @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-charset} variable specifies the default
13866 charset for decoding. The behavior can be turned off completely by
13867 binding @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes} to @code{nil}, which is
13868 useful if you want to match articles based on the raw header data.
13870 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
13871 By default, splitting is performed on all incoming messages. If you
13872 specify a @code{directory} entry for the variable @code{mail-sources}
13873 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}), however, then splitting does
13874 @emph{not} happen by default. You can set the variable
13875 @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming} to a non-@code{nil} value to make
13876 splitting happen even in this case. (This variable has no effect on
13877 other kinds of entries.)
13879 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
13880 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
13881 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
13882 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
13883 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
13884 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
13885 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
13886 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
13887 month's rent money.
13891 @subsection Mail Sources
13893 Mail can be gotten from many different sources---the mail spool, from
13894 a @acronym{POP} mail server, from a procmail directory, or from a
13895 maildir, for instance.
13898 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
13899 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
13900 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
13904 @node Mail Source Specifiers
13905 @subsubsection Mail Source Specifiers
13907 @cindex mail server
13910 @cindex mail source
13912 You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by setting @code{mail-sources}
13913 (@pxref{Fetching Mail}) to a @dfn{mail source specifier}.
13918 (pop :server "pop3.mailserver.com" :user "myname")
13921 As can be observed, a mail source specifier is a list where the first
13922 element is a @dfn{mail source type}, followed by an arbitrary number of
13923 @dfn{keywords}. Keywords that are not explicitly specified are given
13926 The following mail source types are available:
13930 Get mail from a single file; typically from the mail spool.
13936 The file name. Defaults to the value of the @env{MAIL}
13937 environment variable or the value of @code{rmail-spool-directory}
13938 (usually something like @file{/usr/mail/spool/user-name}).
13942 Script run before/after fetching mail.
13945 An example file mail source:
13948 (file :path "/usr/spool/mail/user-name")
13951 Or using the default file name:
13957 If the mail spool file is not located on the local machine, it's best
13958 to use @acronym{POP} or @acronym{IMAP} or the like to fetch the mail.
13959 You can not use ange-ftp file names here---it has no way to lock the
13960 mail spool while moving the mail.
13962 If it's impossible to set up a proper server, you can use ssh instead.
13966 '((file :prescript "ssh host bin/getmail >%t")))
13969 The @samp{getmail} script would look something like the following:
13973 # getmail - move mail from spool to stdout
13976 MOVEMAIL=/usr/lib/emacs/20.3/i386-redhat-linux/movemail
13978 rm -f $TMP; $MOVEMAIL $MAIL $TMP >/dev/null && cat $TMP
13981 Alter this script to fit the @samp{movemail} and temporary
13982 file you want to use.
13986 @vindex nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once
13987 Get mail from several files in a directory. This is typically used
13988 when you have procmail split the incoming mail into several files.
13989 That is, there is a one-to-one correspondence between files in that
13990 directory and groups, so that mail from the file @file{foo.bar.spool}
13991 will be put in the group @code{foo.bar}. (You can change the suffix
13992 to be used instead of @code{.spool}.) Setting
13993 @code{nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once} to non-@code{nil} forces
13994 Gnus to scan the mail source only once. This is particularly useful
13995 if you want to scan mail groups at a specified level.
13997 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
13998 There is also the variable @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming}, if you set
13999 that to a non-@code{nil} value, then the normal splitting process is
14000 applied to all the files from the directory, @ref{Splitting Mail}.
14006 The name of the directory where the files are. There is no default
14010 Only files ending with this suffix are used. The default is
14014 Only files that have this predicate return non-@code{nil} are returned.
14015 The default is @code{identity}. This is used as an additional
14016 filter---only files that have the right suffix @emph{and} satisfy this
14017 predicate are considered.
14021 Script run before/after fetching mail.
14025 An example directory mail source:
14028 (directory :path "/home/user-name/procmail-dir/"
14033 Get mail from a @acronym{POP} server.
14039 The name of the @acronym{POP} server. The default is taken from the
14040 @env{MAILHOST} environment variable.
14043 The port number of the @acronym{POP} server. This can be a number (eg,
14044 @samp{:port 1234}) or a string (eg, @samp{:port "pop3"}). If it is a
14045 string, it should be a service name as listed in @file{/etc/services} on
14046 Unix systems. The default is @samp{"pop3"}. On some systems you might
14047 need to specify it as @samp{"pop-3"} instead.
14050 The user name to give to the @acronym{POP} server. The default is the login
14054 The password to give to the @acronym{POP} server. If not specified,
14055 the user is prompted.
14058 The program to use to fetch mail from the @acronym{POP} server. This
14059 should be a @code{format}-like string. Here's an example:
14062 fetchmail %u@@%s -P %p %t
14065 The valid format specifier characters are:
14069 The name of the file the mail is to be moved to. This must always be
14070 included in this string.
14073 The name of the server.
14076 The port number of the server.
14079 The user name to use.
14082 The password to use.
14085 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
14086 corresponding keywords.
14089 A script to be run before fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
14090 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
14093 A script to be run after fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
14094 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
14097 The function to use to fetch mail from the @acronym{POP} server. The
14098 function is called with one parameter---the name of the file where the
14099 mail should be moved to.
14101 @item :authentication
14102 This can be either the symbol @code{password} or the symbol @code{apop}
14103 and says what authentication scheme to use. The default is
14108 @vindex pop3-movemail
14109 @vindex pop3-leave-mail-on-server
14110 If the @code{:program} and @code{:function} keywords aren't specified,
14111 @code{pop3-movemail} will be used. If @code{pop3-leave-mail-on-server}
14112 is non-@code{nil} the mail is to be left on the @acronym{POP} server
14113 after fetching when using @code{pop3-movemail}. Note that POP servers
14114 maintain no state information between sessions, so what the client
14115 believes is there and what is actually there may not match up. If they
14116 do not, then you may get duplicate mails or the whole thing can fall
14117 apart and leave you with a corrupt mailbox.
14119 Here are some examples for getting mail from a @acronym{POP} server.
14120 Fetch from the default @acronym{POP} server, using the default user
14121 name, and default fetcher:
14127 Fetch from a named server with a named user and password:
14130 (pop :server "my.pop.server"
14131 :user "user-name" :password "secret")
14134 Use @samp{movemail} to move the mail:
14137 (pop :program "movemail po:%u %t %p")
14141 Get mail from a maildir. This is a type of mailbox that is supported by
14142 at least qmail and postfix, where each file in a special directory
14143 contains exactly one mail.
14149 The name of the directory where the mails are stored. The default is
14150 taken from the @env{MAILDIR} environment variable or
14153 The subdirectories of the Maildir. The default is
14154 @samp{("new" "cur")}.
14156 @c If you sometimes look at your mail through a pop3 daemon before fetching
14157 @c them with Gnus, you may also have to fetch your mails from the
14158 @c @code{cur} directory inside the maildir, like in the first example
14161 You can also get mails from remote hosts (because maildirs don't suffer
14162 from locking problems).
14166 Two example maildir mail sources:
14169 (maildir :path "/home/user-name/Maildir/"
14170 :subdirs ("cur" "new"))
14174 (maildir :path "/user@@remotehost.org:~/Maildir/"
14179 Get mail from a @acronym{IMAP} server. If you don't want to use
14180 @acronym{IMAP} as intended, as a network mail reading protocol (ie
14181 with nnimap), for some reason or other, Gnus let you treat it similar
14182 to a @acronym{POP} server and fetches articles from a given
14183 @acronym{IMAP} mailbox. @xref{IMAP}, for more information.
14185 Note that for the Kerberos, GSSAPI, @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} and STARTTLS support you
14186 may need external programs and libraries, @xref{IMAP}.
14192 The name of the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is taken from the
14193 @env{MAILHOST} environment variable.
14196 The port number of the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is @samp{143}, or
14197 @samp{993} for @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} connections.
14200 The user name to give to the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is the login
14204 The password to give to the @acronym{IMAP} server. If not specified, the user is
14208 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this is one of the
14209 symbols in @code{imap-stream-alist}. Right now, this means
14210 @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{starttls}, @samp{tls},
14211 @samp{ssl}, @samp{shell} or the default @samp{network}.
14213 @item :authentication
14214 Which authenticator to use for authenticating to the server, this is
14215 one of the symbols in @code{imap-authenticator-alist}. Right now,
14216 this means @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{digest-md5},
14217 @samp{cram-md5}, @samp{anonymous} or the default @samp{login}.
14220 When using the `shell' :stream, the contents of this variable is
14221 mapped into the @code{imap-shell-program} variable. This should be a
14222 @code{format}-like string (or list of strings). Here's an example:
14228 The valid format specifier characters are:
14232 The name of the server.
14235 User name from @code{imap-default-user}.
14238 The port number of the server.
14241 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
14242 corresponding keywords.
14245 The name of the mailbox to get mail from. The default is @samp{INBOX}
14246 which normally is the mailbox which receive incoming mail.
14249 The predicate used to find articles to fetch. The default, @samp{UNSEEN
14250 UNDELETED}, is probably the best choice for most people, but if you
14251 sometimes peek in your mailbox with a @acronym{IMAP} client and mark some
14252 articles as read (or; SEEN) you might want to set this to @samp{1:*}.
14253 Then all articles in the mailbox is fetched, no matter what. For a
14254 complete list of predicates, see RFC 2060 section 6.4.4.
14257 How to flag fetched articles on the server, the default @samp{\Deleted}
14258 will mark them as deleted, an alternative would be @samp{\Seen} which
14259 would simply mark them as read. These are the two most likely choices,
14260 but more flags are defined in RFC 2060 section 2.3.2.
14263 If non-@code{nil}, don't remove all articles marked as deleted in the
14264 mailbox after finishing the fetch.
14268 An example @acronym{IMAP} mail source:
14271 (imap :server "mail.mycorp.com"
14273 :fetchflag "\\Seen")
14277 Get mail from a webmail server, such as @uref{http://www.hotmail.com/},
14278 @uref{http://webmail.netscape.com/}, @uref{http://www.netaddress.com/},
14279 @uref{http://mail.yahoo.com/}.
14281 NOTE: Webmail largely depends on cookies. A "one-line-cookie" patch is
14282 required for url "4.0pre.46".
14284 WARNING: Mails may be lost. NO WARRANTY.
14290 The type of the webmail server. The default is @code{hotmail}. The
14291 alternatives are @code{netscape}, @code{netaddress}, @code{my-deja}.
14294 The user name to give to the webmail server. The default is the login
14298 The password to give to the webmail server. If not specified, the user is
14302 If non-@code{nil}, only fetch unread articles and don't move them to
14303 trash folder after finishing the fetch.
14307 An example webmail source:
14310 (webmail :subtype 'hotmail
14312 :password "secret")
14317 @item Common Keywords
14318 Common keywords can be used in any type of mail source.
14324 If non-@code{nil}, fetch the mail even when Gnus is unplugged. If you
14325 use directory source to get mail, you can specify it as in this
14330 '((directory :path "/home/pavel/.Spool/"
14335 Gnus will then fetch your mail even when you are unplugged. This is
14336 useful when you use local mail and news.
14341 @subsubsection Function Interface
14343 Some of the above keywords specify a Lisp function to be executed.
14344 For each keyword @code{:foo}, the Lisp variable @code{foo} is bound to
14345 the value of the keyword while the function is executing. For example,
14346 consider the following mail-source setting:
14349 (setq mail-sources '((pop :user "jrl"
14350 :server "pophost" :function fetchfunc)))
14353 While the function @code{fetchfunc} is executing, the symbol @code{user}
14354 is bound to @code{"jrl"}, and the symbol @code{server} is bound to
14355 @code{"pophost"}. The symbols @code{port}, @code{password},
14356 @code{program}, @code{prescript}, @code{postscript}, @code{function},
14357 and @code{authentication} are also bound (to their default values).
14359 See above for a list of keywords for each type of mail source.
14362 @node Mail Source Customization
14363 @subsubsection Mail Source Customization
14365 The following is a list of variables that influence how the mail is
14366 fetched. You would normally not need to set or change any of these
14370 @item mail-source-crash-box
14371 @vindex mail-source-crash-box
14372 File where mail will be stored while processing it. The default is@*
14373 @file{~/.emacs-mail-crash-box}.
14375 @item mail-source-delete-incoming
14376 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
14377 If non-@code{nil}, delete incoming files after handling them. If
14378 @code{t}, delete the files immediately, if @code{nil}, never delete any
14379 files. If a positive number, delete files older than number of days
14380 (This will only happen, when receiving new mail). You may also set
14381 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} to @code{nil} and call
14382 @code{mail-source-delete-old-incoming} from a hook or interactively.
14384 @item mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
14385 @vindex mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
14386 If non-@code{nil}, ask for for confirmation before deleting old incoming
14387 files. This variable only applies when
14388 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is a positive number.
14390 @item mail-source-ignore-errors
14391 @vindex mail-source-ignore-errors
14392 If non-@code{nil}, ignore errors when reading mail from a mail source.
14394 @item mail-source-directory
14395 @vindex mail-source-directory
14396 Directory where incoming mail source files (if any) will be stored. The
14397 default is @file{~/Mail/}. At present, the only thing this is used for
14398 is to say where the incoming files will be stored if the variable
14399 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil} or a number.
14401 @item mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
14402 @vindex mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
14403 Prefix for file name for storing incoming mail. The default is
14404 @file{Incoming}, in which case files will end up with names like
14405 @file{Incoming30630D_} or @file{Incoming298602ZD}. This is really only
14406 relevant if @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil} or a
14409 @item mail-source-default-file-modes
14410 @vindex mail-source-default-file-modes
14411 All new mail files will get this file mode. The default is 384.
14413 @item mail-source-movemail-program
14414 @vindex mail-source-movemail-program
14415 If non-@code{nil}, name of program for fetching new mail. If
14416 @code{nil}, @code{movemail} in @var{exec-directory}.
14421 @node Fetching Mail
14422 @subsubsection Fetching Mail
14424 @vindex mail-sources
14425 @vindex nnmail-spool-file
14426 The way to actually tell Gnus where to get new mail from is to set
14427 @code{mail-sources} to a list of mail source specifiers
14428 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}).
14430 If this variable (and the obsolescent @code{nnmail-spool-file}) is
14431 @code{nil}, the mail back ends will never attempt to fetch mail by
14434 If you want to fetch mail both from your local spool as well as a
14435 @acronym{POP} mail server, you'd say something like:
14440 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
14441 :password "secret")))
14444 Or, if you don't want to use any of the keyword defaults:
14448 '((file :path "/var/spool/mail/user-name")
14449 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
14452 :password "secret")))
14456 When you use a mail back end, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
14457 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
14458 mail if you're not using a mail back end---you have to do a lot of magic
14459 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
14460 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
14461 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
14465 @node Mail Back End Variables
14466 @subsection Mail Back End Variables
14468 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
14472 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
14473 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
14474 The mail back ends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
14475 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
14477 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
14478 @item nnmail-split-hook
14479 @findex gnus-article-decode-encoded-words
14480 @cindex RFC 1522 decoding
14481 @cindex RFC 2047 decoding
14482 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
14483 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
14484 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
14485 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
14486 in the buffer will show up in any files.
14487 @code{gnus-article-decode-encoded-words} is one likely function to add
14490 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
14491 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
14492 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
14493 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
14494 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
14495 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
14496 starting to handle the new mail) and
14497 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
14498 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
14499 default file modes the new mail files get:
14502 (add-hook 'nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
14503 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 511)))
14505 (add-hook 'nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
14506 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 551)))
14509 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
14510 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
14511 If non-@code{nil}, the mail back ends will use long file and directory
14512 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
14513 (assuming use of @code{nnml} back end) or files (assuming use of
14514 @code{nnfolder} back end) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
14515 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
14517 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
14518 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
14519 @findex delete-file
14520 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
14522 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
14523 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
14524 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
14525 the back end (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
14526 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
14528 @item nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
14529 @vindex nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
14530 This can be a regular expression or a list of regular expressions.
14531 Group names that match any of the regular expressions will never be
14532 recorded in the @code{Message-ID} cache.
14534 This can be useful, for example, when using Fancy Splitting
14535 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}) together with the function
14536 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}.
14541 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
14542 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
14543 @cindex mail splitting
14544 @cindex fancy mail splitting
14546 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
14547 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
14548 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
14549 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
14550 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
14551 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
14553 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
14556 ;; @r{Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of}
14557 ;; @r{the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group}
14558 ;; @r{from real errors.}
14559 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
14561 ;; @r{Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant}
14562 ;; @r{groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the}
14563 ;; @r{(ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.}
14564 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
14565 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
14566 ;; @r{Other mailing lists@dots{}}
14567 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
14568 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
14569 ;; @r{Both lists below have the same suffix, so prevent}
14570 ;; @r{cross-posting to mkpkg.list of messages posted only to}
14571 ;; @r{the bugs- list, but allow cross-posting when the}
14572 ;; @r{message was really cross-posted.}
14573 (any "bugs-mypackage@@somewhere" "mypkg.bugs")
14574 (any "mypackage@@somewhere" - "bugs-mypackage" "mypkg.list")
14575 ;; @r{People@dots{}}
14576 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
14577 ;; @r{Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.}
14581 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a
14582 (possibly) recursive structure where each split may contain other
14583 splits. Here are the possible split syntaxes:
14588 If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group name. Normal
14589 regexp match expansion will be done. See below for examples.
14591 @c Don't fold this line.
14592 @item (@var{field} @var{value} [- @var{restrict} [@dots{}] ] @var{split} [@var{invert-partial}])
14593 The split can be a list containing at least three elements. If the
14594 first element @var{field} (a regexp matching a header) contains
14595 @var{value} (also a regexp) then store the message as specified by
14598 If @var{restrict} (yet another regexp) matches some string after
14599 @var{field} and before the end of the matched @var{value}, the
14600 @var{split} is ignored. If none of the @var{restrict} clauses match,
14601 @var{split} is processed.
14603 The last element @var{invert-partial} is optional. If it is
14604 non-@code{nil}, the match-partial-words behavior controlled by the
14605 variable @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} (see below) is
14606 be inverted. (New in Gnus 5.10.7)
14608 @item (| @var{split} @dots{})
14609 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{|} (vertical
14610 bar), then process each @var{split} until one of them matches. A
14611 @var{split} is said to match if it will cause the mail message to be
14612 stored in one or more groups.
14614 @item (& @var{split} @dots{})
14615 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{&}, then
14616 process all @var{split}s in the list.
14619 If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save (i.e., delete)
14620 this message. Use with extreme caution.
14622 @item (: @var{function} @var{arg1} @var{arg2} @dots{})
14623 If the split is a list, and the first element is @samp{:}, then the
14624 second element will be called as a function with @var{args} given as
14625 arguments. The function should return a @var{split}.
14628 For instance, the following function could be used to split based on the
14629 body of the messages:
14632 (defun split-on-body ()
14636 (goto-char (point-min))
14637 (when (re-search-forward "Some.*string" nil t)
14641 The buffer is narrowed to the message in question when @var{function}
14642 is run. That's why @code{(widen)} needs to be called after
14643 @code{save-excursion} and @code{save-restriction} in the example
14644 above. Also note that with the nnimap back end, message bodies will
14645 not be downloaded by default. You need to set
14646 @code{nnimap-split-download-body} to @code{t} to do that
14647 (@pxref{Splitting in IMAP}).
14649 @item (! @var{func} @var{split})
14650 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{!}, then
14651 @var{split} will be processed, and @var{func} will be called as a
14652 function with the result of @var{split} as argument. @var{func}
14653 should return a split.
14656 If the split is @code{nil}, it is ignored.
14660 In these splits, @var{field} must match a complete field name.
14662 Normally, @var{value} in these splits must match a complete @emph{word}
14663 according to the fundamental mode syntax table. In other words, all
14664 @var{value}'s will be implicitly surrounded by @code{\<...\>} markers,
14665 which are word delimiters. Therefore, if you use the following split,
14669 (any "joe" "joemail")
14673 messages sent from @samp{joedavis@@foo.org} will normally not be filed
14674 in @samp{joemail}. If you want to alter this behavior, you can use any
14675 of the following three ways:
14679 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words
14680 You can set the @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} variable
14681 to non-@code{nil} in order to ignore word boundaries and instead the
14682 match becomes more like a grep. This variable controls whether partial
14683 words are matched during fancy splitting. The default value is
14686 Note that it influences all @var{value}'s in your split rules.
14689 @var{value} beginning with @code{.*} ignores word boundaries in front of
14690 a word. Similarly, if @var{value} ends with @code{.*}, word boundaries
14691 in the rear of a word will be ignored. For example, the @var{value}
14692 @code{"@@example\\.com"} does not match @samp{foo@@example.com} but
14693 @code{".*@@example\\.com"} does.
14696 You can set the @var{invert-partial} flag in your split rules of the
14697 @samp{(@var{field} @var{value} @dots{})} types, aforementioned in this
14698 section. If the flag is set, word boundaries on both sides of a word
14699 are ignored even if @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} is
14700 @code{nil}. Contrarily, if the flag is set, word boundaries are not
14701 ignored even if @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} is
14702 non-@code{nil}. (New in Gnus 5.10.7)
14705 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
14706 @var{field} and @var{value} can also be Lisp symbols, in that case
14707 they are expanded as specified by the variable
14708 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells,
14709 where the @sc{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @sc{cdr}
14710 contains the associated value. Predefined entries in
14711 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist} include:
14715 Matches the @samp{From}, @samp{Sender} and @samp{Resent-From} fields.
14717 Matches the @samp{To}, @samp{Cc}, @samp{Apparently-To},
14718 @samp{Resent-To} and @samp{Resent-Cc} fields.
14720 Is the union of the @code{from} and @code{to} entries.
14723 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
14724 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
14725 when all this splitting is performed.
14727 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
14728 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
14729 substitutions in the group names), you can say things like:
14732 (any "debian-\\b\\(\\w+\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
14735 In this example, messages sent to @samp{debian-foo@@lists.debian.org}
14736 will be filed in @samp{mail.debian.foo}.
14738 If the string contains the element @samp{\&}, then the previously
14739 matched string will be substituted. Similarly, the elements @samp{\\1}
14740 up to @samp{\\9} will be substituted with the text matched by the
14741 groupings 1 through 9.
14743 @vindex nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded
14744 Where @code{nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded} controls whether the
14745 lowercase of the matched string should be used for the substitution.
14746 Setting it as non-@code{nil} is useful to avoid the creation of multiple
14747 groups when users send to an address using different case
14748 (i.e. mailing-list@@domain vs Mailing-List@@Domain). The default value
14751 @findex nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent
14752 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} is a function which allows you to
14753 split followups into the same groups their parents are in. Sometimes
14754 you can't make splitting rules for all your mail. For example, your
14755 boss might send you personal mail regarding different projects you are
14756 working on, and as you can't tell your boss to put a distinguishing
14757 string into the subject line, you have to resort to manually moving the
14758 messages into the right group. With this function, you only have to do
14759 it once per thread.
14761 To use this feature, you have to set @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates}
14762 and @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} to a non-@code{nil}
14763 value. And then you can include @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}
14764 using the colon feature, like so:
14766 (setq nnmail-treat-duplicates 'warn ; @r{or @code{delete}}
14767 nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids t
14769 '(| (: nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent)
14770 ;; @r{other splits go here}
14774 This feature works as follows: when @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} is
14775 non-@code{nil}, Gnus records the message id of every message it sees
14776 in the file specified by the variable
14777 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, together with the group it is in
14778 (the group is omitted for non-mail messages). When mail splitting is
14779 invoked, the function @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} then looks
14780 at the References (and In-Reply-To) header of each message to split
14781 and searches the file specified by @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}
14782 for the message ids. When it has found a parent, it returns the
14783 corresponding group name unless the group name matches the regexp
14784 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent-ignore-groups}. It is
14785 recommended that you set @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length} to a
14786 somewhat higher number than the default so that the message ids are
14787 still in the cache. (A value of 5000 appears to create a file some
14788 300 kBytes in size.)
14789 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
14790 When @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus
14791 also records the message ids of moved articles, so that the followup
14792 messages goes into the new group.
14794 Also see the variable @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} if you don't
14795 want certain groups to be recorded in the cache. For example, if all
14796 outgoing messages are written to an ``outgoing'' group, you could set
14797 @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} to match that group name.
14798 Otherwise, answers to all your messages would end up in the
14799 ``outgoing'' group.
14802 @node Group Mail Splitting
14803 @subsection Group Mail Splitting
14804 @cindex mail splitting
14805 @cindex group mail splitting
14807 @findex gnus-group-split
14808 If you subscribe to dozens of mailing lists but you don't want to
14809 maintain mail splitting rules manually, group mail splitting is for you.
14810 You just have to set @code{to-list} and/or @code{to-address} in group
14811 parameters or group customization and set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to
14812 @code{gnus-group-split}. This splitting function will scan all groups
14813 for those parameters and split mail accordingly, i.e., messages posted
14814 from or to the addresses specified in the parameters @code{to-list} or
14815 @code{to-address} of a mail group will be stored in that group.
14817 Sometimes, mailing lists have multiple addresses, and you may want mail
14818 splitting to recognize them all: just set the @code{extra-aliases} group
14819 parameter to the list of additional addresses and it's done. If you'd
14820 rather use a regular expression, set @code{split-regexp}.
14822 All these parameters in a group will be used to create an
14823 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split, in which the @var{field} is @samp{any},
14824 the @var{value} is a single regular expression that matches
14825 @code{to-list}, @code{to-address}, all of @code{extra-aliases} and all
14826 matches of @code{split-regexp}, and the @var{split} is the name of the
14827 group. @var{restrict}s are also supported: just set the
14828 @code{split-exclude} parameter to a list of regular expressions.
14830 If you can't get the right split to be generated using all these
14831 parameters, or you just need something fancier, you can set the
14832 parameter @code{split-spec} to an @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split. In
14833 this case, all other aforementioned parameters will be ignored by
14834 @code{gnus-group-split}. In particular, @code{split-spec} may be set to
14835 @code{nil}, in which case the group will be ignored by
14836 @code{gnus-group-split}.
14838 @vindex gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group
14839 @code{gnus-group-split} will do cross-posting on all groups that match,
14840 by defining a single @code{&} fancy split containing one split for each
14841 group. If a message doesn't match any split, it will be stored in the
14842 group named in @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}, unless
14843 some group has @code{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all}, in which case
14844 that group is used as the catch-all group. Even though this variable is
14845 often used just to name a group, it may also be set to an arbitrarily
14846 complex fancy split (after all, a group name is a fancy split), and this
14847 may be useful to split mail that doesn't go to any mailing list to
14848 personal mail folders. Note that this fancy split is added as the last
14849 element of a @code{|} split list that also contains a @code{&} split
14850 with the rules extracted from group parameters.
14852 It's time for an example. Assume the following group parameters have
14857 ((to-address . "bar@@femail.com")
14858 (split-regexp . ".*@@femail\\.com"))
14860 ((to-list . "foo@@nowhere.gov")
14861 (extra-aliases "foo@@localhost" "foo-redist@@home")
14862 (split-exclude "bugs-foo" "rambling-foo")
14863 (admin-address . "foo-request@@nowhere.gov"))
14865 ((split-spec . catch-all))
14868 Setting @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{gnus-group-split} will
14869 behave as if @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been selected and variable
14870 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been set as follows:
14873 (| (& (any "\\(bar@@femail\\.com\\|.*@@femail\\.com\\)" "mail.bar")
14874 (any "\\(foo@@nowhere\\.gov\\|foo@@localhost\\|foo-redist@@home\\)"
14875 - "bugs-foo" - "rambling-foo" "mail.foo"))
14879 @findex gnus-group-split-fancy
14880 If you'd rather not use group splitting for all your mail groups, you
14881 may use it for only some of them, by using @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
14885 (: gnus-group-split-fancy @var{groups} @var{no-crosspost} @var{catch-all})
14888 @var{groups} may be a regular expression or a list of group names whose
14889 parameters will be scanned to generate the output split.
14890 @var{no-crosspost} can be used to disable cross-posting; in this case, a
14891 single @code{|} split will be output. @var{catch-all} is the fall back
14892 fancy split, used like @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}.
14893 If @var{catch-all} is @code{nil}, or if @code{split-regexp} matches the
14894 empty string in any selected group, no catch-all split will be issued.
14895 Otherwise, if some group has @code{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all},
14896 this group will override the value of the @var{catch-all} argument.
14898 @findex gnus-group-split-setup
14899 Unfortunately, scanning all groups and their parameters can be quite
14900 slow, especially considering that it has to be done for every message.
14901 But don't despair! The function @code{gnus-group-split-setup} can be
14902 used to enable @code{gnus-group-split} in a much more efficient way. It
14903 sets @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy} and sets
14904 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} to the split produced by
14905 @code{gnus-group-split-fancy}. Thus, the group parameters are only
14906 scanned once, no matter how many messages are split.
14908 @findex gnus-group-split-update
14909 However, if you change group parameters, you'd have to update
14910 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} manually. You can do it by running
14911 @code{gnus-group-split-update}. If you'd rather have it updated
14912 automatically, just tell @code{gnus-group-split-setup} to do it for
14913 you. For example, add to your @file{~/.gnus.el}:
14916 (gnus-group-split-setup @var{auto-update} @var{catch-all})
14919 If @var{auto-update} is non-@code{nil}, @code{gnus-group-split-update}
14920 will be added to @code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook}, so you won't ever
14921 have to worry about updating @code{nnmail-split-fancy} again. If you
14922 don't omit @var{catch-all} (it's optional, equivalent to @code{nil}),
14923 @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group} will be set to its
14926 @vindex gnus-group-split-updated-hook
14927 Because you may want to change @code{nnmail-split-fancy} after it is set
14928 by @code{gnus-group-split-update}, this function will run
14929 @code{gnus-group-split-updated-hook} just before finishing.
14931 @node Incorporating Old Mail
14932 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
14933 @cindex incorporating old mail
14934 @cindex import old mail
14936 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
14937 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
14938 back ends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
14941 Doing so can be quite easy.
14943 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
14944 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
14945 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
14946 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
14947 your @code{nnml} groups.
14953 Go to the group buffer.
14956 Type @kbd{G f} and give the file name to the mbox file when prompted to create an
14957 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
14960 Type @kbd{SPACE} to enter the newly created group.
14963 Type @kbd{M P b} to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
14964 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
14967 Type @kbd{B r} to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
14968 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
14971 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
14972 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
14973 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
14974 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
14975 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
14977 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
14978 back end to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
14979 using the new mail back end.
14982 @node Expiring Mail
14983 @subsection Expiring Mail
14984 @cindex article expiry
14985 @cindex expiring mail
14987 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
14988 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
14989 different approach to mail reading.
14991 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
14992 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
14993 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
14994 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
14995 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
14996 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
14999 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
15000 articles as @dfn{expirable}. (With the default key bindings, this means
15001 that you have to type @kbd{E}.) This does not mean that the articles
15002 will disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
15003 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
15004 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
15005 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
15006 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
15007 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
15009 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Gnus provides
15010 two features, called ``auto-expire'' and ``total-expire'', that can help you
15011 with this. In a nutshell, ``auto-expire'' means that Gnus hits @kbd{E}
15012 for you when you select an article. And ``total-expire'' means that Gnus
15013 considers all articles as expirable that are read. So, in addition to
15014 the articles marked @samp{E}, also the articles marked @samp{r},
15015 @samp{R}, @samp{O}, @samp{K}, @samp{Y} and so on are considered
15018 When should either auto-expire or total-expire be used? Most people
15019 who are subscribed to mailing lists split each list into its own group
15020 and then turn on auto-expire or total-expire for those groups.
15021 (@xref{Splitting Mail}, for more information on splitting each list
15022 into its own group.)
15024 Which one is better, auto-expire or total-expire? It's not easy to
15025 answer. Generally speaking, auto-expire is probably faster. Another
15026 advantage of auto-expire is that you get more marks to work with: for
15027 the articles that are supposed to stick around, you can still choose
15028 between tick and dormant and read marks. But with total-expire, you
15029 only have dormant and ticked to choose from. The advantage of
15030 total-expire is that it works well with adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive
15031 Scoring}). Auto-expire works with normal scoring but not with adaptive
15034 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
15035 Groups that match the regular expression
15036 @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will have all articles that you
15037 read marked as expirable automatically. All articles marked as
15038 expirable have an @samp{E} in the first column in the summary buffer.
15040 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
15041 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
15042 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
15043 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
15044 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
15046 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
15048 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
15049 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
15050 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
15053 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
15054 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
15055 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
15056 articles expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
15057 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
15059 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
15060 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
15063 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
15064 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
15067 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
15068 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
15070 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
15071 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
15072 don't really mix very well.
15074 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
15075 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
15076 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
15077 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
15080 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
15081 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
15082 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
15083 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
15086 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
15088 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
15090 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
15092 ((string= group "mail.junk")
15094 ((string= group "important")
15100 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
15101 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
15103 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
15104 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
15105 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
15108 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
15109 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
15111 @vindex nnmail-expiry-target
15112 The normal action taken when expiring articles is to delete them.
15113 However, in some circumstances it might make more sense to move them
15114 to other groups instead of deleting them. The variable
15115 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} (and the @code{expiry-target} group
15116 parameter) controls this. The variable supplies a default value for
15117 all groups, which can be overridden for specific groups by the group
15118 parameter. default value is @code{delete}, but this can also be a
15119 string (which should be the name of the group the message should be
15120 moved to), or a function (which will be called in a buffer narrowed to
15121 the message in question, and with the name of the group being moved
15122 from as its parameter) which should return a target---either a group
15123 name or @code{delete}.
15125 Here's an example for specifying a group name:
15127 (setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
15130 @findex nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
15131 @vindex nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
15132 Gnus provides a function @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-target} which will
15133 expire mail to groups according to the variable
15134 @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets}. Here's an example:
15137 (setq nnmail-expiry-target 'nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
15138 nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
15139 '((to-from "boss" "nnfolder:Work")
15140 ("subject" "IMPORTANT" "nnfolder:IMPORTANT.%Y.%b")
15141 ("from" ".*" "nnfolder:Archive-%Y")))
15144 With this setup, any mail that has @code{IMPORTANT} in its Subject
15145 header and was sent in the year @code{YYYY} and month @code{MMM}, will
15146 get expired to the group @code{nnfolder:IMPORTANT.YYYY.MMM}. If its
15147 From or To header contains the string @code{boss}, it will get expired
15148 to @code{nnfolder:Work}. All other mail will get expired to
15149 @code{nnfolder:Archive-YYYY}.
15151 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
15152 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
15153 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
15154 easier for procmail users.
15156 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
15157 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
15158 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
15159 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
15160 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
15161 caution. Even more dangerous is the
15162 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
15163 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
15164 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
15165 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
15166 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
15167 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
15168 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
15171 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
15173 @vindex gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire
15174 If @code{gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire} is non-@code{nil}, user marking
15175 commands will not mark an article as expirable, even if the group has
15176 auto-expire turned on.
15180 @subsection Washing Mail
15181 @cindex mail washing
15182 @cindex list server brain damage
15183 @cindex incoming mail treatment
15185 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
15186 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC 822 doesn't explicitly
15187 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
15188 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
15189 Yes, but RFC 822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
15190 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
15192 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
15193 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
15194 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
15197 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
15198 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
15199 storing the mail to disk. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
15200 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
15203 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
15204 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
15205 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
15206 grand, sweeping gestures. It is called in a buffer that contains all
15207 the new, incoming mail. Functions to be used include:
15210 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
15211 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
15212 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
15213 Emacs running on MS machines.
15217 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
15218 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
15219 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
15220 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
15223 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
15224 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
15225 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
15226 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
15228 (Note that this function works on both the header on the body of all
15229 messages, so it is a potentially dangerous function to use (if a body
15230 of a message contains something that looks like a header line). So
15231 rather than fix the bug, it is of course the right solution to make it
15232 into a feature by documenting it.)
15234 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
15235 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
15236 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
15237 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
15238 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
15239 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
15240 also be a list of regexp. @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} may not contain
15243 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
15244 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
15247 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
15248 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
15251 This can also be done non-destructively with
15252 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}, @xref{Article Hiding}.
15254 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
15255 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
15256 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
15258 @item nnmail-ignore-broken-references
15259 @findex nnmail-ignore-broken-references
15260 @c @findex nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
15263 Some mail user agents (e.g. Eudora and Pegasus) produce broken
15264 @code{References} headers, but correct @code{In-Reply-To} headers. This
15265 function will get rid of the @code{References} header if the headers
15266 contain a line matching the regular expression
15267 @code{nnmail-broken-references-mailers}.
15271 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
15272 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
15273 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
15277 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
15278 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
15279 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
15286 @subsection Duplicates
15288 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
15289 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
15290 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
15291 @cindex duplicate mails
15292 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
15293 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
15294 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
15295 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s---
15296 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
15297 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
15298 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
15299 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
15300 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
15301 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
15302 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
15303 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
15304 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
15306 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
15307 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
15308 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
15309 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
15311 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
15314 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
15315 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
15319 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
15320 '(| ;; @r{Messages duplicates go to a separate group.}
15321 ("gnus-warning" "duplicat\\(e\\|ion\\) of message" "duplicate")
15322 ;; @r{Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.}
15323 (any mail "mail.misc")
15324 ;; @r{Other rules.}
15330 (setq nnmail-split-methods
15331 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:.*duplicate")
15332 ;; @r{Other rules.}
15336 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
15337 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
15338 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
15339 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
15340 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
15343 @node Not Reading Mail
15344 @subsection Not Reading Mail
15346 If you start using any of the mail back ends, they have the annoying
15347 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
15348 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
15350 If you set @code{mail-sources} and @code{nnmail-spool-file} to
15351 @code{nil}, none of the back ends will ever attempt to read incoming
15352 mail, which should help.
15354 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
15355 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
15356 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
15357 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
15358 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
15359 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
15360 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old Rmail
15361 file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All back ends have
15362 variables called back-end-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
15363 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
15364 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
15366 All the mail back ends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
15367 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
15371 @node Choosing a Mail Back End
15372 @subsection Choosing a Mail Back End
15374 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
15375 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
15376 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
15378 There are six different mail back ends in the standard Gnus, and more
15379 back ends are available separately. The mail back end most people use
15380 (because it is possibly the fastest) is @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail
15384 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
15385 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the Rmail Babyl format.
15386 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
15387 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
15388 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
15389 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
15390 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
15394 @node Unix Mail Box
15395 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
15397 @cindex unix mail box
15399 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
15400 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
15401 The @dfn{nnmbox} back end will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
15402 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
15403 which group it belongs in.
15405 Virtual server settings:
15408 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
15409 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
15410 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory. Default is
15413 @item nnmbox-active-file
15414 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
15415 The name of the active file for the mail box. Default is
15416 @file{~/.mbox-active}.
15418 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
15419 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
15420 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
15421 into groups. Default is @code{t}.
15426 @subsubsection Rmail Babyl
15430 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
15431 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
15432 The @dfn{nnbabyl} back end will use a Babyl mail box (aka. @dfn{Rmail
15433 mbox}) to store mail. @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each
15434 mail article to say which group it belongs in.
15436 Virtual server settings:
15439 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
15440 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
15441 The name of the Rmail mbox file. The default is @file{~/RMAIL}
15443 @item nnbabyl-active-file
15444 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
15445 The name of the active file for the rmail box. The default is
15446 @file{~/.rmail-active}
15448 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
15449 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
15450 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail. Default is
15456 @subsubsection Mail Spool
15458 @cindex mail @acronym{NOV} spool
15460 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
15461 format. It should be used with some caution.
15463 @vindex nnml-directory
15464 If you use this back end, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
15465 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
15466 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
15467 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
15469 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
15472 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
15473 in your account, you should not use this back end. As each mail gets its
15474 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
15475 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
15476 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
15477 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
15478 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
15479 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
15481 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest back end when it comes to article
15482 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
15483 @acronym{NOV} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it possibly the
15484 fastest back end when it comes to reading mail.
15486 @cindex self contained nnml servers
15488 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnml}
15489 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
15490 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
15491 proper @code{nnml} server) and have all your marks be preserved. Marks
15492 for a group are usually stored in the @code{.marks} file (but see
15493 @code{nnml-marks-file-name}) within each @code{nnml} group's directory.
15494 Individual @code{nnml} groups are also possible to backup, use @kbd{G m}
15495 to restore the group (after restoring the backup into the nnml
15498 If for some reason you believe your @file{.marks} files are screwed
15499 up, you can just delete them all. Gnus will then correctly regenerate
15500 them next time it starts.
15502 Virtual server settings:
15505 @item nnml-directory
15506 @vindex nnml-directory
15507 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory. The
15508 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default value
15511 @item nnml-active-file
15512 @vindex nnml-active-file
15513 The active file for the @code{nnml} server. The default is
15514 @file{~/Mail/active}.
15516 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
15517 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
15518 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
15519 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}.
15521 @item nnml-get-new-mail
15522 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
15523 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail. The default is
15526 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
15527 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
15528 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @acronym{NOV} files. The
15529 default is @code{nil}.
15531 @item nnml-nov-file-name
15532 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
15533 The name of the @acronym{NOV} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
15535 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
15536 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
15537 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
15539 @item nnml-marks-is-evil
15540 @vindex nnml-marks-is-evil
15541 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
15542 default is @code{nil}.
15544 @item nnml-marks-file-name
15545 @vindex nnml-marks-file-name
15546 The name of the @dfn{marks} files. The default is @file{.marks}.
15548 @item nnml-use-compressed-files
15549 @vindex nnml-use-compressed-files
15550 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will allow using compressed message
15551 files. This requires @code{auto-compression-mode} to be enabled
15552 (@pxref{Compressed Files, ,Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Manual}).
15553 If the value of @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is a string, it is used
15554 as the file extension specifying the compression program. You can set it
15555 to @samp{.bz2} if your Emacs supports it. A value of @code{t} is
15556 equivalent to @samp{.gz}.
15558 @item nnml-compressed-files-size-threshold
15559 @vindex nnml-compressed-files-size-threshold
15560 Default size threshold for compressed message files. Message files with
15561 bodies larger than that many characters will be automatically compressed
15562 if @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is non-@code{nil}.
15566 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
15567 If your @code{nnml} groups and @acronym{NOV} files get totally out of
15568 whack, you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
15569 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
15570 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
15571 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
15572 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
15577 @subsubsection MH Spool
15579 @cindex mh-e mail spool
15581 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
15582 @acronym{NOV} databases and it doesn't keep an active file or marks
15583 file. This makes @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower back end than
15584 @code{nnml}, but it also makes it easier to write procmail scripts
15587 Virtual server settings:
15590 @item nnmh-directory
15591 @vindex nnmh-directory
15592 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory. The
15593 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
15596 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
15597 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
15598 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail. The default is
15602 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
15603 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
15604 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks
15605 they are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
15606 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
15607 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not
15608 have to set this variable to @code{t}. The default is @code{nil}.
15613 @subsubsection Maildir
15617 @code{nnmaildir} stores mail in the maildir format, with each maildir
15618 corresponding to a group in Gnus. This format is documented here:
15619 @uref{http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html} and here:
15620 @uref{http://www.qmail.org/man/man5/maildir.html}. @code{nnmaildir}
15621 also stores extra information in the @file{.nnmaildir/} directory
15624 Maildir format was designed to allow concurrent deliveries and
15625 reading, without needing locks. With other back ends, you would have
15626 your mail delivered to a spool of some kind, and then you would
15627 configure Gnus to split mail from that spool into your groups. You
15628 can still do that with @code{nnmaildir}, but the more common
15629 configuration is to have your mail delivered directly to the maildirs
15630 that appear as group in Gnus.
15632 @code{nnmaildir} is designed to be perfectly reliable: @kbd{C-g} will
15633 never corrupt its data in memory, and @code{SIGKILL} will never
15634 corrupt its data in the filesystem.
15636 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks and @acronym{NOV} data in each
15637 maildir. So you can copy a whole maildir from one Gnus setup to
15638 another, and you will keep your marks.
15640 Virtual server settings:
15644 For each of your @code{nnmaildir} servers (it's very unlikely that
15645 you'd need more than one), you need to create a directory and populate
15646 it with maildirs or symlinks to maildirs (and nothing else; do not
15647 choose a directory already used for other purposes). Each maildir
15648 will be represented in Gnus as a newsgroup on that server; the
15649 filename of the symlink will be the name of the group. Any filenames
15650 in the directory starting with @samp{.} are ignored. The directory is
15651 scanned when you first start Gnus, and each time you type @kbd{g} in
15652 the group buffer; if any maildirs have been removed or added,
15653 @code{nnmaildir} notices at these times.
15655 The value of the @code{directory} parameter should be a Lisp form
15656 which is processed by @code{eval} and @code{expand-file-name} to get
15657 the path of the directory for this server. The form is @code{eval}ed
15658 only when the server is opened; the resulting string is used until the
15659 server is closed. (If you don't know about forms and @code{eval},
15660 don't worry---a simple string will work.) This parameter is not
15661 optional; you must specify it. I don't recommend using
15662 @code{"~/Mail"} or a subdirectory of it; several other parts of Gnus
15663 use that directory by default for various things, and may get confused
15664 if @code{nnmaildir} uses it too. @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} is a typical
15667 @item target-prefix
15668 This should be a Lisp form which is processed by @code{eval} and
15669 @code{expand-file-name}. The form is @code{eval}ed only when the
15670 server is opened; the resulting string is used until the server is
15673 When you create a group on an @code{nnmaildir} server, the maildir is
15674 created with @code{target-prefix} prepended to its name, and a symlink
15675 pointing to that maildir is created, named with the plain group name.
15676 So if @code{directory} is @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} and
15677 @code{target-prefix} is @code{"../maildirs/"}, then when you create
15678 the group @code{foo}, @code{nnmaildir} will create
15679 @file{~/.nnmaildir/../maildirs/foo} as a maildir, and will create
15680 @file{~/.nnmaildir/foo} as a symlink pointing to
15681 @file{../maildirs/foo}.
15683 You can set @code{target-prefix} to a string without any slashes to
15684 create both maildirs and symlinks in the same @code{directory}; in
15685 this case, any maildirs found in @code{directory} whose names start
15686 with @code{target-prefix} will not be listed as groups (but the
15687 symlinks pointing to them will be).
15689 As a special case, if @code{target-prefix} is @code{""} (the default),
15690 then when you create a group, the maildir will be created in
15691 @code{directory} without a corresponding symlink. Beware that you
15692 cannot use @code{gnus-group-delete-group} on such groups without the
15693 @code{force} argument.
15695 @item directory-files
15696 This should be a function with the same interface as
15697 @code{directory-files} (such as @code{directory-files} itself). It is
15698 used to scan the server's @code{directory} for maildirs. This
15699 parameter is optional; the default is
15700 @code{nnheader-directory-files-safe} if
15701 @code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is @code{nil}, and
15702 @code{directory-files} otherwise.
15703 (@code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is checked only once when the
15704 server is opened; if you want to check it each time the directory is
15705 scanned, you'll have to provide your own function that does that.)
15708 If non-@code{nil}, then after scanning for new mail in the group
15709 maildirs themselves as usual, this server will also incorporate mail
15710 the conventional Gnus way, from @code{mail-sources} according to
15711 @code{nnmail-split-methods} or @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. The default
15712 value is @code{nil}.
15714 Do @emph{not} use the same maildir both in @code{mail-sources} and as
15715 an @code{nnmaildir} group. The results might happen to be useful, but
15716 that would be by chance, not by design, and the results might be
15717 different in the future. If your split rules create new groups,
15718 remember to supply a @code{create-directory} server parameter.
15721 @subsubsection Group parameters
15723 @code{nnmaildir} uses several group parameters. It's safe to ignore
15724 all this; the default behavior for @code{nnmaildir} is the same as the
15725 default behavior for other mail back ends: articles are deleted after
15726 one week, etc. Except for the expiry parameters, all this
15727 functionality is unique to @code{nnmaildir}, so you can ignore it if
15728 you're just trying to duplicate the behavior you already have with
15731 If the value of any of these parameters is a vector, the first element
15732 is evaluated as a Lisp form and the result is used, rather than the
15733 original value. If the value is not a vector, the value itself is
15734 evaluated as a Lisp form. (This is why these parameters use names
15735 different from those of other, similar parameters supported by other
15736 back ends: they have different, though similar, meanings.) (For
15737 numbers, strings, @code{nil}, and @code{t}, you can ignore the
15738 @code{eval} business again; for other values, remember to use an extra
15739 quote and wrap the value in a vector when appropriate.)
15743 An integer specifying the minimum age, in seconds, of an article
15744 before it will be expired, or the symbol @code{never} to specify that
15745 articles should never be expired. If this parameter is not set,
15746 @code{nnmaildir} falls back to the usual
15747 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait}(@code{-function}) variables (the
15748 @code{expiry-wait} group parameter overrides @code{nnmail-expiry-wait}
15749 and makes @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} ineffective). If you
15750 wanted a value of 3 days, you could use something like @code{[(* 3 24
15751 60 60)]}; @code{nnmaildir} will evaluate the form and use the result.
15752 An article's age is measured starting from the article file's
15753 modification time. Normally, this is the same as the article's
15754 delivery time, but editing an article makes it younger. Moving an
15755 article (other than via expiry) may also make an article younger.
15758 If this is set to a string such as a full Gnus group name, like
15760 "backend+server.address.string:group.name"
15762 and if it is not the name of the same group that the parameter belongs
15763 to, then articles will be moved to the specified group during expiry
15764 before being deleted. @emph{If this is set to an @code{nnmaildir}
15765 group, the article will be just as old in the destination group as it
15766 was in the source group.} So be careful with @code{expire-age} in the
15767 destination group. If this is set to the name of the same group that
15768 the parameter belongs to, then the article is not expired at all. If
15769 you use the vector form, the first element is evaluated once for each
15770 article. So that form can refer to
15771 @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name}, etc., to decide where to put the
15772 article. @emph{Even if this parameter is not set, @code{nnmaildir}
15773 does not fall back to the @code{expiry-target} group parameter or the
15774 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} variable.}
15777 If this is set to @code{t}, @code{nnmaildir} will treat the articles
15778 in this maildir as read-only. This means: articles are not renamed
15779 from @file{new/} into @file{cur/}; articles are only found in
15780 @file{new/}, not @file{cur/}; articles are never deleted; articles
15781 cannot be edited. @file{new/} is expected to be a symlink to the
15782 @file{new/} directory of another maildir---e.g., a system-wide mailbox
15783 containing a mailing list of common interest. Everything in the
15784 maildir outside @file{new/} is @emph{not} treated as read-only, so for
15785 a shared mailbox, you do still need to set up your own maildir (or
15786 have write permission to the shared mailbox); your maildir just won't
15787 contain extra copies of the articles.
15789 @item directory-files
15790 A function with the same interface as @code{directory-files}. It is
15791 used to scan the directories in the maildir corresponding to this
15792 group to find articles. The default is the function specified by the
15793 server's @code{directory-files} parameter.
15795 @item distrust-Lines:
15796 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmaildir} will always count the lines of an
15797 article, rather than use the @code{Lines:} header field. If
15798 @code{nil}, the header field will be used if present.
15801 A list of mark symbols, such as @code{['(read expire)]}. Whenever
15802 Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for article marks, @code{nnmaildir} will
15803 say that all articles have these marks, regardless of whether the
15804 marks stored in the filesystem say so. This is a proof-of-concept
15805 feature that will probably be removed eventually; it ought to be done
15806 in Gnus proper, or abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
15809 A list of mark symbols, such as @code{['(tick expire)]}. Whenever
15810 Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for article marks, @code{nnmaildir} will
15811 say that no articles have these marks, regardless of whether the marks
15812 stored in the filesystem say so. @code{never-marks} overrides
15813 @code{always-marks}. This is a proof-of-concept feature that will
15814 probably be removed eventually; it ought to be done in Gnus proper, or
15815 abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
15817 @item nov-cache-size
15818 An integer specifying the size of the @acronym{NOV} memory cache. To
15819 speed things up, @code{nnmaildir} keeps @acronym{NOV} data in memory
15820 for a limited number of articles in each group. (This is probably not
15821 worthwhile, and will probably be removed in the future.) This
15822 parameter's value is noticed only the first time a group is seen after
15823 the server is opened---i.e., when you first start Gnus, typically.
15824 The @acronym{NOV} cache is never resized until the server is closed
15825 and reopened. The default is an estimate of the number of articles
15826 that would be displayed in the summary buffer: a count of articles
15827 that are either marked with @code{tick} or not marked with
15828 @code{read}, plus a little extra.
15831 @subsubsection Article identification
15832 Articles are stored in the @file{cur/} subdirectory of each maildir.
15833 Each article file is named like @code{uniq:info}, where @code{uniq}
15834 contains no colons. @code{nnmaildir} ignores, but preserves, the
15835 @code{:info} part. (Other maildir readers typically use this part of
15836 the filename to store marks.) The @code{uniq} part uniquely
15837 identifies the article, and is used in various places in the
15838 @file{.nnmaildir/} subdirectory of the maildir to store information
15839 about the corresponding article. The full pathname of an article is
15840 available in the variable @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name} after you
15841 request the article in the summary buffer.
15843 @subsubsection NOV data
15844 An article identified by @code{uniq} has its @acronym{NOV} data (used
15845 to generate lines in the summary buffer) stored in
15846 @code{.nnmaildir/nov/uniq}. There is no
15847 @code{nnmaildir-generate-nov-databases} function. (There isn't much
15848 need for it---an article's @acronym{NOV} data is updated automatically
15849 when the article or @code{nnmail-extra-headers} has changed.) You can
15850 force @code{nnmaildir} to regenerate the @acronym{NOV} data for a
15851 single article simply by deleting the corresponding @acronym{NOV}
15852 file, but @emph{beware}: this will also cause @code{nnmaildir} to
15853 assign a new article number for this article, which may cause trouble
15854 with @code{seen} marks, the Agent, and the cache.
15856 @subsubsection Article marks
15857 An article identified by @code{uniq} is considered to have the mark
15858 @code{flag} when the file @file{.nnmaildir/marks/flag/uniq} exists.
15859 When Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for a group's marks, @code{nnmaildir}
15860 looks for such files and reports the set of marks it finds. When Gnus
15861 asks @code{nnmaildir} to store a new set of marks, @code{nnmaildir}
15862 creates and deletes the corresponding files as needed. (Actually,
15863 rather than create a new file for each mark, it just creates hard
15864 links to @file{.nnmaildir/markfile}, to save inodes.)
15866 You can invent new marks by creating a new directory in
15867 @file{.nnmaildir/marks/}. You can tar up a maildir and remove it from
15868 your server, untar it later, and keep your marks. You can add and
15869 remove marks yourself by creating and deleting mark files. If you do
15870 this while Gnus is running and your @code{nnmaildir} server is open,
15871 it's best to exit all summary buffers for @code{nnmaildir} groups and
15872 type @kbd{s} in the group buffer first, and to type @kbd{g} or
15873 @kbd{M-g} in the group buffer afterwards. Otherwise, Gnus might not
15874 pick up the changes, and might undo them.
15878 @subsubsection Mail Folders
15880 @cindex mbox folders
15881 @cindex mail folders
15883 @code{nnfolder} is a back end for storing each mail group in a
15884 separate file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format.
15885 @code{nnfolder} will add extra headers to keep track of article
15886 numbers and arrival dates.
15888 @cindex self contained nnfolder servers
15890 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnfolder}
15891 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
15892 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
15893 proper @code{nnfolder} server) and have all your marks be preserved.
15894 Marks for a group are usually stored in a file named as the mbox file
15895 with @code{.mrk} concatenated to it (but see
15896 @code{nnfolder-marks-file-suffix}) within the @code{nnfolder}
15897 directory. Individual @code{nnfolder} groups are also possible to
15898 backup, use @kbd{G m} to restore the group (after restoring the backup
15899 into the @code{nnfolder} directory).
15901 Virtual server settings:
15904 @item nnfolder-directory
15905 @vindex nnfolder-directory
15906 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this
15907 directory. The default is the value of @code{message-directory}
15908 (whose default is @file{~/Mail})
15910 @item nnfolder-active-file
15911 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
15912 The name of the active file. The default is @file{~/Mail/active}.
15914 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
15915 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
15916 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
15917 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}
15919 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
15920 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
15921 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail. The
15922 default is @code{t}
15924 @item nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
15925 @vindex nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
15926 @cindex backup files
15927 Hook run before saving the folders. Note that Emacs does the normal
15928 backup renaming of files even with the @code{nnfolder} buffers. If
15929 you wish to switch this off, you could say something like the
15930 following in your @file{.emacs} file:
15933 (defun turn-off-backup ()
15934 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
15936 (add-hook 'nnfolder-save-buffer-hook 'turn-off-backup)
15939 @item nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
15940 @vindex nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
15941 Hook run in a buffer narrowed to the message that is to be deleted.
15942 This function can be used to copy the message to somewhere else, or to
15943 extract some information from it before removing it.
15945 @item nnfolder-nov-is-evil
15946 @vindex nnfolder-nov-is-evil
15947 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @acronym{NOV} files. The
15948 default is @code{nil}.
15950 @item nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
15951 @vindex nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
15952 The extension for @acronym{NOV} files. The default is @file{.nov}.
15954 @item nnfolder-nov-directory
15955 @vindex nnfolder-nov-directory
15956 The directory where the @acronym{NOV} files should be stored. If
15957 @code{nil}, @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
15959 @item nnfolder-marks-is-evil
15960 @vindex nnfolder-marks-is-evil
15961 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
15962 default is @code{nil}.
15964 @item nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
15965 @vindex nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
15966 The extension for @sc{marks} files. The default is @file{.mrk}.
15968 @item nnfolder-marks-directory
15969 @vindex nnfolder-marks-directory
15970 The directory where the @sc{marks} files should be stored. If
15971 @code{nil}, @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
15976 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
15977 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
15978 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
15979 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
15980 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
15981 @code{nnfolder-directory}. This only works if you use long file names,
15984 @node Comparing Mail Back Ends
15985 @subsubsection Comparing Mail Back Ends
15987 First, just for terminology, the @dfn{back end} is the common word for a
15988 low-level access method---a transport, if you will, by which something
15989 is acquired. The sense is that one's mail has to come from somewhere,
15990 and so selection of a suitable back end is required in order to get that
15991 mail within spitting distance of Gnus.
15993 The same concept exists for Usenet itself: Though access to articles is
15994 typically done by @acronym{NNTP} these days, once upon a midnight dreary, everyone
15995 in the world got at Usenet by running a reader on the machine where the
15996 articles lay (the machine which today we call an @acronym{NNTP} server), and
15997 access was by the reader stepping into the articles' directory spool
15998 area directly. One can still select between either the @code{nntp} or
15999 @code{nnspool} back ends, to select between these methods, if one happens
16000 actually to live on the server (or can see its spool directly, anyway,
16003 The goal in selecting a mail back end is to pick one which
16004 simultaneously represents a suitable way of dealing with the original
16005 format plus leaving mail in a form that is convenient to use in the
16006 future. Here are some high and low points on each:
16011 UNIX systems have historically had a single, very common, and well-
16012 defined format. All messages arrive in a single @dfn{spool file}, and
16013 they are delineated by a line whose regular expression matches
16014 @samp{^From_}. (My notational use of @samp{_} is to indicate a space,
16015 to make it clear in this instance that this is not the RFC-specified
16016 @samp{From:} header.) Because Emacs and therefore Gnus emanate
16017 historically from the Unix environment, it is simplest if one does not
16018 mess a great deal with the original mailbox format, so if one chooses
16019 this back end, Gnus' primary activity in getting mail from the real spool
16020 area to Gnus' preferred directory is simply to copy it, with no
16021 (appreciable) format change in the process. It is the ``dumbest'' way
16022 to move mail into availability in the Gnus environment. This makes it
16023 fast to move into place, but slow to parse, when Gnus has to look at
16028 Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and DEC-20, running operating
16029 systems called TOPS and related things, and the usual (only?) mail
16030 reading environment was a thing called Babyl. I don't know what format
16031 was used for mail landing on the system, but Babyl had its own internal
16032 format to which mail was converted, primarily involving creating a
16033 spool-file-like entity with a scheme for inserting Babyl-specific
16034 headers and status bits above the top of each message in the file.
16035 Rmail was Emacs' first mail reader, it was written by Richard Stallman,
16036 and Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl environment, so he wrote Rmail
16037 to understand the mail files folks already had in existence. Gnus (and
16038 VM, for that matter) continue to support this format because it's
16039 perceived as having some good qualities in those mailer-specific
16040 headers/status bits stuff. Rmail itself still exists as well, of
16041 course, and is still maintained by Stallman.
16043 Both of the above forms leave your mail in a single file on your
16044 file system, and they must parse that entire file each time you take a
16049 @code{nnml} is the back end which smells the most as though you were
16050 actually operating with an @code{nnspool}-accessed Usenet system. (In
16051 fact, I believe @code{nnml} actually derived from @code{nnspool} code,
16052 lo these years ago.) One's mail is taken from the original spool file,
16053 and is then cut up into individual message files, 1:1. It maintains a
16054 Usenet-style active file (analogous to what one finds in an INN- or
16055 CNews-based news system in (for instance) @file{/var/lib/news/active},
16056 or what is returned via the @samp{NNTP LIST} verb) and also creates
16057 @dfn{overview} files for efficient group entry, as has been defined for
16058 @acronym{NNTP} servers for some years now. It is slower in mail-splitting,
16059 due to the creation of lots of files, updates to the @code{nnml} active
16060 file, and additions to overview files on a per-message basis, but it is
16061 extremely fast on access because of what amounts to the indexing support
16062 provided by the active file and overviews.
16064 @code{nnml} costs @dfn{inodes} in a big way; that is, it soaks up the
16065 resource which defines available places in the file system to put new
16066 files. Sysadmins take a dim view of heavy inode occupation within
16067 tight, shared file systems. But if you live on a personal machine where
16068 the file system is your own and space is not at a premium, @code{nnml}
16071 It is also problematic using this back end if you are living in a
16072 FAT16-based Windows world, since much space will be wasted on all these
16077 The Rand MH mail-reading system has been around UNIX systems for a very
16078 long time; it operates by splitting one's spool file of messages into
16079 individual files, but with little or no indexing support---@code{nnmh}
16080 is considered to be semantically equivalent to ``@code{nnml} without
16081 active file or overviews''. This is arguably the worst choice, because
16082 one gets the slowness of individual file creation married to the
16083 slowness of access parsing when learning what's new in one's groups.
16087 Basically the effect of @code{nnfolder} is @code{nnmbox} (the first
16088 method described above) on a per-group basis. That is, @code{nnmbox}
16089 itself puts @emph{all} one's mail in one file; @code{nnfolder} provides a
16090 little bit of optimization to this so that each of one's mail groups has
16091 a Unix mail box file. It's faster than @code{nnmbox} because each group
16092 can be parsed separately, and still provides the simple Unix mail box
16093 format requiring minimal effort in moving the mail around. In addition,
16094 it maintains an ``active'' file making it much faster for Gnus to figure
16095 out how many messages there are in each separate group.
16097 If you have groups that are expected to have a massive amount of
16098 messages, @code{nnfolder} is not the best choice, but if you receive
16099 only a moderate amount of mail, @code{nnfolder} is probably the most
16100 friendly mail back end all over.
16104 For configuring expiry and other things, @code{nnmaildir} uses
16105 incompatible group parameters, slightly different from those of other
16108 @code{nnmaildir} is largely similar to @code{nnml}, with some notable
16109 differences. Each message is stored in a separate file, but the
16110 filename is unrelated to the article number in Gnus. @code{nnmaildir}
16111 also stores the equivalent of @code{nnml}'s overview files in one file
16112 per article, so it uses about twice as many inodes as @code{nnml}. (Use
16113 @code{df -i} to see how plentiful your inode supply is.) If this slows
16114 you down or takes up very much space, consider switching to
16115 @uref{http://www.namesys.com/, ReiserFS} or another non-block-structured
16118 Since maildirs don't require locking for delivery, the maildirs you use
16119 as groups can also be the maildirs your mail is directly delivered to.
16120 This means you can skip Gnus' mail splitting if your mail is already
16121 organized into different mailboxes during delivery. A @code{directory}
16122 entry in @code{mail-sources} would have a similar effect, but would
16123 require one set of mailboxes for spooling deliveries (in mbox format,
16124 thus damaging message bodies), and another set to be used as groups (in
16125 whatever format you like). A maildir has a built-in spool, in the
16126 @code{new/} subdirectory. Beware that currently, mail moved from
16127 @code{new/} to @code{cur/} instead of via mail splitting will not
16128 undergo treatment such as duplicate checking.
16130 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks for a given group in the
16131 corresponding maildir, in a way designed so that it's easy to manipulate
16132 them from outside Gnus. You can tar up a maildir, unpack it somewhere
16133 else, and still have your marks. @code{nnml} also stores marks, but
16134 it's not as easy to work with them from outside Gnus as with
16137 @code{nnmaildir} uses a significant amount of memory to speed things up.
16138 (It keeps in memory some of the things that @code{nnml} stores in files
16139 and that @code{nnmh} repeatedly parses out of message files.) If this
16140 is a problem for you, you can set the @code{nov-cache-size} group
16141 parameter to something small (0 would probably not work, but 1 probably
16142 would) to make it use less memory. This caching will probably be
16143 removed in the future.
16145 Startup is likely to be slower with @code{nnmaildir} than with other
16146 back ends. Everything else is likely to be faster, depending in part
16147 on your file system.
16149 @code{nnmaildir} does not use @code{nnoo}, so you cannot use @code{nnoo}
16150 to write an @code{nnmaildir}-derived back end.
16155 @node Browsing the Web
16156 @section Browsing the Web
16158 @cindex browsing the web
16162 Web-based discussion forums are getting more and more popular. On many
16163 subjects, the web-based forums have become the most important forums,
16164 eclipsing the importance of mailing lists and news groups. The reason
16165 is easy to understand---they are friendly to new users; you just point
16166 and click, and there's the discussion. With mailing lists, you have to
16167 go through a cumbersome subscription procedure, and most people don't
16168 even know what a news group is.
16170 The problem with this scenario is that web browsers are not very good at
16171 being newsreaders. They do not keep track of what articles you've read;
16172 they do not allow you to score on subjects you're interested in; they do
16173 not allow off-line browsing; they require you to click around and drive
16174 you mad in the end.
16176 So---if web browsers suck at reading discussion forums, why not use Gnus
16179 Gnus has been getting a bit of a collection of back ends for providing
16180 interfaces to these sources.
16184 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
16185 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
16186 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
16187 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
16188 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
16189 * Customizing W3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/W3 from Gnus.
16192 All the web sources require Emacs/W3 and the url library or those
16193 alternatives to work.
16195 The main caveat with all these web sources is that they probably won't
16196 work for a very long time. Gleaning information from the @acronym{HTML} data
16197 is guesswork at best, and when the layout is altered, the Gnus back end
16198 will fail. If you have reasonably new versions of these back ends,
16199 though, you should be ok.
16201 One thing all these Web methods have in common is that the Web sources
16202 are often down, unavailable or just plain too slow to be fun. In those
16203 cases, it makes a lot of sense to let the Gnus Agent (@pxref{Gnus
16204 Unplugged}) handle downloading articles, and then you can read them at
16205 leisure from your local disk. No more World Wide Wait for you.
16207 @node Archiving Mail
16208 @subsection Archiving Mail
16209 @cindex archiving mail
16210 @cindex backup of mail
16212 Some of the back ends, notably @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, and
16213 @code{nnmaildir}, now actually store the article marks with each group.
16214 For these servers, archiving and restoring a group while preserving
16215 marks is fairly simple.
16217 (Preserving the group level and group parameters as well still
16218 requires ritual dancing and sacrifices to the @file{.newsrc.eld} deity
16221 To archive an entire @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir}
16222 server, take a recursive copy of the server directory. There is no need
16223 to shut down Gnus, so archiving may be invoked by @code{cron} or
16224 similar. You restore the data by restoring the directory tree, and
16225 adding a server definition pointing to that directory in Gnus. The
16226 @ref{Article Backlog}, @ref{Asynchronous Fetching} and other things
16227 might interfere with overwriting data, so you may want to shut down Gnus
16228 before you restore the data.
16230 It is also possible to archive individual @code{nnml},
16231 @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir} groups, while preserving marks.
16232 For @code{nnml} or @code{nnmaildir}, you copy all files in the group's
16233 directory. For @code{nnfolder} you need to copy both the base folder
16234 file itself (@file{FOO}, say), and the marks file (@file{FOO.mrk} in
16235 this example). Restoring the group is done with @kbd{G m} from the Group
16236 buffer. The last step makes Gnus notice the new directory.
16237 @code{nnmaildir} notices the new directory automatically, so @kbd{G m}
16238 is unnecessary in that case.
16241 @subsection Web Searches
16246 @cindex Usenet searches
16247 @cindex searching the Usenet
16249 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
16250 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
16251 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
16252 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
16253 searches without having to use a browser.
16255 The @code{nnweb} back end allows an easy interface to the mighty search
16256 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
16257 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
16258 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
16259 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
16261 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
16262 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
16263 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
16264 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
16265 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
16266 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
16267 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
16268 engines (Google, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
16269 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
16270 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
16273 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
16274 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
16275 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'@^etre} is to
16276 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
16277 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
16278 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
16280 You must have the @code{url} and @code{W3} package or those alternatives
16281 (try @code{customize-group} on the @samp{mm-url} variable group)
16282 installed to be able to use @code{nnweb}.
16284 Virtual server variables:
16289 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
16290 are @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}. Note that
16291 @code{dejanews} is an alias to @code{google}.
16294 @vindex nnweb-search
16295 The search string to feed to the search engine.
16297 @item nnweb-max-hits
16298 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
16299 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
16302 @item nnweb-type-definition
16303 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
16304 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
16305 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
16310 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
16314 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
16317 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
16320 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
16324 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
16331 @subsection Slashdot
16335 @uref{http://slashdot.org/, Slashdot} is a popular news site, with
16336 lively discussion following the news articles. @code{nnslashdot} will
16337 let you read this forum in a convenient manner.
16339 The easiest way to read this source is to put something like the
16340 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
16343 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
16344 '((nnslashdot "")))
16347 This will make Gnus query the @code{nnslashdot} back end for new comments
16348 and groups. The @kbd{F} command will subscribe each new news article as
16349 a new Gnus group, and you can read the comments by entering these
16350 groups. (Note that the default subscription method is to subscribe new
16351 groups as zombies. Other methods are available (@pxref{Subscription
16354 If you want to remove an old @code{nnslashdot} group, the @kbd{G DEL}
16355 command is the most handy tool (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
16357 When following up to @code{nnslashdot} comments (or posting new
16358 comments), some light @acronym{HTML}izations will be performed. In
16359 particular, text quoted with @samp{> } will be quoted with
16360 @samp{blockquote} instead, and signatures will have @samp{br} added to
16361 the end of each line. Other than that, you can just write @acronym{HTML}
16362 directly into the message buffer. Note that Slashdot filters out some
16363 @acronym{HTML} forms.
16365 The following variables can be altered to change its behavior:
16368 @item nnslashdot-threaded
16369 Whether @code{nnslashdot} should display threaded groups or not. The
16370 default is @code{t}. To be able to display threads, @code{nnslashdot}
16371 has to retrieve absolutely all comments in a group upon entry. If a
16372 threaded display is not required, @code{nnslashdot} will only retrieve
16373 the comments that are actually wanted by the user. Threading is nicer,
16374 but much, much slower than unthreaded.
16376 @item nnslashdot-login-name
16377 @vindex nnslashdot-login-name
16378 The login name to use when posting.
16380 @item nnslashdot-password
16381 @vindex nnslashdot-password
16382 The password to use when posting.
16384 @item nnslashdot-directory
16385 @vindex nnslashdot-directory
16386 Where @code{nnslashdot} will store its files. The default is
16387 @file{~/News/slashdot/}.
16389 @item nnslashdot-active-url
16390 @vindex nnslashdot-active-url
16391 The @acronym{URL} format string that will be used to fetch the
16392 information on news articles and comments. The default is@*
16393 @samp{http://slashdot.org/search.pl?section=&min=%d}.
16395 @item nnslashdot-comments-url
16396 @vindex nnslashdot-comments-url
16397 The @acronym{URL} format string that will be used to fetch comments.
16399 @item nnslashdot-article-url
16400 @vindex nnslashdot-article-url
16401 The @acronym{URL} format string that will be used to fetch the news
16402 article. The default is
16403 @samp{http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=%s&mode=nocomment}.
16405 @item nnslashdot-threshold
16406 @vindex nnslashdot-threshold
16407 The score threshold. The default is -1.
16409 @item nnslashdot-group-number
16410 @vindex nnslashdot-group-number
16411 The number of old groups, in addition to the ten latest, to keep
16412 updated. The default is 0.
16419 @subsection Ultimate
16421 @cindex Ultimate Bulletin Board
16423 @uref{http://www.ultimatebb.com/, The Ultimate Bulletin Board} is
16424 probably the most popular Web bulletin board system used. It has a
16425 quite regular and nice interface, and it's possible to get the
16426 information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
16428 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnultimate} is to say
16429 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnultimate RET
16430 http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubbcgi/ RET}. (Substitute the @acronym{URL}
16431 (not including @samp{Ultimate.cgi} or the like at the end) for a forum
16432 you're interested in; there's quite a list of them on the Ultimate web
16433 site.) Then subscribe to the groups you're interested in from the
16434 server buffer, and read them from the group buffer.
16436 The following @code{nnultimate} variables can be altered:
16439 @item nnultimate-directory
16440 @vindex nnultimate-directory
16441 The directory where @code{nnultimate} stores its files. The default is@*
16442 @file{~/News/ultimate/}.
16447 @subsection Web Archive
16449 @cindex Web Archive
16451 Some mailing lists only have archives on Web servers, such as
16452 @uref{http://www.egroups.com/} and
16453 @uref{http://www.mail-archive.com/}. It has a quite regular and nice
16454 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
16457 @findex gnus-group-make-warchive-group
16458 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnwarchive} is to say
16459 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{M-x
16460 gnus-group-make-warchive-group RET @var{an_egroup} RET egroups RET
16461 www.egroups.com RET @var{your@@email.address} RET}. (Substitute the
16462 @var{an_egroup} with the mailing list you subscribed, the
16463 @var{your@@email.address} with your email address.), or to browse the
16464 back end by @kbd{B nnwarchive RET mail-archive RET}.
16466 The following @code{nnwarchive} variables can be altered:
16469 @item nnwarchive-directory
16470 @vindex nnwarchive-directory
16471 The directory where @code{nnwarchive} stores its files. The default is@*
16472 @file{~/News/warchive/}.
16474 @item nnwarchive-login
16475 @vindex nnwarchive-login
16476 The account name on the web server.
16478 @item nnwarchive-passwd
16479 @vindex nnwarchive-passwd
16480 The password for your account on the web server.
16488 Some web sites have an RDF Site Summary (@acronym{RSS}).
16489 @acronym{RSS} is a format for summarizing headlines from news related
16490 sites (such as BBC or CNN). But basically anything list-like can be
16491 presented as an @acronym{RSS} feed: weblogs, changelogs or recent
16492 changes to a wiki (e.g. @url{http://cliki.net/recent-changes.rdf}).
16494 @acronym{RSS} has a quite regular and nice interface, and it's
16495 possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
16497 Note: you had better use Emacs which supports the @code{utf-8} coding
16498 system because @acronym{RSS} uses UTF-8 for encoding non-@acronym{ASCII}
16499 text by default. It is also used by default for non-@acronym{ASCII}
16502 @kindex G R (Group)
16503 Use @kbd{G R} from the group buffer to subscribe to a feed---you will be
16504 prompted for the location, the title and the description of the feed.
16505 The title, which allows any characters, will be used for the group name
16506 and the name of the group data file. The description can be omitted.
16508 An easy way to get started with @code{nnrss} is to say something like
16509 the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnrss RET RET y}, then
16510 subscribe to groups.
16512 The @code{nnrss} back end saves the group data file in
16513 @code{nnrss-directory} (see below) for each @code{nnrss} group. File
16514 names containing non-@acronym{ASCII} characters will be encoded by the
16515 coding system specified with the @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system}
16516 variable. If it is @code{nil}, in Emacs the coding system defaults to
16517 the value of @code{default-file-name-coding-system}. If you are using
16518 XEmacs and want to use non-@acronym{ASCII} group names, you should set
16519 the value for the @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system} variable properly.
16521 The @code{nnrss} back end generates @samp{multipart/alternative}
16522 @acronym{MIME} articles in which each contains a @samp{text/plain} part
16523 and a @samp{text/html} part.
16526 You can also use the following commands to import and export your
16527 subscriptions from a file in @acronym{OPML} format (Outline Processor
16530 @defun nnrss-opml-import file
16531 Prompt for an @acronym{OPML} file, and subscribe to each feed in the
16535 @defun nnrss-opml-export
16536 Write your current @acronym{RSS} subscriptions to a buffer in
16537 @acronym{OPML} format.
16540 The following @code{nnrss} variables can be altered:
16543 @item nnrss-directory
16544 @vindex nnrss-directory
16545 The directory where @code{nnrss} stores its files. The default is
16546 @file{~/News/rss/}.
16548 @item nnrss-file-coding-system
16549 @vindex nnrss-file-coding-system
16550 The coding system used when reading and writing the @code{nnrss} groups
16551 data files. The default is the value of
16552 @code{mm-universal-coding-system} (which defaults to @code{emacs-mule}
16553 in Emacs or @code{escape-quoted} in XEmacs).
16555 @item nnrss-use-local
16556 @vindex nnrss-use-local
16557 @findex nnrss-generate-download-script
16558 If you set @code{nnrss-use-local} to @code{t}, @code{nnrss} will read
16559 the feeds from local files in @code{nnrss-directory}. You can use
16560 the command @code{nnrss-generate-download-script} to generate a
16561 download script using @command{wget}.
16563 @item nnrss-wash-html-in-text-plain-parts
16564 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{nnrss} renders text in @samp{text/plain}
16565 parts as @acronym{HTML}. The function specified by the
16566 @code{mm-text-html-renderer} variable (@pxref{Display Customization,
16567 ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}) will be used
16568 to render text. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default, text will
16569 simply be folded. Leave it @code{nil} if you prefer to see
16570 @samp{text/html} parts.
16573 The following code may be helpful, if you want to show the description in
16574 the summary buffer.
16577 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-description-field)
16578 (setq gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-15,15f%]%) %s%uX\n")
16580 (defun gnus-user-format-function-X (header)
16582 (assq nnrss-description-field (mail-header-extra header))))
16583 (if descr (concat "\n\t" (cdr descr)) "")))
16586 The following code may be useful to open an nnrss url directly from the
16590 (require 'browse-url)
16592 (defun browse-nnrss-url( arg )
16594 (let ((url (assq nnrss-url-field
16597 (assq (gnus-summary-article-number)
16598 gnus-newsgroup-data))))))
16601 (browse-url (cdr url))
16602 (gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward 1))
16603 (gnus-summary-scroll-up arg))))
16605 (eval-after-load "gnus"
16606 #'(define-key gnus-summary-mode-map
16607 (kbd "<RET>") 'browse-nnrss-url))
16608 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-url-field)
16611 Even if you have added @code{"text/html"} to the
16612 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives} variable (@pxref{Display
16613 Customization, ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME
16614 Manual}) since you don't want to see @acronym{HTML} parts, it might be
16615 more useful especially in @code{nnrss} groups to display
16616 @samp{text/html} parts. Here's an example of setting
16617 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives} as a group parameter (@pxref{Group
16618 Parameters}) in order to display @samp{text/html} parts only in
16619 @code{nnrss} groups:
16622 ;; @r{Set the default value of @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives}.}
16623 (eval-after-load "gnus-sum"
16625 'gnus-newsgroup-variables
16626 '(mm-discouraged-alternatives
16627 . '("text/html" "image/.*"))))
16629 ;; @r{Display @samp{text/html} parts in @code{nnrss} groups.}
16632 '("\\`nnrss:" (mm-discouraged-alternatives nil)))
16636 @node Customizing W3
16637 @subsection Customizing W3
16643 Gnus uses the url library to fetch web pages and Emacs/W3 (or those
16644 alternatives) to display web pages. Emacs/W3 is documented in its own
16645 manual, but there are some things that may be more relevant for Gnus
16648 For instance, a common question is how to make Emacs/W3 follow links
16649 using the @code{browse-url} functions (which will call some external web
16650 browser like Netscape). Here's one way:
16653 (eval-after-load "w3"
16655 (fset 'w3-fetch-orig (symbol-function 'w3-fetch))
16656 (defun w3-fetch (&optional url target)
16657 (interactive (list (w3-read-url-with-default)))
16658 (if (eq major-mode 'gnus-article-mode)
16660 (w3-fetch-orig url target)))))
16663 Put that in your @file{.emacs} file, and hitting links in W3-rendered
16664 @acronym{HTML} in the Gnus article buffers will use @code{browse-url} to
16671 @cindex @acronym{IMAP}
16673 @acronym{IMAP} is a network protocol for reading mail (or news, or @dots{}),
16674 think of it as a modernized @acronym{NNTP}. Connecting to a @acronym{IMAP}
16675 server is much similar to connecting to a news server, you just
16676 specify the network address of the server.
16678 @acronym{IMAP} has two properties. First, @acronym{IMAP} can do
16679 everything that @acronym{POP} can, it can hence be viewed as a
16680 @acronym{POP++}. Secondly, @acronym{IMAP} is a mail storage protocol,
16681 similar to @acronym{NNTP} being a news storage protocol---however,
16682 @acronym{IMAP} offers more features than @acronym{NNTP} because news
16683 is more or less read-only whereas mail is read-write.
16685 If you want to use @acronym{IMAP} as a @acronym{POP++}, use an imap
16686 entry in @code{mail-sources}. With this, Gnus will fetch mails from
16687 the @acronym{IMAP} server and store them on the local disk. This is
16688 not the usage described in this section---@xref{Mail Sources}.
16690 If you want to use @acronym{IMAP} as a mail storage protocol, use an nnimap
16691 entry in @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods}. With this, Gnus will
16692 manipulate mails stored on the @acronym{IMAP} server. This is the kind of
16693 usage explained in this section.
16695 A server configuration in @file{~/.gnus.el} with a few @acronym{IMAP}
16696 servers might look something like the following. (Note that for
16697 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}, you need external programs and libraries,
16701 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
16702 '((nnimap "simpleserver") ; @r{no special configuration}
16703 ; @r{perhaps a ssh port forwarded server:}
16705 (nnimap-address "localhost")
16706 (nnimap-server-port 1430))
16707 ; @r{a UW server running on localhost}
16709 (nnimap-server-port 143)
16710 (nnimap-address "localhost")
16711 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "mail/*")))
16712 ; @r{anonymous public cyrus server:}
16713 (nnimap "cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu"
16714 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous)
16715 (nnimap-list-pattern "archive.*")
16716 (nnimap-stream network))
16717 ; @r{a ssl server on a non-standard port:}
16719 (nnimap-address "vic20.somewhere.com")
16720 (nnimap-server-port 9930)
16721 (nnimap-stream ssl))))
16724 After defining the new server, you can subscribe to groups on the
16725 server using normal Gnus commands such as @kbd{U} in the Group Buffer
16726 (@pxref{Subscription Commands}) or via the Server Buffer
16727 (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
16729 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nnimap}
16734 @item nnimap-address
16735 @vindex nnimap-address
16737 The address of the remote @acronym{IMAP} server. Defaults to the virtual
16738 server name if not specified.
16740 @item nnimap-server-port
16741 @vindex nnimap-server-port
16742 Port on server to contact. Defaults to port 143, or 993 for @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}.
16744 Note that this should be an integer, example server specification:
16747 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
16748 (nnimap-server-port 4711))
16751 @item nnimap-list-pattern
16752 @vindex nnimap-list-pattern
16753 String or list of strings of mailboxes to limit available groups to.
16754 This is used when the server has very many mailboxes and you're only
16755 interested in a few---some servers export your home directory via
16756 @acronym{IMAP}, you'll probably want to limit the mailboxes to those in
16757 @file{~/Mail/*} then.
16759 The string can also be a cons of REFERENCE and the string as above, what
16760 REFERENCE is used for is server specific, but on the University of
16761 Washington server it's a directory that will be concatenated with the
16764 Example server specification:
16767 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
16768 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "Mail/*" "alt.sex.*"
16769 ("~friend/Mail/" . "list/*"))))
16772 @item nnimap-stream
16773 @vindex nnimap-stream
16774 The type of stream used to connect to your server. By default, nnimap
16775 will detect and automatically use all of the below, with the exception
16776 of @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}. (@acronym{IMAP} over
16777 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} is being replaced by STARTTLS, which can
16778 be automatically detected, but it's not widely deployed yet.)
16780 Example server specification:
16783 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
16784 (nnimap-stream ssl))
16787 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-stream} is a symbol!
16791 @dfn{gssapi:} Connect with GSSAPI (usually Kerberos 5). Requires the
16792 @samp{gsasl} or @samp{imtest} program.
16794 @dfn{kerberos4:} Connect with Kerberos 4. Requires the @samp{imtest} program.
16796 @dfn{starttls:} Connect via the STARTTLS extension (similar to
16797 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}). Requires the external library @samp{starttls.el} and program
16800 @dfn{tls:} Connect through @acronym{TLS}. Requires GNUTLS (the program
16801 @samp{gnutls-cli}).
16803 @dfn{ssl:} Connect through @acronym{SSL}. Requires OpenSSL (the program
16804 @samp{openssl}) or SSLeay (@samp{s_client}).
16806 @dfn{shell:} Use a shell command to start @acronym{IMAP} connection.
16808 @dfn{network:} Plain, TCP/IP network connection.
16811 @vindex imap-kerberos4-program
16812 The @samp{imtest} program is shipped with Cyrus IMAPD. If you're
16813 using @samp{imtest} from Cyrus IMAPD < 2.0.14 (which includes version
16814 1.5.x and 1.6.x) you need to frob @code{imap-process-connection-type}
16815 to make @code{imap.el} use a pty instead of a pipe when communicating
16816 with @samp{imtest}. You will then suffer from a line length
16817 restrictions on @acronym{IMAP} commands, which might make Gnus seem to hang
16818 indefinitely if you have many articles in a mailbox. The variable
16819 @code{imap-kerberos4-program} contain parameters to pass to the imtest
16822 For @acronym{TLS} connection, the @code{gnutls-cli} program from GNUTLS is
16823 needed. It is available from
16824 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/}.
16826 @vindex imap-gssapi-program
16827 This parameter specifies a list of command lines that invoke a GSSAPI
16828 authenticated @acronym{IMAP} stream in a subshell. They are tried
16829 sequentially until a connection is made, or the list has been
16830 exhausted. By default, @samp{gsasl} from GNU SASL, available from
16831 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/}, and the @samp{imtest}
16832 program from Cyrus IMAPD (see @code{imap-kerberos4-program}), are
16835 @vindex imap-ssl-program
16836 For @acronym{SSL} connections, the OpenSSL program is available from
16837 @uref{http://www.openssl.org/}. OpenSSL was formerly known as SSLeay,
16838 and nnimap support it too---although the most recent versions of
16839 SSLeay, 0.9.x, are known to have serious bugs making it
16840 useless. Earlier versions, especially 0.8.x, of SSLeay are known to
16841 work. The variable @code{imap-ssl-program} contain parameters to pass
16844 @vindex imap-shell-program
16845 @vindex imap-shell-host
16846 For @acronym{IMAP} connections using the @code{shell} stream, the variable
16847 @code{imap-shell-program} specify what program to call.
16849 @item nnimap-authenticator
16850 @vindex nnimap-authenticator
16852 The authenticator used to connect to the server. By default, nnimap
16853 will use the most secure authenticator your server is capable of.
16855 Example server specification:
16858 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
16859 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous))
16862 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-authenticator} is a symbol!
16866 @dfn{gssapi:} GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5) authentication. Requires
16867 external program @code{gsasl} or @code{imtest}.
16869 @dfn{kerberos4:} Kerberos 4 authentication. Requires external program
16872 @dfn{digest-md5:} Encrypted username/password via DIGEST-MD5. Requires
16873 external library @code{digest-md5.el}.
16875 @dfn{cram-md5:} Encrypted username/password via CRAM-MD5.
16877 @dfn{login:} Plain-text username/password via LOGIN.
16879 @dfn{anonymous:} Login as ``anonymous'', supplying your email address as password.
16882 @item nnimap-expunge-on-close
16884 @vindex nnimap-expunge-on-close
16885 Unlike Parmenides the @acronym{IMAP} designers have decided things that
16886 don't exist actually do exist. More specifically, @acronym{IMAP} has
16887 this concept of marking articles @code{Deleted} which doesn't actually
16888 delete them, and this (marking them @code{Deleted}, that is) is what
16889 nnimap does when you delete an article in Gnus (with @kbd{B DEL} or
16892 Since the articles aren't really removed when we mark them with the
16893 @code{Deleted} flag we'll need a way to actually delete them. Feel like
16894 running in circles yet?
16896 Traditionally, nnimap has removed all articles marked as @code{Deleted}
16897 when closing a mailbox but this is now configurable by this server
16900 The possible options are:
16905 The default behavior, delete all articles marked as ``Deleted'' when
16908 Never actually delete articles. Currently there is no way of showing
16909 the articles marked for deletion in nnimap, but other @acronym{IMAP} clients
16910 may allow you to do this. If you ever want to run the EXPUNGE command
16911 manually, @xref{Expunging mailboxes}.
16913 When closing mailboxes, nnimap will ask if you wish to expunge deleted
16918 @item nnimap-importantize-dormant
16919 @vindex nnimap-importantize-dormant
16921 If non-@code{nil} (the default), marks dormant articles as ticked (as
16922 well), for other @acronym{IMAP} clients. Within Gnus, dormant articles will
16923 naturally still (only) be marked as dormant. This is to make dormant
16924 articles stand out, just like ticked articles, in other @acronym{IMAP}
16925 clients. (In other words, Gnus has two ``Tick'' marks and @acronym{IMAP}
16928 Probably the only reason for frobbing this would be if you're trying
16929 enable per-user persistent dormant flags, using something like:
16932 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-flag-alist)
16933 (format "gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
16934 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-predicate-alist)
16935 (format "KEYWORD gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
16938 In this case, you would not want the per-user dormant flag showing up
16939 as ticked for other users.
16941 @item nnimap-expunge-search-string
16943 @vindex nnimap-expunge-search-string
16944 @cindex expiring @acronym{IMAP} mail
16946 This variable contain the @acronym{IMAP} search command sent to server when
16947 searching for articles eligible for expiring. The default is
16948 @code{"UID %s NOT SINCE %s"}, where the first @code{%s} is replaced by
16949 UID set and the second @code{%s} is replaced by a date.
16951 Probably the only useful value to change this to is
16952 @code{"UID %s NOT SENTSINCE %s"}, which makes nnimap use the Date: in
16953 messages instead of the internal article date. See section 6.4.4 of
16954 RFC 2060 for more information on valid strings.
16956 However, if @code{nnimap-search-uids-not-since-is-evil}
16957 is true, this variable has no effect since the search logic
16958 is reversed, as described below.
16960 @item nnimap-authinfo-file
16961 @vindex nnimap-authinfo-file
16963 A file containing credentials used to log in on servers. The format is
16964 (almost) the same as the @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file. See the
16965 variable @code{nntp-authinfo-file} for exact syntax; also see
16966 @ref{NNTP}. An example of an .authinfo line for an IMAP server, is:
16969 machine students.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis port imap
16972 Note that it should be @code{port imap}, or @code{port 143}, if you
16973 use a @code{nnimap-stream} of @code{tls} or @code{ssl}, even if the
16974 actual port number used is port 993 for secured IMAP. For
16975 convenience, Gnus will accept @code{port imaps} as a synonym of
16978 @item nnimap-need-unselect-to-notice-new-mail
16979 @vindex nnimap-need-unselect-to-notice-new-mail
16981 Unselect mailboxes before looking for new mail in them. Some servers
16982 seem to need this under some circumstances; it was reported that
16985 @item nnimap-nov-is-evil
16986 @vindex nnimap-nov-is-evil
16987 @cindex Courier @acronym{IMAP} server
16988 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
16990 Never generate or use a local @acronym{NOV} database. Defaults to the
16991 value of @code{gnus-agent}.
16993 Using a @acronym{NOV} database usually makes header fetching much
16994 faster, but it uses the @code{UID SEARCH UID} command, which is very
16995 slow on some servers (notably some versions of Courier). Since the Gnus
16996 Agent caches the information in the @acronym{NOV} database without using
16997 the slow command, this variable defaults to true if the Agent is in use,
16998 and false otherwise.
17000 @item nnimap-search-uids-not-since-is-evil
17001 @vindex nnimap-search-uids-not-since-is-evil
17002 @cindex Courier @acronym{IMAP} server
17003 @cindex expiring @acronym{IMAP} mail
17005 Avoid the @code{UID SEARCH UID @var{message numbers} NOT SINCE
17006 @var{date}} command, which is slow on some @acronym{IMAP} servers
17007 (notably, some versions of Courier). Instead, use @code{UID SEARCH SINCE
17008 @var{date}} and prune the list of expirable articles within Gnus.
17010 When Gnus expires your mail (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), it starts with a
17011 list of expirable articles and asks the IMAP server questions like ``Of
17012 these articles, which ones are older than a week?'' While this seems
17013 like a perfectly reasonable question, some IMAP servers take a long time
17014 to answer it, since they seemingly go looking into every old article to
17015 see if it is one of the expirable ones. Curiously, the question ``Of
17016 @emph{all} articles, which ones are newer than a week?'' seems to be
17017 much faster to answer, so setting this variable causes Gnus to ask this
17018 question and figure out the answer to the real question itself.
17020 This problem can really sneak up on you: when you first configure Gnus,
17021 everything works fine, but once you accumulate a couple thousand
17022 messages, you start cursing Gnus for being so slow. On the other hand,
17023 if you get a lot of email within a week, setting this variable will
17024 cause a lot of network traffic between Gnus and the IMAP server.
17029 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
17030 * Expiring in IMAP:: Expiring mail with nnimap.
17031 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
17032 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a ``compress mailbox'' button.
17033 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use @acronym{IMAP} namespace in Gnus.
17034 * Debugging IMAP:: What to do when things don't work.
17039 @node Splitting in IMAP
17040 @subsection Splitting in IMAP
17041 @cindex splitting imap mail
17043 Splitting is something Gnus users have loved and used for years, and now
17044 the rest of the world is catching up. Yeah, dream on, not many
17045 @acronym{IMAP} servers have server side splitting and those that have
17046 splitting seem to use some non-standard protocol. This means that
17047 @acronym{IMAP} support for Gnus has to do its own splitting.
17051 (Incidentally, people seem to have been dreaming on, and Sieve has
17052 gaining a market share and is supported by several IMAP servers.
17053 Fortunately, Gnus support it too, @xref{Sieve Commands}.)
17055 Here are the variables of interest:
17059 @item nnimap-split-crosspost
17060 @cindex splitting, crosspost
17062 @vindex nnimap-split-crosspost
17064 If non-@code{nil}, do crossposting if several split methods match the
17065 mail. If @code{nil}, the first match in @code{nnimap-split-rule}
17066 found will be used.
17068 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-crosspost}.
17070 @item nnimap-split-inbox
17071 @cindex splitting, inbox
17073 @vindex nnimap-split-inbox
17075 A string or a list of strings that gives the name(s) of @acronym{IMAP}
17076 mailboxes to split from. Defaults to @code{nil}, which means that
17077 splitting is disabled!
17080 (setq nnimap-split-inbox
17081 '("INBOX" ("~/friend/Mail" . "lists/*") "lists.imap"))
17084 No nnmail equivalent.
17086 @item nnimap-split-rule
17087 @cindex splitting, rules
17088 @vindex nnimap-split-rule
17090 New mail found in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be split according to
17093 This variable contains a list of lists, where the first element in the
17094 sublist gives the name of the @acronym{IMAP} mailbox to move articles
17095 matching the regexp in the second element in the sublist. Got that?
17096 Neither did I, we need examples.
17099 (setq nnimap-split-rule
17101 "^Sender: owner-nnimap@@vic20.globalcom.se")
17102 ("INBOX.junk" "^Subject:.*MAKE MONEY")
17103 ("INBOX.private" "")))
17106 This will put all articles from the nnimap mailing list into mailbox
17107 INBOX.nnimap, all articles containing MAKE MONEY in the Subject: line
17108 into INBOX.junk and everything else in INBOX.private.
17110 The first string may contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by
17111 replace-match to insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For
17115 ("INBOX.lists.\\1" "^Sender: owner-\\([a-z-]+\\)@@")
17118 The first element can also be the symbol @code{junk} to indicate that
17119 matching messages should simply be deleted. Use with care.
17121 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
17122 called with the first element of the rule as the argument, in a buffer
17123 containing the headers of the article. It should return a
17124 non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the mail belongs in that group.
17126 Nnmail users might recollect that the last regexp had to be empty to
17127 match all articles (like in the example above). This is not required in
17128 nnimap. Articles not matching any of the regexps will not be moved out
17129 of your inbox. (This might affect performance if you keep lots of
17130 unread articles in your inbox, since the splitting code would go over
17131 them every time you fetch new mail.)
17133 These rules are processed from the beginning of the alist toward the
17134 end. The first rule to make a match will ``win'', unless you have
17135 crossposting enabled. In that case, all matching rules will ``win''.
17137 This variable can also have a function as its value, the function will
17138 be called with the headers narrowed and should return a group where it
17139 thinks the article should be split to. See @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
17141 The splitting code tries to create mailboxes if it needs to.
17143 To allow for different split rules on different virtual servers, and
17144 even different split rules in different inboxes on the same server,
17145 the syntax of this variable have been extended along the lines of:
17148 (setq nnimap-split-rule
17149 '(("my1server" (".*" (("ding" "ding@@gnus.org")
17150 ("junk" "From:.*Simon"))))
17151 ("my2server" ("INBOX" nnimap-split-fancy))
17152 ("my[34]server" (".*" (("private" "To:.*Simon")
17153 ("junk" my-junk-func))))))
17156 The virtual server name is in fact a regexp, so that the same rules
17157 may apply to several servers. In the example, the servers
17158 @code{my3server} and @code{my4server} both use the same rules.
17159 Similarly, the inbox string is also a regexp. The actual splitting
17160 rules are as before, either a function, or a list with group/regexp or
17161 group/function elements.
17163 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
17165 @item nnimap-split-predicate
17167 @vindex nnimap-split-predicate
17169 Mail matching this predicate in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be
17170 split, it is a string and the default is @samp{UNSEEN UNDELETED}.
17172 This might be useful if you use another @acronym{IMAP} client to read mail in
17173 your inbox but would like Gnus to split all articles in the inbox
17174 regardless of readedness. Then you might change this to
17177 @item nnimap-split-fancy
17178 @cindex splitting, fancy
17179 @findex nnimap-split-fancy
17180 @vindex nnimap-split-fancy
17182 It's possible to set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
17183 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} if you want to use fancy
17184 splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
17186 However, to be able to have different fancy split rules for nnmail and
17187 nnimap back ends you can set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
17188 @code{nnimap-split-fancy} and define the nnimap specific fancy split
17189 rule in @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
17194 (setq nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
17195 nnimap-split-fancy ...)
17198 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
17200 @item nnimap-split-download-body
17201 @findex nnimap-split-download-body
17202 @vindex nnimap-split-download-body
17204 Set to non-@code{nil} to download entire articles during splitting.
17205 This is generally not required, and will slow things down
17206 considerably. You may need it if you want to use an advanced
17207 splitting function that analyzes the body to split the article.
17211 @node Expiring in IMAP
17212 @subsection Expiring in IMAP
17213 @cindex expiring @acronym{IMAP} mail
17215 Even though @code{nnimap} is not a proper @code{nnmail} derived back
17216 end, it supports most features in regular expiring (@pxref{Expiring
17217 Mail}). Unlike splitting in @acronym{IMAP} (@pxref{Splitting in
17218 IMAP}) it does not clone the @code{nnmail} variables (i.e., creating
17219 @var{nnimap-expiry-wait}) but reuse the @code{nnmail} variables. What
17220 follows below are the variables used by the @code{nnimap} expiry
17223 A note on how the expire mark is stored on the @acronym{IMAP} server is
17224 appropriate here as well. The expire mark is translated into a
17225 @code{imap} client specific mark, @code{gnus-expire}, and stored on the
17226 message. This means that likely only Gnus will understand and treat
17227 the @code{gnus-expire} mark properly, although other clients may allow
17228 you to view client specific flags on the message. It also means that
17229 your server must support permanent storage of client specific flags on
17230 messages. Most do, fortunately.
17232 If expiring @acronym{IMAP} mail seems very slow, try setting the server
17233 variable @code{nnimap-search-uids-not-since-is-evil}.
17237 @item nnmail-expiry-wait
17238 @item nnmail-expiry-wait-function
17240 These variables are fully supported. The expire value can be a
17241 number, the symbol @code{immediate} or @code{never}.
17243 @item nnmail-expiry-target
17245 This variable is supported, and internally implemented by calling the
17246 @code{nnmail} functions that handle this. It contains an optimization
17247 that if the destination is a @acronym{IMAP} group on the same server, the
17248 article is copied instead of appended (that is, uploaded again).
17252 @node Editing IMAP ACLs
17253 @subsection Editing IMAP ACLs
17254 @cindex editing imap acls
17255 @cindex Access Control Lists
17256 @cindex Editing @acronym{IMAP} ACLs
17257 @kindex G l (Group)
17258 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-edit-acl
17260 ACL stands for Access Control List. ACLs are used in @acronym{IMAP} for
17261 limiting (or enabling) other users access to your mail boxes. Not all
17262 @acronym{IMAP} servers support this, this function will give an error if it
17265 To edit an ACL for a mailbox, type @kbd{G l}
17266 (@code{gnus-group-edit-nnimap-acl}) and you'll be presented with an ACL
17267 editing window with detailed instructions.
17269 Some possible uses:
17273 Giving ``anyone'' the ``lrs'' rights (lookup, read, keep seen/unseen flags)
17274 on your mailing list mailboxes enables other users on the same server to
17275 follow the list without subscribing to it.
17277 At least with the Cyrus server, you are required to give the user
17278 ``anyone'' posting ("p") capabilities to have ``plussing'' work (that is,
17279 mail sent to user+mailbox@@domain ending up in the @acronym{IMAP} mailbox
17283 @node Expunging mailboxes
17284 @subsection Expunging mailboxes
17288 @cindex manual expunging
17289 @kindex G x (Group)
17290 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-expunge
17292 If you're using the @code{never} setting of @code{nnimap-expunge-on-close},
17293 you may want the option of expunging all deleted articles in a mailbox
17294 manually. This is exactly what @kbd{G x} does.
17296 Currently there is no way of showing deleted articles, you can just
17299 @node A note on namespaces
17300 @subsection A note on namespaces
17301 @cindex IMAP namespace
17304 The @acronym{IMAP} protocol has a concept called namespaces, described
17305 by the following text in the RFC2060:
17308 5.1.2. Mailbox Namespace Naming Convention
17310 By convention, the first hierarchical element of any mailbox name
17311 which begins with "#" identifies the "namespace" of the remainder of
17312 the name. This makes it possible to disambiguate between different
17313 types of mailbox stores, each of which have their own namespaces.
17315 For example, implementations which offer access to USENET
17316 newsgroups MAY use the "#news" namespace to partition the USENET
17317 newsgroup namespace from that of other mailboxes. Thus, the
17318 comp.mail.misc newsgroup would have an mailbox name of
17319 "#news.comp.mail.misc", and the name "comp.mail.misc" could refer
17320 to a different object (e.g. a user's private mailbox).
17323 While there is nothing in this text that warrants concern for the
17324 @acronym{IMAP} implementation in Gnus, some servers use namespace
17325 prefixes in a way that does not work with how Gnus uses mailbox names.
17327 Specifically, University of Washington's @acronym{IMAP} server uses
17328 mailbox names like @code{#driver.mbx/read-mail} which are valid only
17329 in the @sc{create} and @sc{append} commands. After the mailbox is
17330 created (or a messages is appended to a mailbox), it must be accessed
17331 without the namespace prefix, i.e. @code{read-mail}. Since Gnus do
17332 not make it possible for the user to guarantee that user entered
17333 mailbox names will only be used with the CREATE and APPEND commands,
17334 you should simply not use the namespace prefixed mailbox names in
17337 See the UoW IMAPD documentation for the @code{#driver.*/} prefix
17338 for more information on how to use the prefixes. They are a power
17339 tool and should be used only if you are sure what the effects are.
17341 @node Debugging IMAP
17342 @subsection Debugging IMAP
17343 @cindex IMAP debugging
17344 @cindex protocol dump (IMAP)
17346 @acronym{IMAP} is a complex protocol, more so than @acronym{NNTP} or
17347 @acronym{POP3}. Implementation bugs are not unlikely, and we do our
17348 best to fix them right away. If you encounter odd behavior, chances
17349 are that either the server or Gnus is buggy.
17351 If you are familiar with network protocols in general, you will
17352 probably be able to extract some clues from the protocol dump of the
17353 exchanges between Gnus and the server. Even if you are not familiar
17354 with network protocols, when you include the protocol dump in
17355 @acronym{IMAP}-related bug reports you are helping us with data
17356 critical to solving the problem. Therefore, we strongly encourage you
17357 to include the protocol dump when reporting IMAP bugs in Gnus.
17361 Because the protocol dump, when enabled, generates lots of data, it is
17362 disabled by default. You can enable it by setting @code{imap-log} as
17369 This instructs the @code{imap.el} package to log any exchanges with
17370 the server. The log is stored in the buffer @samp{*imap-log*}. Look
17371 for error messages, which sometimes are tagged with the keyword
17372 @code{BAD}---but when submitting a bug, make sure to include all the
17375 @node Other Sources
17376 @section Other Sources
17378 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
17379 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
17383 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
17384 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
17385 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
17386 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
17387 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
17391 @node Directory Groups
17392 @subsection Directory Groups
17394 @cindex directory groups
17396 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
17397 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
17400 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
17401 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
17402 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
17403 back end to read directories. Big deal.
17405 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
17406 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
17407 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
17408 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
17409 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
17411 @code{nndir} will use @acronym{NOV} files if they are present.
17413 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' back end---you can't delete or expire
17414 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
17415 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
17416 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
17419 @node Anything Groups
17420 @subsection Anything Groups
17423 From the @code{nndir} back end (which reads a single spool-like
17424 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
17425 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
17428 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
17429 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
17430 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
17431 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're forgetting.
17432 @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it snoops each
17433 file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e., the first
17434 few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head. If this is
17435 just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g. a C source file),
17436 @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It will use
17437 file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
17440 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
17441 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
17442 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
17443 in the article buffer, just as usual.
17445 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
17446 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
17447 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
17448 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
17450 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
17451 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
17452 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
17453 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
17454 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
17455 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
17456 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
17457 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
17462 @item nneething-map-file-directory
17463 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
17464 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
17465 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
17467 @item nneething-exclude-files
17468 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
17469 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
17470 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
17472 @item nneething-include-files
17473 @vindex nneething-include-files
17474 Regexp saying what files to include in the group. If this variable is
17475 non-@code{nil}, only files matching this regexp will be included.
17477 @item nneething-map-file
17478 @vindex nneething-map-file
17479 Name of the map files.
17483 @node Document Groups
17484 @subsection Document Groups
17486 @cindex documentation group
17489 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
17490 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
17496 The Babyl (Rmail) mail box.
17501 The standard Unix mbox file.
17503 @cindex MMDF mail box
17505 The MMDF mail box format.
17508 Several news articles appended into a file.
17510 @cindex rnews batch files
17512 The rnews batch transport format.
17515 Netscape mail boxes.
17518 @acronym{MIME} multipart messages.
17520 @item standard-digest
17521 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
17524 A @acronym{MIME} digest of messages.
17526 @item lanl-gov-announce
17527 Announcement messages from LANL Gov Announce.
17529 @cindex forwarded messages
17530 @item rfc822-forward
17531 A message forwarded according to RFC822.
17534 The Outlook mail box.
17537 The Outlook Express dbx mail box.
17540 A bounce message from the Exim MTA.
17543 A message forwarded according to informal rules.
17546 An RFC934-forwarded message.
17552 A digest of Clarinet brief news items.
17555 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
17561 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
17562 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
17563 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
17566 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
17567 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
17568 group. And that's it.
17570 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
17571 new & spiffy Gnus mail back end, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
17572 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
17573 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
17574 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
17575 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
17576 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
17577 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
17578 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
17579 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
17581 Virtual server variables:
17584 @item nndoc-article-type
17585 @vindex nndoc-article-type
17586 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
17587 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
17588 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts}, @code{standard-digest},
17589 @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs}, @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook},
17590 @code{oe-dbx}, @code{mailman}, and @code{mail-in-mail} or @code{guess}.
17592 @item nndoc-post-type
17593 @vindex nndoc-post-type
17594 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
17595 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
17600 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
17604 @node Document Server Internals
17605 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
17607 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
17608 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
17609 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
17610 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
17612 First, here's an example document type definition:
17616 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
17617 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
17620 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
17621 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
17622 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
17623 types can be defined with very few settings:
17626 @item first-article
17627 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
17628 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
17631 @item article-begin
17632 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
17633 says what the beginning of each article looks like. To do more
17634 complicated things that cannot be dealt with a simple regexp, you can
17635 use @code{article-begin-function} instead of this.
17637 @item article-begin-function
17638 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the beginning
17639 of each article. This setting overrides @code{article-begin}.
17642 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
17643 article. To do more complicated things that cannot be dealt with a
17644 simple regexp, you can use @code{head-begin-function} instead of this.
17646 @item head-begin-function
17647 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
17648 the article. This setting overrides @code{head-begin}.
17651 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
17652 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
17655 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
17656 to @samp{^\n}. To do more complicated things that cannot be dealt with
17657 a simple regexp, you can use @code{body-begin-function} instead of this.
17659 @item body-begin-function
17660 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
17661 of the article. This setting overrides @code{body-begin}.
17664 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article. To do
17665 more complicated things that cannot be dealt with a simple regexp, you
17666 can use @code{body-end-function} instead of this.
17668 @item body-end-function
17669 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
17670 the article. This setting overrides @code{body-end}.
17673 If present, this should match the beginning of the file. All text
17674 before this regexp will be totally ignored.
17677 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
17678 regexp will be totally ignored.
17682 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
17683 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
17684 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
17685 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
17686 something that's palatable for Gnus:
17689 @item prepare-body-function
17690 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
17691 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
17692 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
17694 @item article-transform-function
17695 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
17696 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
17697 body of the article.
17699 @item generate-head-function
17700 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
17701 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
17702 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
17703 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
17705 @item generate-article-function
17706 If present, this function is called to generate an entire article that
17707 Gnus can understand. It is called with the article number as a
17708 parameter when requesting all articles.
17710 @item dissection-function
17711 If present, this function is called to dissect a document by itself,
17712 overriding @code{first-article}, @code{article-begin},
17713 @code{article-begin-function}, @code{head-begin},
17714 @code{head-begin-function}, @code{head-end}, @code{body-begin},
17715 @code{body-begin-function}, @code{body-end}, @code{body-end-function},
17716 @code{file-begin}, and @code{file-end}.
17720 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
17725 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
17726 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
17727 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
17728 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
17729 (head-end . "^ ?$")
17730 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
17731 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
17732 (subtype digest guess))
17735 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
17736 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
17737 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
17738 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
17739 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
17741 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
17742 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first
17743 is the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says
17744 where in the document type definition alist to put this definition.
17745 The alist is traversed sequentially, and
17746 @code{nndoc-@var{type}-type-p} is called for a given type @var{type}.
17747 So @code{nndoc-mmdf-type-p} is called to see whether a document is of
17748 @code{mmdf} type, and so on. These type predicates should return
17749 @code{nil} if the document is not of the correct type; @code{t} if it
17750 is of the correct type; and a number if the document might be of the
17751 correct type. A high number means high probability; a low number
17752 means low probability with @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
17760 In the PC world people often talk about ``offline'' newsreaders. These
17761 are thingies that are combined reader/news transport monstrosities.
17762 With built-in modem programs. Yecchh!
17764 Of course, us Unix Weenie types of human beans use things like
17765 @code{uucp} and, like, @code{nntpd} and set up proper news and mail
17766 transport things like Ghod intended. And then we just use normal
17769 However, it can sometimes be convenient to do something that's a bit
17770 easier on the brain if you have a very slow modem, and you're not really
17771 that interested in doing things properly.
17773 A file format called @sc{soup} has been developed for transporting news
17774 and mail from servers to home machines and back again. It can be a bit
17777 First some terminology:
17782 This is the machine that is connected to the outside world and where you
17783 get news and/or mail from.
17786 This is the machine that you want to do the actual reading and responding
17787 on. It is typically not connected to the rest of the world in any way.
17790 Something that contains messages and/or commands. There are two kinds
17794 @item message packets
17795 These are packets made at the server, and typically contain lots of
17796 messages for you to read. These are called @file{SoupoutX.tgz} by
17797 default, where @var{x} is a number.
17799 @item response packets
17800 These are packets made at the home machine, and typically contains
17801 replies that you've written. These are called @file{SoupinX.tgz} by
17802 default, where @var{x} is a number.
17812 You log in on the server and create a @sc{soup} packet. You can either
17813 use a dedicated @sc{soup} thingie (like the @code{awk} program), or you
17814 can use Gnus to create the packet with its @sc{soup} commands (@kbd{O
17815 s} and/or @kbd{G s b}; and then @kbd{G s p}) (@pxref{SOUP Commands}).
17818 You transfer the packet home. Rail, boat, car or modem will do fine.
17821 You put the packet in your home directory.
17824 You fire up Gnus on your home machine using the @code{nnsoup} back end as
17825 the native or secondary server.
17828 You read articles and mail and answer and followup to the things you
17829 want (@pxref{SOUP Replies}).
17832 You do the @kbd{G s r} command to pack these replies into a @sc{soup}
17836 You transfer this packet to the server.
17839 You use Gnus to mail this packet out with the @kbd{G s s} command.
17842 You then repeat until you die.
17846 So you basically have a bipartite system---you use @code{nnsoup} for
17847 reading and Gnus for packing/sending these @sc{soup} packets.
17850 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
17851 * SOUP Groups:: A back end for reading @sc{soup} packets.
17852 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
17856 @node SOUP Commands
17857 @subsubsection SOUP Commands
17859 These are commands for creating and manipulating @sc{soup} packets.
17863 @kindex G s b (Group)
17864 @findex gnus-group-brew-soup
17865 Pack all unread articles in the current group
17866 (@code{gnus-group-brew-soup}). This command understands the
17867 process/prefix convention.
17870 @kindex G s w (Group)
17871 @findex gnus-soup-save-areas
17872 Save all @sc{soup} data files (@code{gnus-soup-save-areas}).
17875 @kindex G s s (Group)
17876 @findex gnus-soup-send-replies
17877 Send all replies from the replies packet
17878 (@code{gnus-soup-send-replies}).
17881 @kindex G s p (Group)
17882 @findex gnus-soup-pack-packet
17883 Pack all files into a @sc{soup} packet (@code{gnus-soup-pack-packet}).
17886 @kindex G s r (Group)
17887 @findex nnsoup-pack-replies
17888 Pack all replies into a replies packet (@code{nnsoup-pack-replies}).
17891 @kindex O s (Summary)
17892 @findex gnus-soup-add-article
17893 This summary-mode command adds the current article to a @sc{soup} packet
17894 (@code{gnus-soup-add-article}). It understands the process/prefix
17895 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
17900 There are a few variables to customize where Gnus will put all these
17905 @item gnus-soup-directory
17906 @vindex gnus-soup-directory
17907 Directory where Gnus will save intermediate files while composing
17908 @sc{soup} packets. The default is @file{~/SoupBrew/}.
17910 @item gnus-soup-replies-directory
17911 @vindex gnus-soup-replies-directory
17912 This is what Gnus will use as a temporary directory while sending our
17913 reply packets. @file{~/SoupBrew/SoupReplies/} is the default.
17915 @item gnus-soup-prefix-file
17916 @vindex gnus-soup-prefix-file
17917 Name of the file where Gnus stores the last used prefix. The default is
17918 @samp{gnus-prefix}.
17920 @item gnus-soup-packer
17921 @vindex gnus-soup-packer
17922 A format string command for packing a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
17923 @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupout%d.tgz}.
17925 @item gnus-soup-unpacker
17926 @vindex gnus-soup-unpacker
17927 Format string command for unpacking a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
17928 @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
17930 @item gnus-soup-packet-directory
17931 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-directory
17932 Where Gnus will look for reply packets. The default is @file{~/}.
17934 @item gnus-soup-packet-regexp
17935 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-regexp
17936 Regular expression matching @sc{soup} reply packets in
17937 @code{gnus-soup-packet-directory}.
17943 @subsubsection SOUP Groups
17946 @code{nnsoup} is the back end for reading @sc{soup} packets. It will
17947 read incoming packets, unpack them, and put them in a directory where
17948 you can read them at leisure.
17950 These are the variables you can use to customize its behavior:
17954 @item nnsoup-tmp-directory
17955 @vindex nnsoup-tmp-directory
17956 When @code{nnsoup} unpacks a @sc{soup} packet, it does it in this
17957 directory. (@file{/tmp/} by default.)
17959 @item nnsoup-directory
17960 @vindex nnsoup-directory
17961 @code{nnsoup} then moves each message and index file to this directory.
17962 The default is @file{~/SOUP/}.
17964 @item nnsoup-replies-directory
17965 @vindex nnsoup-replies-directory
17966 All replies will be stored in this directory before being packed into a
17967 reply packet. The default is @file{~/SOUP/replies/}.
17969 @item nnsoup-replies-format-type
17970 @vindex nnsoup-replies-format-type
17971 The @sc{soup} format of the replies packets. The default is @samp{?n}
17972 (rnews), and I don't think you should touch that variable. I probably
17973 shouldn't even have documented it. Drats! Too late!
17975 @item nnsoup-replies-index-type
17976 @vindex nnsoup-replies-index-type
17977 The index type of the replies packet. The default is @samp{?n}, which
17978 means ``none''. Don't fiddle with this one either!
17980 @item nnsoup-active-file
17981 @vindex nnsoup-active-file
17982 Where @code{nnsoup} stores lots of information. This is not an ``active
17983 file'' in the @code{nntp} sense; it's an Emacs Lisp file. If you lose
17984 this file or mess it up in any way, you're dead. The default is
17985 @file{~/SOUP/active}.
17987 @item nnsoup-packer
17988 @vindex nnsoup-packer
17989 Format string command for packing a reply @sc{soup} packet. The default
17990 is @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupin%d.tgz}.
17992 @item nnsoup-unpacker
17993 @vindex nnsoup-unpacker
17994 Format string command for unpacking incoming @sc{soup} packets. The
17995 default is @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
17997 @item nnsoup-packet-directory
17998 @vindex nnsoup-packet-directory
17999 Where @code{nnsoup} will look for incoming packets. The default is
18002 @item nnsoup-packet-regexp
18003 @vindex nnsoup-packet-regexp
18004 Regular expression matching incoming @sc{soup} packets. The default is
18007 @item nnsoup-always-save
18008 @vindex nnsoup-always-save
18009 If non-@code{nil}, save the replies buffer after each posted message.
18015 @subsubsection SOUP Replies
18017 Just using @code{nnsoup} won't mean that your postings and mailings end
18018 up in @sc{soup} reply packets automagically. You have to work a bit
18019 more for that to happen.
18021 @findex nnsoup-set-variables
18022 The @code{nnsoup-set-variables} command will set the appropriate
18023 variables to ensure that all your followups and replies end up in the
18026 In specific, this is what it does:
18029 (setq message-send-news-function 'nnsoup-request-post)
18030 (setq message-send-mail-function 'nnsoup-request-mail)
18033 And that's it, really. If you only want news to go into the @sc{soup}
18034 system you just use the first line. If you only want mail to be
18035 @sc{soup}ed you use the second.
18038 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
18039 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
18040 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
18043 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
18044 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
18045 The @code{nngateway} back end provides the interface.
18047 Note that you can't read anything from this back end---it can only be
18053 @item nngateway-address
18054 @vindex nngateway-address
18055 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
18057 @item nngateway-header-transformation
18058 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
18059 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
18060 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
18061 transformation should be called, and defaults to
18062 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
18063 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
18066 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
18067 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
18068 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
18071 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
18074 will get this @code{To} header inserted:
18077 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
18080 The following pre-defined functions exist:
18082 @findex nngateway-simple-header-transformation
18085 @item nngateway-simple-header-transformation
18086 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
18087 @var{newsgroup}@@@code{nngateway-address}.
18089 @findex nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
18091 @item nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
18092 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
18093 @code{nngateway-address}.
18101 (setq gnus-post-method
18103 "mail2news@@replay.com"
18104 (nngateway-header-transformation
18105 nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation)))
18108 So, to use this, simply say something like:
18111 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
18116 @node Combined Groups
18117 @section Combined Groups
18119 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
18123 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
18124 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
18128 @node Virtual Groups
18129 @subsection Virtual Groups
18131 @cindex virtual groups
18132 @cindex merging groups
18134 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
18137 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
18138 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
18139 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
18141 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
18142 regexp to match component groups.
18144 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
18145 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
18146 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it
18147 came. (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be
18148 shown in the virtual group.). To create an empty virtual group, run
18149 @kbd{G V} (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}) in the group buffer
18150 and edit the method regexp with @kbd{M-e}
18151 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method})
18153 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
18154 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
18157 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
18160 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
18161 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
18163 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
18164 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
18165 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
18166 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
18169 "^nntp\\+server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
18172 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
18173 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
18174 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
18176 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
18177 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
18178 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
18179 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
18180 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
18182 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
18183 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
18184 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
18186 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
18187 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} variable is non-@code{nil} (which
18188 is the default), @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread
18189 articles when entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil}
18190 and you read articles in a component group after the virtual group has
18191 been activated, the read articles from the component group will show up
18192 when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this effect if you
18193 have two virtual groups that have a component group in common. If
18194 that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}. Or you can
18195 just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before you enter
18196 it---it'll have much the same effect.
18198 @code{nnvirtual} can have both mail and news groups as component groups.
18199 When responding to articles in @code{nnvirtual} groups, @code{nnvirtual}
18200 has to ask the back end of the component group the article comes from
18201 whether it is a news or mail back end. However, when you do a @kbd{^},
18202 there is typically no sure way for the component back end to know this,
18203 and in that case @code{nnvirtual} tells Gnus that the article came from a
18204 not-news back end. (Just to be on the safe side.)
18206 @kbd{C-c C-n} in the message buffer will insert the @code{Newsgroups}
18207 line from the article you respond to in these cases.
18209 @code{nnvirtual} groups do not inherit anything but articles and marks
18210 from component groups---group parameters, for instance, are not
18214 @node Kibozed Groups
18215 @subsection Kibozed Groups
18219 @dfn{Kibozing} is defined by the @acronym{OED} as ``grepping through
18220 (parts of) the news feed''. @code{nnkiboze} is a back end that will
18221 do this for you. Oh joy! Now you can grind any @acronym{NNTP} server
18222 down to a halt with useless requests! Oh happiness!
18224 @kindex G k (Group)
18225 To create a kibozed group, use the @kbd{G k} command in the group
18228 The address field of the @code{nnkiboze} method is, as with
18229 @code{nnvirtual}, a regexp to match groups to be ``included'' in the
18230 @code{nnkiboze} group. That's where most similarities between
18231 @code{nnkiboze} and @code{nnvirtual} end.
18233 In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an
18234 @code{nnkiboze} group must have a score file to say what articles are
18235 to be included in the group (@pxref{Scoring}).
18237 @kindex M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups
18238 @findex nnkiboze-generate-groups
18239 You must run @kbd{M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups} after creating the
18240 @code{nnkiboze} groups you want to have. This command will take time.
18241 Lots of time. Oodles and oodles of time. Gnus has to fetch the
18242 headers from all the articles in all the component groups and run them
18243 through the scoring process to determine if there are any articles in
18244 the groups that are to be part of the @code{nnkiboze} groups.
18246 Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
18247 regexps. Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
18248 @acronym{NNTP} site may throw you off and never let you back in again.
18249 Stranger things have happened.
18251 @code{nnkiboze} component groups do not have to be alive---they can be dead,
18252 and they can be foreign. No restrictions.
18254 @vindex nnkiboze-directory
18255 The generation of an @code{nnkiboze} group means writing two files in
18256 @code{nnkiboze-directory}, which is @file{~/News/kiboze/} by default.
18257 One contains the @acronym{NOV} header lines for all the articles in
18258 the group, and the other is an additional @file{.newsrc} file to store
18259 information on what groups have been searched through to find
18260 component articles.
18262 Articles marked as read in the @code{nnkiboze} group will have
18263 their @acronym{NOV} lines removed from the @acronym{NOV} file.
18266 @node Email Based Diary
18267 @section Email Based Diary
18269 @cindex email based diary
18272 This section describes a special mail back end called @code{nndiary},
18273 and its companion library @code{gnus-diary}. It is ``special'' in the
18274 sense that it is not meant to be one of the standard alternatives for
18275 reading mail with Gnus. See @ref{Choosing a Mail Back End} for that.
18276 Instead, it is used to treat @emph{some} of your mails in a special way,
18277 namely, as event reminders.
18279 Here is a typical scenario:
18283 You've got a date with Andy Mc Dowell or Bruce Willis (select according
18284 to your sexual preference) in one month. You don't want to forget it.
18286 So you send a ``reminder'' message (actually, a diary one) to yourself.
18288 You forget all about it and keep on getting and reading new mail, as usual.
18290 From time to time, as you type `g' in the group buffer and as the date
18291 is getting closer, the message will pop up again to remind you of your
18292 appointment, just as if it were new and unread.
18294 Read your ``new'' messages, this one included, and start dreaming again
18295 of the night you're gonna have.
18297 Once the date is over (you actually fell asleep just after dinner), the
18298 message will be automatically deleted if it is marked as expirable.
18301 The Gnus Diary back end has the ability to handle regular appointments
18302 (that wouldn't ever be deleted) as well as punctual ones, operates as a
18303 real mail back end and is configurable in many ways. All of this is
18304 explained in the sections below.
18307 * The NNDiary Back End:: Basic setup and usage.
18308 * The Gnus Diary Library:: Utility toolkit on top of nndiary.
18309 * Sending or Not Sending:: A final note on sending diary messages.
18313 @node The NNDiary Back End
18314 @subsection The NNDiary Back End
18316 @cindex the nndiary back end
18318 @code{nndiary} is a back end very similar to @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail
18319 Spool}). Actually, it could appear as a mix of @code{nnml} and
18320 @code{nndraft}. If you know @code{nnml}, you're already familiar with
18321 the message storing scheme of @code{nndiary}: one file per message, one
18322 directory per group.
18324 Before anything, there is one requirement to be able to run
18325 @code{nndiary} properly: you @emph{must} use the group timestamp feature
18326 of Gnus. This adds a timestamp to each group's parameters. @ref{Group
18327 Timestamp} to see how it's done.
18330 * Diary Messages:: What makes a message valid for nndiary.
18331 * Running NNDiary:: NNDiary has two modes of operation.
18332 * Customizing NNDiary:: Bells and whistles.
18335 @node Diary Messages
18336 @subsubsection Diary Messages
18337 @cindex nndiary messages
18338 @cindex nndiary mails
18340 @code{nndiary} messages are just normal ones, except for the mandatory
18341 presence of 7 special headers. These headers are of the form
18342 @code{X-Diary-<something>}, @code{<something>} being one of
18343 @code{Minute}, @code{Hour}, @code{Dom}, @code{Month}, @code{Year},
18344 @code{Time-Zone} and @code{Dow}. @code{Dom} means ``Day of Month'', and
18345 @code{dow} means ``Day of Week''. These headers actually behave like
18346 crontab specifications and define the event date(s):
18350 For all headers except the @code{Time-Zone} one, a header value is
18351 either a star (meaning all possible values), or a list of fields
18352 (separated by a comma).
18354 A field is either an integer, or a range.
18356 A range is two integers separated by a dash.
18358 Possible integer values are 0--59 for @code{Minute}, 0--23 for
18359 @code{Hour}, 1--31 for @code{Dom}, 1--12 for @code{Month}, above 1971
18360 for @code{Year} and 0--6 for @code{Dow} (0 meaning Sunday).
18362 As a special case, a star in either @code{Dom} or @code{Dow} doesn't
18363 mean ``all possible values'', but ``use only the other field''. Note
18364 that if both are star'ed, the use of either one gives the same result.
18366 The @code{Time-Zone} header is special in that it can only have one
18367 value (@code{GMT}, for instance). A star doesn't mean ``all possible
18368 values'' (because it makes no sense), but ``the current local time
18369 zone''. Most of the time, you'll be using a star here. However, for a
18370 list of available time zone values, see the variable
18371 @code{nndiary-headers}.
18374 As a concrete example, here are the diary headers to add to your message
18375 for specifying ``Each Monday and each 1st of month, at 12:00, 20:00,
18376 21:00, 22:00, 23:00 and 24:00, from 1999 to 2010'' (I'll let you find
18381 X-Diary-Hour: 12, 20-24
18384 X-Diary-Year: 1999-2010
18386 X-Diary-Time-Zone: *
18389 @node Running NNDiary
18390 @subsubsection Running NNDiary
18391 @cindex running nndiary
18392 @cindex nndiary operation modes
18394 @code{nndiary} has two modes of operation: ``traditional'' (the default)
18395 and ``autonomous''. In traditional mode, @code{nndiary} does not get new
18396 mail by itself. You have to move (@kbd{B m}) or copy (@kbd{B c}) mails
18397 from your primary mail back end to nndiary groups in order to handle them
18398 as diary messages. In autonomous mode, @code{nndiary} retrieves its own
18399 mail and handles it independently from your primary mail back end.
18401 One should note that Gnus is not inherently designed to allow several
18402 ``master'' mail back ends at the same time. However, this does make
18403 sense with @code{nndiary}: you really want to send and receive diary
18404 messages to your diary groups directly. So, @code{nndiary} supports
18405 being sort of a ``second primary mail back end'' (to my knowledge, it is
18406 the only back end offering this feature). However, there is a limitation
18407 (which I hope to fix some day): respooling doesn't work in autonomous
18410 In order to use @code{nndiary} in autonomous mode, you have several
18415 Allow @code{nndiary} to retrieve new mail by itself. Put the following
18416 line in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
18419 (setq nndiary-get-new-mail t)
18422 You must arrange for diary messages (those containing @code{X-Diary-*}
18423 headers) to be split in a private folder @emph{before} Gnus treat them.
18424 Again, this is needed because Gnus cannot (yet ?) properly handle
18425 multiple primary mail back ends. Getting those messages from a separate
18426 source will compensate this misfeature to some extent.
18428 As an example, here's my procmailrc entry to store diary files in
18429 @file{~/.nndiary} (the default @code{nndiary} mail source file):
18438 Once this is done, you might want to customize the following two options
18439 that affect the diary mail retrieval and splitting processes:
18441 @defvar nndiary-mail-sources
18442 This is the diary-specific replacement for the standard
18443 @code{mail-sources} variable. It obeys the same syntax, and defaults to
18444 @code{(file :path "~/.nndiary")}.
18447 @defvar nndiary-split-methods
18448 This is the diary-specific replacement for the standard
18449 @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable. It obeys the same syntax.
18452 Finally, you may add a permanent @code{nndiary} virtual server
18453 (something like @code{(nndiary "diary")} should do) to your
18454 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods}.
18456 Hopefully, almost everything (see the TODO section in
18457 @file{nndiary.el}) will work as expected when you restart Gnus: in
18458 autonomous mode, typing @kbd{g} and @kbd{M-g} in the group buffer, will
18459 also get your new diary mails and split them according to your
18460 diary-specific rules, @kbd{F} will find your new diary groups etc.
18462 @node Customizing NNDiary
18463 @subsubsection Customizing NNDiary
18464 @cindex customizing nndiary
18465 @cindex nndiary customization
18467 Now that @code{nndiary} is up and running, it's time to customize it.
18468 The custom group is called @code{nndiary} (no, really ?!). You should
18469 browse it to figure out which options you'd like to tweak. The following
18470 two variables are probably the only ones you will want to change:
18472 @defvar nndiary-reminders
18473 This is the list of times when you want to be reminded of your
18474 appointements (e.g. 3 weeks before, then 2 days before, then 1 hour
18475 before and that's it). Remember that ``being reminded'' means that the
18476 diary message will pop up as brand new and unread again when you get new
18480 @defvar nndiary-week-starts-on-monday
18481 Rather self-explanatory. Otherwise, Sunday is assumed (this is the
18486 @node The Gnus Diary Library
18487 @subsection The Gnus Diary Library
18489 @cindex the gnus diary library
18491 Using @code{nndiary} manually (I mean, writing the headers by hand and
18492 so on) would be rather boring. Fortunately, there is a library called
18493 @code{gnus-diary} written on top of @code{nndiary}, that does many
18494 useful things for you.
18496 In order to use it, add the following line to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
18499 (require 'gnus-diary)
18502 Also, you shouldn't use any @code{gnus-user-format-function-[d|D]}
18503 (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}). @code{gnus-diary} provides both of these
18504 (sorry if you used them before).
18508 * Diary Summary Line Format:: A nicer summary buffer line format.
18509 * Diary Articles Sorting:: A nicer way to sort messages.
18510 * Diary Headers Generation:: Not doing it manually.
18511 * Diary Group Parameters:: Not handling them manually.
18514 @node Diary Summary Line Format
18515 @subsubsection Diary Summary Line Format
18516 @cindex diary summary buffer line
18517 @cindex diary summary line format
18519 Displaying diary messages in standard summary line format (usually
18520 something like @samp{From Joe: Subject}) is pretty useless. Most of
18521 the time, you're the one who wrote the message, and you mostly want to
18522 see the event's date.
18524 @code{gnus-diary} provides two supplemental user formats to be used in
18525 summary line formats. @code{D} corresponds to a formatted time string
18526 for the next occurrence of the event (e.g. ``Sat, Sep 22 01, 12:00''),
18527 while @code{d} corresponds to an approximative remaining time until the
18528 next occurrence of the event (e.g. ``in 6 months, 1 week'').
18530 For example, here's how Joe's birthday is displayed in my
18531 @code{nndiary+diary:birthdays} summary buffer (note that the message is
18532 expirable, but will never be deleted, as it specifies a periodic event):
18535 E Sat, Sep 22 01, 12:00: Joe's birthday (in 6 months, 1 week)
18538 In order to get something like the above, you would normally add the
18539 following line to your diary groups'parameters:
18542 (gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z %uD: %(%s%) (%ud)\n")
18545 However, @code{gnus-diary} does it automatically (@pxref{Diary Group
18546 Parameters}). You can however customize the provided summary line format
18547 with the following user options:
18549 @defvar gnus-diary-summary-line-format
18550 Defines the summary line format used for diary groups (@pxref{Summary
18551 Buffer Lines}). @code{gnus-diary} uses it to automatically update the
18552 diary groups'parameters.
18555 @defvar gnus-diary-time-format
18556 Defines the format to display dates in diary summary buffers. This is
18557 used by the @code{D} user format. See the docstring for details.
18560 @defvar gnus-diary-delay-format-function
18561 Defines the format function to use for displaying delays (remaining
18562 times) in diary summary buffers. This is used by the @code{d} user
18563 format. There are currently built-in functions for English and French;
18564 you can also define your own. See the docstring for details.
18567 @node Diary Articles Sorting
18568 @subsubsection Diary Articles Sorting
18569 @cindex diary articles sorting
18570 @cindex diary summary lines sorting
18571 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule
18572 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-schedule
18573 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-schedule
18575 @code{gnus-diary} provides new sorting functions (@pxref{Sorting the
18576 Summary Buffer} ) called @code{gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule},
18577 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-schedule} and
18578 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-schedule}. These functions let you organize
18579 your diary summary buffers from the closest event to the farthest one.
18581 @code{gnus-diary} automatically installs
18582 @code{gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule} as a menu item in the summary
18583 buffer's ``sort'' menu, and the two others as the primary (hence
18584 default) sorting functions in the group parameters (@pxref{Diary Group
18587 @node Diary Headers Generation
18588 @subsubsection Diary Headers Generation
18589 @cindex diary headers generation
18590 @findex gnus-diary-check-message
18592 @code{gnus-diary} provides a function called
18593 @code{gnus-diary-check-message} to help you handle the @code{X-Diary-*}
18594 headers. This function ensures that the current message contains all the
18595 required diary headers, and prompts you for values or corrections if
18598 This function is hooked into the @code{nndiary} back end, so that
18599 moving or copying an article to a diary group will trigger it
18600 automatically. It is also bound to @kbd{C-c D c} in @code{message-mode}
18601 and @code{article-edit-mode} in order to ease the process of converting
18602 a usual mail to a diary one.
18604 This function takes a prefix argument which will force prompting of
18605 all diary headers, regardless of their presence or validity. That way,
18606 you can very easily reschedule an already valid diary message, for
18609 @node Diary Group Parameters
18610 @subsubsection Diary Group Parameters
18611 @cindex diary group parameters
18613 When you create a new diary group, or visit one, @code{gnus-diary}
18614 automatically checks your group parameters and if needed, sets the
18615 summary line format to the diary-specific value, installs the
18616 diary-specific sorting functions, and also adds the different
18617 @code{X-Diary-*} headers to the group's posting-style. It is then easier
18618 to send a diary message, because if you use @kbd{C-u a} or @kbd{C-u m}
18619 on a diary group to prepare a message, these headers will be inserted
18620 automatically (although not filled with proper values yet).
18622 @node Sending or Not Sending
18623 @subsection Sending or Not Sending
18625 Well, assuming you've read of of the above, here are two final notes on
18626 mail sending with @code{nndiary}:
18630 @code{nndiary} is a @emph{real} mail back end. You really send real diary
18631 messsages for real. This means for instance that you can give
18632 appointements to anybody (provided they use Gnus and @code{nndiary}) by
18633 sending the diary message to them as well.
18635 However, since @code{nndiary} also has a @code{request-post} method, you
18636 can also use @kbd{C-u a} instead of @kbd{C-u m} on a diary group and the
18637 message won't actually be sent; just stored locally in the group. This
18638 comes in very handy for private appointments.
18641 @node Gnus Unplugged
18642 @section Gnus Unplugged
18647 @cindex Gnus unplugged
18649 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
18650 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
18651 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
18652 read news. Believe it or not.
18654 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
18655 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
18656 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
18657 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
18658 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
18660 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
18661 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
18662 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
18663 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
18664 reading news on a machine.
18666 Setting up Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple. In
18667 fact, you don't have to configure anything as the agent is now enabled
18668 by default (@pxref{Agent Variables, gnus-agent}).
18670 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
18673 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
18674 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
18675 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
18676 * Agent Visuals:: Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
18677 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
18678 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
18679 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
18680 * Agent and flags:: How the Agent maintains flags.
18681 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with @acronym{IMAP}.
18682 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
18683 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
18684 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
18685 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
18686 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
18691 @subsection Agent Basics
18693 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
18695 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
18696 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
18697 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
18698 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
18700 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
18701 connected to the net continuously.
18703 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
18704 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
18706 You know that Gnus gives you all the opportunity you'd ever want for
18707 shooting yourself in the foot. Some people call it flexibility. Gnus
18708 is also customizable to a great extent, which means that the user has a
18709 say on how Gnus behaves. Other newsreaders might unconditionally shoot
18710 you in your foot, but with Gnus, you have a choice!
18712 Gnus is never really in plugged or unplugged state. Rather, it applies
18713 that state to each server individually. This means that some servers
18714 can be plugged while others can be unplugged. Additionally, some
18715 servers can be ignored by the Agent altogether (which means that
18716 they're kinda like plugged always).
18718 So when you unplug the Agent and then wonder why is Gnus opening a
18719 connection to the Net, the next step to do is to look whether all
18720 servers are agentized. If there is an unagentized server, you found
18723 Another thing is the @dfn{offline} state. Sometimes, servers aren't
18724 reachable. When Gnus notices this, it asks you whether you want the
18725 server to be switched to offline state. If you say yes, then the
18726 server will behave somewhat as if it was unplugged, except that Gnus
18727 will ask you whether you want to switch it back online again.
18729 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
18734 @findex gnus-unplugged
18735 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
18736 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
18737 already fetched while in this mode.
18740 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
18741 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
18742 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged} and use @kbd{g} to check for new mail
18743 as usual. To check for new mail in unplugged mode (@pxref{Mail
18744 Source Specifiers}).
18747 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the
18748 news onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press
18749 @kbd{g} to check if there are any new news and then @kbd{J s} to fetch
18750 all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus know which
18751 articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}).
18754 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
18755 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
18756 then you read the news offline.
18759 And then you go to step 2.
18762 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
18768 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
18769 back end, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
18770 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
18771 @kbd{J a} on the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
18772 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}), or @kbd{J r} on automatically
18773 added servers you do not wish to have covered by the Agent. By default,
18774 all @code{nntp} and @code{nnimap} servers in @code{gnus-select-method} and
18775 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} are agentized.
18778 Decide on download policy. It's fairly simple once you decide whether
18779 you are going to use agent categories, topic parameters, and/or group
18780 parameters to implement your policy. If you're new to gnus, it
18781 is probably best to start with a category, @xref{Agent Categories}.
18783 Both topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) and agent categories
18784 (@pxref{Agent Categories}) provide for setting a policy that applies
18785 to multiple groups. Which you use is entirely up to you. Topic
18786 parameters do override categories so, if you mix the two, you'll have
18787 to take that into account. If you have a few groups that deviate from
18788 your policy, you can use group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to
18792 Uhm@dots{} that's it.
18796 @node Agent Categories
18797 @subsection Agent Categories
18799 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
18800 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
18801 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
18802 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
18803 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
18804 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
18805 you're interested in the articles anyway.
18807 One of the more effective methods for controlling what is to be
18808 downloaded is to create a @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all)
18809 groups to this category. Groups that do not belong in any other
18810 category belong to the @code{default} category. Gnus has its own
18811 buffer for creating and managing categories.
18813 If you prefer, you can also use group parameters (@pxref{Group
18814 Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) for an
18815 alternative approach to controlling the agent. The only real
18816 difference is that categories are specific to the agent (so there is
18817 less to learn) while group and topic parameters include the kitchen
18820 Since you can set agent parameters in several different places we have
18821 a rule to decide which source to believe. This rule specifies that
18822 the parameter sources are checked in the following order: group
18823 parameters, topic parameters, agent category, and finally customizable
18824 variables. So you can mix all of these sources to produce a wide range
18825 of behavior, just don't blame me if you don't remember where you put
18829 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
18830 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
18831 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
18835 @node Category Syntax
18836 @subsubsection Category Syntax
18838 A category consists of a name, the list of groups belonging to the
18839 category, and a number of optional parameters that override the
18840 customizable variables. The complete list of agent parameters are
18843 @cindex Agent Parameters
18846 The list of groups that are in this category.
18848 @item agent-predicate
18849 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
18850 are eligible for downloading; and
18853 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
18854 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
18855 score} is not necessarily related to normal scores.)
18857 @item agent-enable-expiration
18858 a boolean indicating whether the agent should expire old articles in
18859 this group. Most groups should be expired to conserve disk space. In
18860 fact, its probably safe to say that the gnus.* hierarchy contains the
18861 only groups that should not be expired.
18863 @item agent-days-until-old
18864 an integer indicating the number of days that the agent should wait
18865 before deciding that a read article is safe to expire.
18867 @item agent-low-score
18868 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-low-score}.
18870 @item agent-high-score
18871 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-high-score}.
18873 @item agent-short-article
18874 an integer that overrides the value of
18875 @code{gnus-agent-short-article}.
18877 @item agent-long-article
18878 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-long-article}.
18880 @item agent-enable-undownloaded-faces
18881 a symbol indicating whether the summary buffer should display
18882 undownloaded articles using the @code{gnus-summary-*-undownloaded-face}
18883 faces. Any symbol other than @code{nil} will enable the use of
18884 undownloaded faces.
18887 The name of a category can not be changed once the category has been
18890 Each category maintains a list of groups that are exclusive members of
18891 that category. The exclusivity rule is automatically enforced, add a
18892 group to a new category and it is automatically removed from its old
18895 A predicate in its simplest form can be a single predicate such as
18896 @code{true} or @code{false}. These two will download every available
18897 article or nothing respectively. In the case of these two special
18898 predicates an additional score rule is superfluous.
18900 Predicates of @code{high} or @code{low} download articles in respect of
18901 their scores in relationship to @code{gnus-agent-high-score} and
18902 @code{gnus-agent-low-score} as described below.
18904 To gain even finer control of what is to be regarded eligible for
18905 download a predicate can consist of a number of predicates with logical
18906 operators sprinkled in between.
18908 Perhaps some examples are in order.
18910 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
18911 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
18917 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
18918 short (for some value of ``short'').
18920 Here's a more complex predicate:
18929 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
18930 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
18933 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
18934 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
18935 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
18937 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
18938 you want to do, you can write your own.
18940 When evaluating each of these predicates, the named constant will be
18941 bound to the value determined by calling
18942 @code{gnus-agent-find-parameter} on the appropriate parameter. For
18943 example, gnus-agent-short-article will be bound to
18944 @code{(gnus-agent-find-parameter group 'agent-short-article)}. This
18945 means that you can specify a predicate in your category then tune that
18946 predicate to individual groups.
18950 True iff the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
18951 lines; default 100.
18954 True iff the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
18955 lines; default 200.
18958 True iff the article has a download score less than
18959 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
18962 True iff the article has a download score greater than
18963 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
18966 True iff the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
18967 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
18968 checksum and sees whether articles match.
18977 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
18978 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
18979 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
18982 For example, you could decide that you don't want to download articles
18983 that were posted more than a certain number of days ago (e.g. posted
18984 more than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} ago) you might write a function
18985 something along the lines of the following:
18988 (defun my-article-old-p ()
18989 "Say whether an article is old."
18990 (< (time-to-days (date-to-time (mail-header-date gnus-headers)))
18991 (- (time-to-days (current-time)) gnus-agent-expire-days)))
18994 with the predicate then defined as:
18997 (not my-article-old-p)
19000 or you could append your predicate to the predefined
19001 @code{gnus-category-predicate-alist} in your @file{~/.gnus.el} or
19005 (require 'gnus-agent)
19006 (setq gnus-category-predicate-alist
19007 (append gnus-category-predicate-alist
19008 '((old . my-article-old-p))))
19011 and simply specify your predicate as:
19017 If/when using something like the above, be aware that there are many
19018 misconfigured systems/mailers out there and so an article's date is not
19019 always a reliable indication of when it was posted. Hell, some people
19020 just don't give a damn.
19022 The above predicates apply to @emph{all} the groups which belong to the
19023 category. However, if you wish to have a specific predicate for an
19024 individual group within a category, or you're just too lazy to set up a
19025 new category, you can enter a group's individual predicate in its group
19026 parameters like so:
19029 (agent-predicate . short)
19032 This is the group/topic parameter equivalent of the agent category default.
19033 Note that when specifying a single word predicate like this, the
19034 @code{agent-predicate} specification must be in dotted pair notation.
19036 The equivalent of the longer example from above would be:
19039 (agent-predicate or high (and (not low) (not long)))
19042 The outer parenthesis required in the category specification are not
19043 entered here as, not being in dotted pair notation, the value of the
19044 predicate is assumed to be a list.
19047 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
19048 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
19049 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
19050 following headers can be scored on: @code{Subject}, @code{From},
19051 @code{Date}, @code{Message-ID}, @code{References}, @code{Chars},
19052 @code{Lines}, and @code{Xref}.
19054 As with predicates, the specification of the @code{download score rule}
19055 to use in respect of a group can be in either the category definition if
19056 it's to be applicable to all groups in therein, or a group's parameters
19057 if it's to be specific to that group.
19059 In both of these places the @code{download score rule} can take one of
19066 This has the same syntax as a normal Gnus score file except only a
19067 subset of scoring keywords are available as mentioned above.
19073 Category specification
19077 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
19083 Group/Topic Parameter specification
19086 (agent-score ("from"
19087 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
19092 Again, note the omission of the outermost parenthesis here.
19098 These score files must @emph{only} contain the permitted scoring
19099 keywords stated above.
19105 Category specification
19108 ("~/News/agent.SCORE")
19114 ("~/News/agent.SCORE" "~/News/agent.group.SCORE")
19118 Group Parameter specification
19121 (agent-score "~/News/agent.SCORE")
19124 Additional score files can be specified as above. Need I say anything
19129 Use @code{normal} score files
19131 If you don't want to maintain two sets of scoring rules for a group, and
19132 your desired @code{downloading} criteria for a group are the same as your
19133 @code{reading} criteria then you can tell the agent to refer to your
19134 @code{normal} score files when deciding what to download.
19136 These directives in either the category definition or a group's
19137 parameters will cause the agent to read in all the applicable score
19138 files for a group, @emph{filtering out} those sections that do not
19139 relate to one of the permitted subset of scoring keywords.
19143 Category Specification
19150 Group Parameter specification
19153 (agent-score . file)
19158 @node Category Buffer
19159 @subsubsection Category Buffer
19161 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
19162 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
19163 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
19165 The following commands are available in this buffer:
19169 @kindex q (Category)
19170 @findex gnus-category-exit
19171 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
19174 @kindex e (Category)
19175 @findex gnus-category-customize-category
19176 Use a customization buffer to set all of the selected category's
19177 parameters at one time (@code{gnus-category-customize-category}).
19180 @kindex k (Category)
19181 @findex gnus-category-kill
19182 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
19185 @kindex c (Category)
19186 @findex gnus-category-copy
19187 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
19190 @kindex a (Category)
19191 @findex gnus-category-add
19192 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
19195 @kindex p (Category)
19196 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
19197 Edit the predicate of the current category
19198 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
19201 @kindex g (Category)
19202 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
19203 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
19204 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
19207 @kindex s (Category)
19208 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
19209 Edit the download score rule of the current category
19210 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
19213 @kindex l (Category)
19214 @findex gnus-category-list
19215 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
19219 @node Category Variables
19220 @subsubsection Category Variables
19223 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
19224 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
19225 Hook run in category buffers.
19227 @item gnus-category-line-format
19228 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
19229 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
19230 Variables}). Valid elements are:
19234 The name of the category.
19237 The number of groups in the category.
19240 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
19241 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
19242 Format of the category mode line (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}).
19244 @item gnus-agent-short-article
19245 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
19246 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
19248 @item gnus-agent-long-article
19249 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
19250 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
19252 @item gnus-agent-low-score
19253 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
19254 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
19257 @item gnus-agent-high-score
19258 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
19259 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
19262 @item gnus-agent-expire-days
19263 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
19264 The number of days that a @samp{read} article must stay in the agent's
19265 local disk before becoming eligible for expiration (While the name is
19266 the same, this doesn't mean expiring the article on the server. It
19267 just means deleting the local copy of the article). What is also
19268 important to understand is that the counter starts with the time the
19269 article was written to the local disk and not the time the article was
19273 @item gnus-agent-enable-expiration
19274 @vindex gnus-agent-enable-expiration
19275 Determines whether articles in a group are, by default, expired or
19276 retained indefinitely. The default is @code{ENABLE} which means that
19277 you'll have to disable expiration when desired. On the other hand,
19278 you could set this to @code{DISABLE}. In that case, you would then
19279 have to enable expiration in selected groups.
19284 @node Agent Commands
19285 @subsection Agent Commands
19286 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-plugged
19287 @kindex J j (Agent)
19289 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
19290 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged}) command works in all modes, and
19291 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
19295 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
19296 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
19297 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
19303 @node Group Agent Commands
19304 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
19308 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
19309 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
19310 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
19311 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
19314 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
19315 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
19316 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
19319 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
19320 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
19321 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
19322 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
19325 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
19326 @findex gnus-group-send-queue
19327 Send all sendable messages in the queue group
19328 (@code{gnus-group-send-queue}). @xref{Drafts}.
19331 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
19332 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
19333 Add the current group to an Agent category
19334 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}). This command understands the
19335 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
19338 @kindex J r (Agent Group)
19339 @findex gnus-agent-remove-group
19340 Remove the current group from its category, if any
19341 (@code{gnus-agent-remove-group}). This command understands the
19342 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
19345 @kindex J Y (Agent Group)
19346 @findex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
19347 Synchronize flags changed while unplugged with remote server, if any.
19353 @node Summary Agent Commands
19354 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
19358 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
19359 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
19360 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
19363 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
19364 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
19365 Remove the downloading mark from the article
19366 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
19370 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
19371 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
19372 Toggle whether to download the article
19373 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}). The download mark is @samp{%} by
19377 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
19378 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
19379 Mark all articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}) that are neither cached, downloaded, nor downloadable.
19382 @kindex J S (Agent Summary)
19383 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-group
19384 Download all eligible (@pxref{Agent Categories}) articles in this group.
19385 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-group}).
19388 @kindex J s (Agent Summary)
19389 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-series
19390 Download all processable articles in this group.
19391 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-series}).
19394 @kindex J u (Agent Summary)
19395 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group
19396 Download all downloadable articles in the current group
19397 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group}).
19402 @node Server Agent Commands
19403 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
19407 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
19408 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
19409 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
19410 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
19413 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
19414 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
19415 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
19416 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
19421 @node Agent Visuals
19422 @subsection Agent Visuals
19424 If you open a summary while unplugged and, Gnus knows from the group's
19425 active range that there are more articles than the headers currently
19426 stored in the Agent, you may see some articles whose subject looks
19427 something like @samp{[Undownloaded article #####]}. These are
19428 placeholders for the missing headers. Aside from setting a mark,
19429 there is not much that can be done with one of these placeholders.
19430 When Gnus finally gets a chance to fetch the group's headers, the
19431 placeholders will automatically be replaced by the actual headers.
19432 You can configure the summary buffer's maneuvering to skip over the
19433 placeholders if you care (See @code{gnus-auto-goto-ignores}).
19435 While it may be obvious to all, the only headers and articles
19436 available while unplugged are those headers and articles that were
19437 fetched into the Agent while previously plugged. To put it another
19438 way, ``If you forget to fetch something while plugged, you might have a
19439 less than satisfying unplugged session''. For this reason, the Agent
19440 adds two visual effects to your summary buffer. These effects display
19441 the download status of each article so that you always know which
19442 articles will be available when unplugged.
19444 The first visual effect is the @samp{%O} spec. If you customize
19445 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} to include this specifier, you will add
19446 a single character field that indicates an article's download status.
19447 Articles that have been fetched into either the Agent or the Cache,
19448 will display @code{gnus-downloaded-mark} (defaults to @samp{+}). All
19449 other articles will display @code{gnus-undownloaded-mark} (defaults to
19450 @samp{-}). If you open a group that has not been agentized, a space
19451 (@samp{ }) will be displayed.
19453 The second visual effect are the undownloaded faces. The faces, there
19454 are three indicating the article's score (low, normal, high), seem to
19455 result in a love/hate response from many Gnus users. The problem is
19456 that the face selection is controlled by a list of condition tests and
19457 face names (See @code{gnus-summary-highlight}). Each condition is
19458 tested in the order in which it appears in the list so early
19459 conditions have precedence over later conditions. All of this means
19460 that, if you tick an undownloaded article, the article will continue
19461 to be displayed in the undownloaded face rather than the ticked face.
19463 If you use the Agent as a cache (to avoid downloading the same article
19464 each time you visit it or to minimize your connection time), the
19465 undownloaded face will probably seem like a good idea. The reason
19466 being that you do all of our work (marking, reading, deleting) with
19467 downloaded articles so the normal faces always appear. For those
19468 users using the agent to improve online performance by caching the NOV
19469 database (most users since 5.10.2), the undownloaded faces may appear
19470 to be an absolutely horrible idea. The issue being that, since none
19471 of their articles have been fetched into the Agent, all of the
19472 normal faces will be obscured by the undownloaded faces.
19474 If you would like to use the undownloaded faces, you must enable the
19475 undownloaded faces by setting the @code{agent-enable-undownloaded-faces}
19476 group parameter to @code{t}. This parameter, like all other agent
19477 parameters, may be set on an Agent Category (@pxref{Agent Categories}),
19478 a Group Topic (@pxref{Topic Parameters}), or an individual group
19479 (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
19481 The one problem common to all users using the agent is how quickly it
19482 can consume disk space. If you using the agent on many groups, it is
19483 even more difficult to effectively recover disk space. One solution
19484 is the @samp{%F} format available in @code{gnus-group-line-format}.
19485 This format will display the actual disk space used by articles
19486 fetched into both the agent and cache. By knowing which groups use
19487 the most space, users know where to focus their efforts when ``agent
19488 expiring'' articles.
19490 @node Agent as Cache
19491 @subsection Agent as Cache
19493 When Gnus is plugged, it is not efficient to download headers or
19494 articles from the server again, if they are already stored in the
19495 Agent. So, Gnus normally only downloads headers once, and stores them
19496 in the Agent. These headers are later used when generating the summary
19497 buffer, regardless of whether you are plugged or unplugged. Articles
19498 are not cached in the Agent by default though (that would potentially
19499 consume lots of disk space), but if you have already downloaded an
19500 article into the Agent, Gnus will not download the article from the
19501 server again but use the locally stored copy instead.
19503 If you so desire, you can configure the agent (see @code{gnus-agent-cache}
19504 @pxref{Agent Variables}) to always download headers and articles while
19505 plugged. Gnus will almost certainly be slower, but it will be kept
19506 synchronized with the server. That last point probably won't make any
19507 sense if you are using a nntp or nnimap back end.
19510 @subsection Agent Expiry
19512 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
19513 @findex gnus-agent-expire
19514 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire
19515 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire-group
19516 @findex gnus-agent-expire-group
19517 @cindex agent expiry
19518 @cindex Gnus agent expiry
19519 @cindex expiry, in Gnus agent
19521 The Agent back end, @code{nnagent}, doesn't handle expiry. Well, at
19522 least it doesn't handle it like other back ends. Instead, there are
19523 special @code{gnus-agent-expire} and @code{gnus-agent-expire-group}
19524 commands that will expire all read articles that are older than
19525 @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} days. They can be run whenever you feel
19526 that you're running out of space. Neither are particularly fast or
19527 efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to interrupt them (with
19528 @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started one of them.
19530 Note that other functions, e.g. @code{gnus-request-expire-articles},
19531 might run @code{gnus-agent-expire} for you to keep the agent
19532 synchronized with the group.
19534 The agent parameter @code{agent-enable-expiration} may be used to
19535 prevent expiration in selected groups.
19537 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
19538 If @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, the agent
19539 expiration commands will expire all articles---unread, read, ticked
19540 and dormant. If @code{nil} (which is the default), only read articles
19541 are eligible for expiry, and unread, ticked and dormant articles will
19542 be kept indefinitely.
19544 If you find that some articles eligible for expiry are never expired,
19545 perhaps some Gnus Agent files are corrupted. There's are special
19546 commands, @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} and
19547 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group}, to fix possible problems.
19549 @node Agent Regeneration
19550 @subsection Agent Regeneration
19552 @cindex agent regeneration
19553 @cindex Gnus agent regeneration
19554 @cindex regeneration
19556 The local data structures used by @code{nnagent} may become corrupted
19557 due to certain exceptional conditions. When this happens,
19558 @code{nnagent} functionality may degrade or even fail. The solution
19559 to this problem is to repair the local data structures by removing all
19560 internal inconsistencies.
19562 For example, if your connection to your server is lost while
19563 downloaded articles into the agent, the local data structures will not
19564 know about articles successfully downloaded prior to the connection
19565 failure. Running @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} or
19566 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} will update the data structures
19567 such that you don't need to download these articles a second time.
19569 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate
19570 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate
19571 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} will perform
19572 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} on every agentized group. While
19573 you can run @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} in any buffer, it is strongly
19574 recommended that you first close all summary buffers.
19576 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate-group
19577 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate-group
19578 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} uses the local copies
19579 of individual articles to repair the local @acronym{NOV}(header) database. It
19580 then updates the internal data structures that document which articles
19581 are stored locally. An optional argument will mark articles in the
19584 @node Agent and flags
19585 @subsection Agent and flags
19587 The Agent works with any Gnus back end including those, such as
19588 nnimap, that store flags (read, ticked, etc) on the server. Sadly,
19589 the Agent does not actually know which backends keep their flags in
19590 the backend server rather than in @file{.newsrc}. This means that the
19591 Agent, while unplugged or disconnected, will always record all changes
19592 to the flags in its own files.
19594 When you plug back in, Gnus will then check to see if you have any
19595 changed any flags and ask if you wish to synchronize these with the
19596 server. This behavior is customizable by @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags}.
19598 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
19599 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
19600 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, which is
19601 the default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so
19602 ask if you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has
19603 any other value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
19605 If you do not wish to synchronize flags automatically when you
19606 re-connect, you can do it manually with the
19607 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} command that is bound to @kbd{J Y}
19608 in the group buffer.
19610 Technical note: the synchronization algorithm does not work by ``pushing''
19611 all local flags to the server, but rather by incrementally updated the
19612 server view of flags by changing only those flags that were changed by
19613 the user. Thus, if you set one flag on an article, quit the group then
19614 re-select the group and remove the flag; the flag will be set and
19615 removed from the server when you ``synchronize''. The queued flag
19616 operations can be found in the per-server @code{flags} file in the Agent
19617 directory. It's emptied when you synchronize flags.
19619 @node Agent and IMAP
19620 @subsection Agent and IMAP
19622 The Agent works with any Gnus back end, including nnimap. However,
19623 since there are some conceptual differences between @acronym{NNTP} and
19624 @acronym{IMAP}, this section (should) provide you with some information to
19625 make Gnus Agent work smoother as a @acronym{IMAP} Disconnected Mode client.
19627 Some things are currently not implemented in the Agent that you'd might
19628 expect from a disconnected @acronym{IMAP} client, including:
19633 Copying/moving articles into nnimap groups when unplugged.
19636 Creating/deleting nnimap groups when unplugged.
19640 @node Outgoing Messages
19641 @subsection Outgoing Messages
19643 By default, when Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail
19644 and news) are stored in the draft group ``queue'' (@pxref{Drafts}).
19645 You can view them there after posting, and edit them at will.
19647 You can control the circumstances under which outgoing mail is queued
19648 (see @code{gnus-agent-queue-mail}, @pxref{Agent Variables}). Outgoing
19649 news is always queued when Gnus is unplugged, and never otherwise.
19651 You can send the messages either from the draft group with the special
19652 commands available there, or you can use the @kbd{J S} command in the
19653 group buffer to send all the sendable messages in the draft group.
19654 Posting news will only work when Gnus is plugged, but you can send
19657 If sending mail while unplugged does not work for you and you worry
19658 about hitting @kbd{J S} by accident when unplugged, you can have Gnus
19659 ask you to confirm your action (see
19660 @code{gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue}, @pxref{Agent Variables}).
19662 @node Agent Variables
19663 @subsection Agent Variables
19668 Is the agent enabled? The default is @code{t}. When first enabled,
19669 the agent will use @code{gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods} to
19670 automatically mark some back ends as agentized. You may change which
19671 back ends are agentized using the agent commands in the server buffer.
19673 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
19674 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
19677 @item gnus-agent-directory
19678 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
19679 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
19680 @file{~/News/agent/}.
19682 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
19683 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
19684 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
19685 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
19686 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
19689 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
19690 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
19691 Hook run when connecting to the network.
19693 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
19694 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
19695 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
19697 @item gnus-agent-fetched-hook
19698 @vindex gnus-agent-fetched-hook
19699 Hook run when finished fetching articles.
19701 @item gnus-agent-cache
19702 @vindex gnus-agent-cache
19703 Variable to control whether use the locally stored @acronym{NOV} and
19704 articles when plugged, e.g. essentially using the Agent as a cache.
19705 The default is non-@code{nil}, which means to use the Agent as a cache.
19707 @item gnus-agent-go-online
19708 @vindex gnus-agent-go-online
19709 If @code{gnus-agent-go-online} is @code{nil}, the Agent will never
19710 automatically switch offline servers into online status. If it is
19711 @code{ask}, the default, the Agent will ask if you wish to switch
19712 offline servers into online status when you re-connect. If it has any
19713 other value, all offline servers will be automatically switched into
19716 @item gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
19717 @vindex gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
19718 If @code{gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded} is non-@code{nil},
19719 mark articles as unread after downloading. This is usually a safe
19720 thing to do as the newly downloaded article has obviously not been
19721 read. The default is @code{t}.
19723 @item gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
19724 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
19725 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
19726 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, which is
19727 the default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so
19728 ask if you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has
19729 any other value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
19731 @item gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
19732 @vindex gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
19733 If @code{gnus-agent-consider-all-articles} is non-@code{nil}, the
19734 agent will let the agent predicate decide whether articles need to be
19735 downloaded or not, for all articles. When @code{nil}, the default,
19736 the agent will only let the predicate decide whether unread articles
19737 are downloaded or not. If you enable this, you may also want to look
19738 into the agent expiry settings (@pxref{Category Variables}), so that
19739 the agent doesn't download articles which the agent will later expire,
19740 over and over again.
19742 @item gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
19743 @vindex gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
19744 The agent fetches articles into a temporary buffer prior to parsing
19745 them into individual files. To avoid exceeding the max. buffer size,
19746 the agent alternates between fetching and parsing until all articles
19747 have been fetched. @code{gnus-agent-max-fetch-size} provides a size
19748 limit to control how often the cycling occurs. A large value improves
19749 performance. A small value minimizes the time lost should the
19750 connection be lost while fetching (You may need to run
19751 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} to update the group's state.
19752 However, all articles parsed prior to loosing the connection will be
19753 available while unplugged). The default is 10M so it is unusual to
19756 @item gnus-server-unopen-status
19757 @vindex gnus-server-unopen-status
19758 Perhaps not an Agent variable, but closely related to the Agent, this
19759 variable says what will happen if Gnus cannot open a server. If the
19760 Agent is enabled, the default, @code{nil}, makes Gnus ask the user
19761 whether to deny the server or whether to unplug the agent. If the
19762 Agent is disabled, Gnus always simply deny the server. Other choices
19763 for this variable include @code{denied} and @code{offline} the latter
19764 is only valid if the Agent is used.
19766 @item gnus-auto-goto-ignores
19767 @vindex gnus-auto-goto-ignores
19768 Another variable that isn't an Agent variable, yet so closely related
19769 that most will look for it here, this variable tells the summary
19770 buffer how to maneuver around undownloaded (only headers stored in the
19771 agent) and unfetched (neither article nor headers stored) articles.
19773 The valid values are @code{nil} (maneuver to any article),
19774 @code{undownloaded} (maneuvering while unplugged ignores articles that
19775 have not been fetched), @code{always-undownloaded} (maneuvering always
19776 ignores articles that have not been fetched), @code{unfetched}
19777 (maneuvering ignores articles whose headers have not been fetched).
19779 @item gnus-agent-queue-mail
19780 @vindex gnus-agent-queue-mail
19781 When @code{gnus-agent-queue-mail} is @code{always}, Gnus will always
19782 queue mail rather than sending it straight away. When @code{t}, Gnus
19783 will queue mail when unplugged only. When @code{nil}, never queue
19784 mail. The default is @code{t}.
19786 @item gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue
19787 @vindex gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue
19788 When @code{gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue} is non-@code{nil} Gnus will
19789 prompt you to confirm that you really wish to proceed if you hit
19790 @kbd{J S} while unplugged. The default is @code{nil}.
19792 @item gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods
19793 @vindex gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods
19794 If you have never used the Agent before (or more technically, if
19795 @file{~/News/agent/lib/servers} does not exist), Gnus will
19796 automatically agentize a few servers for you. This variable control
19797 which back ends should be auto-agentized. It is typically only useful
19798 to agentize remote back ends. The auto-agentizing has the same effect
19799 as running @kbd{J a} on the servers (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}).
19800 If the file exist, you must manage the servers manually by adding or
19801 removing them, this variable is only applicable the first time you
19802 start Gnus. The default is @samp{(nntp nnimap)}.
19807 @node Example Setup
19808 @subsection Example Setup
19810 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
19811 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
19812 @file{~/.gnus.el} file to get started.
19815 ;; @r{Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over @acronym{NNTP}}
19816 ;; @r{from your ISP's server.}
19817 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.your-isp.com"))
19819 ;; @r{Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from}
19820 ;; @r{your ISP's @acronym{POP} server.}
19821 (setq mail-sources '((pop :server "pop.your-isp.com")))
19823 ;; @r{Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.}
19824 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
19826 ;; @r{Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.}
19827 ;; (gnus-agentize) ; @r{The obsolete setting.}
19828 ;; (setq gnus-agent t) ; @r{Now the default.}
19831 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
19832 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
19835 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
19836 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
19837 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
19838 @acronym{NNTP} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
19839 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
19842 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
19843 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
19844 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
19845 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
19846 back all the killed groups.)
19848 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
19849 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
19850 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
19853 @node Batching Agents
19854 @subsection Batching Agents
19855 @findex gnus-agent-batch
19857 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
19858 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
19859 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
19861 You can run a complete batch command from the command line with the
19862 following incantation:
19866 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null 2>&1
19870 @node Agent Caveats
19871 @subsection Agent Caveats
19873 The Gnus Agent doesn't seem to work like most other offline
19874 newsreaders. Here are some common questions that some imaginary people
19878 @item If I read an article while plugged, do they get entered into the Agent?
19880 @strong{No}. If you want this behavior, add
19881 @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} to
19882 @code{gnus-select-article-hook}.
19884 @item If I read an article while plugged, and the article already exists in
19885 the Agent, will it get downloaded once more?
19887 @strong{No}, unless @code{gnus-agent-cache} is @code{nil}.
19891 In short, when Gnus is unplugged, it only looks into the locally stored
19892 articles; when it's plugged, it talks to your ISP and may also use the
19893 locally stored articles.
19900 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
19901 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
19902 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
19905 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
19906 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
19907 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
19908 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
19909 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
19911 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
19912 before generating the summary buffer.
19914 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
19915 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
19916 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
19918 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
19919 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
19920 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
19921 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
19924 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
19925 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
19926 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
19927 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
19928 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
19929 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
19930 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
19931 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
19932 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
19933 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
19934 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
19935 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
19936 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
19937 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
19938 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
19939 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
19943 @node Summary Score Commands
19944 @section Summary Score Commands
19945 @cindex score commands
19947 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
19948 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
19949 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
19950 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
19951 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
19953 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
19954 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
19955 some other score file (e.g. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
19956 score file the current one.
19958 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
19963 @kindex V s (Summary)
19964 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
19965 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
19968 @kindex V S (Summary)
19969 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
19970 Display the score of the current article
19971 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
19974 @kindex V t (Summary)
19975 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
19976 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
19977 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}). In the @code{*Score Trace*} buffer, you
19978 may type @kbd{e} to edit score file corresponding to the score rule on
19979 current line and @kbd{f} to format (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) the
19980 score file and edit it.
19983 @kindex V w (Summary)
19984 @findex gnus-score-find-favourite-words
19985 List words used in scoring (@code{gnus-score-find-favourite-words}).
19988 @kindex V R (Summary)
19989 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
19990 Run the current summary through the scoring process
19991 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
19992 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
19993 effect you're having.
19996 @kindex V c (Summary)
19997 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
19998 Make a different score file the current
19999 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
20002 @kindex V e (Summary)
20003 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
20004 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
20005 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
20009 @kindex V f (Summary)
20010 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
20011 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
20012 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
20015 @kindex V F (Summary)
20016 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
20017 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
20018 after editing score files.
20021 @kindex V C (Summary)
20022 @findex gnus-score-customize
20023 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
20024 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
20028 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
20033 @kindex V m (Summary)
20034 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
20035 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
20036 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
20039 @kindex V x (Summary)
20040 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
20041 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
20042 expunge all articles below this score
20043 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
20046 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
20047 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
20050 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
20051 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
20055 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
20056 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
20058 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
20059 keys are available:
20063 Score on the author name.
20066 Score on the subject line.
20069 Score on the @code{Xref} line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
20072 Score on the @code{References} line.
20078 Score on the number of lines.
20081 Score on the @code{Message-ID} header.
20084 Score on an ``extra'' header, that is, one of those in gnus-extra-headers,
20085 if your @acronym{NNTP} server tracks additional header data in overviews.
20088 Score on followups---this matches the author name, and adds scores to
20089 the followups to this author. (Using this key leads to the creation of
20090 @file{ADAPT} files.)
20099 Score on thread. (Using this key leads to the creation of @file{ADAPT}
20105 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
20106 what headers you are scoring on.
20118 Substring matching.
20121 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
20150 Greater than number.
20155 The fourth and usually final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e.,
20156 expiring) score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry,
20157 or whether it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score
20162 Temporary score entry.
20165 Permanent score entry.
20168 Immediately scoring.
20172 If you are scoring on `e' (extra) headers, you will then be prompted for
20173 the header name on which you wish to score. This must be a header named
20174 in gnus-extra-headers, and @samp{TAB} completion is available.
20178 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
20179 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
20180 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
20181 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
20183 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
20184 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
20185 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
20186 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
20187 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
20189 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
20190 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
20191 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
20192 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
20193 current score file.
20195 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
20196 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
20197 pretend they are keymaps or not.
20200 @node Group Score Commands
20201 @section Group Score Commands
20202 @cindex group score commands
20204 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
20209 @kindex W e (Group)
20210 @findex gnus-score-edit-all-score
20211 Edit the apply-to-all-groups all.SCORE file. You will be popped into
20212 a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score File Editing}).
20215 @kindex W f (Group)
20216 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
20217 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
20218 all the time. This command will flush the cache
20219 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
20223 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
20225 @findex gnus-batch-score
20226 @cindex batch scoring
20228 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-batch-score
20232 @node Score Variables
20233 @section Score Variables
20234 @cindex score variables
20238 @item gnus-use-scoring
20239 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
20240 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
20241 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
20243 @item gnus-kill-killed
20244 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
20245 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
20246 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
20247 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
20248 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
20249 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
20250 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
20252 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
20253 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
20254 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
20255 initialized from the @env{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
20256 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
20258 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
20259 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
20260 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
20261 (@file{SCORE} by default.)
20263 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
20264 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
20265 @cindex score cache
20266 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
20267 score files. However, if this might make your Emacs grow big and
20268 bloated, so this regexp can be used to weed out score files unlikely
20269 to be needed again. It would be a bad idea to deny caching of
20270 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
20271 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
20272 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
20275 @item gnus-save-score
20276 @vindex gnus-save-score
20277 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
20278 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
20279 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
20281 If you do not set this to @code{t}, then manual scores (like those set
20282 with @kbd{V s} (@code{gnus-summary-set-score})) will not be preserved
20283 across group visits.
20285 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
20286 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
20287 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
20288 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
20289 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
20290 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
20291 manually entered data.
20293 @item gnus-summary-default-score
20294 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
20295 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
20297 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
20298 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
20299 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
20300 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
20301 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
20302 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
20304 @item gnus-score-over-mark
20305 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
20306 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
20307 default. Default is @samp{+}.
20309 @item gnus-score-below-mark
20310 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
20311 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
20312 default. Default is @samp{-}.
20314 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
20315 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
20316 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
20317 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
20319 Predefined functions available are:
20322 @item gnus-score-find-single
20323 @findex gnus-score-find-single
20324 Only apply the group's own score file.
20326 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
20327 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
20328 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
20329 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
20330 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
20331 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
20332 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
20333 then a regexp match is done.
20335 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
20336 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
20338 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
20339 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
20340 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
20341 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
20343 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
20344 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
20345 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
20346 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
20347 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE} for each
20351 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all
20352 these functions will be called with the group name as argument, and
20353 all the returned lists of score files will be applied. These
20354 functions can also return lists of lists of score alists directly. In
20355 that case, the functions that return these non-file score alists
20356 should probably be placed before the ``real'' score file functions, to
20357 ensure that the last score file returned is the local score file.
20360 For example, to do hierarchical scoring but use a non-server-specific
20361 overall score file, you could use the value
20363 (list (lambda (group) ("all.SCORE"))
20364 'gnus-score-find-hierarchical)
20367 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
20368 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
20369 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
20370 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
20371 are expired. It's 7 by default.
20373 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
20374 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
20375 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, temporary score entries that have
20376 been triggered (matched) will have their dates updated. (This is how Gnus
20377 controls expiry---all non-matched-entries will become too old while
20378 matched entries will stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this
20379 variable to @code{nil}, even matched entries will grow old and will
20380 have to face that oh-so grim reaper.
20382 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
20383 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
20384 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
20386 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
20387 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
20388 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be
20389 simplified for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
20390 threading---according to the current value of
20391 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions}. If the scoring entry uses
20392 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
20393 simplified in this manner.
20398 @node Score File Format
20399 @section Score File Format
20400 @cindex score file format
20402 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
20403 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
20404 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
20406 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
20410 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
20412 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
20414 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
20416 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
20421 (mark-and-expunge -10)
20425 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
20426 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
20427 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
20428 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
20432 This example demonstrates most score file elements. @xref{Advanced
20433 Scoring}, for a different approach.
20435 Even though this looks much like Lisp code, nothing here is actually
20436 @code{eval}ed. The Lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
20437 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
20439 Six keys are supported by this alist:
20444 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
20445 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
20446 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
20447 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
20448 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
20449 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
20450 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
20451 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
20452 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
20453 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
20454 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
20455 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
20456 to articles that matches these score entries.
20458 Following this key is an arbitrary number of score entries, where each
20459 score entry has one to four elements.
20463 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
20464 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
20468 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
20469 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
20470 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
20471 is successful. If this element is not present, the
20472 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
20473 instead. This is 1000 by default.
20476 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
20477 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
20478 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
20479 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
20480 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
20483 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
20484 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
20485 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
20486 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
20489 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
20490 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
20491 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
20492 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
20493 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
20494 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
20495 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
20496 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
20497 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
20498 instead, if you feel like.
20501 Just as for the standard string overview headers, if you are using
20502 gnus-extra-headers, you can score on these headers' values. In this
20503 case, there is a 5th element in the score entry, being the name of the
20504 header to be scored. The following entry is useful in your
20505 @file{all.SCORE} file in case of spam attacks from a single origin
20506 host, if your @acronym{NNTP} server tracks @samp{NNTP-Posting-Host} in
20510 ("111.222.333.444" -1000 nil s
20511 "NNTP-Posting-Host")
20515 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
20516 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
20518 These predicates are true if
20521 (PREDICATE HEADER MATCH)
20524 evaluates to non-@code{nil}. For instance, the advanced match
20525 @code{("lines" 4 <)} (@pxref{Advanced Scoring}) will result in the
20532 Or to put it another way: When using @code{<} on @code{Lines} with 4 as
20533 the match, we get the score added if the article has less than 4 lines.
20534 (It's easy to get confused and think it's the other way around. But
20535 it's not. I think.)
20537 When matching on @code{Lines}, be careful because some back ends (like
20538 @code{nndir}) do not generate @code{Lines} header, so every article ends
20539 up being marked as having 0 lines. This can lead to strange results if
20540 you happen to lower score of the articles with few lines.
20543 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
20544 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
20545 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
20546 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
20547 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
20548 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
20549 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
20553 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
20554 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
20555 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
20556 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
20557 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
20558 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
20559 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
20560 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
20563 @item Head, Body, All
20564 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
20568 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
20569 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
20570 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
20571 you e.g. increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
20572 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
20573 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
20574 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
20578 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
20579 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an
20580 article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{x}, then you add a @samp{thread}
20581 match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each article that
20582 has @var{x} in its @code{References} header. (These new @samp{thread}
20583 matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching articles.)
20584 This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an entire thread,
20585 even though some articles in the thread may not have complete
20586 @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
20587 undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
20588 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
20592 @cindex score file atoms
20594 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
20595 lower than this number will be marked as read.
20598 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
20599 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
20601 @item mark-and-expunge
20602 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
20603 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
20606 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
20607 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
20608 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
20609 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
20610 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
20613 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
20614 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
20617 @item exclude-files
20618 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
20619 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
20623 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}el. This element will be
20624 ignored when handling global score files.
20627 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
20628 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
20629 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
20630 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
20633 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
20634 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
20635 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
20636 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
20638 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
20642 (mark-and-expunge -100)
20645 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
20646 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
20647 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{C y}) the
20648 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
20649 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
20651 I.e.---the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where a few
20652 interesting threads which can't be found automatically by ordinary
20653 scoring rules exist.
20656 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
20657 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
20658 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
20659 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
20660 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
20661 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
20662 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
20663 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
20664 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
20665 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
20666 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
20670 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
20671 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
20672 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
20673 file for a number of groups.
20676 @cindex local variables
20677 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(@var{var}
20678 @var{value})} pairs. Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the
20679 current summary buffer, and set to the value specified. This is a
20680 convenient, if somewhat strange, way of setting variables in some
20681 groups if you don't like hooks much. Note that the @var{value} won't
20686 @node Score File Editing
20687 @section Score File Editing
20689 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
20690 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
20691 with a mode for that.
20693 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
20694 additional commands:
20699 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
20700 @findex gnus-score-edit-done
20701 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
20702 (@code{gnus-score-edit-done}).
20705 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
20706 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
20707 Insert the current date in numerical format
20708 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
20709 you were wondering.
20712 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
20713 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
20714 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
20715 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
20716 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
20721 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
20723 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
20724 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
20726 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f}, @kbd{V e} and
20727 @kbd{V t} to begin editing score files.
20730 @node Adaptive Scoring
20731 @section Adaptive Scoring
20732 @cindex adaptive scoring
20734 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
20735 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
20736 stupidity, to be precise.
20738 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
20739 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
20740 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
20741 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
20742 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
20743 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
20744 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
20745 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
20746 variable to @code{(word line)}.
20748 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
20749 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
20750 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
20751 might look something like this:
20754 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
20755 '((gnus-unread-mark)
20756 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
20757 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
20758 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
20759 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
20760 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
20761 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
20762 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
20763 (gnus-ancient-mark)
20764 (gnus-low-score-mark)
20765 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
20768 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
20769 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
20770 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
20771 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
20772 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
20773 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
20776 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
20777 will be applied to each article.
20779 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
20780 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{e}) will have a
20781 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
20782 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
20784 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
20785 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
20786 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
20787 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
20789 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
20790 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
20791 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
20792 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
20794 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
20795 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
20796 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
20797 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
20798 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
20799 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
20801 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
20802 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
20803 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
20805 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
20806 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
20807 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
20809 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
20810 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
20811 let you use different rules in different groups.
20813 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
20814 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
20815 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
20818 @vindex gnus-adaptive-pretty-print
20819 Adaptive score files can get huge and are not meant to be edited by
20820 human hands. If @code{gnus-adaptive-pretty-print} is @code{nil} (the
20821 deafult) those files will not be written in a human readable way.
20823 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
20824 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
20825 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
20826 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
20827 the length of the match is less than
20828 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
20829 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
20832 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
20833 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
20834 headers. If you adapt on words, the
20835 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
20836 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
20839 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
20840 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
20841 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
20842 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
20843 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
20846 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
20847 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
20848 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
20849 score with 30 points.
20851 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
20852 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
20853 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
20854 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
20855 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
20857 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit
20858 Some may feel that short words shouldn't count when doing adaptive
20859 scoring. If so, you may set @code{gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit} to
20860 an integer. Words shorter than this number will be ignored. This
20861 variable defaults to @code{nil}.
20863 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
20864 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
20865 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
20866 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
20868 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
20869 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
20870 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
20871 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
20873 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words
20874 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words} is set to @code{t}, gnus
20875 won't adaptively word score any of the words in the group name. Useful
20876 for groups like @samp{comp.editors.emacs}, where most of the subject
20877 lines contain the word @samp{emacs}.
20879 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
20880 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
20881 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
20883 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
20884 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
20885 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
20886 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
20889 @node Home Score File
20890 @section Home Score File
20892 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
20893 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
20894 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
20895 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
20897 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
20898 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
20899 could perhaps use the same home score file.
20901 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
20902 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
20907 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
20911 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
20912 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
20916 A list. The elements in this list can be:
20920 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{file-name})}. If the @var{regexp} matches the
20921 group name, the @var{file-name} will be used as the home score file.
20924 A function. If the function returns non-@code{nil}, the result will
20925 be used as the home score file. The function will be called with the
20926 name of the group as the parameter.
20929 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
20932 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
20937 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
20940 (setq gnus-home-score-file
20941 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
20944 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
20945 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
20947 @findex gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file
20949 (setq gnus-home-score-file
20950 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
20953 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
20954 Other functions include
20957 @item gnus-current-home-score-file
20958 @findex gnus-current-home-score-file
20959 Return the ``current'' regular score file. This will make scoring
20960 commands add entry to the ``innermost'' matching score file.
20964 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
20965 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
20966 their own home score files:
20969 (setq gnus-home-score-file
20970 ;; @r{All groups that match the regexp @code{"\\.emacs"}}
20971 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
20972 ;; @r{All the comp groups in one score file}
20973 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
20976 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
20977 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
20978 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
20979 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
20980 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
20982 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
20983 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
20984 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
20985 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
20986 precedence over this variable.
20989 @node Followups To Yourself
20990 @section Followups To Yourself
20992 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
20993 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
20994 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
20995 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
20996 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
20997 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
21001 @item gnus-score-followup-article
21002 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
21003 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
21006 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
21007 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
21008 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
21012 @vindex message-sent-hook
21013 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
21014 @code{message-sent-hook}, like this:
21016 (add-hook 'message-sent-hook 'gnus-score-followup-thread)
21020 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
21021 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
21025 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
21026 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
21029 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
21030 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
21035 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore\\.no>"
21039 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
21040 is system-dependent.
21043 @node Scoring On Other Headers
21044 @section Scoring On Other Headers
21045 @cindex scoring on other headers
21047 Gnus is quite fast when scoring the ``traditional''
21048 headers---@samp{From}, @samp{Subject} and so on. However, scoring
21049 other headers requires writing a @code{head} scoring rule, which means
21050 that Gnus has to request every single article from the back end to find
21051 matches. This takes a long time in big groups.
21053 Now, there's not much you can do about this for news groups, but for
21054 mail groups, you have greater control. In @ref{To From Newsgroups},
21055 it's explained in greater detail what this mechanism does, but here's
21056 a cookbook example for @code{nnml} on how to allow scoring on the
21057 @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} headers.
21059 Put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
21062 (setq gnus-extra-headers '(To Cc Newsgroups Keywords)
21063 nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
21066 Restart Gnus and rebuild your @code{nnml} overview files with the
21067 @kbd{M-x nnml-generate-nov-databases} command. This will take a long
21068 time if you have much mail.
21070 Now you can score on @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} as ``extra headers'' like
21071 so: @kbd{I e s p To RET <your name> RET}.
21075 @vindex gnus-inhibit-slow-scoring
21076 You can inhibit scoring the slow scoring on headers or body by setting
21077 the variable @code{gnus-inhibit-slow-scoring}. If
21078 @code{gnus-inhibit-slow-scoring} is regexp, slow scoring is inhibited if
21079 the group matches the regexp. If it is t, slow scoring on it is
21080 inhibited for all groups.
21084 @section Scoring Tips
21085 @cindex scoring tips
21091 @cindex scoring crossposts
21092 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
21093 the @code{Xref} header.
21095 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
21098 @item Multiple crossposts
21099 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
21100 more than, say, 3 groups:
21103 ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+"
21107 @item Matching on the body
21108 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
21109 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
21110 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
21111 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
21112 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
21113 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
21114 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
21117 @item Marking as read
21118 You will probably want to mark articles that have scores below a certain
21119 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
21120 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
21124 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
21126 @item Negated character classes
21127 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
21128 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
21129 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
21133 @node Reverse Scoring
21134 @section Reverse Scoring
21135 @cindex reverse scoring
21137 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
21138 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
21139 like this in your score file:
21143 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
21148 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
21149 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
21152 @node Global Score Files
21153 @section Global Score Files
21154 @cindex global score files
21156 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
21157 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
21158 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
21160 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
21161 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
21162 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
21164 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
21165 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
21166 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
21167 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
21168 files are applicable to which group.
21170 To use the score file
21171 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
21172 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory,
21176 (setq gnus-global-score-files
21177 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
21178 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
21181 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
21183 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
21184 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
21185 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
21186 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
21188 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
21189 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
21191 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
21192 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
21193 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
21194 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
21195 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
21196 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
21198 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
21204 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
21206 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
21208 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
21210 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
21211 lowered out of existence.
21213 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
21214 articles completely.
21217 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
21218 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
21219 old articles for a long time.
21222 @dots{} I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
21223 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
21224 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
21225 holding our breath yet?
21229 @section Kill Files
21232 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
21233 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
21234 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
21236 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
21237 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
21238 files into score files.
21240 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
21241 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
21242 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
21243 that isn't a very good idea.
21245 Normal kill files look like this:
21248 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
21249 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
21253 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
21254 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
21256 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
21257 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
21260 Two summary functions for editing a @sc{gnus} kill file:
21265 @kindex M-k (Summary)
21266 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
21267 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
21270 @kindex M-K (Summary)
21271 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
21272 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
21275 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
21280 @kindex M-k (Group)
21281 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
21282 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
21285 @kindex M-K (Group)
21286 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
21287 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
21290 Kill file variables:
21293 @item gnus-kill-file-name
21294 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
21295 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
21296 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
21297 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
21298 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
21299 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
21301 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
21302 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
21303 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
21304 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
21307 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
21308 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
21309 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
21310 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
21311 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
21312 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
21313 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
21314 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
21315 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
21317 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
21318 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
21319 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
21324 @node Converting Kill Files
21325 @section Converting Kill Files
21327 @cindex converting kill files
21329 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
21330 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
21331 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
21334 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Gnus by default.
21335 You can fetch it from
21336 @uref{http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-various/gnus-kill-to-score.el}.
21338 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
21339 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
21340 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
21344 @node Advanced Scoring
21345 @section Advanced Scoring
21347 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
21348 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
21349 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
21350 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
21351 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
21353 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
21357 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
21358 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
21359 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
21363 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
21364 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
21366 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
21367 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
21368 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
21369 non-@code{nil} value.
21371 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
21372 operator, and various match operators.
21379 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
21380 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
21381 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
21386 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
21387 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
21388 then this operator will return @code{false}.
21393 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
21394 logical negation of the value of its argument.
21398 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
21399 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
21400 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
21401 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
21402 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
21403 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
21404 the ancestry you want to go.
21406 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
21407 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
21408 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
21409 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
21410 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
21413 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
21414 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
21416 Please note that the following examples are score file rules. To
21417 make a complete score file from them, surround them with another pair
21420 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
21421 when he's talking about Gnus:
21426 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
21427 ("subject" "Gnus"))
21434 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
21438 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
21445 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
21446 really don't want to read what he's written:
21450 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
21451 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigil Logge")))
21455 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
21456 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
21457 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
21464 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
21465 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
21466 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
21467 ("body" "white.*socks"))
21471 Suppose you're reading a high volume group and you're only interested
21472 in replies. The plan is to score down all articles that don't have
21473 subject that begin with "Re:", "Fw:" or "Fwd:" and then score up all
21474 parents of articles that have subjects that begin with reply marks.
21477 ((! ("subject" "re:\\|fwd?:" r))
21479 ((1- ("subject" "re:\\|fwd?:" r))
21483 The possibilities are endless.
21485 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
21486 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
21488 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
21489 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
21490 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
21491 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
21492 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
21493 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
21494 @samp{subject}) first.
21496 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
21497 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
21508 Then that means ``score on the from header of the grandparent of the
21509 current article''. An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
21515 ("subject" "Gnus")))
21522 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
21523 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
21528 @section Score Decays
21529 @cindex score decays
21532 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
21533 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
21534 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
21535 use them in any sensible way.
21537 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
21538 @findex gnus-decay-score
21539 @vindex gnus-decay-score-function
21540 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
21541 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
21542 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
21543 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
21544 If @code{gnus-decay-scores} is a regexp, only score files matching this
21545 regexp are treated. E.g. you may set it to @samp{\\.ADAPT\\'} if only
21546 @emph{adaptive} score files should be decayed. The decay itself if
21547 performed by the @code{gnus-decay-score-function} function, which is
21548 @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the definition of that
21552 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
21553 "Decay SCORE according to `gnus-score-decay-constant'
21554 and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
21556 (* (if (< score 0) -1 1)
21558 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
21560 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
21561 (if (and (featurep 'xemacs)
21562 ;; XEmacs' floor can handle only the floating point
21563 ;; number below the half of the maximum integer.
21564 (> (abs n) (lsh -1 -2)))
21566 (car (split-string (number-to-string n) "\\.")))
21570 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
21571 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
21572 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
21573 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
21577 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
21580 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
21583 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
21587 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
21588 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
21589 the new score, which should be an integer.
21591 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
21592 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
21597 @include message.texi
21598 @chapter Emacs MIME
21599 @include emacs-mime.texi
21601 @include sieve.texi
21613 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
21614 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
21615 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
21616 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
21617 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
21618 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
21619 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
21620 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
21621 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
21622 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
21623 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
21624 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
21625 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
21626 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
21627 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
21628 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
21629 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
21630 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
21631 * Thwarting Email Spam:: Simple ways to avoid unsolicited commercial email.
21632 * Spam Package:: A package for filtering and processing spam.
21633 * Other modes:: Interaction with other modes.
21634 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
21638 @node Process/Prefix
21639 @section Process/Prefix
21640 @cindex process/prefix convention
21642 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
21643 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
21645 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
21646 command to be performed on.
21650 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
21651 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
21652 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
21653 with the current one.
21655 @vindex transient-mark-mode
21656 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
21657 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
21659 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
21660 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
21663 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
21664 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
21666 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
21669 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
21670 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
21671 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
21672 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
21674 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
21675 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
21676 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
21677 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
21678 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
21679 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
21680 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
21681 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
21683 Many commands do not use the process/prefix convention. All commands
21684 that do explicitly say so in this manual. To apply the process/prefix
21685 convention to commands that do not use it, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
21686 command. For instance, to mark all the articles in the group as
21687 expirable, you could say @kbd{M P b M-& E}.
21691 @section Interactive
21692 @cindex interaction
21696 @item gnus-novice-user
21697 @vindex gnus-novice-user
21698 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
21699 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
21700 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
21701 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
21704 @item gnus-expert-user
21705 @vindex gnus-expert-user
21706 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
21707 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing, no
21708 matter how strange.
21710 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
21711 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
21712 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
21713 is @code{t} by default.
21715 @item gnus-interactive-exit
21716 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
21717 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
21722 @node Symbolic Prefixes
21723 @section Symbolic Prefixes
21724 @cindex symbolic prefixes
21726 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
21727 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four characters forward, and
21728 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
21729 rule of 900 to the current article.
21731 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
21732 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
21733 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
21734 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
21735 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
21736 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
21737 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
21739 @kindex M-i (Summary)
21740 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
21741 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
21742 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
21743 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
21744 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a C-M-u} means ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u}
21745 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b C-M-u} means
21746 ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
21747 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
21749 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
21750 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
21751 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
21753 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
21757 @node Formatting Variables
21758 @section Formatting Variables
21759 @cindex formatting variables
21761 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called
21762 things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
21763 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
21764 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
21765 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
21768 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
21769 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
21770 lots of percentages everywhere.
21773 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
21774 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
21775 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
21776 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
21777 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
21778 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
21779 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
21780 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
21783 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
21784 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
21785 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
21786 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
21787 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
21788 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
21789 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
21790 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
21792 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
21793 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
21795 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
21796 @findex gnus-update-format
21797 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
21798 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
21799 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
21800 examine the resulting Lisp code to be run to generate the line.
21804 @node Formatting Basics
21805 @subsection Formatting Basics
21807 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
21808 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
21809 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
21811 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
21812 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
21813 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
21814 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
21815 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
21818 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
21819 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
21820 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
21821 less than 4 characters wide.
21823 Also Gnus supports some extended format specifications, such as
21824 @samp{%&user-date;}.
21827 @node Mode Line Formatting
21828 @subsection Mode Line Formatting
21830 Mode line formatting variables (e.g.,
21831 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}) follow the same rules as other,
21832 buffer line oriented formatting variables (@pxref{Formatting Basics})
21833 with the following two differences:
21838 There must be no newline (@samp{\n}) at the end.
21841 The special @samp{%%b} spec can be used to display the buffer name.
21842 Well, it's no spec at all, really---@samp{%%} is just a way to quote
21843 @samp{%} to allow it to pass through the formatting machinery unmangled,
21844 so that Emacs receives @samp{%b}, which is something the Emacs mode line
21845 display interprets to mean ``show the buffer name''. For a full list of
21846 mode line specs Emacs understands, see the documentation of the
21847 @code{mode-line-format} variable.
21852 @node Advanced Formatting
21853 @subsection Advanced Formatting
21855 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
21856 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
21857 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
21858 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
21860 These are the valid modifiers:
21865 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
21869 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
21874 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
21877 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
21882 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
21885 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
21888 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
21891 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
21897 "~(form (current-time-string))@@"
21902 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
21903 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
21904 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
21905 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
21906 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
21907 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
21908 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
21910 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
21911 last operation, padding.
21913 If you use lots of these advanced thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets
21914 quite slow. This can be helped enormously by running @kbd{M-x
21915 gnus-compile} when you are satisfied with the look of your lines.
21916 @xref{Compilation}.
21919 @node User-Defined Specs
21920 @subsection User-Defined Specs
21922 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
21923 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
21924 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
21925 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
21926 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
21927 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
21928 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
21929 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
21930 should protect against that.
21932 Also Gnus supports extended user-defined specs, such as @samp{%u&foo;}.
21933 Gnus will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{foo}.
21935 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
21936 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
21937 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
21938 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
21942 @node Formatting Fonts
21943 @subsection Formatting Fonts
21945 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
21946 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
21947 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
21948 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
21951 Text inside the @samp{%@{} and @samp{%@}} specifiers will have their
21952 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
21953 default. If you say @samp{%1@{}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
21954 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
21955 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
21956 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
21958 Text inside the @samp{%<<} and @samp{%>>} specifiers will get the
21959 special @code{balloon-help} property set to
21960 @code{gnus-balloon-face-0}. If you say @samp{%1<<}, you'll get
21961 @code{gnus-balloon-face-1} and so on. The @code{gnus-balloon-face-*}
21962 variables should be either strings or symbols naming functions that
21963 return a string. When the mouse passes over text with this property
21964 set, a balloon window will appear and display the string. Please
21965 refer to @ref{Tooltips, ,Tooltips, emacs, The Emacs Manual},
21966 (in GNU Emacs) or the doc string of @code{balloon-help-mode} (in
21967 XEmacs) for more information on this. (For technical reasons, the
21968 guillemets have been approximated as @samp{<<} and @samp{>>} in this
21971 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
21974 ;; @r{Create three face types.}
21975 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
21976 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
21978 ;; @r{We want the article count to be in}
21979 ;; @r{a bold and green face. So we create}
21980 ;; @r{a new face called @code{my-green-bold}.}
21981 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
21982 ;; @r{Set the color.}
21983 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
21984 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
21986 ;; @r{Set the new & fancy format.}
21987 (setq gnus-group-line-format
21988 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
21991 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
21992 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
21994 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
21995 mode-line variables.
21997 @node Positioning Point
21998 @subsection Positioning Point
22000 Gnus usually moves point to a pre-defined place on each line in most
22001 buffers. By default, point move to the first colon character on the
22002 line. You can customize this behavior in three different ways.
22004 You can move the colon character to somewhere else on the line.
22006 @findex gnus-goto-colon
22007 You can redefine the function that moves the point to the colon. The
22008 function is called @code{gnus-goto-colon}.
22010 But perhaps the most convenient way to deal with this, if you don't want
22011 to have a colon in your line, is to use the @samp{%*} specifier. If you
22012 put a @samp{%*} somewhere in your format line definition, Gnus will
22017 @subsection Tabulation
22019 You can usually line up your displays by padding and cutting your
22020 strings. However, when combining various strings of different size, it
22021 can often be more convenient to just output the strings, and then worry
22022 about lining up the following text afterwards.
22024 To do that, Gnus supplies tabulator specs---@samp{%=}. There are two
22025 different types---@dfn{hard tabulators} and @dfn{soft tabulators}.
22027 @samp{%50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
22028 50. If the text is already past column 50, nothing will be inserted.
22029 This is the soft tabulator.
22031 @samp{%-50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
22032 50. If the text is already past column 50, the excess text past column
22033 50 will be removed. This is the hard tabulator.
22036 @node Wide Characters
22037 @subsection Wide Characters
22039 Fixed width fonts in most countries have characters of the same width.
22040 Some countries, however, use Latin characters mixed with wider
22041 characters---most notable East Asian countries.
22043 The problem is that when formatting, Gnus assumes that if a string is 10
22044 characters wide, it'll be 10 Latin characters wide on the screen. In
22045 these countries, that's not true.
22047 @vindex gnus-use-correct-string-widths
22048 To help fix this, you can set @code{gnus-use-correct-string-widths} to
22049 @code{t}. This makes buffer generation slower, but the results will be
22050 prettier. The default value under XEmacs is @code{t} but @code{nil}
22054 @node Window Layout
22055 @section Window Layout
22056 @cindex window layout
22058 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
22060 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
22061 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
22062 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
22063 @code{t} by default.
22065 Setting this variable to @code{nil} kinda works, but there are
22066 glitches. Use at your own peril.
22068 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
22069 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
22070 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
22073 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)
22074 (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4))))
22075 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
22079 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
22080 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
22081 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
22082 possible names is listed below.
22084 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
22085 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example -
22088 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
22092 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
22093 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
22094 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
22095 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
22096 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
22097 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
22098 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
22099 size spec per split.
22101 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
22102 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
22103 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e. is the third or
22104 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
22105 present) gets focus.
22107 Here's a more complicated example:
22110 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
22111 (summary 0.25 point)
22112 (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4))
22116 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
22117 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
22118 occupy, not a percentage.
22120 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
22121 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
22122 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
22123 be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if
22124 @code{gnus-carpal} is @code{nil}, and four buffers if @code{gnus-carpal}
22127 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
22130 (article (horizontal 1.0
22135 (summary 0.25 point)
22140 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
22141 @code{horizontal} thingie?
22143 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
22144 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
22145 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
22146 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
22147 the screen is to be given to this strip.
22149 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
22150 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
22151 lines from the splits.
22153 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
22158 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
22159 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
22160 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
22161 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
22162 buffer = "(" buf-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
22163 size = number | frame-params
22164 buf-name = group | article | summary ...
22168 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
22169 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
22170 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
22171 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
22173 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
22174 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
22175 @cindex window height
22176 @cindex window width
22177 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
22178 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
22179 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
22180 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
22181 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
22182 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
22184 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
22185 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
22186 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
22187 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
22189 @findex gnus-configure-frame
22190 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
22191 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
22192 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
22193 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
22194 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
22195 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
22196 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
22197 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
22198 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
22199 configuration list.
22202 (gnus-configure-frame
22206 (article 0.3 point))
22214 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
22215 @code{frame} split:
22218 (gnus-configure-frame
22221 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
22223 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
22224 (user-position . t)
22225 (left . -1) (top . 1))
22230 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
22231 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
22232 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
22233 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
22234 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
22235 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
22236 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
22237 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
22239 The list of all possible keys for @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} can
22240 be found in its default value.
22242 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
22243 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
22244 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
22248 (message (horizontal 1.0
22249 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
22251 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
22256 One common desire for a multiple frame split is to have a separate frame
22257 for composing mail and news while leaving the original frame intact. To
22258 accomplish that, something like the following can be done:
22263 (if (not (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer))
22264 (car (cdr (assoc 'group gnus-buffer-configuration)))
22265 (car (cdr (assoc 'summary gnus-buffer-configuration))))
22266 (vertical ((user-position . t) (top . 1) (left . 1)
22267 (name . "Message"))
22268 (message 1.0 point))))
22271 @findex gnus-add-configuration
22272 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
22273 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
22274 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
22275 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
22278 (gnus-add-configuration
22279 '(article (vertical 1.0
22281 (summary .25 point)
22285 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
22286 @file{~/.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
22287 Gnus has been loaded.
22289 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
22290 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
22291 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
22292 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
22293 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
22295 If you're using tree displays (@pxref{Tree Display}), and the tree
22296 window is displayed vertically next to another window, you may also want
22297 to fiddle with @code{gnus-tree-minimize-window} to avoid having the
22300 @subsection Example Window Configurations
22304 Narrow left hand side occupied by group buffer. Right hand side split
22305 between summary buffer (top one-sixth) and article buffer (bottom).
22320 (gnus-add-configuration
22323 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
22325 (summary 0.16 point)
22328 (gnus-add-configuration
22331 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
22332 (vertical 1.0 (summary 1.0 point)))))
22338 @node Faces and Fonts
22339 @section Faces and Fonts
22344 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
22345 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
22346 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
22351 @section Compilation
22352 @cindex compilation
22353 @cindex byte-compilation
22355 @findex gnus-compile
22357 Remember all those line format specification variables?
22358 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}, @code{gnus-group-line-format}, and so
22359 on. Now, Gnus will of course heed whatever these variables are, but,
22360 unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down.
22361 (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions
22362 associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of
22365 To help with this, you can run @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} after you've
22366 fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of)
22367 satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and
22368 you'll get top speed again. Gnus will save these compiled specs in the
22369 @file{.newsrc.eld} file. (User-defined functions aren't compiled by
22370 this function, though---you should compile them yourself by sticking
22371 them into the @file{~/.gnus.el} file and byte-compiling that file.)
22375 @section Mode Lines
22378 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
22379 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
22380 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
22381 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
22382 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
22383 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
22384 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
22387 @cindex display-time
22389 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
22390 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
22391 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
22392 to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
22393 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
22394 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
22395 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
22396 additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify
22399 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
22401 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
22402 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
22404 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
22405 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
22406 (length display-time-string)))))
22409 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
22410 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
22411 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
22412 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
22413 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
22416 @node Highlighting and Menus
22417 @section Highlighting and Menus
22419 @cindex highlighting
22422 @vindex gnus-visual
22423 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
22424 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
22425 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
22428 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
22429 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
22432 @item group-highlight
22433 Do highlights in the group buffer.
22434 @item summary-highlight
22435 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
22436 @item article-highlight
22437 Do highlights in the article buffer.
22439 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
22441 Create menus in the group buffer.
22443 Create menus in the summary buffers.
22445 Create menus in the article buffer.
22447 Create menus in the browse buffer.
22449 Create menus in the server buffer.
22451 Create menus in the score buffers.
22453 Create menus in all buffers.
22456 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
22457 buffers, you could say something like:
22460 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
22463 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
22466 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
22469 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
22470 in all Gnus buffers.
22472 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
22475 @item gnus-mouse-face
22476 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
22477 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
22478 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
22482 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
22486 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
22487 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
22488 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
22490 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
22491 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
22492 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
22494 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
22495 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
22496 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
22498 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
22499 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
22500 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
22502 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
22503 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
22504 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
22506 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
22507 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
22508 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
22519 Those new-fangled @dfn{mouse} contraptions is very popular with the
22520 young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things
22521 these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was
22522 using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single
22523 machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah!
22527 @vindex gnus-carpal
22528 Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to
22529 do anything by setting @code{gnus-carpal} to @code{t}. Pretty simple,
22530 really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you.
22535 @item gnus-carpal-mode-hook
22536 @vindex gnus-carpal-mode-hook
22537 Hook run in all carpal mode buffers.
22539 @item gnus-carpal-button-face
22540 @vindex gnus-carpal-button-face
22541 Face used on buttons.
22543 @item gnus-carpal-header-face
22544 @vindex gnus-carpal-header-face
22545 Face used on carpal buffer headers.
22547 @item gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
22548 @vindex gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
22549 Buttons in the group buffer.
22551 @item gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
22552 @vindex gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
22553 Buttons in the summary buffer.
22555 @item gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
22556 @vindex gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
22557 Buttons in the server buffer.
22559 @item gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
22560 @vindex gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
22561 Buttons in the browse buffer.
22564 All the @code{buttons} variables are lists. The elements in these list
22565 are either cons cells where the @code{car} contains a text to be displayed and
22566 the @code{cdr} contains a function symbol, or a simple string.
22574 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
22575 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
22576 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
22577 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
22578 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
22580 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
22581 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
22582 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
22584 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
22585 been idle for thirty minutes:
22588 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
22591 Here's a handler that scans for @acronym{PGP} headers every hour when
22595 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
22598 This @var{time} parameter and that @var{idle} parameter work together
22599 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
22600 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
22602 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
22603 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
22604 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
22605 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
22607 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
22608 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
22609 @var{idle} minutes.
22611 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
22612 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
22615 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
22616 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
22617 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
22619 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
22620 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
22621 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
22622 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
22624 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
22625 your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
22627 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
22629 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
22632 @findex gnus-demon-add-nocem
22633 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
22634 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
22635 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
22636 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
22637 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
22638 @code{gnus-demon-add-nocem}, @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
22639 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
22640 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
22641 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
22642 @file{~/.gnus.el} if you want those abilities.
22644 @findex gnus-demon-init
22645 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
22646 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
22647 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
22648 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
22649 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
22651 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it. Adding
22652 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
22653 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
22662 @dfn{Spamming} is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
22663 Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
22665 Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various anti-spamming
22666 agencies. These agencies usually also send out @dfn{NoCeM} messages.
22667 NoCeM is pronounced ``no see-'em'', and means what the name
22668 implies---these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
22671 What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled anyway?
22672 Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just honor cancels
22673 from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use of the NoCeM
22674 messages, which are distributed in the @samp{alt.nocem.misc} newsgroup.
22676 Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
22677 this will make spam disappear.
22679 There are some variables to customize, of course:
22682 @item gnus-use-nocem
22683 @vindex gnus-use-nocem
22684 Set this variable to @code{t} to set the ball rolling. It is @code{nil}
22687 You can also set this variable to a positive number as a group level.
22688 In that case, Gnus scans NoCeM messages when checking new news if this
22689 value is not exceeding a group level that you specify as the prefix
22690 argument to some commands, e.g. @code{gnus},
22691 @code{gnus-group-get-new-news}, etc. Otherwise, Gnus does not scan
22692 NoCeM messages if you specify a group level to those commands. For
22693 example, if you use 1 or 2 on the mail groups and the levels on the news
22694 groups remain the default, 3 is the best choice.
22696 @item gnus-nocem-groups
22697 @vindex gnus-nocem-groups
22698 Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
22701 ("news.lists.filters" "news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins"
22702 "alt.nocem.misc" "news.admin.net-abuse.announce")
22705 @item gnus-nocem-issuers
22706 @vindex gnus-nocem-issuers
22707 There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
22708 people you want to listen to. The default is
22710 ("Automoose-1" "clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca"
22711 "cosmo.roadkill" "SpamHippo" "hweede@@snafu.de")
22713 fine, upstanding citizens all of them.
22715 Known despammers that you can put in this list are listed at@*
22716 @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~rosalind/nocemreg/nocemreg.html}.
22718 You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people---just the
22719 ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all NoCeM
22720 messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a @dfn{type}
22721 header that gives the message a (more or less, usually less) rigorous
22722 definition. Common types are @samp{spam}, @samp{spew}, @samp{mmf},
22723 @samp{binary}, and @samp{troll}. To specify this, you have to use
22724 @code{(@var{issuer} @var{conditions} @dots{})} elements in the list.
22725 Each condition is either a string (which is a regexp that matches types
22726 you want to use) or a list on the form @code{(not @var{string})}, where
22727 @var{string} is a regexp that matches types you don't want to use.
22729 For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis except his
22730 @samp{troll} messages, you'd say:
22733 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
22736 On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his @samp{spam} and
22737 @samp{spew} messages, you'd say:
22740 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
22743 The specs are applied left-to-right.
22746 @item gnus-nocem-verifyer
22747 @vindex gnus-nocem-verifyer
22749 This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is who she
22750 says she is. The default is @code{pgg-verify}, which returns
22751 non-@code{nil} if the verification is successful, otherwise (including
22752 the case the NoCeM message was not signed) returns @code{nil}. If this
22753 is too slow and you don't care for verification (which may be dangerous),
22754 you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
22756 Formerly the default was @code{mc-verify}, which is a Mailcrypt
22757 function. While you can still use it, you can change it into
22758 @code{pgg-verify} running with GnuPG if you are willing to add the
22759 @acronym{PGP} public keys to GnuPG's keyring.
22761 @item gnus-nocem-directory
22762 @vindex gnus-nocem-directory
22763 This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default is@*
22764 @file{~/News/NoCeM/}.
22766 @item gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
22767 @vindex gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
22768 The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the cache.
22769 The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be faster, but you
22770 might then see old spam.
22772 @item gnus-nocem-check-from
22773 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-from
22774 Non-@code{nil} means check for valid issuers in message bodies.
22775 Otherwise don't bother fetching articles unless their author matches a
22776 valid issuer; that is much faster if you are selective about the
22779 @item gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
22780 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
22781 If non-@code{nil}, the maximum number of articles to check in any NoCeM
22782 group. NoCeM groups can be huge and very slow to process.
22786 Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many living
22787 (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process will grow
22788 big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most) of your
22789 unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Subscription Commands}).
22796 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
22797 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
22798 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
22800 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
22801 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
22802 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
22803 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
22804 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
22805 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
22806 @code{undo} function.
22808 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
22809 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
22810 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
22811 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
22812 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
22813 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
22814 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
22815 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
22816 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
22817 never be totally undoable.
22819 @findex gnus-undo-mode
22820 @vindex gnus-use-undo
22822 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
22823 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
22824 default. The @kbd{C-M-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo}
22825 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
22829 @node Predicate Specifiers
22830 @section Predicate Specifiers
22831 @cindex predicate specifiers
22833 Some Gnus variables are @dfn{predicate specifiers}. This is a special
22834 form that allows flexible specification of predicates without having
22835 to type all that much.
22837 These specifiers are lists consisting of functions, symbols and lists.
22842 (or gnus-article-unseen-p
22843 gnus-article-unread-p)
22846 The available symbols are @code{or}, @code{and} and @code{not}. The
22847 functions all take one parameter.
22849 @findex gnus-make-predicate
22850 Internally, Gnus calls @code{gnus-make-predicate} on these specifiers
22851 to create a function that can be called. This input parameter to this
22852 function will be passed along to all the functions in the predicate
22857 @section Moderation
22860 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
22861 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
22862 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
22865 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
22869 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
22872 in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
22874 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
22879 You split your incoming mail by matching on
22880 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
22881 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
22884 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
22885 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
22888 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
22889 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
22893 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
22896 (setq gnus-moderated-list
22897 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
22901 @node Fetching a Group
22902 @section Fetching a Group
22903 @cindex fetching a group
22905 @findex gnus-fetch-group
22906 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
22907 group and I don't care whether Gnus has been started or not''. This is
22908 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
22909 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
22910 It takes the group name as a parameter.
22913 @node Image Enhancements
22914 @section Image Enhancements
22916 XEmacs, as well as Emacs 21@footnote{Emacs 21 on MS Windows doesn't
22917 support images, Emacs 22 does.} and up, are able to display pictures and
22918 stuff, so Gnus has taken advantage of that.
22921 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
22922 * Face:: Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
22923 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
22924 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
22925 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
22933 @code{X-Face} headers describe a 48x48 pixel black-and-white (1 bit
22934 depth) image that's supposed to represent the author of the message.
22935 It seems to be supported by an ever-growing number of mail and news
22939 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
22940 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
22941 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
22949 Viewing an @code{X-Face} header either requires an Emacs that has
22950 @samp{compface} support (which most XEmacs versions has), or that you
22951 have suitable conversion or display programs installed. If your Emacs
22952 has image support the default action is to display the face before the
22953 @code{From} header. If there's no native @code{X-Face} support, Gnus
22954 will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using external programs
22955 from the @code{pbmplus} package and friends, see below. For XEmacs it's
22956 faster if XEmacs has been compiled with @code{X-Face} support. The
22957 default action under Emacs without image support is to fork off the
22958 @code{display} program.
22960 On a GNU/Linux system, the @code{display} program is included in the
22961 ImageMagick package. For external conversion programs look for packages
22962 with names like @code{netpbm}, @code{libgr-progs} and @code{compface}.
22963 On Windows, you may use the packages @code{netpbm} and @code{compface}
22964 from @url{http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net}. You need to add the
22965 @code{bin} directory to your @code{PATH} environment variable.
22966 @c In fact only the following DLLs and binaries seem to be required:
22967 @c compface1.dll uncompface.exe libnetpbm10.dll icontopbm.exe
22969 The variable @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} controls which programs
22970 are used to display the @code{X-Face} header. If this variable is a
22971 string, this string will be executed in a sub-shell. If it is a
22972 function, this function will be called with the face as the argument.
22973 If @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which is a regexp) matches the
22974 @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
22976 (Note: @code{x-face} is used in the variable/function names, not
22984 @vindex gnus-x-face
22985 Face to show X-Face. The colors from this face are used as the
22986 foreground and background colors of the displayed X-Faces. The
22987 default colors are black and white.
22989 @item gnus-face-properties-alist
22990 @vindex gnus-face-properties-alist
22991 Alist of image types and properties applied to Face (@pxref{Face}) and
22992 X-Face images. The default value is @code{((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face))
22993 (png . nil))} for Emacs or @code{((xface . (:face gnus-x-face)))} for
22994 XEmacs. Here are examples:
22997 ;; Specify the altitude of Face and X-Face images in the From header.
22998 (setq gnus-face-properties-alist
22999 '((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face :ascent 80))
23000 (png . (:ascent 80))))
23002 ;; Show Face and X-Face images as pressed buttons.
23003 (setq gnus-face-properties-alist
23004 '((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face :relief -2))
23005 (png . (:relief -2))))
23008 @pxref{Image Descriptors, ,Image Descriptors, elisp, The Emacs Lisp
23009 Reference Manual} for the valid properties for various image types.
23010 Currently, @code{pbm} is used for X-Face images and @code{png} is used
23011 for Face images in Emacs. Only the @code{:face} property is effective
23012 on the @code{xface} image type in XEmacs if it is built with the
23013 @samp{libcompface} library.
23016 If you use posting styles, you can use an @code{x-face-file} entry in
23017 @code{gnus-posting-styles}, @xref{Posting Styles}. If you don't, Gnus
23018 provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow easier
23019 insertion of X-Face headers in outgoing messages. You also need the
23020 above mentioned ImageMagick, netpbm or other image conversion packages
23021 (depending the values of the variables below) for these functions.
23023 @findex gnus-random-x-face
23024 @vindex gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command
23025 @vindex gnus-x-face-directory
23026 @code{gnus-random-x-face} goes through all the @samp{pbm} files in
23027 @code{gnus-x-face-directory} and picks one at random, and then
23028 converts it to the X-Face format by using the
23029 @code{gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command} shell command. The
23030 @samp{pbm} files should be 48x48 pixels big. It returns the X-Face
23031 header data as a string.
23033 @findex gnus-insert-random-x-face-header
23034 @code{gnus-insert-random-x-face-header} calls
23035 @code{gnus-random-x-face} and inserts a @samp{X-Face} header with the
23036 randomly generated data.
23038 @findex gnus-x-face-from-file
23039 @vindex gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command
23040 @code{gnus-x-face-from-file} takes a GIF file as the parameter, and then
23041 converts the file to X-Face format by using the
23042 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command} shell command.
23044 Here's how you would typically use the first function. Put something
23045 like the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
23048 (setq message-required-news-headers
23049 (nconc message-required-news-headers
23050 (list '(X-Face . gnus-random-x-face))))
23053 Using the last function would be something like this:
23056 (setq message-required-news-headers
23057 (nconc message-required-news-headers
23058 (list '(X-Face . (lambda ()
23059 (gnus-x-face-from-file
23060 "~/My-face.gif"))))))
23068 @c #### FIXME: faces and x-faces' implementations should really be harmonized.
23070 @code{Face} headers are essentially a funkier version of @code{X-Face}
23071 ones. They describe a 48x48 pixel colored image that's supposed to
23072 represent the author of the message.
23075 @findex gnus-article-display-face
23076 The contents of a @code{Face} header must be a base64 encoded PNG image.
23077 See @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/circus/face/} for the precise
23080 The @code{gnus-face-properties-alist} variable affects the appearance of
23081 displayed Face images. @xref{X-Face}.
23083 Viewing an @code{Face} header requires an Emacs that is able to display
23086 @c (if (featurep 'xemacs)
23088 @c (image-type-available-p 'png))
23090 Gnus provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow
23091 easier insertion of Face headers in outgoing messages.
23093 @findex gnus-convert-png-to-face
23094 @code{gnus-convert-png-to-face} takes a 48x48 PNG image, no longer than
23095 726 bytes long, and converts it to a face.
23097 @findex gnus-face-from-file
23098 @vindex gnus-convert-image-to-face-command
23099 @code{gnus-face-from-file} takes a JPEG file as the parameter, and then
23100 converts the file to Face format by using the
23101 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-face-command} shell command.
23103 Here's how you would typically use this function. Put something like the
23104 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
23107 (setq message-required-news-headers
23108 (nconc message-required-news-headers
23109 (list '(Face . (lambda ()
23110 (gnus-face-from-file "~/face.jpg"))))))
23115 @subsection Smileys
23120 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/BigFace,height=20cm}}
23125 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
23126 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
23128 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
23129 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
23132 (setq gnus-treat-display-smileys t)
23135 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{8-)}, @samp{:-(} and
23136 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
23137 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
23138 text and maps that to file names.
23140 @vindex smiley-regexp-alist
23141 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist}
23142 variable. The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched;
23143 the second element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by
23144 the picture; and the third element is the name of the file to be
23147 The following variables customize where Smiley will look for these
23152 @item smiley-data-directory
23153 @vindex smiley-data-directory
23154 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files.
23156 @item gnus-smiley-file-types
23157 @vindex gnus-smiley-file-types
23158 List of suffixes on smiley file names to try.
23172 So@dots{} You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
23173 good way to do so. It's also a great way to impress people staring
23174 over your shoulder as you read news.
23176 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
23185 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
23186 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
23187 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
23188 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
23189 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
23190 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
23191 @code{GIF} formats.
23194 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
23195 For instructions on obtaining and installing the picons databases,
23196 point your Web browser at
23197 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}.
23199 If you are using Debian GNU/Linux, saying @samp{apt-get install
23200 picons.*} will install the picons where Gnus can find them.
23202 To enable displaying picons, simply make sure that
23203 @code{gnus-picon-databases} points to the directory containing the
23206 @vindex gnus-picon-style
23207 The variable @code{gnus-picon-style} controls how picons are displayed.
23208 If @code{inline}, the textual representation is replaced. If
23209 @code{right}, picons are added right to the textual representation.
23211 The following variables offer control over where things are located.
23215 @item gnus-picon-databases
23216 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
23217 The location of the picons database. This is a list of directories
23218 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
23219 subdirectories. Defaults to @code{("/usr/lib/picon"
23220 "/usr/local/faces")}.
23222 @item gnus-picon-news-directories
23223 @vindex gnus-picon-news-directories
23224 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
23225 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
23227 @item gnus-picon-user-directories
23228 @vindex gnus-picon-user-directories
23229 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for user
23230 faces. @code{("users" "usenix" "local" "misc")} is the default.
23232 @item gnus-picon-domain-directories
23233 @vindex gnus-picon-domain-directories
23234 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
23235 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
23236 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
23238 @item gnus-picon-file-types
23239 @vindex gnus-picon-file-types
23240 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
23241 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not built-in your Emacs.
23247 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
23250 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
23251 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
23252 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
23253 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
23254 unusual directory structure.
23256 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
23257 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
23258 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
23263 @subsubsection Toolbar
23267 @item gnus-use-toolbar
23268 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
23269 This variable specifies the position to display the toolbar. If
23270 @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If it is non-@code{nil}, it should
23271 be one of the symbols @code{default}, @code{top}, @code{bottom},
23272 @code{right}, and @code{left}. @code{default} means to use the default
23273 toolbar, the rest mean to display the toolbar on the place which those
23274 names show. The default is @code{default}.
23276 @item gnus-toolbar-thickness
23277 @vindex gnus-toolbar-thickness
23278 Cons of the height and the width specifying the thickness of a toolbar.
23279 The height is used for the toolbar displayed on the top or the bottom,
23280 the width is used for the toolbar displayed on the right or the left.
23281 The default is that of the default toolbar.
23283 @item gnus-group-toolbar
23284 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
23285 The toolbar in the group buffer.
23287 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
23288 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
23289 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
23291 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
23292 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
23293 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
23304 @node Fuzzy Matching
23305 @section Fuzzy Matching
23306 @cindex fuzzy matching
23308 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
23309 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
23311 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
23312 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
23313 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
23315 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
23316 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
23317 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
23318 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
23319 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
23322 @node Thwarting Email Spam
23323 @section Thwarting Email Spam
23327 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
23329 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
23330 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
23331 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
23332 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
23333 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
23334 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
23335 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
23336 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
23339 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
23340 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
23341 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
23342 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
23343 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!'')
23344 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
23346 This is annoying. Here's what you can do about it.
23349 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
23350 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
23351 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
23352 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
23355 @node The problem of spam
23356 @subsection The problem of spam
23358 @cindex spam filtering approaches
23359 @cindex filtering approaches, spam
23361 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
23363 First, some background on spam.
23365 If you have access to e-mail, you are familiar with spam (technically
23366 termed @acronym{UCE}, Unsolicited Commercial E-mail). Simply put, it
23367 exists because e-mail delivery is very cheap compared to paper mail,
23368 so only a very small percentage of people need to respond to an UCE to
23369 make it worthwhile to the advertiser. Ironically, one of the most
23370 common spams is the one offering a database of e-mail addresses for
23371 further spamming. Senders of spam are usually called @emph{spammers},
23372 but terms like @emph{vermin}, @emph{scum}, @emph{sociopaths}, and
23373 @emph{morons} are in common use as well.
23375 Spam comes from a wide variety of sources. It is simply impossible to
23376 dispose of all spam without discarding useful messages. A good
23377 example is the TMDA system, which requires senders
23378 unknown to you to confirm themselves as legitimate senders before
23379 their e-mail can reach you. Without getting into the technical side
23380 of TMDA, a downside is clearly that e-mail from legitimate sources may
23381 be discarded if those sources can't or won't confirm themselves
23382 through the TMDA system. Another problem with TMDA is that it
23383 requires its users to have a basic understanding of e-mail delivery
23386 The simplest approach to filtering spam is filtering, at the mail
23387 server or when you sort through incoming mail. If you get 200 spam
23388 messages per day from @samp{random-address@@vmadmin.com}, you block
23389 @samp{vmadmin.com}. If you get 200 messages about @samp{VIAGRA}, you
23390 discard all messages with @samp{VIAGRA} in the message. If you get
23391 lots of spam from Bulgaria, for example, you try to filter all mail
23392 from Bulgarian IPs.
23394 This, unfortunately, is a great way to discard legitimate e-mail. The
23395 risks of blocking a whole country (Bulgaria, Norway, Nigeria, China,
23396 etc.) or even a continent (Asia, Africa, Europe, etc.) from contacting
23397 you should be obvious, so don't do it if you have the choice.
23399 In another instance, the very informative and useful RISKS digest has
23400 been blocked by overzealous mail filters because it @strong{contained}
23401 words that were common in spam messages. Nevertheless, in isolated
23402 cases, with great care, direct filtering of mail can be useful.
23404 Another approach to filtering e-mail is the distributed spam
23405 processing, for instance DCC implements such a system. In essence,
23406 @var{N} systems around the world agree that a machine @var{X} in
23407 Ghana, Estonia, or California is sending out spam e-mail, and these
23408 @var{N} systems enter @var{X} or the spam e-mail from @var{X} into a
23409 database. The criteria for spam detection vary---it may be the number
23410 of messages sent, the content of the messages, and so on. When a user
23411 of the distributed processing system wants to find out if a message is
23412 spam, he consults one of those @var{N} systems.
23414 Distributed spam processing works very well against spammers that send
23415 a large number of messages at once, but it requires the user to set up
23416 fairly complicated checks. There are commercial and free distributed
23417 spam processing systems. Distributed spam processing has its risks as
23418 well. For instance legitimate e-mail senders have been accused of
23419 sending spam, and their web sites and mailing lists have been shut
23420 down for some time because of the incident.
23422 The statistical approach to spam filtering is also popular. It is
23423 based on a statistical analysis of previous spam messages. Usually
23424 the analysis is a simple word frequency count, with perhaps pairs of
23425 words or 3-word combinations thrown into the mix. Statistical
23426 analysis of spam works very well in most of the cases, but it can
23427 classify legitimate e-mail as spam in some cases. It takes time to
23428 run the analysis, the full message must be analyzed, and the user has
23429 to store the database of spam analysis. Statistical analysis on the
23430 server is gaining popularity. This has the advantage of letting the
23431 user Just Read Mail, but has the disadvantage that it's harder to tell
23432 the server that it has misclassified mail.
23434 Fighting spam is not easy, no matter what anyone says. There is no
23435 magic switch that will distinguish Viagra ads from Mom's e-mails.
23436 Even people are having a hard time telling spam apart from non-spam,
23437 because spammers are actively looking to fool us into thinking they
23438 are Mom, essentially. Spamming is irritating, irresponsible, and
23439 idiotic behavior from a bunch of people who think the world owes them
23440 a favor. We hope the following sections will help you in fighting the
23443 @node Anti-Spam Basics
23444 @subsection Anti-Spam Basics
23448 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
23450 One way of dealing with spam is having Gnus split out all spam into a
23451 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
23453 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
23454 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
23455 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
23456 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
23457 sysadmin whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
23458 part of the mail address.)
23461 (setq message-default-news-headers
23462 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
23465 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
23466 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
23470 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
23471 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
23472 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
23477 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
23478 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
23479 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
23480 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
23482 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @acronym{SMTP} server
23483 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
23484 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
23485 thwarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
23486 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
23487 your fancy split rule in this way:
23492 (to "larsi" "misc")
23496 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
23497 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
23498 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
23499 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
23500 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
23502 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
23503 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
23504 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
23505 to non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
23507 Be careful with this approach. Spammers are wise to it.
23511 @subsection SpamAssassin, Vipul's Razor, DCC, etc
23512 @cindex SpamAssassin
23513 @cindex Vipul's Razor
23516 The days where the hints in the previous section were sufficient in
23517 avoiding spam are coming to an end. There are many tools out there
23518 that claim to reduce the amount of spam you get. This section could
23519 easily become outdated fast, as new products replace old, but
23520 fortunately most of these tools seem to have similar interfaces. Even
23521 though this section will use SpamAssassin as an example, it should be
23522 easy to adapt it to most other tools.
23524 Note that this section does not involve the @code{spam.el} package,
23525 which is discussed in the next section. If you don't care for all
23526 the features of @code{spam.el}, you can make do with these simple
23529 If the tool you are using is not installed on the mail server, you
23530 need to invoke it yourself. Ideas on how to use the
23531 @code{:postscript} mail source parameter (@pxref{Mail Source
23532 Specifiers}) follow.
23536 '((file :prescript "formail -bs spamassassin < /var/mail/%u")
23540 "mv %t /tmp/foo; formail -bs spamc < /tmp/foo > %t")))
23543 Once you manage to process your incoming spool somehow, thus making
23544 the mail contain e.g.@: a header indicating it is spam, you are ready to
23545 filter it out. Using normal split methods (@pxref{Splitting Mail}):
23548 (setq nnmail-split-methods '(("spam" "^X-Spam-Flag: YES")
23552 Or using fancy split methods (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
23555 (setq nnmail-split-methods 'nnmail-split-fancy
23556 nnmail-split-fancy '(| ("X-Spam-Flag" "YES" "spam")
23560 Some people might not like the idea of piping the mail through various
23561 programs using a @code{:prescript} (if some program is buggy, you
23562 might lose all mail). If you are one of them, another solution is to
23563 call the external tools during splitting. Example fancy split method:
23566 (setq nnmail-split-fancy '(| (: kevin-spamassassin)
23568 (defun kevin-spamassassin ()
23572 (if (eq 1 (call-process-region (point-min) (point-max)
23573 "spamc" nil nil nil "-c"))
23577 Note that with the nnimap back end, message bodies will not be
23578 downloaded by default. You need to set
23579 @code{nnimap-split-download-body} to @code{t} to do that
23580 (@pxref{Splitting in IMAP}).
23582 That is about it. As some spam is likely to get through anyway, you
23583 might want to have a nifty function to call when you happen to read
23584 spam. And here is the nifty function:
23587 (defun my-gnus-raze-spam ()
23588 "Submit SPAM to Vipul's Razor, then mark it as expirable."
23590 (gnus-summary-show-raw-article)
23591 (gnus-summary-save-in-pipe "razor-report -f -d")
23592 (gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable 1))
23596 @subsection Hashcash
23599 A novel technique to fight spam is to require senders to do something
23600 costly and demonstrably unique for each message they send. This has
23601 the obvious drawback that you cannot rely on everyone in the world
23602 using this technique, since it is not part of the Internet standards,
23603 but it may be useful in smaller communities.
23605 While the tools in the previous section work well in practice, they
23606 work only because the tools are constantly maintained and updated as
23607 new form of spam appears. This means that a small percentage of spam
23608 will always get through. It also means that somewhere, someone needs
23609 to read lots of spam to update these tools. Hashcash avoids that, but
23610 instead prefers that everyone you contact through e-mail supports the
23611 scheme. You can view the two approaches as pragmatic vs dogmatic.
23612 The approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages, but as
23613 often in the real world, a combination of them is stronger than either
23614 one of them separately.
23617 The ``something costly'' is to burn CPU time, more specifically to
23618 compute a hash collision up to a certain number of bits. The
23619 resulting hashcash cookie is inserted in a @samp{X-Hashcash:} header.
23620 For more details, and for the external application @code{hashcash} you
23621 need to install to use this feature, see
23622 @uref{http://www.hashcash.org/}. Even more information can be found
23623 at @uref{http://www.camram.org/}.
23625 If you wish to generate hashcash for each message you send, you can
23626 customize @code{message-generate-hashcash} (@pxref{Mail Headers, ,Mail
23627 Headers,message, The Message Manual}), as in:
23630 (setq message-generate-hashcash t)
23633 You will need to set up some additional variables as well:
23637 @item hashcash-default-payment
23638 @vindex hashcash-default-payment
23639 This variable indicates the default number of bits the hash collision
23640 should consist of. By default this is 20. Suggested useful values
23643 @item hashcash-payment-alist
23644 @vindex hashcash-payment-alist
23645 Some receivers may require you to spend burn more CPU time than the
23646 default. This variable contains a list of @samp{(@var{addr}
23647 @var{amount})} cells, where @var{addr} is the receiver (email address
23648 or newsgroup) and @var{amount} is the number of bits in the collision
23649 that is needed. It can also contain @samp{(@var{addr} @var{string}
23650 @var{amount})} cells, where the @var{string} is the string to use
23651 (normally the email address or newsgroup name is used).
23653 @item hashcash-path
23654 @vindex hashcash-path
23655 Where the @code{hashcash} binary is installed. This variable should
23656 be automatically set by @code{executable-find}, but if it's @code{nil}
23657 (usually because the @code{hashcash} binary is not in your path)
23658 you'll get a warning when you check hashcash payments and an error
23659 when you generate hashcash payments.
23663 Gnus can verify hashcash cookies, although this can also be done by
23664 hand customized mail filtering scripts. To verify a hashcash cookie
23665 in a message, use the @code{mail-check-payment} function in the
23666 @code{hashcash.el} library. You can also use the @code{spam.el}
23667 package with the @code{spam-use-hashcash} back end to validate hashcash
23668 cookies in incoming mail and filter mail accordingly (@pxref{Anti-spam
23669 Hashcash Payments}).
23672 @section Spam Package
23673 @cindex spam filtering
23676 The Spam package provides Gnus with a centralized mechanism for
23677 detecting and filtering spam. It filters new mail, and processes
23678 messages according to whether they are spam or ham. (@dfn{Ham} is the
23679 name used throughout this manual to indicate non-spam messages.)
23682 * Spam Package Introduction::
23683 * Filtering Incoming Mail::
23684 * Detecting Spam in Groups::
23685 * Spam and Ham Processors::
23686 * Spam Package Configuration Examples::
23688 * Extending the Spam package::
23689 * Spam Statistics Package::
23692 @node Spam Package Introduction
23693 @subsection Spam Package Introduction
23694 @cindex spam filtering
23695 @cindex spam filtering sequence of events
23698 You must read this section to understand how the Spam package works.
23699 Do not skip, speed-read, or glance through this section.
23701 Make sure you read the section on the @code{spam.el} sequence of
23702 events. See @xref{Extending the Spam package}.
23704 @cindex spam-initialize
23705 @vindex spam-use-stat
23706 To use the Spam package, you @strong{must} first run the function
23707 @code{spam-initialize}:
23713 This autoloads @code{spam.el} and installs the various hooks necessary
23714 to let the Spam package do its job. In order to make use of the Spam
23715 package, you have to set up certain group parameters and variables,
23716 which we will describe below. All of the variables controlling the
23717 Spam package can be found in the @samp{spam} customization group.
23719 There are two ``contact points'' between the Spam package and the rest
23720 of Gnus: checking new mail for spam, and leaving a group.
23722 Checking new mail for spam is done in one of two ways: while splitting
23723 incoming mail, or when you enter a group.
23725 The first way, checking for spam while splitting incoming mail, is
23726 suited to mail back ends such as @code{nnml} or @code{nnimap}, where
23727 new mail appears in a single spool file. The Spam package processes
23728 incoming mail, and sends mail considered to be spam to a designated
23729 ``spam'' group. @xref{Filtering Incoming Mail}.
23731 The second way is suited to back ends such as @code{nntp}, which have
23732 no incoming mail spool, or back ends where the server is in charge of
23733 splitting incoming mail. In this case, when you enter a Gnus group,
23734 the unseen or unread messages in that group are checked for spam.
23735 Detected spam messages are marked as spam. @xref{Detecting Spam in
23738 @cindex spam back ends
23739 In either case, you have to tell the Spam package what method to use
23740 to detect spam messages. There are several methods, or @dfn{spam back
23741 ends} (not to be confused with Gnus back ends!) to choose from: spam
23742 ``blacklists'' and ``whitelists'', dictionary-based filters, and so
23743 forth. @xref{Spam Back Ends}.
23745 In the Gnus summary buffer, messages that have been identified as spam
23746 always appear with a @samp{$} symbol.
23748 The Spam package divides Gnus groups into three categories: ham
23749 groups, spam groups, and unclassified groups. You should mark each of
23750 the groups you subscribe to as either a ham group or a spam group,
23751 using the @code{spam-contents} group parameter (@pxref{Group
23752 Parameters}). Spam groups have a special property: when you enter a
23753 spam group, all unseen articles are marked as spam. Thus, mail split
23754 into a spam group is automatically marked as spam.
23756 Identifying spam messages is only half of the Spam package's job. The
23757 second half comes into play whenever you exit a group buffer. At this
23758 point, the Spam package does several things:
23760 First, it calls @dfn{spam and ham processors} to process the articles
23761 according to whether they are spam or ham. There is a pair of spam
23762 and ham processors associated with each spam back end, and what the
23763 processors do depends on the back end. At present, the main role of
23764 spam and ham processors is for dictionary-based spam filters: they add
23765 the contents of the messages in the group to the filter's dictionary,
23766 to improve its ability to detect future spam. The @code{spam-process}
23767 group parameter specifies what spam processors to use. @xref{Spam and
23770 If the spam filter failed to mark a spam message, you can mark it
23771 yourself, so that the message is processed as spam when you exit the
23781 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-spam
23782 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-spam
23783 Mark current article as spam, showing it with the @samp{$} mark
23784 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}).
23788 Similarly, you can unmark an article if it has been erroneously marked
23789 as spam. @xref{Setting Marks}.
23791 Normally, a ham message found in a non-ham group is not processed as
23792 ham---the rationale is that it should be moved into a ham group for
23793 further processing (see below). However, you can force these articles
23794 to be processed as ham by setting
23795 @code{spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups} and
23796 @code{spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups}.
23798 @vindex gnus-ham-process-destinations
23799 @vindex gnus-spam-process-destinations
23800 The second thing that the Spam package does when you exit a group is
23801 to move ham articles out of spam groups, and spam articles out of ham
23802 groups. Ham in a spam group is moved to the group specified by the
23803 variable @code{gnus-ham-process-destinations}, or the group parameter
23804 @code{ham-process-destination}. Spam in a ham group is moved to the
23805 group specified by the variable @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations},
23806 or the group parameter @code{spam-process-destination}. If these
23807 variables are not set, the articles are left in their current group.
23808 If an article cannot be moved (e.g., with a read-only backend such
23809 as @acronym{NNTP}), it is copied.
23811 If an article is moved to another group, it is processed again when
23812 you visit the new group. Normally, this is not a problem, but if you
23813 want each article to be processed only once, load the
23814 @code{gnus-registry.el} package and set the variable
23815 @code{spam-log-to-registry} to @code{t}. @xref{Spam Package
23816 Configuration Examples}.
23818 Normally, spam groups ignore @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations}.
23819 However, if you set @code{spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only} to
23820 @code{nil}, spam will also be moved out of spam groups, depending on
23821 the @code{spam-process-destination} parameter.
23823 The final thing the Spam package does is to mark spam articles as
23824 expired, which is usually the right thing to do.
23826 If all this seems confusing, don't worry. Soon it will be as natural
23827 as typing Lisp one-liners on a neural interface@dots{} err, sorry, that's
23828 50 years in the future yet. Just trust us, it's not so bad.
23830 @node Filtering Incoming Mail
23831 @subsection Filtering Incoming Mail
23832 @cindex spam filtering
23833 @cindex spam filtering incoming mail
23836 To use the Spam package to filter incoming mail, you must first set up
23837 fancy mail splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}. The Spam package
23838 defines a special splitting function that you can add to your fancy
23839 split variable (either @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or
23840 @code{nnimap-split-fancy}, depending on your mail back end):
23846 @vindex spam-split-group
23848 The @code{spam-split} function scans incoming mail according to your
23849 chosen spam back end(s), and sends messages identified as spam to a
23850 spam group. By default, the spam group is a group named @samp{spam},
23851 but you can change this by customizing @code{spam-split-group}. Make
23852 sure the contents of @code{spam-split-group} are an unqualified group
23853 name. For instance, in an @code{nnimap} server @samp{your-server},
23854 the value @samp{spam} means @samp{nnimap+your-server:spam}. The value
23855 @samp{nnimap+server:spam} is therefore wrong---it gives the group
23856 @samp{nnimap+your-server:nnimap+server:spam}.
23858 @code{spam-split} does not modify the contents of messages in any way.
23860 @vindex nnimap-split-download-body
23861 Note for IMAP users: if you use the @code{spam-check-bogofilter},
23862 @code{spam-check-ifile}, and @code{spam-check-stat} spam back ends,
23863 you should also set set the variable @code{nnimap-split-download-body}
23864 to @code{t}. These spam back ends are most useful when they can
23865 ``scan'' the full message body. By default, the nnimap back end only
23866 retrieves the message headers; @code{nnimap-split-download-body} tells
23867 it to retrieve the message bodies as well. We don't set this by
23868 default because it will slow @acronym{IMAP} down, and that is not an
23869 appropriate decision to make on behalf of the user. @xref{Splitting
23872 You have to specify one or more spam back ends for @code{spam-split}
23873 to use, by setting the @code{spam-use-*} variables. @xref{Spam Back
23874 Ends}. Normally, @code{spam-split} simply uses all the spam back ends
23875 you enabled in this way. However, you can tell @code{spam-split} to
23876 use only some of them. Why this is useful? Suppose you are using the
23877 @code{spam-use-regex-headers} and @code{spam-use-blackholes} spam back
23878 ends, and the following split rule:
23881 nnimap-split-fancy '(|
23882 (any "ding" "ding")
23884 ;; @r{default mailbox}
23889 The problem is that you want all ding messages to make it to the ding
23890 folder. But that will let obvious spam (for example, spam detected by
23891 SpamAssassin, and @code{spam-use-regex-headers}) through, when it's
23892 sent to the ding list. On the other hand, some messages to the ding
23893 list are from a mail server in the blackhole list, so the invocation
23894 of @code{spam-split} can't be before the ding rule.
23896 The solution is to let SpamAssassin headers supersede ding rules, and
23897 perform the other @code{spam-split} rules (including a second
23898 invocation of the regex-headers check) after the ding rule. This is
23899 done by passing a parameter to @code{spam-split}:
23904 ;; @r{spam detected by @code{spam-use-regex-headers} goes to @samp{regex-spam}}
23905 (: spam-split "regex-spam" 'spam-use-regex-headers)
23906 (any "ding" "ding")
23907 ;; @r{all other spam detected by spam-split goes to @code{spam-split-group}}
23909 ;; @r{default mailbox}
23914 This lets you invoke specific @code{spam-split} checks depending on
23915 your particular needs, and target the results of those checks to a
23916 particular spam group. You don't have to throw all mail into all the
23917 spam tests. Another reason why this is nice is that messages to
23918 mailing lists you have rules for don't have to have resource-intensive
23919 blackhole checks performed on them. You could also specify different
23920 spam checks for your nnmail split vs. your nnimap split. Go crazy.
23922 You should set the @code{spam-use-*} variables for whatever spam back
23923 ends you intend to use. The reason is that when loading
23924 @file{spam.el}, some conditional loading is done depending on what
23925 @code{spam-use-xyz} variables you have set. @xref{Spam Back Ends}.
23927 @c @emph{TODO: spam.el needs to provide a uniform way of training all the
23928 @c statistical databases. Some have that functionality built-in, others
23931 @node Detecting Spam in Groups
23932 @subsection Detecting Spam in Groups
23934 To detect spam when visiting a group, set the group's
23935 @code{spam-autodetect} and @code{spam-autodetect-methods} group
23936 parameters. These are accessible with @kbd{G c} or @kbd{G p}, as
23937 usual (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
23939 You should set the @code{spam-use-*} variables for whatever spam back
23940 ends you intend to use. The reason is that when loading
23941 @file{spam.el}, some conditional loading is done depending on what
23942 @code{spam-use-xyz} variables you have set.
23944 By default, only unseen articles are processed for spam. You can
23945 force Gnus to recheck all messages in the group by setting the
23946 variable @code{spam-autodetect-recheck-messages} to @code{t}.
23948 If you use the @code{spam-autodetect} method of checking for spam, you
23949 can specify different spam detection methods for different groups.
23950 For instance, the @samp{ding} group may have @code{spam-use-BBDB} as
23951 the autodetection method, while the @samp{suspect} group may have the
23952 @code{spam-use-blacklist} and @code{spam-use-bogofilter} methods
23953 enabled. Unlike with @code{spam-split}, you don't have any control
23954 over the @emph{sequence} of checks, but this is probably unimportant.
23956 @node Spam and Ham Processors
23957 @subsection Spam and Ham Processors
23958 @cindex spam filtering
23959 @cindex spam filtering variables
23960 @cindex spam variables
23963 @vindex gnus-spam-process-newsgroups
23964 Spam and ham processors specify special actions to take when you exit
23965 a group buffer. Spam processors act on spam messages, and ham
23966 processors on ham messages. At present, the main role of these
23967 processors is to update the dictionaries of dictionary-based spam back
23968 ends such as Bogofilter (@pxref{Bogofilter}) and the Spam Statistics
23969 package (@pxref{Spam Statistics Filtering}).
23971 The spam and ham processors that apply to each group are determined by
23972 the group's@code{spam-process} group parameter. If this group
23973 parameter is not defined, they are determined by the variable
23974 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups}.
23976 @vindex gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents
23977 Gnus learns from the spam you get. You have to collect your spam in
23978 one or more spam groups, and set or customize the variable
23979 @code{spam-junk-mailgroups} as appropriate. You can also declare
23980 groups to contain spam by setting their group parameter
23981 @code{spam-contents} to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-spam}, or
23982 by customizing the corresponding variable
23983 @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}. The @code{spam-contents} group
23984 parameter and the @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents} variable can
23985 also be used to declare groups as @emph{ham} groups if you set their
23986 classification to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-ham}. If
23987 groups are not classified by means of @code{spam-junk-mailgroups},
23988 @code{spam-contents}, or @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}, they are
23989 considered @emph{unclassified}. All groups are unclassified by
23992 @vindex gnus-spam-mark
23994 In spam groups, all messages are considered to be spam by default:
23995 they get the @samp{$} mark (@code{gnus-spam-mark}) when you enter the
23996 group. If you have seen a message, had it marked as spam, then
23997 unmarked it, it won't be marked as spam when you enter the group
23998 thereafter. You can disable that behavior, so all unread messages
23999 will get the @samp{$} mark, if you set the
24000 @code{spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam} parameter to @code{nil}. You
24001 should remove the @samp{$} mark when you are in the group summary
24002 buffer for every message that is not spam after all. To remove the
24003 @samp{$} mark, you can use @kbd{M-u} to ``unread'' the article, or
24004 @kbd{d} for declaring it read the non-spam way. When you leave a
24005 group, all spam-marked (@samp{$}) articles are sent to a spam
24006 processor which will study them as spam samples.
24008 Messages may also be deleted in various other ways, and unless
24009 @code{ham-marks} group parameter gets overridden below, marks @samp{R}
24010 and @samp{r} for default read or explicit delete, marks @samp{X} and
24011 @samp{K} for automatic or explicit kills, as well as mark @samp{Y} for
24012 low scores, are all considered to be associated with articles which
24013 are not spam. This assumption might be false, in particular if you
24014 use kill files or score files as means for detecting genuine spam, you
24015 should then adjust the @code{ham-marks} group parameter.
24018 You can customize this group or topic parameter to be the list of
24019 marks you want to consider ham. By default, the list contains the
24020 deleted, read, killed, kill-filed, and low-score marks (the idea is
24021 that these articles have been read, but are not spam). It can be
24022 useful to also include the tick mark in the ham marks. It is not
24023 recommended to make the unread mark a ham mark, because it normally
24024 indicates a lack of classification. But you can do it, and we'll be
24029 You can customize this group or topic parameter to be the list of
24030 marks you want to consider spam. By default, the list contains only
24031 the spam mark. It is not recommended to change that, but you can if
24032 you really want to.
24035 When you leave @emph{any} group, regardless of its
24036 @code{spam-contents} classification, all spam-marked articles are sent
24037 to a spam processor, which will study these as spam samples. If you
24038 explicit kill a lot, you might sometimes end up with articles marked
24039 @samp{K} which you never saw, and which might accidentally contain
24040 spam. Best is to make sure that real spam is marked with @samp{$},
24043 @vindex gnus-ham-process-destinations
24044 When you leave a @emph{spam} group, all spam-marked articles are
24045 marked as expired after processing with the spam processor. This is
24046 not done for @emph{unclassified} or @emph{ham} groups. Also, any
24047 @strong{ham} articles in a spam group will be moved to a location
24048 determined by either the @code{ham-process-destination} group
24049 parameter or a match in the @code{gnus-ham-process-destinations}
24050 variable, which is a list of regular expressions matched with group
24051 names (it's easiest to customize this variable with @kbd{M-x
24052 customize-variable @key{RET} gnus-ham-process-destinations}). Each
24053 group name list is a standard Lisp list, if you prefer to customize
24054 the variable manually. If the @code{ham-process-destination}
24055 parameter is not set, ham articles are left in place. If the
24056 @code{spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group} parameter is
24057 set, the ham articles are marked as unread before being moved.
24059 If ham can not be moved---because of a read-only back end such as
24060 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
24062 Note that you can use multiples destinations per group or regular
24063 expression! This enables you to send your ham to a regular mail
24064 group and to a @emph{ham training} group.
24066 When you leave a @emph{ham} group, all ham-marked articles are sent to
24067 a ham processor, which will study these as non-spam samples.
24069 @vindex spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups
24070 By default the variable @code{spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups} is
24071 @code{nil}. Set it to @code{t} if you want ham found in spam groups
24072 to be processed. Normally this is not done, you are expected instead
24073 to send your ham to a ham group and process it there.
24075 @vindex spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups
24076 By default the variable @code{spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups} is
24077 @code{nil}. Set it to @code{t} if you want ham found in non-ham (spam
24078 or unclassified) groups to be processed. Normally this is not done,
24079 you are expected instead to send your ham to a ham group and process
24082 @vindex gnus-spam-process-destinations
24083 When you leave a @emph{ham} or @emph{unclassified} group, all
24084 @strong{spam} articles are moved to a location determined by either
24085 the @code{spam-process-destination} group parameter or a match in the
24086 @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations} variable, which is a list of
24087 regular expressions matched with group names (it's easiest to
24088 customize this variable with @kbd{M-x customize-variable @key{RET}
24089 gnus-spam-process-destinations}). Each group name list is a standard
24090 Lisp list, if you prefer to customize the variable manually. If the
24091 @code{spam-process-destination} parameter is not set, the spam
24092 articles are only expired. The group name is fully qualified, meaning
24093 that if you see @samp{nntp:servername} before the group name in the
24094 group buffer then you need it here as well.
24096 If spam can not be moved---because of a read-only back end such as
24097 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
24099 Note that you can use multiples destinations per group or regular
24100 expression! This enables you to send your spam to multiple @emph{spam
24103 @vindex spam-log-to-registry
24104 The problem with processing ham and spam is that Gnus doesn't track
24105 this processing by default. Enable the @code{spam-log-to-registry}
24106 variable so @code{spam.el} will use @code{gnus-registry.el} to track
24107 what articles have been processed, and avoid processing articles
24108 multiple times. Keep in mind that if you limit the number of registry
24109 entries, this won't work as well as it does without a limit.
24111 @vindex spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam
24112 Set this variable if you want only unseen articles in spam groups to
24113 be marked as spam. By default, it is set. If you set it to
24114 @code{nil}, unread articles will also be marked as spam.
24116 @vindex spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group
24117 Set this variable if you want ham to be unmarked before it is moved
24118 out of the spam group. This is very useful when you use something
24119 like the tick mark @samp{!} to mark ham---the article will be placed
24120 in your @code{ham-process-destination}, unmarked as if it came fresh
24121 from the mail server.
24123 @vindex spam-autodetect-recheck-messages
24124 When autodetecting spam, this variable tells @code{spam.el} whether
24125 only unseen articles or all unread articles should be checked for
24126 spam. It is recommended that you leave it off.
24128 @node Spam Package Configuration Examples
24129 @subsection Spam Package Configuration Examples
24130 @cindex spam filtering
24131 @cindex spam filtering configuration examples
24132 @cindex spam configuration examples
24135 @subsubheading Ted's setup
24137 From Ted Zlatanov <tzz@@lifelogs.com>.
24139 ;; @r{for @code{gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent} and spam autodetection}
24140 ;; @r{see @file{gnus-registry.el} for more information}
24141 (gnus-registry-initialize)
24145 spam-log-to-registry t ; @r{for spam autodetection}
24147 spam-use-regex-headers t ; @r{catch X-Spam-Flag (SpamAssassin)}
24148 ;; @r{all groups with @samp{spam} in the name contain spam}
24149 gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents
24150 '(("spam" gnus-group-spam-classification-spam))
24151 ;; @r{see documentation for these}
24152 spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only nil
24153 spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam t
24154 spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group t
24155 nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
24156 ;; @r{understand what this does before you copy it to your own setup!}
24157 nnimap-split-fancy '(|
24158 ;; @r{trace references to parents and put in their group}
24159 (: gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent)
24160 ;; @r{this will catch server-side SpamAssassin tags}
24161 (: spam-split 'spam-use-regex-headers)
24162 (any "ding" "ding")
24163 ;; @r{note that spam by default will go to @samp{spam}}
24165 ;; @r{default mailbox}
24168 ;; @r{my parameters, set with @kbd{G p}}
24170 ;; @r{all nnml groups, and all nnimap groups except}
24171 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train} and}
24172 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:spam}: any spam goes to nnimap training,}
24173 ;; @r{because it must have been detected manually}
24175 ((spam-process-destination . "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train"))
24177 ;; @r{all @acronym{NNTP} groups}
24178 ;; @r{autodetect spam with the blacklist and ham with the BBDB}
24179 ((spam-autodetect-methods spam-use-blacklist spam-use-BBDB)
24180 ;; @r{send all spam to the training group}
24181 (spam-process-destination . "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train"))
24183 ;; @r{only some @acronym{NNTP} groups, where I want to autodetect spam}
24184 ((spam-autodetect . t))
24186 ;; @r{my nnimap @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:spam} group}
24188 ;; @r{this is a spam group}
24189 ((spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-spam)
24191 ;; @r{any spam (which happens when I enter for all unseen messages,}
24192 ;; @r{because of the @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents} setting above), goes to}
24193 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train} unless I mark it as ham}
24195 (spam-process-destination "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train")
24197 ;; @r{any ham goes to my @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:mail} folder, but}
24198 ;; @r{also to my @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:trainham} folder for training}
24200 (ham-process-destination "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:mail"
24201 "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:trainham")
24202 ;; @r{in this group, only @samp{!} marks are ham}
24204 (gnus-ticked-mark))
24205 ;; @r{remembers senders in the blacklist on the way out---this is}
24206 ;; @r{definitely not needed, it just makes me feel better}
24207 (spam-process (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist)))
24209 ;; @r{Later, on the @acronym{IMAP} server I use the @samp{train} group for training}
24210 ;; @r{SpamAssassin to recognize spam, and the @samp{trainham} group fora}
24211 ;; @r{recognizing ham---but Gnus has nothing to do with it.}
24215 @subsubheading Using @code{spam.el} on an IMAP server with a statistical filter on the server
24216 From Reiner Steib <reiner.steib@@gmx.de>.
24218 My provider has set up bogofilter (in combination with @acronym{DCC}) on
24219 the mail server (@acronym{IMAP}). Recognized spam goes to
24220 @samp{spam.detected}, the rest goes through the normal filter rules,
24221 i.e. to @samp{some.folder} or to @samp{INBOX}. Training on false
24222 positives or negatives is done by copying or moving the article to
24223 @samp{training.ham} or @samp{training.spam} respectively. A cron job on
24224 the server feeds those to bogofilter with the suitable ham or spam
24225 options and deletes them from the @samp{training.ham} and
24226 @samp{training.spam} folders.
24228 With the following entries in @code{gnus-parameters}, @code{spam.el}
24229 does most of the job for me:
24232 ("nnimap:spam\\.detected"
24233 (gnus-article-sort-functions '(gnus-article-sort-by-chars))
24234 (ham-process-destination "nnimap:INBOX" "nnimap:training.ham")
24235 (spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-spam))
24236 ("nnimap:\\(INBOX\\|other-folders\\)"
24237 (spam-process-destination . "nnimap:training.spam")
24238 (spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-ham))
24243 @item @b{The Spam folder:}
24245 In the folder @samp{spam.detected}, I have to check for false positives
24246 (i.e. legitimate mails, that were wrongly judged as spam by
24247 bogofilter or DCC).
24249 Because of the @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-spam} entry, all
24250 messages are marked as spam (with @code{$}). When I find a false
24251 positive, I mark the message with some other ham mark
24252 (@code{ham-marks}, @ref{Spam and Ham Processors}). On group exit,
24253 those messages are copied to both groups, @samp{INBOX} (where I want
24254 to have the article) and @samp{training.ham} (for training bogofilter)
24255 and deleted from the @samp{spam.detected} folder.
24257 The @code{gnus-article-sort-by-chars} entry simplifies detection of
24258 false positives for me. I receive lots of worms (sweN, @dots{}), that all
24259 have a similar size. Grouping them by size (i.e. chars) makes finding
24260 other false positives easier. (Of course worms aren't @i{spam}
24261 (@acronym{UCE}, @acronym{UBE}) strictly speaking. Anyhow, bogofilter is
24262 an excellent tool for filtering those unwanted mails for me.)
24264 @item @b{Ham folders:}
24266 In my ham folders, I just hit @kbd{S x}
24267 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}) whenever I see an unrecognized spam
24268 mail (false negative). On group exit, those messages are moved to
24269 @samp{training.spam}.
24272 @subsubheading Reporting spam articles in Gmane groups with @code{spam-report.el}
24274 From Reiner Steib <reiner.steib@@gmx.de>.
24276 With following entry in @code{gnus-parameters}, @kbd{S x}
24277 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}) marks articles in @code{gmane.*}
24278 groups as spam and reports the to Gmane at group exit:
24282 (spam-process (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane)))
24285 Additionally, I use @code{(setq spam-report-gmane-use-article-number nil)}
24286 because I don't read the groups directly from news.gmane.org, but
24287 through my local news server (leafnode). I.e. the article numbers are
24288 not the same as on news.gmane.org, thus @code{spam-report.el} has to check
24289 the @code{X-Report-Spam} header to find the correct number.
24291 @node Spam Back Ends
24292 @subsection Spam Back Ends
24293 @cindex spam back ends
24295 The spam package offers a variety of back ends for detecting spam.
24296 Each back end defines a set of methods for detecting spam
24297 (@pxref{Filtering Incoming Mail}, @pxref{Detecting Spam in Groups}),
24298 and a pair of spam and ham processors (@pxref{Spam and Ham
24302 * Blacklists and Whitelists::
24303 * BBDB Whitelists::
24304 * Gmane Spam Reporting::
24305 * Anti-spam Hashcash Payments::
24307 * Regular Expressions Header Matching::
24309 * SpamAssassin back end::
24310 * ifile spam filtering::
24311 * Spam Statistics Filtering::
24315 @node Blacklists and Whitelists
24316 @subsubsection Blacklists and Whitelists
24317 @cindex spam filtering
24318 @cindex whitelists, spam filtering
24319 @cindex blacklists, spam filtering
24322 @defvar spam-use-blacklist
24324 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use blacklists when
24325 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are in the blacklist
24326 will be sent to the @code{spam-split-group}. This is an explicit
24327 filter, meaning that it acts only on mail senders @emph{declared} to
24332 @defvar spam-use-whitelist
24334 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists when
24335 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are not in the
24336 whitelist will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
24337 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the whitelist, their
24338 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
24342 @defvar spam-use-whitelist-exclusive
24344 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists as an
24345 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
24346 unless the sender is in the whitelist. Use with care.
24350 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist
24352 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24353 customizing the group parameters or the
24354 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24355 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
24356 spam-marked articles will be added to the blacklist.
24360 Instead of the obsolete
24361 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist}, it is recommended
24362 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-blacklist)}. Everything will work
24363 the same way, we promise.
24367 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-whitelist
24369 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24370 customizing the group parameters or the
24371 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24372 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
24373 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
24378 Instead of the obsolete
24379 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-whitelist}, it is recommended
24380 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-whitelist)}. Everything will work
24381 the same way, we promise.
24385 Blacklists are lists of regular expressions matching addresses you
24386 consider to be spam senders. For instance, to block mail from any
24387 sender at @samp{vmadmin.com}, you can put @samp{vmadmin.com} in your
24388 blacklist. You start out with an empty blacklist. Blacklist entries
24389 use the Emacs regular expression syntax.
24391 Conversely, whitelists tell Gnus what addresses are considered
24392 legitimate. All messages from whitelisted addresses are considered
24393 non-spam. Also see @ref{BBDB Whitelists}. Whitelist entries use the
24394 Emacs regular expression syntax.
24396 The blacklist and whitelist file locations can be customized with the
24397 @code{spam-directory} variable (@file{~/News/spam} by default), or
24398 the @code{spam-whitelist} and @code{spam-blacklist} variables
24399 directly. The whitelist and blacklist files will by default be in the
24400 @code{spam-directory} directory, named @file{whitelist} and
24401 @file{blacklist} respectively.
24403 @node BBDB Whitelists
24404 @subsubsection BBDB Whitelists
24405 @cindex spam filtering
24406 @cindex BBDB whitelists, spam filtering
24407 @cindex BBDB, spam filtering
24410 @defvar spam-use-BBDB
24412 Analogous to @code{spam-use-whitelist} (@pxref{Blacklists and
24413 Whitelists}), but uses the BBDB as the source of whitelisted
24414 addresses, without regular expressions. You must have the BBDB loaded
24415 for @code{spam-use-BBDB} to work properly. Messages whose senders are
24416 not in the BBDB will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
24417 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the BBDB, their
24418 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
24422 @defvar spam-use-BBDB-exclusive
24424 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use the BBDB as an
24425 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
24426 unless the sender is in the BBDB. Use with care. Only sender
24427 addresses in the BBDB will be allowed through; all others will be
24428 classified as spammers.
24430 While @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} @emph{can} be used as an alias
24431 for @code{spam-use-BBDB} as far as @code{spam.el} is concerned, it is
24432 @emph{not} a separate back end. If you set
24433 @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} to t, @emph{all} your BBDB splitting
24438 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-BBDB
24440 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24441 customizing the group parameters or the
24442 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24443 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
24444 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
24449 Instead of the obsolete
24450 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-BBDB}, it is recommended
24451 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-BBDB)}. Everything will work
24452 the same way, we promise.
24456 @node Gmane Spam Reporting
24457 @subsubsection Gmane Spam Reporting
24458 @cindex spam reporting
24459 @cindex Gmane, spam reporting
24460 @cindex Gmane, spam reporting
24463 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane
24465 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24466 customizing the group parameters or the
24467 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24468 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the spam-marked
24469 articles groups will be reported to the Gmane administrators via a
24472 Gmane can be found at @uref{http://gmane.org}.
24476 Instead of the obsolete
24477 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane}, it is recommended
24478 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-gmane)}. Everything will work the
24479 same way, we promise.
24483 @defvar spam-report-gmane-use-article-number
24485 This variable is @code{t} by default. Set it to @code{nil} if you are
24486 running your own news server, for instance, and the local article
24487 numbers don't correspond to the Gmane article numbers. When
24488 @code{spam-report-gmane-use-article-number} is @code{nil},
24489 @code{spam-report.el} will fetch the number from the article headers.
24493 @defvar spam-report-user-mail-address
24495 Mail address exposed in the User-Agent spam reports to Gmane. It allows
24496 the Gmane administrators to contact you in case of misreports. The
24497 default is @code{user-mail-address}.
24501 @node Anti-spam Hashcash Payments
24502 @subsubsection Anti-spam Hashcash Payments
24503 @cindex spam filtering
24504 @cindex hashcash, spam filtering
24507 @defvar spam-use-hashcash
24509 Similar to @code{spam-use-whitelist} (@pxref{Blacklists and
24510 Whitelists}), but uses hashcash tokens for whitelisting messages
24511 instead of the sender address. Messages without a hashcash payment
24512 token will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an explicit
24513 filter, meaning that unless a hashcash token is found, the messages
24514 are not assumed to be spam or ham.
24519 @subsubsection Blackholes
24520 @cindex spam filtering
24521 @cindex blackholes, spam filtering
24524 @defvar spam-use-blackholes
24526 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus consult the
24527 blackhole-type distributed spam processing systems (DCC, for instance)
24528 when you set this option. The variable @code{spam-blackhole-servers}
24529 holds the list of blackhole servers Gnus will consult. The current
24530 list is fairly comprehensive, but make sure to let us know if it
24531 contains outdated servers.
24533 The blackhole check uses the @code{dig.el} package, but you can tell
24534 @code{spam.el} to use @code{dns.el} instead for better performance if
24535 you set @code{spam-use-dig} to @code{nil}. It is not recommended at
24536 this time to set @code{spam-use-dig} to @code{nil} despite the
24537 possible performance improvements, because some users may be unable to
24538 use it, but you can try it and see if it works for you.
24542 @defvar spam-blackhole-servers
24544 The list of servers to consult for blackhole checks.
24548 @defvar spam-blackhole-good-server-regex
24550 A regular expression for IPs that should not be checked against the
24551 blackhole server list. When set to @code{nil}, it has no effect.
24555 @defvar spam-use-dig
24557 Use the @code{dig.el} package instead of the @code{dns.el} package.
24558 The default setting of @code{t} is recommended.
24562 Blackhole checks are done only on incoming mail. There is no spam or
24563 ham processor for blackholes.
24565 @node Regular Expressions Header Matching
24566 @subsubsection Regular Expressions Header Matching
24567 @cindex spam filtering
24568 @cindex regular expressions header matching, spam filtering
24571 @defvar spam-use-regex-headers
24573 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus check the
24574 message headers against lists of regular expressions when you set this
24575 option. The variables @code{spam-regex-headers-spam} and
24576 @code{spam-regex-headers-ham} hold the list of regular expressions.
24577 Gnus will check against the message headers to determine if the
24578 message is spam or ham, respectively.
24582 @defvar spam-regex-headers-spam
24584 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
24585 the message, positively identify it as spam.
24589 @defvar spam-regex-headers-ham
24591 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
24592 the message, positively identify it as ham.
24596 Regular expression header checks are done only on incoming mail.
24597 There is no specific spam or ham processor for regular expressions.
24600 @subsubsection Bogofilter
24601 @cindex spam filtering
24602 @cindex bogofilter, spam filtering
24605 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter
24607 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
24610 With a minimum of care for associating the @samp{$} mark for spam
24611 articles only, Bogofilter training all gets fairly automatic. You
24612 should do this until you get a few hundreds of articles in each
24613 category, spam or not. The command @kbd{S t} in summary mode, either
24614 for debugging or for curiosity, shows the @emph{spamicity} score of
24615 the current article (between 0.0 and 1.0).
24617 Bogofilter determines if a message is spam based on a specific
24618 threshold. That threshold can be customized, consult the Bogofilter
24621 If the @code{bogofilter} executable is not in your path, Bogofilter
24622 processing will be turned off.
24624 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}.
24633 @findex spam-bogofilter-score
24634 Get the Bogofilter spamicity score (@code{spam-bogofilter-score}).
24637 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter-headers
24639 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
24640 speedy Bogofilter, looking only at the message headers. It works
24641 similarly to @code{spam-use-bogofilter}, but the @code{X-Bogosity} header
24642 must be in the message already. Normally you would do this with a
24643 procmail recipe or something similar; consult the Bogofilter
24644 installation documents for details.
24646 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter}.
24650 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter
24651 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24652 customizing the group parameters or the
24653 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24654 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, spam-marked articles
24655 will be added to the Bogofilter spam database.
24659 Instead of the obsolete
24660 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter}, it is recommended
24661 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-bogofilter)}. Everything will work
24662 the same way, we promise.
24665 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter
24666 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24667 customizing the group parameters or the
24668 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24669 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
24670 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the Bogofilter database
24671 of non-spam messages.
24675 Instead of the obsolete
24676 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter}, it is recommended
24677 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-bogofilter)}. Everything will work
24678 the same way, we promise.
24681 @defvar spam-bogofilter-database-directory
24683 This is the directory where Bogofilter will store its databases. It
24684 is not specified by default, so Bogofilter will use its own default
24685 database directory.
24689 The Bogofilter mail classifier is similar to @command{ifile} in intent and
24690 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
24691 @code{spam-use-bogofilter} and @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}
24692 variables to indicate to spam-split that Bogofilter should either be
24693 used, or has already been used on the article. The 0.9.2.1 version of
24694 Bogofilter was used to test this functionality.
24696 @node SpamAssassin back end
24697 @subsubsection SpamAssassin back end
24698 @cindex spam filtering
24699 @cindex spamassassin, spam filtering
24702 @defvar spam-use-spamassassin
24704 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use SpamAssassin.
24706 SpamAssassin assigns a score to each article based on a set of rules
24707 and tests, including a Bayesian filter. The Bayesian filter can be
24708 trained by associating the @samp{$} mark for spam articles. The
24709 spam score can be viewed by using the command @kbd{S t} in summary
24712 If you set this variable, each article will be processed by
24713 SpamAssassin when @code{spam-split} is called. If your mail is
24714 preprocessed by SpamAssassin, and you want to just use the
24715 SpamAssassin headers, set @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers}
24718 You should not enable this if you use
24719 @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers}.
24723 @defvar spam-use-spamassassin-headers
24725 Set this variable if your mail is preprocessed by SpamAssassin and
24726 want @code{spam-split} to split based on the SpamAssassin headers.
24728 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-spamassassin}.
24732 @defvar spam-spamassassin-program
24734 This variable points to the SpamAssassin executable. If you have
24735 @code{spamd} running, you can set this variable to the @code{spamc}
24736 executable for faster processing. See the SpamAssassin documentation
24737 for more information on @code{spamd}/@code{spamc}.
24741 SpamAssassin is a powerful and flexible spam filter that uses a wide
24742 variety of tests to identify spam. A ham and a spam processors are
24743 provided, plus the @code{spam-use-spamassassin} and
24744 @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers} variables to indicate to
24745 spam-split that SpamAssassin should be either used, or has already
24746 been used on the article. The 2.63 version of SpamAssassin was used
24747 to test this functionality.
24749 @node ifile spam filtering
24750 @subsubsection ifile spam filtering
24751 @cindex spam filtering
24752 @cindex ifile, spam filtering
24755 @defvar spam-use-ifile
24757 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use @command{ifile}, a
24758 statistical analyzer similar to Bogofilter.
24762 @defvar spam-ifile-all-categories
24764 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-use-ifile} to give you all
24765 the ifile categories, not just spam/non-spam. If you use this, make
24766 sure you train ifile as described in its documentation.
24770 @defvar spam-ifile-spam-category
24772 This is the category of spam messages as far as ifile is concerned.
24773 The actual string used is irrelevant, but you probably want to leave
24774 the default value of @samp{spam}.
24777 @defvar spam-ifile-database
24779 This is the filename for the ifile database. It is not specified by
24780 default, so ifile will use its own default database name.
24784 The ifile mail classifier is similar to Bogofilter in intent and
24785 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
24786 @code{spam-use-ifile} variable to indicate to spam-split that ifile
24787 should be used. The 1.2.1 version of ifile was used to test this
24790 @node Spam Statistics Filtering
24791 @subsubsection Spam Statistics Filtering
24792 @cindex spam filtering
24793 @cindex spam-stat, spam filtering
24797 This back end uses the Spam Statistics Emacs Lisp package to perform
24798 statistics-based filtering (@pxref{Spam Statistics Package}). Before
24799 using this, you may want to perform some additional steps to
24800 initialize your Spam Statistics dictionary. @xref{Creating a
24801 spam-stat dictionary}.
24803 @defvar spam-use-stat
24807 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-stat
24808 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24809 customizing the group parameters or the
24810 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24811 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the spam-marked
24812 articles will be added to the spam-stat database of spam messages.
24816 Instead of the obsolete
24817 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-stat}, it is recommended
24818 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-stat)}. Everything will work
24819 the same way, we promise.
24822 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-stat
24823 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24824 customizing the group parameters or the
24825 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24826 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
24827 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the spam-stat database
24828 of non-spam messages.
24832 Instead of the obsolete
24833 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-stat}, it is recommended
24834 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-stat)}. Everything will work
24835 the same way, we promise.
24838 This enables @code{spam.el} to cooperate with @file{spam-stat.el}.
24839 @file{spam-stat.el} provides an internal (Lisp-only) spam database,
24840 which unlike ifile or Bogofilter does not require external programs.
24841 A spam and a ham processor, and the @code{spam-use-stat} variable for
24842 @code{spam-split} are provided.
24845 @subsubsection Using SpamOracle with Gnus
24846 @cindex spam filtering
24850 An easy way to filter out spam is to use SpamOracle. SpamOracle is an
24851 statistical mail filtering tool written by Xavier Leroy and needs to be
24852 installed separately.
24854 There are several ways to use SpamOracle with Gnus. In all cases, your
24855 mail is piped through SpamOracle in its @emph{mark} mode. SpamOracle will
24856 then enter an @samp{X-Spam} header indicating whether it regards the
24857 mail as a spam mail or not.
24859 One possibility is to run SpamOracle as a @code{:prescript} from the
24860 @xref{Mail Source Specifiers}, (@pxref{SpamAssassin}). This method has
24861 the advantage that the user can see the @emph{X-Spam} headers.
24863 The easiest method is to make @file{spam.el} (@pxref{Spam Package})
24866 @vindex spam-use-spamoracle
24867 To enable SpamOracle usage by @code{spam.el}, set the variable
24868 @code{spam-use-spamoracle} to @code{t} and configure the
24869 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or @code{nnimap-split-fancy}. @xref{Spam
24870 Package}. In this example the @samp{INBOX} of an nnimap server is
24871 filtered using SpamOracle. Mails recognized as spam mails will be
24872 moved to @code{spam-split-group}, @samp{Junk} in this case. Ham
24873 messages stay in @samp{INBOX}:
24876 (setq spam-use-spamoracle t
24877 spam-split-group "Junk"
24878 nnimap-split-inbox '("INBOX")
24879 nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
24880 nnimap-split-fancy '(| (: spam-split) "INBOX"))
24883 @defvar spam-use-spamoracle
24884 Set to @code{t} if you want Gnus to enable spam filtering using
24888 @defvar spam-spamoracle-binary
24889 Gnus uses the SpamOracle binary called @file{spamoracle} found in the
24890 user's PATH. Using the variable @code{spam-spamoracle-binary}, this
24894 @defvar spam-spamoracle-database
24895 By default, SpamOracle uses the file @file{~/.spamoracle.db} as a database to
24896 store its analysis. This is controlled by the variable
24897 @code{spam-spamoracle-database} which defaults to @code{nil}. That means
24898 the default SpamOracle database will be used. In case you want your
24899 database to live somewhere special, set
24900 @code{spam-spamoracle-database} to this path.
24903 SpamOracle employs a statistical algorithm to determine whether a
24904 message is spam or ham. In order to get good results, meaning few
24905 false hits or misses, SpamOracle needs training. SpamOracle learns
24906 the characteristics of your spam mails. Using the @emph{add} mode
24907 (training mode) one has to feed good (ham) and spam mails to
24908 SpamOracle. This can be done by pressing @kbd{|} in the Summary
24909 buffer and pipe the mail to a SpamOracle process or using
24910 @file{spam.el}'s spam- and ham-processors, which is much more
24911 convenient. For a detailed description of spam- and ham-processors,
24912 @xref{Spam Package}.
24914 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-spamoracle
24915 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24916 customizing the group parameter or the
24917 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is added
24918 to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, spam-marked articles will be
24919 sent to SpamOracle as spam samples.
24923 Instead of the obsolete
24924 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-spamoracle}, it is recommended
24925 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-spamoracle)}. Everything will work
24926 the same way, we promise.
24929 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-spamoracle
24930 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24931 customizing the group parameter or the
24932 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is added
24933 to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked articles in
24934 @emph{ham} groups will be sent to the SpamOracle as samples of ham
24939 Instead of the obsolete
24940 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-spamoracle}, it is recommended
24941 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-spamoracle)}. Everything will work
24942 the same way, we promise.
24945 @emph{Example:} These are the Group Parameters of a group that has been
24946 classified as a ham group, meaning that it should only contain ham
24949 ((spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-ham)
24950 (spam-process ((ham spam-use-spamoracle)
24951 (spam spam-use-spamoracle))))
24953 For this group the @code{spam-use-spamoracle} is installed for both
24954 ham and spam processing. If the group contains spam message
24955 (e.g. because SpamOracle has not had enough sample messages yet) and
24956 the user marks some messages as spam messages, these messages will be
24957 processed by SpamOracle. The processor sends the messages to
24958 SpamOracle as new samples for spam.
24960 @node Extending the Spam package
24961 @subsection Extending the Spam package
24962 @cindex spam filtering
24963 @cindex spam elisp package, extending
24964 @cindex extending the spam elisp package
24966 Say you want to add a new back end called blackbox. For filtering
24967 incoming mail, provide the following:
24975 (defvar spam-use-blackbox nil
24976 "True if blackbox should be used.")
24979 Write @code{spam-check-blackbox} if Blackbox can check incoming mail.
24981 Write @code{spam-blackbox-register-routine} and
24982 @code{spam-blackbox-unregister-routine} using the bogofilter
24983 register/unregister routines as a start, or other restister/unregister
24984 routines more appropriate to Blackbox, if Blackbox can
24985 register/unregister spam and ham.
24990 The @code{spam-check-blackbox} function should return @samp{nil} or
24991 @code{spam-split-group}, observing the other conventions. See the
24992 existing @code{spam-check-*} functions for examples of what you can
24993 do, and stick to the template unless you fully understand the reasons
24998 For processing spam and ham messages, provide the following:
25005 Note you don't have to provide a spam or a ham processor. Only
25006 provide them if Blackbox supports spam or ham processing.
25008 Also, ham and spam processors are being phased out as single
25009 variables. Instead the form @code{(spam spam-use-blackbox)} or
25010 @code{(ham spam-use-blackbox)} is favored. For now, spam/ham
25011 processor variables are still around but they won't be for long.
25014 (defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox-spam"
25015 "The Blackbox summary exit spam processor.
25016 Only applicable to spam groups.")
25018 (defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox-ham"
25019 "The whitelist summary exit ham processor.
25020 Only applicable to non-spam (unclassified and ham) groups.")
25029 (const :tag "Spam: Blackbox" (spam spam-use-blackbox))
25030 (const :tag "Ham: Blackbox" (ham spam-use-blackbox))
25032 to the @code{spam-process} group parameter in @code{gnus.el}. Make
25033 sure you do it twice, once for the parameter and once for the
25034 variable customization.
25038 (variable-item spam-use-blackbox)
25040 to the @code{spam-autodetect-methods} group parameter in
25041 @code{gnus.el} if Blackbox can check incoming mail for spam contents.
25043 Finally, use the appropriate @code{spam-install-*-backend} function in
25044 @code{spam.el}. Here are the available functions.
25050 @code{spam-install-backend-alias}
25052 This function will simply install an alias for a back end that does
25053 everything like the original back end. It is currently only used to
25054 make @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} act like @code{spam-use-BBDB}.
25057 @code{spam-install-nocheck-backend}
25059 This function installs a back end that has no check function, but can
25060 register/unregister ham or spam. The @code{spam-use-gmane} back end is
25064 @code{spam-install-checkonly-backend}
25066 This function will install a back end that can only check incoming mail
25067 for spam contents. It can't register or unregister messages.
25068 @code{spam-use-blackholes} and @code{spam-use-hashcash} are such
25072 @code{spam-install-statistical-checkonly-backend}
25074 This function installs a statistical back end (one which requires the
25075 full body of a message to check it) that can only check incoming mail
25076 for contents. @code{spam-use-regex-body} is such a filter.
25079 @code{spam-install-statistical-backend}
25081 This function install a statistical back end with incoming checks and
25082 registration/unregistration routines. @code{spam-use-bogofilter} is
25086 @code{spam-install-backend}
25088 This is the most normal back end installation, where a back end that can
25089 check and register/unregister messages is set up without statistical
25090 abilities. The @code{spam-use-BBDB} is such a back end.
25093 @code{spam-install-mover-backend}
25095 Mover back ends are internal to @code{spam.el} and specifically move
25096 articles around when the summary is exited. You will very probably
25097 never install such a back end.
25102 @node Spam Statistics Package
25103 @subsection Spam Statistics Package
25104 @cindex Paul Graham
25105 @cindex Graham, Paul
25106 @cindex naive Bayesian spam filtering
25107 @cindex Bayesian spam filtering, naive
25108 @cindex spam filtering, naive Bayesian
25110 Paul Graham has written an excellent essay about spam filtering using
25111 statistics: @uref{http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html,A Plan for
25112 Spam}. In it he describes the inherent deficiency of rule-based
25113 filtering as used by SpamAssassin, for example: Somebody has to write
25114 the rules, and everybody else has to install these rules. You are
25115 always late. It would be much better, he argues, to filter mail based
25116 on whether it somehow resembles spam or non-spam. One way to measure
25117 this is word distribution. He then goes on to describe a solution
25118 that checks whether a new mail resembles any of your other spam mails
25121 The basic idea is this: Create a two collections of your mail, one
25122 with spam, one with non-spam. Count how often each word appears in
25123 either collection, weight this by the total number of mails in the
25124 collections, and store this information in a dictionary. For every
25125 word in a new mail, determine its probability to belong to a spam or a
25126 non-spam mail. Use the 15 most conspicuous words, compute the total
25127 probability of the mail being spam. If this probability is higher
25128 than a certain threshold, the mail is considered to be spam.
25130 The Spam Statistics package adds support to Gnus for this kind of
25131 filtering. It can be used as one of the back ends of the Spam package
25132 (@pxref{Spam Package}), or by itself.
25134 Before using the Spam Statistics package, you need to set it up.
25135 First, you need two collections of your mail, one with spam, one with
25136 non-spam. Then you need to create a dictionary using these two
25137 collections, and save it. And last but not least, you need to use
25138 this dictionary in your fancy mail splitting rules.
25141 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
25142 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
25143 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
25146 @node Creating a spam-stat dictionary
25147 @subsubsection Creating a spam-stat dictionary
25149 Before you can begin to filter spam based on statistics, you must
25150 create these statistics based on two mail collections, one with spam,
25151 one with non-spam. These statistics are then stored in a dictionary
25152 for later use. In order for these statistics to be meaningful, you
25153 need several hundred emails in both collections.
25155 Gnus currently supports only the nnml back end for automated dictionary
25156 creation. The nnml back end stores all mails in a directory, one file
25157 per mail. Use the following:
25159 @defun spam-stat-process-spam-directory
25160 Create spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every file
25161 is treated as one spam mail.
25164 @defun spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory
25165 Create non-spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every
25166 file is treated as one non-spam mail.
25169 Usually you would call @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory} on a
25170 directory such as @file{~/Mail/mail/spam} (this usually corresponds to
25171 the group @samp{nnml:mail.spam}), and you would call
25172 @code{spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory} on a directory such as
25173 @file{~/Mail/mail/misc} (this usually corresponds to the group
25174 @samp{nnml:mail.misc}).
25176 When you are using @acronym{IMAP}, you won't have the mails available
25177 locally, so that will not work. One solution is to use the Gnus Agent
25178 to cache the articles. Then you can use directories such as
25179 @file{"~/News/agent/nnimap/mail.yourisp.com/personal_spam"} for
25180 @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory}. @xref{Agent as Cache}.
25183 This variable holds the hash-table with all the statistics---the
25184 dictionary we have been talking about. For every word in either
25185 collection, this hash-table stores a vector describing how often the
25186 word appeared in spam and often it appeared in non-spam mails.
25189 If you want to regenerate the statistics from scratch, you need to
25190 reset the dictionary.
25192 @defun spam-stat-reset
25193 Reset the @code{spam-stat} hash-table, deleting all the statistics.
25196 When you are done, you must save the dictionary. The dictionary may
25197 be rather large. If you will not update the dictionary incrementally
25198 (instead, you will recreate it once a month, for example), then you
25199 can reduce the size of the dictionary by deleting all words that did
25200 not appear often enough or that do not clearly belong to only spam or
25201 only non-spam mails.
25203 @defun spam-stat-reduce-size
25204 Reduce the size of the dictionary. Use this only if you do not want
25205 to update the dictionary incrementally.
25208 @defun spam-stat-save
25209 Save the dictionary.
25212 @defvar spam-stat-file
25213 The filename used to store the dictionary. This defaults to
25214 @file{~/.spam-stat.el}.
25217 @node Splitting mail using spam-stat
25218 @subsubsection Splitting mail using spam-stat
25220 This section describes how to use the Spam statistics
25221 @emph{independently} of the @xref{Spam Package}.
25223 First, add the following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
25226 (require 'spam-stat)
25230 This will load the necessary Gnus code, and the dictionary you
25233 Next, you need to adapt your fancy splitting rules: You need to
25234 determine how to use @code{spam-stat}. The following examples are for
25235 the nnml back end. Using the nnimap back end works just as well. Just
25236 use @code{nnimap-split-fancy} instead of @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
25238 In the simplest case, you only have two groups, @samp{mail.misc} and
25239 @samp{mail.spam}. The following expression says that mail is either
25240 spam or it should go into @samp{mail.misc}. If it is spam, then
25241 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will return @samp{mail.spam}.
25244 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
25245 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
25249 @defvar spam-stat-split-fancy-spam-group
25250 The group to use for spam. Default is @samp{mail.spam}.
25253 If you also filter mail with specific subjects into other groups, use
25254 the following expression. Only mails not matching the regular
25255 expression are considered potential spam.
25258 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
25259 `(| ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
25260 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
25264 If you want to filter for spam first, then you must be careful when
25265 creating the dictionary. Note that @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} must
25266 consider both mails in @samp{mail.emacs} and in @samp{mail.misc} as
25267 non-spam, therefore both should be in your collection of non-spam
25268 mails, when creating the dictionary!
25271 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
25272 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
25273 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
25277 You can combine this with traditional filtering. Here, we move all
25278 HTML-only mails into the @samp{mail.spam.filtered} group. Note that since
25279 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will never see them, the mails in
25280 @samp{mail.spam.filtered} should be neither in your collection of spam mails,
25281 nor in your collection of non-spam mails, when creating the
25285 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
25286 `(| ("Content-Type" "text/html" "mail.spam.filtered")
25287 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
25288 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
25293 @node Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
25294 @subsubsection Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
25296 The main interface to using @code{spam-stat}, are the following functions:
25298 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-spam
25299 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new spam mail.
25300 Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
25303 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-no-spam
25304 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new non-spam
25305 mail. Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
25308 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-spam
25309 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be normal
25310 mail but spam. Use this to change the status of a mail that has
25311 already been processed as non-spam.
25314 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-non-spam
25315 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be spam but
25316 normal mail. Use this to change the status of a mail that has already
25317 been processed as spam.
25320 @defun spam-stat-save
25321 Save the hash table to the file. The filename used is stored in the
25322 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
25325 @defun spam-stat-load
25326 Load the hash table from a file. The filename used is stored in the
25327 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
25330 @defun spam-stat-score-word
25331 Return the spam score for a word.
25334 @defun spam-stat-score-buffer
25335 Return the spam score for a buffer.
25338 @defun spam-stat-split-fancy
25339 Use this function for fancy mail splitting. Add the rule @samp{(:
25340 spam-stat-split-fancy)} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
25343 Make sure you load the dictionary before using it. This requires the
25344 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
25347 (require 'spam-stat)
25351 Typical test will involve calls to the following functions:
25354 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
25355 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
25356 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
25357 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
25358 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
25359 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
25360 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
25361 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
25362 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
25363 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
25364 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
25365 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
25366 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
25367 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
25370 Here is how you would create your dictionary:
25373 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
25374 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
25375 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
25376 Repeat for any other non-spam group you need...
25377 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
25378 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
25382 @section Interaction with other modes
25387 @code{gnus-dired-minor-mode} provides some useful functions for dired
25388 buffers. It is enabled with
25390 (add-hook 'dired-mode-hook 'turn-on-gnus-dired-mode)
25395 @findex gnus-dired-attach
25396 @cindex attachments, selection via dired
25397 Send dired's marked files as an attachment (@code{gnus-dired-attach}).
25398 You will be prompted for a message buffer.
25401 @findex gnus-dired-find-file-mailcap
25402 Visit a file according to the appropriate mailcap entry
25403 (@code{gnus-dired-find-file-mailcap}). With prefix, open file in a new
25407 @findex gnus-dired-print
25408 Print file according to the mailcap entry (@code{gnus-dired-print}). If
25409 there is no print command, print in a PostScript image.
25412 @node Various Various
25413 @section Various Various
25419 @item gnus-home-directory
25420 @vindex gnus-home-directory
25421 All Gnus file and directory variables will be initialized from this
25422 variable, which defaults to @file{~/}.
25424 @item gnus-directory
25425 @vindex gnus-directory
25426 Most Gnus storage file and directory variables will be initialized from
25427 this variable, which defaults to the @env{SAVEDIR} environment
25428 variable, or @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
25430 Note that Gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{~/.gnus.el} file is read.
25431 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
25432 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
25433 @file{~/.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
25435 @item gnus-default-directory
25436 @vindex gnus-default-directory
25437 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
25438 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
25439 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
25440 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
25441 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
25442 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
25445 @vindex gnus-verbose
25446 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
25447 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
25448 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
25449 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
25450 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
25452 @item gnus-verbose-backends
25453 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
25454 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
25455 to the Gnus back ends instead of Gnus proper.
25457 @item nnheader-max-head-length
25458 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
25459 When the back ends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
25460 as little as possible. This variable (default 8192) specifies
25461 the absolute max length the back ends will try to read before giving up
25462 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
25463 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
25464 @code{t}, the back ends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
25465 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
25466 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
25468 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
25469 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
25470 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
25471 read when doing the operation described above.
25473 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
25474 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
25476 @cindex invalid characters in file names
25477 @cindex characters in file names
25478 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
25479 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
25480 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
25484 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
25489 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
25490 Windows (phooey) systems.
25492 @item gnus-hidden-properties
25493 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
25494 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
25495 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
25496 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
25498 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
25499 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
25500 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
25501 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
25502 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
25504 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
25505 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
25506 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
25508 @item gnus-invalid-group-regexp
25509 @vindex gnus-invalid-group-regexp
25511 Regexp to match ``invalid'' group names when querying user for a group
25512 name. The default value catches some @strong{really} invalid group
25513 names who could possibly mess up Gnus internally (like allowing
25514 @samp{:} in a group name, which is normally used to delimit method and
25517 @acronym{IMAP} users might want to allow @samp{/} in group names though.
25525 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
25526 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
25528 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
25530 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
25536 Not because of victories @*
25539 but for the common sunshine,@*
25541 the largess of the spring.
25545 but for the day's work done@*
25546 as well as I was able;@*
25547 not for a seat upon the dais@*
25548 but at the common table.@*
25553 @chapter Appendices
25556 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
25557 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
25558 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
25559 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
25560 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
25561 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
25562 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
25563 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
25564 * Frequently Asked Questions:: The Gnus FAQ
25571 @cindex installing under XEmacs
25573 XEmacs is distributed as a collection of packages. You should install
25574 whatever packages the Gnus XEmacs package requires. The current
25575 requirements are @samp{gnus}, @samp{mail-lib}, @samp{xemacs-base},
25576 @samp{eterm}, @samp{sh-script}, @samp{net-utils}, @samp{os-utils},
25577 @samp{dired}, @samp{mh-e}, @samp{sieve}, @samp{ps-print}, @samp{W3},
25578 @samp{pgg}, @samp{mailcrypt}, @samp{ecrypto}, and @samp{sasl}.
25585 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
25586 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
25588 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage,
25589 you can point your (feh!) web browser to
25590 @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/}. This is also the primary
25591 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is
25592 known as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
25594 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
25595 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
25596 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
25597 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
25598 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
25599 appropriate name, don't you think?)
25601 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
25602 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
25603 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
25604 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
25607 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
25608 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
25609 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
25610 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
25611 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
25612 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
25613 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
25614 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
25615 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
25619 @node Gnus Versions
25620 @subsection Gnus Versions
25622 @cindex September Gnus
25624 @cindex Quassia Gnus
25625 @cindex Pterodactyl Gnus
25628 @cindex Gnus versions
25630 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
25631 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
25632 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
25634 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
25635 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
25637 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
25638 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4'' (67 releases).
25640 On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37 releases.
25641 It was released as ``Gnus 5.6'' on March 8th 1998 (46 releases).
25643 Gnus 5.6 begat Pterodactyl Gnus on August 29th 1998 and was released as
25644 ``Gnus 5.8'' (after 99 releases and a CVS repository) on December 3rd
25647 On the 26th of October 2000, Oort Gnus was begun and was released as
25648 Gnus 5.10 on May 1st 2003 (24 releases).
25650 On the January 4th 2004, No Gnus was begun.
25652 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name --
25653 ``(ding) Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'',
25654 ``Pterodactyl Gnus'', ``Oort Gnus'', ``No Gnus'' -- don't panic.
25655 Don't let it know that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly. Whatever
25656 you do, don't run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its reach.
25657 Find a proper released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that instead.
25660 @node Other Gnus Versions
25661 @subsection Other Gnus Versions
25664 In addition to the versions of Gnus which have had their releases
25665 coordinated by Lars, one major development has been Semi-gnus from
25666 Japan. It's based on a library called @acronym{SEMI}, which provides
25667 @acronym{MIME} capabilities.
25669 These Gnusae are based mainly on Gnus 5.6 and Pterodactyl Gnus.
25670 Collectively, they are called ``Semi-gnus'', and different strains are
25671 called T-gnus, ET-gnus, Nana-gnus and Chaos. These provide powerful
25672 @acronym{MIME} and multilingualization things, especially important for
25679 What's the point of Gnus?
25681 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
25682 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
25683 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
25684 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
25685 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
25686 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
25687 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
25688 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
25689 keep track of millions of people who post?
25691 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
25692 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
25693 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
25694 to separate the newsreader from the back ends, Gnus now offers a simple
25695 interface for anybody who wants to write new back ends for fetching mail
25696 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
25697 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
25698 every one of you to explore and invent.
25700 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
25701 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
25704 @node Compatibility
25705 @subsection Compatibility
25707 @cindex compatibility
25708 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
25709 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
25710 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
25715 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
25719 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
25722 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
25725 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
25726 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
25727 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
25728 important variables have their values copied into their global
25729 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
25730 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
25732 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
25733 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
25734 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
25735 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
25736 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
25740 @cindex highlighting
25741 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
25742 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
25743 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
25744 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
25745 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
25746 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
25749 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
25750 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
25751 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
25752 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
25754 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
25755 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
25756 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
25757 to stop doing it the old way.
25759 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
25761 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
25763 @cindex reporting bugs
25765 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
25766 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
25767 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
25769 @vindex gnus-bug-create-help-buffer
25770 If you are in the habit of sending bug reports @emph{very} often, you
25771 may find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
25772 @code{gnus-bug-create-help-buffer} to @code{nil} to avoid having it pop
25777 @subsection Conformity
25779 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
25780 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
25788 There are no known breaches of this standard.
25792 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
25794 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
25795 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
25796 We do have some breaches to this one.
25802 These are considered to be ``vanity headers'', while I consider them
25803 to be consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted
25804 articles coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use
25805 either of those for posting articles. I would not have known that if
25806 it wasn't for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
25811 USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036, based
25812 on Son-of-RFC 1036. They have produced a number of drafts proposing
25813 various changes to the format of news articles. The Gnus towers will
25814 look into implementing the changes when the draft is accepted as an RFC.
25816 @item MIME - RFC 2045-2049 etc
25817 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
25818 All the various @acronym{MIME} RFCs are supported.
25820 @item Disposition Notifications - RFC 2298
25821 Message Mode is able to request notifications from the receiver.
25823 @item PGP - RFC 1991 and RFC 2440
25826 RFC 1991 is the original @acronym{PGP} message specification,
25827 published as an informational RFC. RFC 2440 was the follow-up, now
25828 called Open PGP, and put on the Standards Track. Both document a
25829 non-@acronym{MIME} aware @acronym{PGP} format. Gnus supports both
25830 encoding (signing and encryption) and decoding (verification and
25833 @item PGP/MIME - RFC 2015/3156
25834 RFC 2015 (superseded by 3156 which references RFC 2440 instead of RFC
25835 1991) describes the @acronym{MIME}-wrapping around the RFC 1991/2440 format.
25836 Gnus supports both encoding and decoding.
25838 @item S/MIME - RFC 2633
25839 RFC 2633 describes the @acronym{S/MIME} format.
25841 @item IMAP - RFC 1730/2060, RFC 2195, RFC 2086, RFC 2359, RFC 2595, RFC 1731
25842 RFC 1730 is @acronym{IMAP} version 4, updated somewhat by RFC 2060
25843 (@acronym{IMAP} 4 revision 1). RFC 2195 describes CRAM-MD5
25844 authentication for @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 2086 describes access control
25845 lists (ACLs) for @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 2359 describes a @acronym{IMAP}
25846 protocol enhancement. RFC 2595 describes the proper @acronym{TLS}
25847 integration (STARTTLS) with @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 1731 describes the
25848 GSSAPI/Kerberos4 mechanisms for @acronym{IMAP}.
25852 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
25853 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
25858 @subsection Emacsen
25864 Gnus should work on:
25872 XEmacs 21.4 and up.
25876 This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
25877 that. Not reliably, at least. Older versions of Gnus may work on older
25878 Emacs versions. Particularly, Gnus 5.10.8 should also work on Emacs
25879 20.7 and XEmacs 21.1.
25881 There are some vague differences between Gnus on the various
25882 platforms---XEmacs features more graphics (a logo and a toolbar)---but
25883 other than that, things should look pretty much the same under all
25887 @node Gnus Development
25888 @subsection Gnus Development
25890 Gnus is developed in a two-phased cycle. The first phase involves much
25891 discussion on the @samp{ding@@gnus.org} mailing list, where people
25892 propose changes and new features, post patches and new back ends. This
25893 phase is called the @dfn{alpha} phase, since the Gnusae released in this
25894 phase are @dfn{alpha releases}, or (perhaps more commonly in other
25895 circles) @dfn{snapshots}. During this phase, Gnus is assumed to be
25896 unstable and should not be used by casual users. Gnus alpha releases
25897 have names like ``Red Gnus'' and ``Quassia Gnus''.
25899 After futzing around for 50-100 alpha releases, Gnus is declared
25900 @dfn{frozen}, and only bug fixes are applied. Gnus loses the prefix,
25901 and is called things like ``Gnus 5.6.32'' instead. Normal people are
25902 supposed to be able to use these, and these are mostly discussed on the
25903 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} newsgroup.
25906 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
25907 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae.
25908 In particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} defaults to @code{nil} in
25909 alpha Gnusae and @code{t} in released Gnusae. This is to prevent
25910 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
25912 The division of discussion between the ding mailing list and the Gnus
25913 newsgroup is not purely based on publicity concerns. It's true that
25914 having people write about the horrible things that an alpha Gnus release
25915 can do (sometimes) in a public forum may scare people off, but more
25916 importantly, talking about new experimental features that have been
25917 introduced may confuse casual users. New features are frequently
25918 introduced, fiddled with, and judged to be found wanting, and then
25919 either discarded or totally rewritten. People reading the mailing list
25920 usually keep up with these rapid changes, while people on the newsgroup
25921 can't be assumed to do so.
25926 @subsection Contributors
25927 @cindex contributors
25929 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
25930 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
25931 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
25932 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
25933 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
25934 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
25935 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
25936 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
25937 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
25938 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
25940 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for@dots{} oops,
25946 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
25949 Shenghuo Zhu---uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el, webmail.el,
25950 nnwarchive and many, many other things connected with @acronym{MIME} and
25951 other types of en/decoding, as well as general bug fixing, new
25952 functionality and stuff.
25955 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
25956 well as numerous other things).
25959 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
25962 Joe Reiss---creator of the smiley faces.
25965 Justin Sheehy---the @acronym{FAQ} maintainer.
25968 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
25971 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
25972 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
25975 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
25978 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section.
25981 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
25984 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
25987 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and fixes.
25990 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
25993 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
25994 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
25997 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
26000 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
26003 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
26006 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
26010 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
26013 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
26016 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
26019 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
26020 well as autoconf support.
26024 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
26025 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
26027 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
26042 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
26044 Katsumi Yamaoka, @c Yamaoka
26048 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
26058 Alexei V. Barantsev,
26073 Massimo Campostrini,
26078 Jae-you Chung, @c ?
26079 James H. Cloos, Jr.,
26083 Andrew J. Cosgriff,
26086 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
26092 Michael Welsh Duggan,
26097 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
26101 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
26109 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
26111 Michelangelo Grigni,
26115 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
26117 Yoshiki Hayashi, @c Hayashi
26119 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
26126 Fran@,{c}ois Felix Ingrand,
26127 Tatsuya Ichikawa, @c Ichikawa
26128 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
26130 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
26140 Peter Skov Knudsen,
26141 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
26143 Koseki Yoshinori, @c Koseki
26144 Thor Kristoffersen,
26147 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
26165 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
26166 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
26173 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
26178 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
26182 John McClary Prevost,
26188 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
26193 Christian von Roques,
26196 Wolfgang Rupprecht,
26203 Philippe Schnoebelen,
26205 Randal L. Schwartz,
26219 Kiyokazu Suto, @c Suto
26224 Tozawa Akihiko, @c Tozawa
26244 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
26245 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
26246 (550kB and counting).
26248 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
26251 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
26252 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
26256 @subsection New Features
26257 @cindex new features
26260 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
26261 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
26262 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
26263 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
26264 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
26265 * Oort Gnus:: It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10/5.11.
26266 * No Gnus:: Very punny.
26269 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
26270 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
26271 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
26274 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
26276 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
26281 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
26282 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
26285 Local spool and several @acronym{NNTP} servers can be used at once
26286 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
26289 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
26292 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
26293 All the mail back ends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
26294 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
26297 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
26298 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
26299 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
26300 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
26303 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
26304 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
26307 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
26308 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
26309 (@pxref{The Active File}).
26312 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
26313 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
26316 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
26317 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
26318 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
26321 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
26322 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
26323 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
26326 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{~/.gnus.el}) to avoid
26327 cluttering up the @file{.emacs} file.
26330 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
26331 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
26334 You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
26335 results (@pxref{Kibozed Groups}).
26338 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
26339 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
26342 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
26343 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
26346 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
26347 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
26350 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
26353 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
26354 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
26357 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
26358 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
26361 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
26362 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
26365 Gnus can fetch @acronym{FAQ}s and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
26368 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
26369 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
26372 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
26376 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
26380 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
26381 configuration (@pxref{Window Layout}).
26384 You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard
26390 @node September Gnus
26391 @subsubsection September Gnus
26395 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/september,height=20cm}}
26399 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
26404 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
26405 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
26409 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
26410 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
26414 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
26418 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
26419 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
26422 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
26426 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions.
26429 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
26432 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
26435 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
26439 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
26440 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
26443 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
26447 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
26451 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
26455 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
26459 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
26462 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
26463 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
26466 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
26470 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
26471 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
26474 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
26477 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
26478 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
26479 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
26482 Gnus has a new back end (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets
26486 The Gnus cache is much faster.
26489 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
26493 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
26494 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
26497 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
26498 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
26501 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
26502 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
26505 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
26506 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
26507 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
26510 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
26511 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
26514 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
26517 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
26520 All mail back ends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
26523 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
26526 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
26527 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
26530 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Window
26534 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
26537 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}}
26542 Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (@pxref{NoCeM}).
26545 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
26549 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
26552 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
26556 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
26559 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
26562 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
26563 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
26566 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
26567 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
26571 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
26572 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
26575 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
26579 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
26580 buffer to allow easier treatment.
26583 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
26586 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
26590 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
26594 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
26595 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
26598 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
26602 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
26603 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
26606 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
26607 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
26610 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
26614 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
26617 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
26620 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
26626 @subsubsection Red Gnus
26628 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
26632 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/red,height=20cm}}
26639 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
26642 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
26643 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
26646 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
26647 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
26651 Article washing status can be displayed in the
26652 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
26655 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
26658 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
26659 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
26662 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
26666 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
26667 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
26671 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extendable (@pxref{Document
26672 Server Internals}).
26675 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
26679 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
26682 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
26683 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
26686 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
26687 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
26688 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
26691 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
26692 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
26695 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
26696 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
26699 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{C-M-_}
26703 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
26704 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
26707 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
26708 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
26711 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
26715 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
26718 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
26722 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
26723 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
26726 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
26727 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
26730 A new command for reading collections of documents
26731 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{C-M-d}
26732 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
26735 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
26739 A new mail-to-news back end makes it possible to post even when the @acronym{NNTP}
26740 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
26743 A new back end for reading searches from Web search engines
26744 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
26745 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
26748 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
26749 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
26753 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
26757 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
26761 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}}
26766 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
26770 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
26774 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
26775 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
26778 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
26784 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
26786 New features in Gnus 5.6:
26791 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
26792 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added.
26793 @xref{Gnus Unplugged}, for the full story.
26796 The @code{nndraft} back end has returned, but works differently than
26797 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
26798 group, which is created automatically.
26801 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
26805 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-ID's.
26808 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
26809 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
26812 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
26816 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
26819 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
26820 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
26823 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
26826 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. @xref{Symbolic Prefixes}, for
26830 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
26831 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the @file{all.SCORE} file.
26834 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
26835 control over simplification.
26838 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
26841 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
26845 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
26848 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
26851 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
26852 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
26853 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
26856 Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
26857 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
26860 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
26864 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
26865 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
26868 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
26869 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @acronym{NNTP} servers.
26872 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
26876 A history of where mails have been split is available.
26879 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
26882 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
26883 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
26886 A new function for citing in Message has been
26887 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
26890 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
26893 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
26897 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
26898 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
26901 The ``lapsed date'' article header can be kept continually
26902 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
26905 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} back end.
26908 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
26912 @node Pterodactyl Gnus
26913 @subsubsection Pterodactyl Gnus
26915 New features in Gnus 5.8:
26920 The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
26921 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
26923 If you used procmail like in
26926 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
26927 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
26928 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
26929 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
26932 this now has changed to
26936 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
26940 @xref{Mail Source Specifiers}.
26943 Gnus is now a @acronym{MIME}-capable reader. This affects many parts of
26944 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
26947 Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too
26948 many parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
26951 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} can now be a function to be
26952 called to position point.
26955 The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
26956 summary buffers and @acronym{NOV} files.
26959 @code{gnus-article-display-hook} has been removed. Instead, a number
26960 of variables starting with @code{gnus-treat-} have been added.
26963 The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now works in a
26964 subtly different manner.
26967 New web-based back ends have been added: @code{nnslashdot},
26968 @code{nnwarchive} and @code{nnultimate}. nnweb has been revamped,
26969 again, to keep up with ever-changing layouts.
26972 Gnus can now read @acronym{IMAP} mail via @code{nnimap}.
26977 @subsubsection Oort Gnus
26980 New features in Gnus 5.10:
26984 @item Installation changes
26985 @c ***********************
26989 Upgrading from previous (stable) version if you have used Oort.
26991 If you have tried Oort (the unstable Gnus branch leading to this
26992 release) but went back to a stable version, be careful when upgrading to
26993 this version. In particular, you will probably want to remove all
26994 @file{.marks} (nnml) and @file{.mrk} (nnfolder) files, so that flags are
26995 read from your @file{.newsrc.eld} instead of from the
26996 @file{.marks}/@file{.mrk} file where this release store flags. See a
26997 later entry for more information about marks. Note that downgrading
26998 isn't save in general.
27001 Lisp files are now installed in @file{.../site-lisp/gnus/} by default.
27002 It defaulted to @file{.../site-lisp/} formerly. In addition to this,
27003 the new installer issues a warning if other Gnus installations which
27004 will shadow the latest one are detected. You can then remove those
27005 shadows manually or remove them using @code{make
27006 remove-installed-shadows}.
27009 New @file{make.bat} for compiling and installing Gnus under MS Windows
27011 Use @file{make.bat} if you want to install Gnus under MS Windows, the
27012 first argument to the batch-program should be the directory where
27013 @file{xemacs.exe} respectively @file{emacs.exe} is located, iff you want
27014 to install Gnus after compiling it, give @file{make.bat} @code{/copy} as
27015 the second parameter.
27017 @file{make.bat} has been rewritten from scratch, it now features
27018 automatic recognition of XEmacs and GNU Emacs, generates
27019 @file{gnus-load.el}, checks if errors occur while compilation and
27020 generation of info files and reports them at the end of the build
27021 process. It now uses @code{makeinfo} if it is available and falls
27022 back to @file{infohack.el} otherwise. @file{make.bat} should now
27023 install all files which are necessary to run Gnus and be generally a
27024 complete replacement for the @code{configure; make; make install}
27025 cycle used under Unix systems.
27027 The new @file{make.bat} makes @file{make-x.bat} and @file{xemacs.mak}
27028 superfluous, so they have been removed.
27031 @file{~/News/overview/} not used.
27033 As a result of the following change, the @file{~/News/overview/}
27034 directory is not used any more. You can safely delete the entire
27037 @c FIXME: `gnus-load' is mentioned in README, which is not included in
27038 @c CVS. We should find a better place for this item.
27040 @code{(require 'gnus-load)}
27042 If you use a stand-alone Gnus distribution, you'd better add
27043 @code{(require 'gnus-load)} into your @file{~/.emacs} after adding the Gnus
27044 lisp directory into load-path.
27046 File @file{gnus-load.el} contains autoload commands, functions and variables,
27047 some of which may not be included in distributions of Emacsen.
27051 @item New packages and libraries within Gnus
27052 @c *****************************************
27057 The revised Gnus @acronym{FAQ} is included in the manual,
27058 @xref{Frequently Asked Questions}.
27061 @acronym{TLS} wrapper shipped with Gnus
27063 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} is now supported in @acronym{IMAP} and
27064 @acronym{NNTP} via @file{tls.el} and GNUTLS. The old
27065 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} support via (external third party)
27066 @file{ssl.el} and OpenSSL still works.
27069 Improved anti-spam features.
27071 Gnus is now able to take out spam from your mail and news streams
27072 using a wide variety of programs and filter rules. Among the supported
27073 methods are RBL blocklists, bogofilter and white/blacklists. Hooks
27074 for easy use of external packages such as SpamAssassin and Hashcash
27075 are also new. @ref{Thwarting Email Spam} and @ref{Spam Package}.
27076 @c FIXME: @xref{Spam Package}?. Should this be under Misc?
27079 Gnus supports server-side mail filtering using Sieve.
27081 Sieve rules can be added as Group Parameters for groups, and the
27082 complete Sieve script is generated using @kbd{D g} from the Group
27083 buffer, and then uploaded to the server using @kbd{C-c C-l} in the
27084 generated Sieve buffer. @xref{Sieve Commands}, and the new Sieve
27085 manual @ref{Top, , Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
27089 @item Changes in group mode
27090 @c ************************
27095 @code{gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group} can be called interactively,
27099 Retrieval of charters and control messages
27101 There are new commands for fetching newsgroup charters (@kbd{H c}) and
27102 control messages (@kbd{H C}).
27105 The new variable @code{gnus-parameters} can be used to set group parameters.
27107 Earlier this was done only via @kbd{G p} (or @kbd{G c}), which stored
27108 the parameters in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}, but via this variable you can
27109 enjoy the powers of customize, and simplified backups since you set the
27110 variable in @file{~/.gnus.el} instead of @file{~/.newsrc.eld}. The
27111 variable maps regular expressions matching group names to group
27114 (setq gnus-parameters
27116 (gnus-show-threads nil)
27117 (gnus-use-scoring nil))
27118 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
27119 (to-group . "\\1"))))
27123 Unread count correct in nnimap groups.
27125 The estimated number of unread articles in the group buffer should now
27126 be correct for nnimap groups. This is achieved by calling
27127 @code{nnimap-fixup-unread-after-getting-new-news} from the
27128 @code{gnus-setup-news-hook} (called on startup) and
27129 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook}. (called after getting new
27130 mail). If you have modified those variables from the default, you may
27131 want to add @code{nnimap-fixup-unread-after-getting-new-news} again. If
27132 you were happy with the estimate and want to save some (minimal) time
27133 when getting new mail, remove the function.
27136 Group names are treated as UTF-8 by default.
27138 This is supposedly what USEFOR wanted to migrate to. See
27139 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist} and
27140 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist} for customization.
27143 @code{gnus-group-charset-alist} and
27144 @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
27146 The regexps in these variables are compared with full group names
27147 instead of real group names in 5.8. Users who customize these
27148 variables should change those regexps accordingly. For example:
27150 ("^han\\>" euc-kr) -> ("\\(^\\|:\\)han\\>" euc-kr)
27155 @item Changes in summary and article mode
27156 @c **************************************
27161 @kbd{F} (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}) and @kbd{R}
27162 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}) only yank the text in the
27163 region if the region is active.
27166 In draft groups, @kbd{e} is now bound to @code{gnus-draft-edit-message}.
27167 Use @kbd{B w} for @code{gnus-summary-edit-article} instead.
27172 More buttons for URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links, man
27173 pages and Emacs or Gnus related references. @xref{Article Buttons}. The
27174 variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} can be used to control the
27175 appearance of all article buttons. @xref{Article Button Levels}.
27178 Single-part yenc encoded attachments can be decoded.
27183 The picons code has been reimplemented to work in GNU Emacs---some of
27184 the previous options have been removed or renamed.
27186 Picons are small ``personal icons'' representing users, domain and
27187 newsgroups, which can be displayed in the Article buffer.
27191 If the new option @code{gnus-treat-body-boundary} is non-@code{nil}, a
27192 boundary line is drawn at the end of the headers.
27195 Signed article headers (X-PGP-Sig) can be verified with @kbd{W p}.
27198 The Summary Buffer uses an arrow in the fringe to indicate the current
27199 article. Use @code{(setq gnus-summary-display-arrow nil)} to disable it.
27202 Warn about email replies to news
27204 Do you often find yourself replying to news by email by mistake? Then
27205 the new option @code{gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news} is just the thing for
27209 If the new option @code{gnus-summary-display-while-building} is
27210 non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer is shown and updated as it's being
27214 The new @code{recent} mark @samp{.} indicates newly arrived messages (as
27215 opposed to old but unread messages).
27218 Gnus supports RFC 2369 mailing list headers, and adds a number of
27219 related commands in mailing list groups. @xref{Mailing List}.
27222 The Date header can be displayed in a format that can be read aloud
27223 in English. @xref{Article Date}.
27226 diffs are automatically highlighted in groups matching
27227 @code{mm-uu-diff-groups-regexp}
27230 Better handling of Microsoft citation styles
27232 Gnus now tries to recognize the mangled header block that some Microsoft
27233 mailers use to indicate that the rest of the message is a citation, even
27234 though it is not quoted in any way. The variable
27235 @code{gnus-cite-unsightly-citation-regexp} matches the start of these
27238 The new command @kbd{W Y f}
27239 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article}) allows deuglifying broken
27240 Outlook (Express) articles.
27243 @code{gnus-article-skip-boring}
27245 If you set @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} to @code{t}, then Gnus will
27246 not scroll down to show you a page that contains only boring text,
27247 which by default means cited text and signature. You can customize
27248 what is skippable using @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}.
27250 This feature is especially useful if you read many articles that
27251 consist of a little new content at the top with a long, untrimmed
27252 message cited below.
27255 Smileys (@samp{:-)}, @samp{;-)} etc) are now displayed graphically in
27258 Put @code{(setq gnus-treat-display-smileys nil)} in @file{~/.gnus.el} to
27262 Face headers handling. @xref{Face}.
27265 In the summary buffer, the new command @kbd{/ N} inserts new messages
27266 and @kbd{/ o} inserts old messages.
27269 Gnus decodes morse encoded messages if you press @kbd{W m}.
27272 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}
27274 The default value changed to @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%)
27275 %s\n}. Moreover @code{gnus-extra-headers},
27276 @code{nnmail-extra-headers} and @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses}
27277 changed their default so that the users name will be replaced by the
27278 recipient's name or the group name posting to for @acronym{NNTP}
27282 Deleting of attachments.
27284 The command @code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip} (bound to @kbd{C-o}
27285 on @acronym{MIME} buttons) saves a part and replaces the part with an
27286 external one. @code{gnus-mime-delete-part} (bound to @kbd{d} on
27287 @acronym{MIME} buttons) removes a part. It works only on back ends
27288 that support editing.
27291 @code{gnus-default-charset}
27293 The default value is determined from the
27294 @code{current-language-environment} variable, instead of
27295 @code{iso-8859-1}. Also the @samp{.*} item in
27296 @code{gnus-group-charset-alist} is removed.
27299 Printing capabilities are enhanced.
27301 Gnus supports Muttprint natively with @kbd{O P} from the Summary and
27302 Article buffers. Also, each individual @acronym{MIME} part can be
27303 printed using @kbd{p} on the @acronym{MIME} button.
27306 Extended format specs.
27308 Format spec @samp{%&user-date;} is added into
27309 @code{gnus-summary-line-format-alist}. Also, user defined extended
27310 format specs are supported. The extended format specs look like
27311 @samp{%u&foo;}, which invokes function
27312 @code{gnus-user-format-function-@var{foo}}. Because @samp{&} is used as the
27313 escape character, old user defined format @samp{%u&} is no longer supported.
27316 @kbd{/ *} (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}) is rewritten.
27317 @c FIXME: Was this a user-visible change?
27319 It was aliased to @kbd{Y c}
27320 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}). The new function filters
27321 out other articles.
27324 Some limiting commands accept a @kbd{C-u} prefix to negate the match.
27326 If @kbd{C-u} is used on subject, author or extra headers, i.e., @kbd{/
27327 s}, @kbd{/ a}, and @kbd{/ x}
27328 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-@{subject,author,extra@}}) respectively, the
27329 result will be to display all articles that do not match the expression.
27332 Gnus inlines external parts (message/external).
27336 @item Changes in Message mode and related Gnus features
27337 @c ****************************************************
27344 You can delay the sending of a message with @kbd{C-c C-j} in the Message
27345 buffer. The messages are delivered at specified time. This is useful
27346 for sending yourself reminders. @xref{Delayed Articles}.
27349 If the new option @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is non-@code{nil},
27350 the nnml back end allows compressed message files.
27353 The new option @code{gnus-gcc-mark-as-read} automatically marks
27354 Gcc articles as read.
27357 Externalizing of attachments
27359 If @code{gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments} or
27360 @code{message-fcc-externalize-attachments} is non-@code{nil}, attach
27361 local files as external parts.
27364 The envelope sender address can be customized when using Sendmail.
27365 @xref{Mail Variables, Mail Variables,, message, Message Manual}.
27368 Gnus no longer generate the Sender: header automatically.
27370 Earlier it was generated iff the user configurable email address was
27371 different from the Gnus guessed default user address. As the guessing
27372 algorithm is rarely correct these days, and (more controversially) the
27373 only use of the Sender: header was to check if you are entitled to
27374 cancel/supersede news (which is now solved by Cancel Locks instead,
27375 see another entry), generation of the header has been disabled by
27376 default. See the variables @code{message-required-headers},
27377 @code{message-required-news-headers}, and
27378 @code{message-required-mail-headers}.
27381 Features from third party @file{message-utils.el} added to @file{message.el}.
27383 Message now asks if you wish to remove @samp{(was: <old subject>)} from
27384 subject lines (see @code{message-subject-trailing-was-query}). @kbd{C-c
27385 M-m} and @kbd{C-c M-f} inserts markers indicating included text.
27386 @kbd{C-c C-f a} adds a X-No-Archive: header. @kbd{C-c C-f x} inserts
27387 appropriate headers and a note in the body for cross-postings and
27388 followups (see the variables @code{message-cross-post-@var{*}}).
27391 References and X-Draft-From headers are no longer generated when you
27392 start composing messages and @code{message-generate-headers-first} is
27396 Easy inclusion of X-Faces headers. @xref{X-Face}.
27399 Group Carbon Copy (GCC) quoting
27401 To support groups that contains SPC and other weird characters, groups
27402 are quoted before they are placed in the Gcc: header. This means
27403 variables such as @code{gnus-message-archive-group} should no longer
27404 contain quote characters to make groups containing SPC work. Also, if
27405 you are using the string @samp{nnml:foo, nnml:bar} (indicating Gcc
27406 into two groups) you must change it to return the list
27407 @code{("nnml:foo" "nnml:bar")}, otherwise the Gcc: line will be quoted
27408 incorrectly. Note that returning the string @samp{nnml:foo, nnml:bar}
27409 was incorrect earlier, it just didn't generate any problems since it
27410 was inserted directly.
27413 @code{message-insinuate-rmail}
27415 Adding @code{(message-insinuate-rmail)} and @code{(setq
27416 mail-user-agent 'gnus-user-agent)} in @file{.emacs} convinces Rmail to
27417 compose, reply and forward messages in message-mode, where you can
27418 enjoy the power of @acronym{MML}.
27421 @code{message-minibuffer-local-map}
27423 The line below enables BBDB in resending a message:
27425 (define-key message-minibuffer-local-map [(tab)]
27426 'bbdb-complete-name)
27430 @code{gnus-posting-styles}
27432 Add a new format of match like
27434 ((header "to" "larsi.*org")
27435 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
27437 The old format like the lines below is obsolete, but still accepted.
27439 (header "to" "larsi.*org"
27440 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
27444 @code{message-ignored-news-headers} and @code{message-ignored-mail-headers}
27446 @samp{X-Draft-From} and @samp{X-Gnus-Agent-Meta-Information} have been
27447 added into these two variables. If you customized those, perhaps you
27448 need add those two headers too.
27451 Gnus supports the ``format=flowed'' (RFC 2646) parameter. On
27452 composing messages, it is enabled by @code{use-hard-newlines}.
27453 Decoding format=flowed was present but not documented in earlier
27457 The option @code{mm-fill-flowed} can be used to disable treatment of
27458 ``format=flowed'' messages. Also, flowed text is disabled when sending
27459 inline PGP signed messages. @xref{Flowed text, , Flowed text,
27460 emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}. (New in Gnus 5.10.7)
27461 @c This entry is also present in the node "No Gnus".
27464 Gnus supports the generation of RFC 2298 Disposition Notification requests.
27466 This is invoked with the @kbd{C-c M-n} key binding from message mode.
27469 Message supports the Importance: (RFC 2156) header.
27471 In the message buffer, @kbd{C-c C-f C-i} or @kbd{C-c C-u} cycles through
27475 Gnus supports Cancel Locks in News.
27477 This means a header @samp{Cancel-Lock} is inserted in news posting. It is
27478 used to determine if you wrote an article or not (for canceling and
27479 superseding). Gnus generates a random password string the first time
27480 you post a message, and saves it in your @file{~/.emacs} using the Custom
27481 system. While the variable is called @code{canlock-password}, it is not
27482 security sensitive data. Publishing your canlock string on the web
27483 will not allow anyone to be able to anything she could not already do.
27484 The behavior can be changed by customizing @code{message-insert-canlock}.
27487 Gnus supports @acronym{PGP} (RFC 1991/2440), @acronym{PGP/MIME} (RFC
27488 2015/3156) and @acronym{S/MIME} (RFC 2630-2633).
27490 It needs an external @acronym{S/MIME} and OpenPGP implementation, but no
27491 additional Lisp libraries. This add several menu items to the
27492 Attachments menu, and @kbd{C-c RET} key bindings, when composing
27493 messages. This also obsoletes @code{gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook}.
27496 @acronym{MML} (Mime compose) prefix changed from @kbd{M-m} to @kbd{C-c
27499 This change was made to avoid conflict with the standard binding of
27500 @code{back-to-indentation}, which is also useful in message mode.
27503 The default for @code{message-forward-show-mml} changed to the symbol
27506 The behavior for the @code{best} value is to show @acronym{MML} (i.e.,
27507 convert to @acronym{MIME}) when appropriate. @acronym{MML} will not be
27508 used when forwarding signed or encrypted messages, as the conversion
27509 invalidate the digital signature.
27512 If @code{auto-compression-mode} is enabled, attachments are automatically
27513 decompressed when activated.
27514 @c FIXME: Does this affect article or message mode?
27517 Support for non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names
27519 Message supports non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names in From:, To: and
27520 Cc: and will query you whether to perform encoding when you try to
27521 send a message. The variable @code{message-use-idna} controls this.
27522 Gnus will also decode non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names in From:, To:
27523 and Cc: when you view a message. The variable @code{gnus-use-idna}
27526 @item You can now drag and drop attachments to the Message buffer.
27527 See @code{mml-dnd-protocol-alist} and @code{mml-dnd-attach-options}.
27528 @xref{MIME, ,MIME, message, Message Manual}.
27529 @c New in 5.10.9 / 5.11
27533 @item Changes in back ends
27534 @c ***********************
27538 Gnus can display RSS newsfeeds as a newsgroup. @xref{RSS}.
27541 The nndoc back end now supports mailman digests and exim bounces.
27544 Gnus supports Maildir groups.
27546 Gnus includes a new back end @file{nnmaildir.el}. @xref{Maildir}.
27549 The nnml and nnfolder back ends store marks for each groups.
27551 This makes it possible to take backup of nnml/nnfolder servers/groups
27552 separately of @file{~/.newsrc.eld}, while preserving marks. It also
27553 makes it possible to share articles and marks between users (without
27554 sharing the @file{~/.newsrc.eld} file) within e.g. a department. It
27555 works by storing the marks stored in @file{~/.newsrc.eld} in a per-group
27556 file @file{.marks} (for nnml) and @file{@var{groupname}.mrk} (for
27557 nnfolder, named @var{groupname}). If the nnml/nnfolder is moved to
27558 another machine, Gnus will automatically use the @file{.marks} or
27559 @file{.mrk} file instead of the information in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
27560 The new server variables @code{nnml-marks-is-evil} and
27561 @code{nnfolder-marks-is-evil} can be used to disable this feature.
27571 The menu bar item (in Group and Summary buffer) named ``Misc'' has
27572 been renamed to ``Gnus''.
27575 The menu bar item (in Message mode) named ``@acronym{MML}'' has been
27576 renamed to ``Attachments''. Note that this menu also contains security
27577 related stuff, like signing and encryption (@pxref{Security, Security,,
27578 message, Message Manual}).
27581 The tool bars have been updated to use GNOME icons in Group, Summary and
27582 Message mode. You can also customize the tool bars. This is a new
27583 feature in Gnus 5.10.9. (Only for Emacs, not in XEmacs.)
27585 @item The tool bar icons are now (de)activated correctly
27586 in the group buffer, see the variable @code{gnus-group-update-tool-bar}.
27587 Its default value depends on your Emacs version. This is a new feature
27592 @item Miscellaneous changes
27593 @c ************************
27600 The Gnus Agent has seen a major updated and is now enabled by default,
27601 and all nntp and nnimap servers from @code{gnus-select-method} and
27602 @code{gnus-secondary-select-method} are agentized by default. Earlier
27603 only the server in @code{gnus-select-method} was agentized by the
27604 default, and the agent was disabled by default. When the agent is
27605 enabled, headers are now also retrieved from the Agent cache instead
27606 of the back ends when possible. Earlier this only happened in the
27607 unplugged state. You can enroll or remove servers with @kbd{J a} and
27608 @kbd{J r} in the server buffer. Gnus will not download articles into
27609 the Agent cache, unless you instruct it to do so, though, by using
27610 @kbd{J u} or @kbd{J s} from the Group buffer. You revert to the old
27611 behavior of having the Agent disabled with @code{(setq gnus-agent
27612 nil)}. Note that putting @code{(gnus-agentize)} in @file{~/.gnus.el}
27613 is not needed any more.
27616 Gnus reads the @acronym{NOV} and articles in the Agent if plugged.
27618 If one reads an article while plugged, and the article already exists
27619 in the Agent, it won't get downloaded once more. @code{(setq
27620 gnus-agent-cache nil)} reverts to the old behavior.
27625 @code{gnus-dired-minor-mode} (see @ref{Other modes}) installs key
27626 bindings in dired buffers to send a file as an attachment, open a file
27627 using the appropriate mailcap entry, and print a file using the mailcap
27631 The format spec @code{%C} for positioning point has changed to @code{%*}.
27634 @code{gnus-slave-unplugged}
27636 A new command which starts Gnus offline in slave mode.
27643 @subsubsection No Gnus
27646 New features in No Gnus:
27647 @c FIXME: Gnus 5.12?
27649 @include gnus-news.texi
27655 @section The Manual
27659 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
27660 either @code{texi2dvi}
27662 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
27663 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
27665 to get what you hold in your hands now.
27667 The following conventions have been used:
27672 This is a @samp{string}
27675 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
27678 This is a @file{file}
27681 This is a @code{symbol}
27685 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
27689 (setq flargnoze "yes")
27692 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
27695 (setq flumphel 'yes)
27698 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
27699 ever get them confused.
27703 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
27704 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
27705 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
27706 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
27707 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
27708 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
27709 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
27715 @node On Writing Manuals
27716 @section On Writing Manuals
27718 I guess most manuals are written after-the-fact; documenting a program
27719 that's already there. This is not how this manual is written. When
27720 implementing something, I write the manual entry for that something
27721 straight away. I then see that it's difficult to explain the
27722 functionality, so I write how it's supposed to be, and then I change the
27723 implementation. Writing the documentation and writing the code goes
27726 This, of course, means that this manual has no, or little, flow. It
27727 documents absolutely everything in Gnus, but often not where you're
27728 looking for it. It is a reference manual, and not a guide to how to get
27731 That would be a totally different book, that should be written using the
27732 reference manual as source material. It would look quite differently.
27737 @section Terminology
27739 @cindex terminology
27744 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
27745 News is generally fetched from a nearby @acronym{NNTP} server, and is
27746 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
27747 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
27748 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
27752 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
27753 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
27754 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
27755 not posting, and replying is not following up.
27759 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
27763 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
27768 Gnus considers mail and news to be mostly the same, really. The only
27769 difference is how to access the actual articles. News articles are
27770 commonly fetched via the protocol @acronym{NNTP}, whereas mail
27771 messages could be read from a file on the local disk. The internal
27772 architecture of Gnus thus comprises a ``front end'' and a number of
27773 ``back ends''. Internally, when you enter a group (by hitting
27774 @key{RET}, say), you thereby invoke a function in the front end in
27775 Gnus. The front end then ``talks'' to a back end and says things like
27776 ``Give me the list of articles in the foo group'' or ``Show me article
27779 So a back end mainly defines either a protocol (the @code{nntp} back
27780 end accesses news via @acronym{NNTP}, the @code{nnimap} back end
27781 accesses mail via @acronym{IMAP}) or a file format and directory
27782 layout (the @code{nnspool} back end accesses news via the common
27783 ``spool directory'' format, the @code{nnml} back end access mail via a
27784 file format and directory layout that's quite similar).
27786 Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this is all
27787 done by the back ends. A back end is a collection of functions to
27788 access the articles.
27790 However, sometimes the term ``back end'' is also used where ``server''
27791 would have been more appropriate. And then there is the term ``select
27792 method'' which can mean either. The Gnus terminology can be quite
27797 Gnus will always use one method (and back end) as the @dfn{native}, or
27798 default, way of getting news.
27802 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same time.
27803 These are groups that use non-native non-secondary back ends for getting
27808 Secondary back ends are somewhere half-way between being native and being
27809 foreign, but they mostly act like they are native.
27813 A message that has been posted as news.
27816 @cindex mail message
27817 A message that has been mailed.
27821 A mail message or news article
27825 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.) is
27830 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
27835 A line from the head of an article.
27839 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
27840 collection of @acronym{NOV} lines.
27842 @item @acronym{NOV}
27843 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
27844 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the back end for the headers of all
27845 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
27846 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
27847 normal @sc{head} format.
27851 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
27852 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
27853 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
27854 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
27855 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
27856 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
27858 @item killed groups
27859 @cindex killed groups
27860 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
27861 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
27863 @item zombie groups
27864 @cindex zombie groups
27865 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
27868 @cindex active file
27869 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
27870 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
27871 is rather large, as you might surmise.
27874 @cindex bogus groups
27875 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
27876 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
27877 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
27880 @cindex activating groups
27881 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
27882 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
27883 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
27887 News servers store their articles locally in one fashion or other.
27888 One old-fashioned storage method is to have just one file per
27889 article. That's called a ``traditional spool''.
27893 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
27895 @item select method
27896 @cindex select method
27897 A structure that specifies the back end, the server and the virtual
27900 @item virtual server
27901 @cindex virtual server
27902 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
27903 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
27904 whole is a virtual server.
27908 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
27909 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
27912 @item ephemeral groups
27913 @cindex ephemeral groups
27914 @cindex temporary groups
27915 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
27916 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
27917 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
27920 @cindex solid groups
27921 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
27922 group buffer are solid groups.
27924 @item sparse articles
27925 @cindex sparse articles
27926 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
27927 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
27931 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
27932 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
27936 @cindex thread root
27937 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
27938 articles in the thread.
27942 An article that has responses.
27946 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
27950 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
27951 specified by RFC 1153.
27954 @cindex splitting, terminology
27955 @cindex mail sorting
27956 @cindex mail filtering (splitting)
27957 The action of sorting your emails according to certain rules. Sometimes
27958 incorrectly called mail filtering.
27964 @node Customization
27965 @section Customization
27966 @cindex general customization
27968 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
27969 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
27970 for some quite common situations.
27973 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
27974 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
27975 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
27976 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
27980 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
27981 @subsection Slow/Expensive NNTP Connection
27983 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
27984 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
27985 Gnus has to get from the @acronym{NNTP} server.
27989 @item gnus-read-active-file
27990 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
27991 entire active file from the server. This file is often very large. You
27992 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
27993 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
27994 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
27996 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
27997 This one has to be @code{nil}. If not, grabbing article headers from
27998 the @acronym{NNTP} server will not be very fast. Not all @acronym{NNTP} servers
27999 support @sc{xover}; Gnus will detect this by itself.
28003 @node Slow Terminal Connection
28004 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
28006 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
28007 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
28008 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
28012 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
28013 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
28014 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
28015 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
28016 horizontal and vertical recentering.
28018 @item gnus-visible-headers
28019 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
28020 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
28021 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
28022 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
28024 Use the following to enable all the available hiding features:
28026 (setq gnus-treat-hide-headers 'head
28027 gnus-treat-hide-signature t
28028 gnus-treat-hide-citation t)
28031 @item gnus-use-full-window
28032 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
28033 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
28034 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
28035 want to read them anyway.
28037 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
28038 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
28042 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
28043 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
28044 lines, which might save some time.
28048 @node Little Disk Space
28049 @subsection Little Disk Space
28052 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
28053 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
28057 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
28058 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
28059 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
28060 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
28063 @item gnus-read-newsrc-file
28064 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never read @file{.newsrc}---it will
28065 only read @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
28066 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
28069 @item gnus-save-killed-list
28070 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
28071 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
28072 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
28073 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
28079 @subsection Slow Machine
28080 @cindex slow machine
28082 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
28083 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
28085 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
28086 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
28088 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
28089 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
28090 summary buffer faster.
28094 @node Troubleshooting
28095 @section Troubleshooting
28096 @cindex troubleshooting
28098 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
28106 Make sure your computer is switched on.
28109 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
28110 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
28114 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
28115 like @samp{Gnus v5.10.6} you have the right files loaded. Otherwise
28116 you have some old @file{.el} files lying around. Delete these.
28119 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a
28120 @acronym{FAQ} and a how-to.
28123 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
28124 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
28125 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
28126 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
28127 something like that.
28130 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
28133 @cindex reporting bugs
28135 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
28137 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
28138 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
28139 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
28140 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
28142 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
28143 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
28144 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
28145 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
28148 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
28149 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
28150 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
28151 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
28152 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
28153 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
28155 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
28156 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
28157 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
28161 If you would like to contribute a patch to fix bugs or make
28162 improvements, please produce the patch using @samp{diff -u}.
28165 If you want to debug your problem further before reporting, possibly
28166 in order to solve the problem yourself and send a patch, you can use
28167 edebug. Debugging Lisp code is documented in the Elisp manual
28168 (@pxref{Debugging, , Debugging Lisp Programs, elisp, The GNU Emacs
28169 Lisp Reference Manual}). To get you started with edebug, consider if
28170 you discover some weird behavior when pressing @kbd{c}, the first
28171 step is to do @kbd{C-h k c} and click on the hyperlink (Emacs only) in
28172 the documentation buffer that leads you to the function definition,
28173 then press @kbd{M-x edebug-defun RET} with point inside that function,
28174 return to Gnus and press @kbd{c} to invoke the code. You will be
28175 placed in the lisp buffer and can single step using @kbd{SPC} and
28176 evaluate expressions using @kbd{M-:} or inspect variables using
28177 @kbd{C-h v}, abort execution with @kbd{q}, and resume execution with
28178 @kbd{c} or @kbd{g}.
28183 Sometimes, a problem do not directly generate an elisp error but
28184 manifests itself by causing Gnus to be very slow. In these cases, you
28185 can use @kbd{M-x toggle-debug-on-quit} and press @kbd{C-g} when things are
28186 slow, and then try to analyze the backtrace (repeating the procedure
28187 helps isolating the real problem areas).
28189 A fancier approach is to use the elisp profiler, ELP. The profiler is
28190 (or should be) fully documented elsewhere, but to get you started
28191 there are a few steps that need to be followed. First, instrument the
28192 part of Gnus you are interested in for profiling, e.g. @kbd{M-x
28193 elp-instrument-package RET gnus} or @kbd{M-x elp-instrument-package
28194 RET message}. Then perform the operation that is slow and press
28195 @kbd{M-x elp-results}. You will then see which operations that takes
28196 time, and can debug them further. If the entire operation takes much
28197 longer than the time spent in the slowest function in the profiler
28198 output, you probably profiled the wrong part of Gnus. To reset
28199 profiling statistics, use @kbd{M-x elp-reset-all}. @kbd{M-x
28200 elp-restore-all} is supposed to remove profiling, but given the
28201 complexities and dynamic code generation in Gnus, it might not always
28204 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
28205 @cindex ding mailing list
28206 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
28207 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful. You can also ask on
28208 @email{ding@@gnus.org, the ding mailing list}. Write to
28209 @email{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
28213 @node Gnus Reference Guide
28214 @section Gnus Reference Guide
28216 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
28217 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
28218 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
28219 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
28222 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
28223 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
28224 back ends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
28225 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
28226 and general methods of operation.
28229 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
28230 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
28231 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
28232 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
28233 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
28234 * Group Info:: The group info format.
28235 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
28236 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
28237 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
28241 @node Gnus Utility Functions
28242 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
28243 @cindex Gnus utility functions
28244 @cindex utility functions
28246 @cindex internal variables
28248 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
28249 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
28250 Below is a list of the most common ones.
28254 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
28255 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
28256 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
28258 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
28259 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
28260 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
28262 @item gnus-group-real-name
28263 @findex gnus-group-real-name
28264 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
28267 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
28268 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
28269 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
28270 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
28272 @item gnus-get-info
28273 @findex gnus-get-info
28274 Returns the group info list for @var{group}.
28276 @item gnus-group-unread
28277 @findex gnus-group-unread
28278 The number of unread articles in @var{group}, or @code{t} if that is
28282 @findex gnus-active
28283 The active entry for @var{group}.
28285 @item gnus-set-active
28286 @findex gnus-set-active
28287 Set the active entry for @var{group}.
28289 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
28290 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
28291 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
28294 @item gnus-continuum-version
28295 @findex gnus-continuum-version
28296 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
28297 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
28300 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
28301 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
28302 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
28304 @item gnus-news-group-p
28305 @findex gnus-news-group-p
28306 Says whether @var{group} came from a news back end.
28308 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
28309 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
28310 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
28312 @item gnus-server-to-method
28313 @findex gnus-server-to-method
28314 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
28316 @item gnus-server-equal
28317 @findex gnus-server-equal
28318 Says whether two virtual servers are equal.
28320 @item gnus-group-native-p
28321 @findex gnus-group-native-p
28322 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
28324 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
28325 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
28326 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
28328 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
28329 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
28330 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
28332 @item gnus-group-find-parameter
28333 @findex gnus-group-find-parameter
28334 Returns the parameter list of @var{group}. If given a second parameter,
28335 returns the value of that parameter for @var{group}.
28337 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
28338 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
28339 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
28341 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
28342 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
28343 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
28345 @item gnus-check-backend-function
28346 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
28347 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the back end
28348 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
28351 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
28355 @item gnus-read-method
28356 @findex gnus-read-method
28357 Prompts the user for a select method.
28362 @node Back End Interface
28363 @subsection Back End Interface
28365 Gnus doesn't know anything about @acronym{NNTP}, spools, mail or virtual
28366 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
28367 server is a @dfn{back end} and some @dfn{back end variables}. As examples
28368 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
28369 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
28370 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
28372 When Gnus asks for information from a back end---say @code{nntp}---on
28373 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
28374 function parameters. (If not, the back end should use the ``current''
28375 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
28376 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
28377 been opened, the function should fail.
28379 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
28380 name. Take this example:
28384 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
28385 (nntp-port-number 4324))
28388 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
28389 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
28391 The back ends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
28392 The standard back ends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
28393 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
28395 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
28396 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
28397 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
28399 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
28400 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
28401 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
28402 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
28403 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
28404 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
28407 Some back ends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} back ends, and
28408 some might be said not to be. The latter are back ends that generally
28409 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server''
28410 ---they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
28413 Gnus identifies each message by way of group name and article number. A
28414 few remarks about these article numbers might be useful. First of all,
28415 the numbers are positive integers. Secondly, it is normally not
28416 possible for later articles to ``re-use'' older article numbers without
28417 confusing Gnus. That is, if a group has ever contained a message
28418 numbered 42, then no other message may get that number, or Gnus will get
28419 mightily confused.@footnote{See the function
28420 @code{nnchoke-request-update-info}, @ref{Optional Back End Functions}.}
28421 Third, article numbers must be assigned in order of arrival in the
28422 group; this is not necessarily the same as the date of the message.
28424 The previous paragraph already mentions all the ``hard'' restrictions that
28425 article numbers must fulfill. But it seems that it might be useful to
28426 assign @emph{consecutive} article numbers, for Gnus gets quite confused
28427 if there are holes in the article numbering sequence. However, due to
28428 the ``no-reuse'' restriction, holes cannot be avoided altogether. It's
28429 also useful for the article numbers to start at 1 to avoid running out
28430 of numbers as long as possible.
28432 Note that by convention, back ends are named @code{nnsomething}, but
28433 Gnus also comes with some @code{nnnotbackends}, such as
28434 @file{nnheader.el}, @file{nnmail.el} and @file{nnoo.el}.
28436 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary back end
28439 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
28442 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
28443 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
28444 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
28445 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
28446 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
28447 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
28451 @node Required Back End Functions
28452 @subsubsection Required Back End Functions
28456 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
28458 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
28459 @code{Message-ID}s. Current back ends do not fully support either---only
28460 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most back ends do not support
28461 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
28463 The result data should either be HEADs or @acronym{NOV} lines, and the result
28464 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
28465 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
28466 of HEADs and @acronym{NOV} lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
28468 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching ``extra
28469 headers'', in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
28470 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
28471 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
28472 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the back end finds it
28473 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
28474 number, do maximum fetches.
28476 Here's an example HEAD:
28479 221 1056 Article retrieved.
28480 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
28481 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
28482 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
28483 Subject: Re: Something very droll
28484 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
28485 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
28487 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
28488 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
28489 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
28493 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
28494 these in the data buffer.
28496 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
28500 head = error / valid-head
28501 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
28502 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
28503 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
28504 header = <text> eol
28508 (The version of BNF used here is the one used in RFC822.)
28510 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
28511 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
28515 nov-buffer = *nov-line
28516 nov-line = field 7*8[ <TAB> field ] eol
28517 field = <text except TAB>
28520 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
28524 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
28526 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
28527 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
28529 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The back end
28530 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
28531 server. In fact, it should do so.
28533 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
28534 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
28537 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
28539 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
28540 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
28543 There should be no data returned.
28546 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
28548 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the back end
28549 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that back end
28550 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
28551 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
28553 There should be no data returned.
28556 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
28558 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
28559 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
28560 non-@code{nil} value. This function should under no circumstances
28561 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
28563 There should be no data returned.
28566 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
28568 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
28570 There should be no data returned.
28573 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
28575 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
28576 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
28577 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
28578 it would be nice if that were possible.
28580 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
28581 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
28582 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
28583 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
28584 into its article buffer.
28586 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
28587 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
28588 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
28589 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
28590 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
28591 on successful article retrieval.
28594 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST)
28596 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
28597 making @var{group} the current group.
28599 If @var{fast}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
28602 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
28605 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
28608 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
28609 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
28610 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
28611 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
28612 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
28613 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
28614 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
28615 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader. If the group contains no
28616 articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1 and the
28620 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
28621 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
28622 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
28626 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
28628 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
28629 a no-op on most back ends.
28631 There should be no data returned.
28634 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
28636 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
28639 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
28642 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
28643 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
28646 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
28647 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag. If the group
28648 contains no articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1
28649 and the highest as 0.
28652 active-file = *active-line
28653 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
28655 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
28658 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
28659 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
28660 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
28663 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
28665 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
28666 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
28667 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
28668 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
28669 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
28670 clear if the posting could not be completed.
28672 There should be no result data from this function.
28677 @node Optional Back End Functions
28678 @subsubsection Optional Back End Functions
28682 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
28684 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
28685 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
28686 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
28688 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
28689 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
28690 former is in the same format as the data from
28691 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
28692 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
28695 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
28699 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
28701 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the back end for
28702 alterations. This comes in handy if the back end really carries all
28703 the information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
28704 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
28705 should return a non-@code{nil} value (exceptionally,
28706 @code{nntp-request-update-info} always returns @code{nil} not to waste
28707 the network resources).
28709 There should be no result data from this function.
28712 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
28714 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
28715 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
28716 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
28717 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
28718 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
28719 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
28720 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
28721 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
28723 There should be no result data from this function.
28726 @item (nnchoke-request-set-mark GROUP ACTION &optional SERVER)
28728 Set/remove/add marks on articles. Normally Gnus handles the article
28729 marks (such as read, ticked, expired etc) internally, and store them in
28730 @file{~/.newsrc.eld}. Some back ends (such as @acronym{IMAP}) however carry
28731 all information about the articles on the server, so Gnus need to
28732 propagate the mark information to the server.
28734 @var{action} is a list of mark setting requests, having this format:
28737 (RANGE ACTION MARK)
28740 @var{range} is a range of articles you wish to update marks on.
28741 @var{action} is @code{add} or @code{del}, used to add marks or remove
28742 marks (preserving all marks not mentioned). @var{mark} is a list of
28743 marks; where each mark is a symbol. Currently used marks are
28744 @code{read}, @code{tick}, @code{reply}, @code{expire}, @code{killed},
28745 @code{dormant}, @code{save}, @code{download}, @code{unsend},
28746 @code{forward} and @code{recent}, but your back end should, if
28747 possible, not limit itself to these.
28749 Given contradictory actions, the last action in the list should be the
28750 effective one. That is, if your action contains a request to add the
28751 @code{tick} mark on article 1 and, later in the list, a request to
28752 remove the mark on the same article, the mark should in fact be removed.
28754 An example action list:
28757 (((5 12 30) 'del '(tick))
28758 ((10 . 90) 'add '(read expire))
28759 ((92 94) 'del '(read)))
28762 The function should return a range of articles it wasn't able to set the
28763 mark on (currently not used for anything).
28765 There should be no result data from this function.
28767 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
28769 If the user tries to set a mark that the back end doesn't like, this
28770 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
28771 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
28772 @var{mark}. If the back end doesn't care, it must return the original
28773 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
28775 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
28776 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
28777 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
28780 There should be no result data from this function.
28783 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
28785 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
28786 request that the back end check for incoming articles, in one way or
28787 another. A mail back end will typically read the spool file or query
28788 the @acronym{POP} server when this function is invoked. The
28789 @var{group} doesn't have to be heeded---if the back end decides that
28790 it is too much work just scanning for a single group, it may do a
28791 total scan of all groups. It would be nice, however, to keep things
28792 local if that's practical.
28794 There should be no result data from this function.
28797 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
28799 The result data from this function should be a description of
28803 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
28805 description = <text>
28808 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
28810 The result data from this function should be the description of all
28811 groups available on the server.
28814 description-buffer = *description-line
28818 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
28820 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
28821 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date format
28822 (i.e., the date format used in mail and news headers, and returned by
28823 the function @code{message-make-date} by default). The data should be
28824 in the active buffer format.
28826 It is okay for this function to return ``too many'' groups; some back ends
28827 might find it cheaper to return the full list of groups, rather than
28828 just the new groups. But don't do this for back ends with many groups.
28829 Normally, if the user creates the groups herself, there won't be too
28830 many groups, so @code{nnml} and the like are probably safe. But for
28831 back ends like @code{nntp}, where the groups have been created by the
28832 server, it is quite likely that there can be many groups.
28835 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
28837 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
28839 There should be no return data.
28842 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
28844 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
28845 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
28846 numbers.) It is left up to the back end to decide how old articles
28847 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
28848 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
28851 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
28854 There should be no result data returned.
28857 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM &optional LAST)
28859 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
28860 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
28862 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
28863 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
28864 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
28865 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
28866 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
28867 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
28869 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
28870 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
28873 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
28874 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
28876 There should be no data returned.
28879 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
28881 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
28882 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
28883 this function in short order.
28885 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
28886 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
28888 The group should exist before the back end is asked to accept the
28889 article for that group.
28891 There should be no data returned.
28894 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
28896 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
28897 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
28899 There should be no data returned.
28902 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
28904 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
28905 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
28906 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
28908 There should be no data returned.
28911 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
28913 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
28914 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
28916 There should be no data returned.
28921 @node Error Messaging
28922 @subsubsection Error Messaging
28924 @findex nnheader-report
28925 @findex nnheader-get-report
28926 The back ends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
28927 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
28928 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the back end
28929 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
28930 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
28931 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
28934 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
28936 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
28939 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
28940 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
28941 recently reported message for the back end in question. This function
28942 takes one argument---the server symbol.
28944 Internally, these functions access @var{back-end}@code{-status-string},
28945 so the @code{nnchoke} back end will have its error message stored in
28946 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
28949 @node Writing New Back Ends
28950 @subsubsection Writing New Back Ends
28952 Many back ends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
28953 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
28954 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
28955 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
28956 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
28959 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
28960 back ends when writing new back ends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
28961 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
28963 All the back ends declare their public variables and functions by using a
28964 package called @code{nnoo}.
28966 To inherit functions from other back ends (and allow other back ends to
28967 inherit functions from the current back end), you should use the
28973 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
28974 parameters. For instance:
28977 (nnoo-declare nndir
28981 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
28982 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
28985 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
28986 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
28987 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
28989 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
28990 variables in the parent back ends to map the variable to when executing
28991 a function in those back ends.
28994 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
28995 "Where nndir will look for groups."
28996 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
28999 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
29000 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
29001 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
29003 @item nnoo-define-basics
29004 This macro defines some common functions that almost all back ends should
29008 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
29012 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
29013 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
29014 function as being public so that other back ends can inherit it.
29016 @item nnoo-map-functions
29017 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current back end to
29018 functions from the parent back ends.
29021 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
29022 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
29023 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
29026 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
29027 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
29028 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
29029 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
29032 This macro allows importing functions from back ends. It should be the
29033 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
29034 haven't already been defined.
29040 nnmh-request-newgroups)
29044 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
29045 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
29046 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
29051 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} back end.
29054 ;;; @r{nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus}
29055 ;; @r{Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.}
29059 (require 'nnheader)
29063 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
29065 (nnoo-declare nndir
29068 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
29069 "Where nndir will look for groups."
29070 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
29072 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
29073 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
29076 (defvoo nndir-current-group ""
29078 nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
29079 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
29080 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
29082 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
29083 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
29085 ;;; @r{Interface functions.}
29087 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
29089 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
29090 (setq nndir-directory
29091 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
29093 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
29094 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
29095 (push `(nndir-current-group
29096 ,(file-name-nondirectory
29097 (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
29099 (push `(nndir-top-directory
29100 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
29102 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
29104 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
29105 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
29106 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
29107 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
29108 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
29112 nnmh-status-message
29114 nnmh-request-newgroups))
29120 @node Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
29121 @subsubsection Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
29123 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
29124 @findex gnus-declare-backend
29125 Having Gnus start using your new back end is rather easy---you just
29126 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
29127 enter the back end into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
29129 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the back end name and
29130 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
29135 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
29138 The above line would then go in the @file{nnchoke.el} file.
29140 The abilities can be:
29144 This is a mailish back end---followups should (probably) go via mail.
29146 This is a newsish back end---followups should (probably) go via news.
29148 This back end supports both mail and news.
29150 This is neither a post nor mail back end---it's something completely
29153 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
29154 articles and groups.
29156 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
29157 true for almost all back ends.
29158 @item prompt-address
29159 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
29160 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for back ends like
29161 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
29165 @node Mail-like Back Ends
29166 @subsubsection Mail-like Back Ends
29168 One of the things that separate the mail back ends from the rest of the
29169 back ends is the heavy dependence by most of the mail back ends on
29170 common functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the
29171 definition of @code{nnml-request-scan}:
29174 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
29175 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
29176 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
29179 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
29180 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
29183 This function takes four parameters.
29187 This should be a symbol to designate which back end is responsible for
29190 @item exit-function
29191 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
29193 @item temp-directory
29194 Where the temporary files should be stored.
29197 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
29198 performed for one group only.
29201 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{back-end}@code{-save-mail} to
29202 save each article. @var{back-end}@code{-active-number} will be called to
29203 find the article number assigned to this article.
29205 The function also uses the following variables:
29206 @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
29207 this back end); and @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} and
29208 @var{back-end}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
29209 @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
29213 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
29214 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
29218 @node Score File Syntax
29219 @subsection Score File Syntax
29221 Score files are meant to be easily parseable, but yet extremely
29222 mallable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
29223 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
29225 Here's a typical score file:
29229 ("win95" -10000 nil s)
29236 BNF definition of a score file:
29239 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
29240 element = rule / atom
29241 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
29242 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
29243 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
29244 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
29246 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
29247 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
29248 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
29249 date-header = "date"
29250 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
29251 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
29252 score = "nil" / <integer>
29253 date = "nil" / <natural number>
29254 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
29255 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
29256 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
29257 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
29258 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
29259 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
29260 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
29261 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
29262 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
29263 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
29264 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
29265 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
29266 exclude-files / read-only / touched
29267 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
29268 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
29269 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
29270 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
29271 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
29272 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
29273 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
29274 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
29275 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
29276 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
29277 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
29278 eval = "eval" space <form>
29279 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
29282 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
29285 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
29286 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
29287 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
29288 one looong line, then that's ok.
29290 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
29291 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
29295 @subsection Headers
29297 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
29298 corresponds to the @acronym{NOV} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
29299 almost suspect that the author looked at the @acronym{NOV} specification and
29300 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
29302 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
29303 RFC 1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
29304 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
29305 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
29306 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
29307 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
29308 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
29310 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
29311 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
29312 @code{xref}, and @code{extra}. There are macros for accessing and
29313 setting these slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
29314 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
29316 All these slots contain strings, except the @code{extra} slot, which
29317 contains an alist of header/value pairs (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
29323 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
29324 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
29326 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
29327 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
29328 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
29329 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
29331 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
29335 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
29338 is transformed into
29341 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
29344 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
29345 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
29348 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
29351 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
29352 is slightly tricky:
29355 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
29361 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
29364 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
29370 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
29377 and is equal to the previous range.
29379 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
29380 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
29381 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
29385 range = simple-range / normal-range
29386 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
29387 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
29388 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
29389 number *[ " " contents ]
29392 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
29393 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
29394 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
29395 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
29396 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
29401 @subsection Group Info
29403 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
29404 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
29405 describes the group.
29407 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
29408 second is a more complex one:
29411 ("no.group" 5 ((1 . 54324)))
29413 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
29414 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
29416 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
29419 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
29420 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
29421 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
29422 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
29423 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
29424 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
29425 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
29426 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
29427 this section is about.
29429 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
29430 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
29431 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
29433 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
29436 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
29437 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
29438 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
29439 group = quote <string> quote
29440 ralevel = rank / level
29441 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
29442 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
29443 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
29445 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
29446 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
29447 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
29448 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
29451 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
29452 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
29455 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
29456 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
29459 @item gnus-info-group
29460 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
29461 @findex gnus-info-group
29462 @findex gnus-info-set-group
29463 Get/set the group name.
29465 @item gnus-info-rank
29466 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
29467 @findex gnus-info-rank
29468 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
29469 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
29471 @item gnus-info-level
29472 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
29473 @findex gnus-info-level
29474 @findex gnus-info-set-level
29475 Get/set the group level.
29477 @item gnus-info-score
29478 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
29479 @findex gnus-info-score
29480 @findex gnus-info-set-score
29481 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
29483 @item gnus-info-read
29484 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
29485 @findex gnus-info-read
29486 @findex gnus-info-set-read
29487 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
29489 @item gnus-info-marks
29490 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
29491 @findex gnus-info-marks
29492 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
29493 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
29495 @item gnus-info-method
29496 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
29497 @findex gnus-info-method
29498 @findex gnus-info-set-method
29499 Get/set the group select method.
29501 @item gnus-info-params
29502 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
29503 @findex gnus-info-params
29504 @findex gnus-info-set-params
29505 Get/set the group parameters.
29508 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
29509 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
29511 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
29512 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
29513 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
29514 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
29517 @node Extended Interactive
29518 @subsection Extended Interactive
29519 @cindex interactive
29520 @findex gnus-interactive
29522 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
29523 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
29524 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
29527 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
29528 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
29533 The best thing to do would have been to implement
29534 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
29535 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
29536 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
29537 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
29538 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
29539 @code{interactive}.
29541 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
29546 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
29547 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
29551 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
29552 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
29553 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
29556 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
29560 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
29564 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
29570 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
29571 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
29575 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
29576 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
29577 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
29579 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
29580 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
29581 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
29582 Gnus, that's very useful.
29584 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
29585 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
29586 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
29587 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
29588 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
29589 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
29590 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
29591 following function:
29594 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
29598 (,function ,@@args))
29602 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
29603 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
29604 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
29607 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
29608 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
29609 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
29611 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
29612 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
29613 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
29616 @node Various File Formats
29617 @subsection Various File Formats
29620 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
29621 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
29625 @node Active File Format
29626 @subsubsection Active File Format
29628 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
29629 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
29632 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
29635 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
29636 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
29637 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
29638 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
29639 no.general 1000 900 y
29642 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
29645 active = *group-line
29646 group-line = group spc high-number spc low-number spc flag <NEWLINE>
29647 group = <non-white-space string>
29649 high-number = <non-negative integer>
29650 low-number = <positive integer>
29651 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
29654 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
29655 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
29658 @node Newsgroups File Format
29659 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
29661 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
29662 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
29663 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
29666 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
29667 Here's the definition:
29671 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
29672 group = <non-white-space string>
29674 description = <string>
29679 @node Emacs for Heathens
29680 @section Emacs for Heathens
29682 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
29683 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
29684 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{C-M-a}'', ``kill the
29685 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
29686 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
29687 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
29688 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
29692 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
29693 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
29698 @subsection Keystrokes
29702 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
29705 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
29708 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
29709 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
29710 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
29711 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
29712 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
29713 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
29715 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
29716 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
29717 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
29718 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
29719 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
29720 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
29721 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
29723 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
29724 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{C-M-m}
29725 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
29726 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
29727 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
29728 ``Press @kbd{C-M-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
29729 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
29731 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
29732 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
29733 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
29734 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
29735 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
29741 @subsection Emacs Lisp
29743 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
29744 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
29745 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
29746 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
29748 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
29749 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
29750 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
29751 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
29752 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
29753 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
29754 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{~/.gnus.el}
29755 file to customize Gnus. (You can also use the @file{~/.emacs} file, but
29756 in order to set things of Gnus up, it is much better to use the
29757 @file{~/.gnus.el} file, @xref{Startup Files}.)
29759 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
29760 write the following:
29763 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
29766 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
29767 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
29768 you can go and fill your @file{~/.gnus.el} file with lots of these to
29769 change how Gnus works.
29771 If you have put that thing in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file, it will be
29772 read and @code{eval}ed (which is Lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
29773 start Gnus. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
29774 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
29775 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
29777 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
29778 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
29779 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
29783 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
29787 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
29790 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server} to
29791 @samp{nntp.ifi.uio.no}'', that means:
29794 (setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
29797 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
29798 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
29801 @include gnus-faq.texi
29803 @node GNU Free Documentation License
29804 @chapter GNU Free Documentation License
29805 @include doclicense.texi
29825 @c Local Variables:
29827 @c coding: iso-8859-1
29831 arch-tag: c9fa47e7-78ca-4681-bda9-9fef45d1c819