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4 @settitle T-gnus 6.15 Manual
10 * Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
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268 \gnusauthor{by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen}
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277 Copyright \copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
278 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
281 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
282 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
283 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
284 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
285 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
286 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
287 License'' in the Emacs manual.
289 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
290 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
291 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
293 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
294 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
295 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
296 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
304 This file documents gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.
306 Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
308 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
309 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
310 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
311 Invariant Sections being none, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
312 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
313 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
314 License'' in the Emacs manual.
316 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
317 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
318 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
320 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
321 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
322 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
323 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
329 @title T-gnus 6.15 Manual
331 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
334 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
335 Copyright @copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
337 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
338 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
339 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
340 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
341 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
342 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
343 License'' in the Emacs manual.
345 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
346 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
347 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
349 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
350 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
351 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
352 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
361 @top The gnus Newsreader
365 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using gnus. The news
366 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@sc{nntp}, local
367 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
370 T-gnus provides MIME features based on SEMI API. So T-gnus supports
371 your right to read strange messages including big images or other
372 various kinds of formats. T-gnus also supports
373 internationalization/localization and multiscript features based on MULE
374 API. So T-gnus does not discriminate various language communities.
375 Oh, if you are a Klingon, please wait Unicode Next Generation.
377 This manual corresponds to T-gnus 6.15.
388 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
389 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
391 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
392 being accused of plagiarism:
394 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
395 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
396 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you
397 can even read news with it!
399 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
400 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
401 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend gnus to make it behave
402 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
403 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
409 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
410 * Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
411 * Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
412 * Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
413 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
414 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
415 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
416 * Various:: General purpose settings.
417 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
418 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, FAQ, History, Internals.
419 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
420 * Key Index:: Key Index.
423 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
427 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
428 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
429 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
430 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
431 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
432 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
433 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
434 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
435 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
436 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
437 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
441 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
442 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
443 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
447 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
448 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
449 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
450 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
451 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
452 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
453 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
454 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
455 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
456 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
457 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
458 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
459 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
460 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
461 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
462 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
463 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
467 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
468 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
469 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
473 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
474 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
475 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
476 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
477 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
481 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
482 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
483 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
484 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
488 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
489 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
490 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
491 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
492 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
493 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
494 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
495 * Threading:: How threads are made.
496 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
497 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
498 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
499 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
500 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
501 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
502 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
503 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
504 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
505 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
506 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
507 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
508 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
509 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
510 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
511 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
512 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
513 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer.
514 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
515 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
516 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
518 Summary Buffer Format
520 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
521 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
522 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
523 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
527 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
528 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
530 Reply, Followup and Post
532 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
533 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
534 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
535 * Canceling and Superseding:: ``Whoops, I shouldn't have called him that.''
539 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
540 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
541 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
542 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
543 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
544 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
548 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
549 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
551 Customizing Threading
553 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
554 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
555 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
556 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over... but you were wrong!
560 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
561 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
562 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
563 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
564 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
565 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
569 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
570 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
571 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
575 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
576 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
577 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
578 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
579 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
580 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
581 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
582 * Article Miscellania:: Various other stuff.
584 Alternative Approaches
586 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
587 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
589 Various Summary Stuff
591 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
592 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
593 * Summary Generation Commands:: (Re)generating the summary buffer.
594 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
598 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
599 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
600 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
601 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
602 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
606 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
607 * Posting Server:: What server should you post via?
608 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
609 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
610 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
611 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
612 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
613 * Using GPG:: How to use GPG and MML to sign and encrypt messages
617 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
618 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
619 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
620 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
621 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
622 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
623 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
627 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
628 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
629 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
630 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
631 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
632 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
633 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
637 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
638 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
642 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
643 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
644 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
645 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
646 * Mail Backend Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
647 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
648 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
649 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
650 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
651 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
652 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
653 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail backends for reading other files.
654 * Choosing a Mail Backend:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
658 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
659 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
660 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
662 Choosing a Mail Backend
664 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
665 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
666 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
667 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like backend.
668 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
669 * Comparing Mail Backends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
673 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
674 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
675 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
676 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
677 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
678 * Customizing w3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.
682 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
683 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
684 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
685 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
686 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
687 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @sc{imap} client.
691 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
695 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
696 * SOUP Groups:: A backend for reading @sc{soup} packets.
697 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
701 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
702 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
703 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a "compress mailbox" button.
707 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
708 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
712 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
713 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
714 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
715 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
716 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with IMAP.
717 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
718 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
719 * Example Setup:: An example @file{.gnus.el} file for offline people.
720 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
721 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
725 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
726 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
727 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
731 * Group Agent Commands::
732 * Summary Agent Commands::
733 * Server Agent Commands::
737 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
738 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
739 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
740 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
741 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
742 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
743 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
744 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
745 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
746 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
747 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
748 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
749 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
750 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
751 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
752 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
756 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
757 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
758 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
759 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
763 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
764 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
765 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
769 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
770 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
771 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
772 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
773 * Windows Configuration:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
774 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
775 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
776 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
777 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
778 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
779 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
780 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
781 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
782 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
783 * XEmacs Enhancements:: There are more pictures and stuff under XEmacs.
784 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
785 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
786 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
790 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
791 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
792 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
793 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
794 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
798 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what your reading.
799 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
800 * Toolbar:: Click'n'drool.
801 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
805 * Picon Basics:: What are picons and How do I get them.
806 * Picon Requirements:: Don't go further if you aren't using XEmacs.
807 * Easy Picons:: Displaying Picons---the easy way.
808 * Hard Picons:: The way you should do it. You'll learn something.
809 * Picon Useless Configuration:: Other variables you can trash/tweak/munge/play with.
813 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
814 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
815 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
816 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
817 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
818 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
819 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
820 * Frequently Asked Questions:: A question-and-answer session.
824 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
825 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
826 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
827 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
828 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
829 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
830 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
831 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
832 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
836 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
837 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
838 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
839 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
840 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
844 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
845 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
846 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
847 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
851 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
852 * Backend Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
853 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
854 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
855 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
856 * Group Info:: The group info format.
857 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
858 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
859 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
863 * Required Backend Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
864 * Optional Backend Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
865 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
866 * Writing New Backends:: Extending old backends.
867 * Hooking New Backends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
868 * Mail-like Backends:: Some tips on mail backends.
872 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
873 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
877 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
878 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
884 @chapter Starting gnus
889 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting gnus
890 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
893 @findex gnus-other-frame
894 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
895 If you want to start gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
896 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
898 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
899 variables in your @file{~/.gnus} file. This file is similar to
900 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when gnus starts.
902 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
903 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
906 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
907 * The First Time:: What does gnus do the first time you start it?
908 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
909 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one gnus active at a time.
910 * Fetching a Group:: Starting gnus just to read a group.
911 * New Groups:: What is gnus supposed to do with new groups?
912 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
913 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
914 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
915 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
916 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
920 @node Finding the News
921 @section Finding the News
924 @vindex gnus-select-method
926 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where gnus should look for
927 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
928 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
929 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
932 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @sc{nntp} server is where
933 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
936 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
939 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
942 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
945 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
946 certainly be much faster.
948 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
950 @cindex @sc{nntp} server
951 If this variable is not set, gnus will take a look at the
952 @code{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
953 gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
954 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter. If
955 that fails as well, gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs as an @sc{nntp} server. That's a long shot, though.
957 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
958 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
959 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
960 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
962 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
963 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
964 You can also make gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
965 @sc{nntp} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
966 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), gnus will let you choose between the servers
967 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
968 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this
969 will set @code{gnus-nntp-server}, which means that if you then @kbd{M-x
970 gnus} later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same
973 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
975 However, if you use one @sc{nntp} server regularly and are just
976 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
977 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
978 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
979 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
980 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
982 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
984 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
985 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
986 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
987 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
988 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
989 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
992 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} backend to read your mail, you
993 would typically set this variable to
996 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
1000 @node The First Time
1001 @section The First Time
1002 @cindex first time usage
1004 If no startup files exist, gnus will try to determine what groups should
1005 be subscribed by default.
1007 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
1008 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, gnus
1009 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
1010 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
1013 Since she hasn't, gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
1014 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
1015 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
1017 You'll also be subscribed to the gnus documentation group, which should
1018 help you with most common problems.
1020 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, gnus will just
1021 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
1025 @node The Server is Down
1026 @section The Server is Down
1027 @cindex server errors
1029 If the default server is down, gnus will understandably have some
1030 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
1031 the news groups, you may want to start gnus anyway.
1033 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
1034 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
1035 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
1036 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
1037 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
1038 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
1039 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
1041 @findex gnus-no-server
1042 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
1044 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
1045 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
1046 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start gnus. That might come in handy
1047 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
1048 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
1049 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
1050 levels.) Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1054 @section Slave Gnusae
1057 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one gnus at the
1058 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
1059 are using the two different gnusae to read from two different servers),
1060 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
1062 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
1063 @code{.newsrc} file.
1065 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the gnus
1066 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
1067 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
1068 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
1069 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
1070 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
1071 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
1073 Anyway, you start one gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
1074 however you do it). Each subsequent slave gnusae should be started with
1075 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
1076 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
1077 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master gnus
1078 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
1079 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
1080 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
1082 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
1083 information in the normal (i.e., master) @code{.newsrc} file.
1086 @node Fetching a Group
1087 @section Fetching a Group
1088 @cindex fetching a group
1090 @findex gnus-fetch-group
1091 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
1092 group and I don't care whether gnus has been started or not''. This is
1093 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
1094 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
1095 It takes the group name as a parameter.
1101 @cindex subscription
1103 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
1104 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
1105 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
1106 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
1107 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
1108 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
1109 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
1110 @code{always}, then gnus will query the backends for new groups even
1111 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1114 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
1115 * Subscription Methods:: What gnus should do with new groups.
1116 * Filtering New Groups:: Making gnus ignore certain new groups.
1120 @node Checking New Groups
1121 @subsection Checking New Groups
1123 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
1124 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
1125 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
1126 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, gnus will ask the
1127 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
1128 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
1129 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
1130 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
1131 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
1132 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
1134 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
1135 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
1136 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
1137 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
1138 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
1139 work. I could write a function to make gnus guess whether the server
1140 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
1141 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
1142 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
1143 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
1144 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
1146 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, gnus will
1147 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
1148 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
1149 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
1150 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
1151 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
1154 @node Subscription Methods
1155 @subsection Subscription Methods
1157 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
1158 What gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
1159 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
1161 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
1162 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
1164 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
1168 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
1169 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
1170 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
1171 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
1172 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
1174 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
1175 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
1176 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
1177 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
1179 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1180 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1181 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
1183 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1184 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1185 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
1186 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
1187 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
1188 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its
1189 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
1190 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
1191 up. Or something like that.
1193 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
1194 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
1195 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that gnus will ask
1196 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
1197 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
1199 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
1200 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
1201 Kill all new groups.
1203 @item gnus-subscribe-topics
1204 @vindex gnus-subscribe-topics
1205 Put the groups into the topic that has a matching @code{subscribe} topic
1206 parameter (@pxref{Topic Parameters}). For instance, a @code{subscribe}
1207 topic parameter that looks like
1213 will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under
1216 If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the
1221 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
1222 A closely related variable is
1223 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
1224 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, gnus will ask you in a
1225 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
1226 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
1229 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
1230 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
1231 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
1232 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
1235 @node Filtering New Groups
1236 @subsection Filtering New Groups
1238 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
1239 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
1240 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
1243 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
1246 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
1247 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
1248 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
1249 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
1250 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
1251 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
1252 subscribing these groups.
1253 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
1254 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
1256 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
1257 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
1258 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
1259 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
1260 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
1261 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
1262 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
1263 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
1265 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
1266 Yet another variable that meddles here is
1267 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
1268 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous, but I
1269 thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is more
1270 meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is used
1271 more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new groups
1272 that come from mail backends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
1273 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, and @code{nnmh}) subscribed. If you
1274 don't like that, just set this variable to @code{nil}.
1276 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
1277 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
1280 @node Changing Servers
1281 @section Changing Servers
1282 @cindex changing servers
1284 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @sc{nntp} server to another.
1285 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
1286 very flaky and you want to use another.
1288 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
1289 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
1293 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
1294 @sc{nntp} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
1295 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
1296 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
1299 Gnus provides a few functions to attempt to translate a @file{.newsrc}
1300 file from one server to another. They all have one thing in
1301 common---they take a looong time to run. You don't want to use these
1302 functions more than absolutely necessary.
1304 @kindex M-x gnus-change-server
1305 @findex gnus-change-server
1306 If you have access to both servers, Gnus can request the headers for all
1307 the articles you have read and compare @code{Message-ID}s and map the
1308 article numbers of the read articles and article marks. The @kbd{M-x
1309 gnus-change-server} command will do this for all your native groups. It
1310 will prompt for the method you want to move to.
1312 @kindex M-x gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1313 @findex gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1314 You can also move individual groups with the @kbd{M-x
1315 gnus-group-move-group-to-server} command. This is useful if you want to
1316 move a (foreign) group from one server to another.
1318 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1319 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1320 If you don't have access to both the old and new server, all your marks
1321 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use the @kbd{M-x
1322 gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} command to clear out all data
1323 that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.
1325 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
1326 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
1327 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
1331 @section Startup Files
1332 @cindex startup files
1337 Now, you all know about the @file{.newsrc} file. All subscription
1338 information is traditionally stored in this file.
1340 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
1341 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
1342 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
1343 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
1344 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
1345 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
1346 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
1348 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
1349 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
1350 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
1351 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
1352 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
1353 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
1355 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
1356 @vindex gnus-read-newsrc-file
1357 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
1358 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
1359 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from gnus faster.
1360 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
1361 gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting
1362 @code{gnus-read-newsrc-file} to @code{nil} makes gnus ignore the
1363 @file{.newsrc} file and any @file{.newsrc-SERVER} files, which is
1364 convenient if you have a tendency to use Netscape once in a while.
1366 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
1367 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
1368 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
1369 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
1370 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
1371 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
1372 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
1373 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
1374 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
1375 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
1376 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
1377 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
1379 @vindex gnus-startup-file
1380 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
1381 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
1382 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
1384 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
1385 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
1386 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
1387 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
1388 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
1389 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
1390 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
1391 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
1392 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
1393 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
1396 (defun turn-off-backup ()
1397 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
1399 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1400 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1403 @vindex gnus-init-file
1404 When gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
1405 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
1406 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
1407 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
1408 @file{site-init} files with gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
1409 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
1410 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
1411 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
1412 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order).
1418 @cindex dribble file
1421 Whenever you do something that changes the gnus data (reading articles,
1422 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
1423 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
1424 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
1425 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
1428 If gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
1429 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
1432 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
1433 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, gnus won't create and
1434 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
1436 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
1437 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
1438 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, gnus will dribble
1439 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
1440 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
1441 file permissions as the @code{.newsrc} file.
1443 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
1444 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
1445 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
1448 @node The Active File
1449 @section The Active File
1451 @cindex ignored groups
1453 When gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
1454 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
1455 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
1457 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
1458 Before examining the active file, gnus deletes all lines that match the
1459 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
1460 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make gnus
1461 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
1462 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
1463 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
1466 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
1467 @c if you set it to anything else.
1469 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
1471 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
1472 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent gnus from
1473 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
1475 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
1476 you actually subscribe to.
1478 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
1479 variable to @code{nil} will probably make gnus slower, not faster. At
1480 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow gnus down
1481 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
1483 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
1484 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
1485 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
1486 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
1487 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
1488 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
1490 Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for
1491 instance) do not support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group}. For these
1492 servers, @code{nil} is probably the most efficient value for this
1495 If this variable is @code{nil}, gnus will ask for group info in total
1496 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
1497 @sc{nntp} server, gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
1498 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
1499 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
1500 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
1502 If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three
1503 different values for this variable and see what works best for you.
1505 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
1506 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1508 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1509 secondary select methods.
1512 @node Startup Variables
1513 @section Startup Variables
1517 @item gnus-load-hook
1518 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1519 A hook run while gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1520 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1521 times you start gnus.
1523 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1524 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1525 A hook run after starting up gnus successfully.
1527 @item gnus-startup-hook
1528 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1529 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up gnus
1531 @item gnus-started-hook
1532 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1533 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up gnus
1536 @item gnus-setup-news-hook
1537 @vindex gnus-setup-news-hook
1538 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1539 generating the group buffer.
1541 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1542 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1543 If non-@code{nil}, gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1544 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1545 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1546 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1547 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1548 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1550 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1551 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1552 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1553 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1554 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1555 @file{.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @code{.emacs} instead.
1557 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1558 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1559 Message displayed by gnus when no groups are available.
1561 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1562 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1563 If non-@code{nil}, play the gnus jingle at startup.
1565 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1566 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1567 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1568 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1574 @chapter Group Buffer
1575 @cindex group buffer
1577 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1578 is the first buffer shown when gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1579 long as gnus is active.
1583 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1584 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=tmp/group.ps,height=9cm}}
1585 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1586 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1587 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1588 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1589 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1590 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1596 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1597 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1598 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1599 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1600 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1601 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1602 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1603 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1604 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1605 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1606 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1607 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1608 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1609 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1610 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1611 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1612 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1616 @node Group Buffer Format
1617 @section Group Buffer Format
1620 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1621 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
1622 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1626 @node Group Line Specification
1627 @subsection Group Line Specification
1628 @cindex group buffer format
1630 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1631 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1633 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1636 25: news.announce.newusers
1637 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1642 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1643 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1644 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1645 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1647 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1648 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1649 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1650 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1651 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1652 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1654 @samp{%M%S%5y: %(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1656 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1657 the colon after performing an operation. Nothing else is required---not
1658 even the group name. All displayed text is just window dressing, and is
1659 never examined by gnus. Gnus stores all real information it needs using
1662 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1663 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1664 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1666 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1671 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1674 Whether the group is subscribed.
1677 Level of subscribedness.
1680 Number of unread articles.
1683 Number of dormant articles.
1686 Number of ticked articles.
1689 Number of read articles.
1692 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1693 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1695 Gnus uses this estimation because the NNTP protocol provides efficient
1696 access to @var{max-number} and @var{min-number} but getting the true
1697 unread message count is not possible efficiently. For hysterical
1698 raisins, even the mail backends, where the true number of unread
1699 messages might be available efficiently, use the same limited
1700 interface. To remove this restriction from Gnus means that the
1701 backend interface has to be changed, which is not an easy job. If you
1702 want to work on this, please contact the Gnus mailing list.
1705 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1708 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1717 Newsgroup description.
1720 @samp{m} if moderated.
1723 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1732 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1736 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1739 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1740 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1741 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1742 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1743 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.e.gnus}.
1746 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1748 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1752 @samp{#} (@code{gnus-process-mark}) if the group is process marked.
1755 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1759 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1760 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1761 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1762 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1763 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1764 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1769 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1770 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1771 group, or a bogus native group.
1774 @node Group Modeline Specification
1775 @subsection Group Modeline Specification
1776 @cindex group modeline
1778 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1779 The mode line can be changed by setting
1780 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1781 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1785 The native news server.
1787 The native select method.
1791 @node Group Highlighting
1792 @subsection Group Highlighting
1793 @cindex highlighting
1794 @cindex group highlighting
1796 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1797 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1798 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1799 that look like @code{(@var{form} . @var{face})}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1800 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1802 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1806 (cond (window-system
1807 (setq custom-background-mode 'light)
1808 (defface my-group-face-1
1809 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face")
1810 (defface my-group-face-2
1811 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t))) "Second group face")
1812 (defface my-group-face-3
1813 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face")
1814 (defface my-group-face-4
1815 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face")
1816 (defface my-group-face-5
1817 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face")))
1819 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1820 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1821 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1822 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1823 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1824 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1827 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1829 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1836 The number of unread articles in the group.
1840 Whether the group is a mail group.
1842 The level of the group.
1844 The score of the group.
1846 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1848 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather, MAX-NUMBER minus
1849 MIN-NUMBER plus one.
1851 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
1852 topic being inserted.
1855 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
1856 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal gnus
1857 functions for snarfing info on the group.
1859 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
1860 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
1861 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
1862 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}. This hook
1863 calls @code{gnus-group-highlight-line} by default.
1866 @node Group Maneuvering
1867 @section Group Maneuvering
1868 @cindex group movement
1870 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
1871 expected, hopefully.
1877 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
1878 Go to the next group that has unread articles
1879 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
1885 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
1886 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
1887 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
1891 @findex gnus-group-next-group
1892 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
1896 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
1897 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
1901 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
1902 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
1903 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
1907 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
1908 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
1909 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
1912 Three commands for jumping to groups:
1918 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
1919 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
1920 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
1925 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
1926 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
1927 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
1931 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
1932 Jump to the first group with unread articles
1933 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
1936 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
1937 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
1938 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
1939 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
1943 @node Selecting a Group
1944 @section Selecting a Group
1945 @cindex group selection
1950 @kindex SPACE (Group)
1951 @findex gnus-group-read-group
1952 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
1953 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
1954 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
1955 this command, gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
1956 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{N}, @var{N}
1957 determines the number of articles gnus will fetch. If @var{N} is
1958 positive, gnus fetches the @var{N} newest articles, if @var{N} is
1959 negative, Gnus fetches the @code{abs(@var{N})} oldest articles.
1961 Thus, @kbd{SPC} enters the group normally, @kbd{C-u SPC} offers old
1962 articles, @kbd{C-u 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 newest articles, and @kbd{C-u
1963 - 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 oldest ones.
1965 When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type
1966 @kbd{M-g} to fetch new articles, or @kbd{C-u M-g} to also show the old
1971 @findex gnus-group-select-group
1972 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
1973 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
1974 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
1975 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
1979 @kindex M-RET (Group)
1980 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
1981 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
1982 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
1983 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
1984 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
1985 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
1986 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
1987 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
1988 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
1991 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
1992 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
1993 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
1994 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
1995 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
1998 @kindex M-C-RET (Group)
1999 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
2000 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
2001 doing any processing of its contents
2002 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
2003 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
2004 manner will have no permanent effects.
2008 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
2009 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what gnus should consider
2010 to be a big group. This is 200 by default. If the group has more
2011 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, gnus will query the user
2012 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many articles
2013 should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a negative
2014 number (@code{-n}), the @code{n} oldest articles will be fetched. If it
2015 is positive, the @code{n} articles that have arrived most recently will
2018 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
2019 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
2020 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} control whether any articles are selected
2021 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
2026 Don't select any articles when entering the group. Just display the
2027 full summary buffer.
2030 Select the first unread article when entering the group.
2033 Select the highest scored article in the group when entering the
2038 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function will
2039 be called to place point on a subject line, and/or select some article.
2040 Useful functions include:
2043 @item gnus-summary-first-unread-subject
2044 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article, but
2045 don't select the article.
2047 @item gnus-summary-first-unread-article
2048 Select the first unread article.
2050 @item gnus-summary-best-unread-article
2051 Select the highest-scored unread article.
2055 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
2056 binary group with Huge articles) you can set this variable to @code{nil}
2057 in @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
2061 @node Subscription Commands
2062 @section Subscription Commands
2063 @cindex subscription
2071 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
2072 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
2073 Toggle subscription to the current group
2074 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2080 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
2081 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
2082 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
2083 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
2089 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
2090 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
2091 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
2097 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
2098 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
2101 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2102 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2103 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
2104 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
2105 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
2111 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
2112 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
2116 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
2117 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
2120 @kindex S C-k (Group)
2121 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
2122 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
2123 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
2124 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
2125 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
2126 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
2127 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
2128 @file{.newsrc} file.
2132 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
2142 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
2143 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
2144 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
2145 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
2146 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
2147 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
2152 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
2153 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
2154 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
2158 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
2159 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
2160 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
2162 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2163 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2164 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2165 If you have switched from one @sc{nntp} server to another, all your marks
2166 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
2167 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
2174 @section Group Levels
2178 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
2179 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
2180 can ask gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
2181 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
2182 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
2184 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
2190 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
2191 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
2192 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
2193 prompted for a level.
2196 @vindex gnus-level-killed
2197 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
2198 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
2199 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
2200 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
2201 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
2202 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
2203 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
2204 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
2205 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
2206 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
2207 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
2208 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
2209 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
2210 reasons of efficiency.
2212 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
2213 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
2215 Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to
2216 understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you
2217 subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting @kbd{L} you can have it show
2218 empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type @kbd{l} to
2219 go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed
2220 groups are hidden, in a way.
2222 Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they
2223 are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and
2224 unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for
2225 information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie
2226 and killed groups. Normally, you use @kbd{C-k} to kill the groups you
2227 aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.
2229 Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when
2230 a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie
2231 group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups,
2232 but you can type @kbd{A z} to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe
2233 the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (@kbd{A k} shows a
2234 list of killed groups.)
2236 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
2237 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
2238 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
2240 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
2241 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
2242 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
2243 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
2244 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
2245 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
2246 relevant valid ranges.
2248 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
2249 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
2250 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
2251 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
2252 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
2253 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
2256 If this variable is @code{best}, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the
2257 one with the best level.
2259 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
2260 All groups with a level less than or equal to
2261 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
2264 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
2265 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
2266 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
2267 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
2270 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
2271 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
2272 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
2273 use this level as the ``work'' level.
2275 @vindex gnus-activate-level
2276 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
2277 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
2278 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
2279 to 5. The default is 6.
2283 @section Group Score
2288 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
2289 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
2290 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
2293 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can have Gnus assign a score
2294 to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort
2295 the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on
2296 score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is
2297 called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has
2298 a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score
2299 of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the
2300 least significant part.))
2302 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
2303 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
2304 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
2305 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
2306 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
2307 action after each summary exit, you can add
2308 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
2309 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
2310 slow things down somewhat.
2313 @node Marking Groups
2314 @section Marking Groups
2315 @cindex marking groups
2317 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
2318 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
2319 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
2320 bidding on those groups.
2322 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
2323 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
2324 with the process mark and then execute the command.
2332 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
2333 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
2339 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
2340 Remove the mark from the current group
2341 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
2345 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
2346 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
2350 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
2351 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
2355 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
2356 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
2360 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
2361 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
2362 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
2365 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
2367 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
2368 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
2369 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
2370 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
2371 the command to be executed.
2374 @node Foreign Groups
2375 @section Foreign Groups
2376 @cindex foreign groups
2378 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
2379 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
2380 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
2381 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
2388 @findex gnus-group-make-group
2389 @cindex making groups
2390 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
2391 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
2392 to subscribe to @sc{nntp} groups, @pxref{Browse Foreign Server}.
2396 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
2397 @cindex renaming groups
2398 Rename the current group to something else
2399 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
2400 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
2406 @findex gnus-group-customize
2407 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
2411 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
2412 @cindex renaming groups
2413 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
2414 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
2418 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
2419 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
2420 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
2424 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
2425 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
2426 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
2430 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
2432 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
2433 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
2438 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
2439 Make the gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
2443 @cindex (ding) archive
2444 @cindex archive group
2445 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
2446 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
2447 @vindex gnus-group-recent-archive-directory
2448 Make a gnus archive group (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). By
2449 default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created
2450 (@code{gnus-group-recent-archive-directory}), but given a prefix, a full
2451 group will be created from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
2455 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
2457 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
2458 match groups to be ``included'' in the kiboze group, and a series of
2459 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
2460 @xref{Kibozed Groups}.
2464 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
2466 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
2467 @code{nneething} backend (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
2468 @xref{Anything Groups}.
2472 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
2473 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
2475 Make a group based on some file or other
2476 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2477 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
2478 Currently supported types are @code{babyl}, @code{mbox}, @code{digest},
2479 @code{mmdf}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{clari-briefs},
2480 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{nsmail} and @code{forward}.
2481 If you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file
2482 type. @xref{Document Groups}.
2486 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
2487 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
2488 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
2489 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
2493 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
2498 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
2499 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2500 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
2501 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
2502 include @code{dejanews}, @code{altavista} and @code{reference}.
2503 @xref{Web Searches}.
2505 If you use the @code{dejanews} search engine, you can limit the search
2506 to a particular group by using a match string like
2507 @samp{~g alt.sysadmin.recovery shaving}.
2510 @kindex G DEL (Group)
2511 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
2512 This function will delete the current group
2513 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
2514 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
2515 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
2516 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
2517 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} group), though.
2521 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
2522 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
2523 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
2527 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
2528 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
2529 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
2532 @xref{Select Methods}, for more information on the various select
2535 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
2536 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
2537 gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
2538 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
2539 groups from different @sc{nntp} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
2540 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
2544 @node Group Parameters
2545 @section Group Parameters
2546 @cindex group parameters
2548 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
2549 Here's an example group parameter list:
2552 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2556 We see that each element consists of a "dotted pair"---the thing before
2557 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2558 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2559 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2561 Some parameters have correspondant customizable variables, each of which
2562 is an alist of regexps and values.
2564 The following group parameters can be used:
2569 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2572 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2575 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2576 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2577 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2578 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2579 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2581 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2582 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2583 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2584 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2585 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2586 list address instead.
2588 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-address-alist}.
2592 Address used when doing @kbd{a} in that group.
2595 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2598 It is totally ignored
2599 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2600 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2602 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2603 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2604 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2605 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2606 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2608 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you don't have a
2609 @code{to-list} group parameter, one will be added automatically upon
2610 sending the message.
2612 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-list-alist}.
2616 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2617 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2618 of whether it has any unread articles.
2620 @item broken-reply-to
2621 @cindex broken-reply-to
2622 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2623 headers in this group are to be ignored. This can be useful if you're
2624 reading a mailing list group where the listserv has inserted
2625 @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv itself. This is
2626 broken behavior. So there!
2630 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2631 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2635 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, gnus
2636 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2637 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2642 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2643 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2644 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2645 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2646 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2647 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2648 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
2652 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2653 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2654 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2656 See also @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups}.
2659 @cindex total-expire
2660 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2661 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2662 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2663 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2666 See also @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups}.
2670 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2671 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(expiry-wait
2672 . 10)}, this value will override any @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and
2673 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} when expiring expirable messages.
2674 The value can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or
2675 the symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2678 @cindex score file group parameter
2679 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2680 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2681 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2684 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2685 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2686 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2687 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2690 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2691 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2692 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2693 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2696 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2697 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2701 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2704 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2709 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")}
2710 are arbitrary comments on the group. They are currently ignored by
2711 gnus, but provide a place for you to store information on particular
2715 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
2716 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
2717 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
2719 See also @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}.
2721 @item ignored-charsets
2722 Elements that look like @code{(ignored-charsets x-known iso-8859-1)}
2723 will make @code{iso-8859-1} and @code{x-unknown} ignored; that is, the
2724 default charset will be used for decoding articles.
2726 See also @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
2729 You can store additional posting style information for this group only
2730 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
2731 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
2732 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
2733 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
2735 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
2736 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
2737 like this in the group parameters:
2742 (signature "Funky Signature"))
2746 An item like @code{(banner . "regex")} causes any part of an article
2747 that matches the regular expression "regex" to be stripped. Instead of
2748 "regex", you can also use the symbol @code{signature} which strips the
2749 last signature or any of the elements of the alist
2750 @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}.
2752 @item (@var{variable} @var{form})
2753 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
2754 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
2755 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
2756 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
2757 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
2758 @code{eval}ed there.
2760 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function, if you'd like.
2761 If you want to hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put
2762 something like @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that
2763 group. @code{dummy-variable} will be set to the result of the
2764 @code{(ding)} form, but who cares?
2768 Use the @kbd{G p} or the @kbd{G c} command to edit group parameters of a
2769 group. (@kbd{G p} presents you with a Lisp-based interface, @kbd{G c}
2770 presents you with a Customize-like interface. The latter helps avoid
2771 silly Lisp errors.) You might also be interested in reading about topic
2772 parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}).
2775 @node Listing Groups
2776 @section Listing Groups
2777 @cindex group listing
2779 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
2787 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
2788 List all groups that have unread articles
2789 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
2790 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
2791 only lists groups of level five (i. e.,
2792 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
2799 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
2800 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
2801 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
2802 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
2803 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
2804 unsubscribed groups).
2808 @findex gnus-group-list-level
2809 List all unread groups on a specific level
2810 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
2811 with no unread articles.
2815 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
2816 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
2817 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
2818 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
2823 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
2824 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
2828 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
2829 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
2830 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
2834 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
2835 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
2839 @findex gnus-group-list-active
2840 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
2841 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
2842 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
2843 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
2844 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
2845 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
2846 Take the output with some grains of salt.
2850 @findex gnus-group-apropos
2851 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
2852 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
2856 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
2857 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
2858 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
2862 @findex gnus-group-list-cached
2863 List all groups with cached articles (@code{gnus-group-list-cached}).
2867 @findex gnus-group-list-dormant
2868 List all groups with dormant articles (@code{gnus-group-list-dormant}).
2872 @findex gnus-group-list-limit
2873 List groups limited within the current selection
2874 (@code{gnus-group-list-limit}).
2878 @findex gnus-group-list-flush
2879 Flush groups from the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-flush}).
2883 @findex gnus-group-list-plus
2884 List groups plus the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-plus}).
2888 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
2889 @cindex visible group parameter
2890 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
2891 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
2892 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
2893 get the same effect.
2895 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
2896 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
2897 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
2898 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
2899 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
2902 @node Sorting Groups
2903 @section Sorting Groups
2904 @cindex sorting groups
2906 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
2907 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
2908 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
2909 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
2910 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
2911 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
2916 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
2917 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
2918 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
2920 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
2921 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
2922 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
2924 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
2925 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
2926 Sort by group level.
2928 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
2929 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
2930 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
2932 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
2933 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
2934 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
2935 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
2937 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
2938 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
2939 Sort by number of unread articles.
2941 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
2942 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
2943 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
2945 @item gnus-group-sort-by-server
2946 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-server
2947 Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.
2952 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
2953 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
2957 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
2958 some sorting criteria:
2962 @kindex G S a (Group)
2963 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
2964 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
2965 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
2968 @kindex G S u (Group)
2969 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
2970 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
2971 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
2974 @kindex G S l (Group)
2975 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
2976 Sort the group buffer by group level
2977 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
2980 @kindex G S v (Group)
2981 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
2982 Sort the group buffer by group score
2983 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
2986 @kindex G S r (Group)
2987 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
2988 Sort the group buffer by group rank
2989 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
2992 @kindex G S m (Group)
2993 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
2994 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by backend name
2995 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
2999 All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention
3000 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3002 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
3003 commands will sort in reverse order.
3005 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
3009 @kindex G P a (Group)
3010 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
3011 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
3012 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
3015 @kindex G P u (Group)
3016 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
3017 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
3018 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
3021 @kindex G P l (Group)
3022 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
3023 Sort the groups by group level
3024 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
3027 @kindex G P v (Group)
3028 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
3029 Sort the groups by group score
3030 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3033 @kindex G P r (Group)
3034 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
3035 Sort the groups by group rank
3036 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3039 @kindex G P m (Group)
3040 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
3041 Sort the groups alphabetically by backend name
3042 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
3046 And finally, note that you can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} to manually
3050 @node Group Maintenance
3051 @section Group Maintenance
3052 @cindex bogus groups
3057 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
3058 Find bogus groups and delete them
3059 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
3063 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
3064 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
3065 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
3066 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
3067 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
3071 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
3072 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
3073 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
3074 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}). That is, delete
3075 all expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
3076 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3079 @kindex C-c M-C-x (Group)
3080 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
3081 Run all expirable articles in all groups through the expiry process
3082 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
3087 @node Browse Foreign Server
3088 @section Browse Foreign Server
3089 @cindex foreign servers
3090 @cindex browsing servers
3095 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
3096 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
3097 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
3098 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
3101 @findex gnus-browse-mode
3102 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
3103 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
3104 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
3106 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
3111 @findex gnus-group-next-group
3112 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
3116 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
3117 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
3120 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
3121 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
3122 Enter the current group and display the first article
3123 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
3126 @kindex RET (Browse)
3127 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
3128 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
3132 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
3133 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
3134 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
3140 @findex gnus-browse-exit
3141 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
3145 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
3146 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
3147 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
3152 @section Exiting gnus
3153 @cindex exiting gnus
3155 Yes, gnus is ex(c)iting.
3160 @findex gnus-group-suspend
3161 Suspend gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit gnus,
3162 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
3163 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
3167 @findex gnus-group-exit
3168 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
3169 Quit gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
3173 @findex gnus-group-quit
3174 Quit gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
3175 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
3178 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
3179 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
3180 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend gnus and
3181 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit gnus, while
3182 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
3187 If you wish to completely unload gnus and all its adherents, you can use
3188 the @code{gnus-unload} command. This command is also very handy when
3189 trying to customize meta-variables.
3194 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
3195 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
3196 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
3202 @section Group Topics
3205 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
3206 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
3207 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
3208 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
3209 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
3210 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
3214 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
3215 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=tmp/group-topic.ps,height=9cm}}
3226 2: alt.religion.emacs
3229 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3231 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3232 13: comp.sources.unix
3235 @findex gnus-topic-mode
3237 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
3238 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
3239 is a toggling command.)
3241 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
3242 dum... Nice tune, that... la la la... What, you're back? Yes, and now
3243 press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed under
3244 @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? Hot and
3247 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
3248 the hook for the group mode:
3251 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
3255 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
3256 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
3257 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
3258 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
3259 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
3263 @node Topic Variables
3264 @subsection Topic Variables
3265 @cindex topic variables
3267 Now, if you select a topic, it will fold/unfold that topic, which is
3268 really neat, I think.
3270 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
3271 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
3272 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3285 Number of groups in the topic.
3287 Number of unread articles in the topic.
3289 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
3292 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
3293 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
3294 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
3297 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
3298 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
3300 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
3301 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
3302 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
3305 @node Topic Commands
3306 @subsection Topic Commands
3307 @cindex topic commands
3309 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
3310 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
3311 definitions slightly.
3317 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
3318 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
3319 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
3323 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
3324 Move the current group to some other topic
3325 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3326 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3330 @findex gnus-topic-jump-to-topic
3331 Go to a topic (@code{gnus-topic-jump-to-topic}).
3335 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
3336 Copy the current group to some other topic
3337 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3338 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3342 @findex gnus-topic-hide-topic
3343 Hide the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-hide-topic}). If given
3344 a prefix, hide the topic permanently.
3348 @findex gnus-topic-show-topic
3349 Show the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-show-topic}). If given
3350 a prefix, show the topic permanently.
3354 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
3355 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
3356 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
3357 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
3358 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
3359 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
3360 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
3363 This command uses the process/prefix convention
3364 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3368 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
3369 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3370 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
3374 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
3375 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3376 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
3380 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
3381 Toggle hiding empty topics
3382 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
3386 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
3387 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
3388 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}).
3391 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
3392 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
3393 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
3394 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}).
3398 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
3400 @findex gnus-topic-indent
3401 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3402 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
3403 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
3406 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
3407 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
3408 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3409 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
3413 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
3415 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
3416 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
3417 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
3418 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
3419 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
3420 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
3423 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
3424 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
3425 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the
3426 expiry process (if any)
3427 (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}). (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3431 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
3432 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
3433 topic will be removed along with the topic.
3437 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
3438 Yank the previously killed group or topic
3439 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
3444 @findex gnus-topic-rename
3445 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
3448 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
3449 @findex gnus-topic-delete
3450 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
3454 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
3455 List all groups that gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
3456 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
3460 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
3461 @cindex group parameters
3462 @cindex topic parameters
3464 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
3465 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
3471 @subsection Topic Sorting
3472 @cindex topic sorting
3474 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
3480 @kindex T S a (Topic)
3481 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3482 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
3483 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3486 @kindex T S u (Topic)
3487 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
3488 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
3489 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3492 @kindex T S l (Topic)
3493 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
3494 Sort the current topic by group level
3495 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
3498 @kindex T S v (Topic)
3499 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
3500 Sort the current topic by group score
3501 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3504 @kindex T S r (Topic)
3505 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
3506 Sort the current topic by group rank
3507 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3510 @kindex T S m (Topic)
3511 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
3512 Sort the current topic alphabetically by backend name
3513 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
3517 @xref{Sorting Groups}, for more information about group sorting.
3520 @node Topic Topology
3521 @subsection Topic Topology
3522 @cindex topic topology
3525 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
3531 2: alt.religion.emacs
3534 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3536 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3537 13: comp.sources.unix
3540 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
3541 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
3542 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
3547 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
3548 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
3552 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
3553 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
3554 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
3555 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
3556 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
3557 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
3559 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
3560 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
3561 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
3564 @node Topic Parameters
3565 @subsection Topic Parameters
3566 @cindex topic parameters
3568 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent (and
3569 ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid topic
3570 parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
3572 In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic
3577 When subscribing new groups by topic (@pxref{Subscription Methods}), the
3578 @code{subscribe} topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its
3579 value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that
3584 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
3585 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
3586 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
3587 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
3593 2: alt.religion.emacs
3597 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3599 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3600 13: comp.sources.unix
3604 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
3605 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
3606 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
3607 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
3608 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
3609 . "religion.SCORE")}.
3611 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
3612 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
3613 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
3614 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
3615 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
3617 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
3618 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
3619 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
3620 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
3621 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
3622 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
3623 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
3624 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
3627 @node Misc Group Stuff
3628 @section Misc Group Stuff
3631 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
3632 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and gnus.
3633 * Group Timestamp:: Making gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
3634 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the gnus files.
3641 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
3642 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
3643 @xref{Server Buffer}.
3647 @findex gnus-group-post-news
3648 Post an article to a group (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a
3649 prefix, the current group name will be used as the default.
3653 @findex gnus-group-mail
3654 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}).
3658 Variables for the group buffer:
3662 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
3663 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
3664 is called after the group buffer has been
3667 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
3668 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
3669 is called after the group buffer is
3670 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
3673 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
3674 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
3675 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
3676 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
3678 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3679 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3680 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
3681 whether they are empty or not.
3683 @item gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3684 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3685 An alist of method and the charset for group names. It is used to show
3686 non-ASCII group names.
3690 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3691 '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))
3694 @item gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
3695 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
3696 An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names.
3697 It is used to show non-ASCII group names.
3701 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
3702 '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)))
3707 @node Scanning New Messages
3708 @subsection Scanning New Messages
3709 @cindex new messages
3710 @cindex scanning new news
3716 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
3717 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
3718 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
3719 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
3720 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
3721 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
3726 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
3727 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
3728 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
3729 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
3730 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
3731 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
3732 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
3734 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
3735 @cindex activating groups
3737 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
3738 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
3743 @findex gnus-group-restart
3744 Restart gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
3745 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
3746 gnus variables, and then starts gnus all over again.
3750 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
3751 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
3753 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
3754 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
3758 @node Group Information
3759 @subsection Group Information
3760 @cindex group information
3761 @cindex information on groups
3768 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
3769 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
3772 Try to fetch the FAQ for the current group
3773 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the FAQ from
3774 @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on a
3775 remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories. In
3776 that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
3777 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be used
3778 for fetching the file.
3780 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, gnus will attempt to go
3781 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
3785 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
3787 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
3788 @cindex describing groups
3789 @cindex group description
3790 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
3791 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
3792 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
3796 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
3797 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
3798 prefix, force gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
3805 @findex gnus-version
3806 Display current gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
3810 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
3811 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
3814 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
3817 @findex gnus-info-find-node
3818 Go to the gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
3822 @node Group Timestamp
3823 @subsection Group Timestamp
3825 @cindex group timestamps
3827 It can be convenient to let gnus keep track of when you last read a
3828 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
3829 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
3832 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
3835 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
3837 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
3838 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
3841 (setq gnus-group-line-format
3842 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
3845 This will result in lines looking like:
3848 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
3849 0: custom 19961002T012713
3852 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
3853 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
3857 (setq gnus-group-line-format
3858 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
3863 @subsection File Commands
3864 @cindex file commands
3870 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
3871 @vindex gnus-init-file
3872 @cindex reading init file
3873 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
3874 @file{~/.gnus}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
3878 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
3879 @cindex saving .newsrc
3880 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
3881 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
3882 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
3885 @c @kindex Z (Group)
3886 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
3887 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
3892 @node Summary Buffer
3893 @chapter Summary Buffer
3894 @cindex summary buffer
3896 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
3897 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
3899 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
3900 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
3902 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
3905 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
3906 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
3907 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
3908 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
3909 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
3910 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
3911 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
3912 * Threading:: How threads are made.
3913 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
3914 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
3915 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
3916 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
3917 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
3918 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
3919 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
3920 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
3921 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
3922 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
3923 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
3924 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
3925 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
3926 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
3927 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
3928 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
3929 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
3930 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
3931 or reselecting the current group.
3932 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
3933 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
3934 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
3938 @node Summary Buffer Format
3939 @section Summary Buffer Format
3940 @cindex summary buffer format
3944 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
3945 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary.ps,width=7.5cm}}
3946 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-article.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
3952 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
3953 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
3954 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
3955 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
3958 @findex mail-extract-address-components
3959 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
3960 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
3961 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
3962 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
3963 @code{From} header. Three pre-defined functions exist:
3964 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
3965 fast, and too simplistic solution;
3966 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works nicely, but is
3967 slower; and @code{std11-extract-address-components}, which works very
3968 nicely, but is slower. The default function will return the wrong
3969 answer in 5% of the cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the
3970 other function instead:
3973 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
3974 'mail-extract-address-components)
3977 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
3978 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
3979 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
3980 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
3983 @node Summary Buffer Lines
3984 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
3986 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
3987 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
3988 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
3989 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
3990 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3992 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
3993 the colon after performing an operation.
3995 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-20,20n%]%) %s\n}.
3997 The following format specification characters are understood:
4003 Subject string. List identifiers stripped,
4004 @code{gnus-list-identifies}. @xref{Article Hiding}.
4006 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
4007 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
4008 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
4010 Full @code{From} header.
4012 The name (from the @code{From} header).
4014 The name, code @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header
4015 (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
4017 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
4018 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
4019 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
4020 may be more thorough.
4022 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
4025 Number of lines in the article.
4027 Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported in some
4028 methods (like nnfolder).
4030 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4032 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
4033 pushes everything after it off the screen).
4035 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
4036 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4038 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
4039 for adopted articles.
4041 One space for each thread level.
4043 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
4048 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
4049 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
4053 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
4055 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
4056 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
4057 default level. If the difference between
4058 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
4059 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
4067 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
4069 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
4075 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
4076 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
4078 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
4079 article has any children.
4085 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
4086 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
4087 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
4088 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
4089 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
4090 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
4093 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
4094 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, gnus will
4095 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
4096 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
4097 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
4098 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
4100 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
4101 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
4103 This restriction may disappear in later versions of gnus.
4106 @node To From Newsgroups
4107 @subsection To From Newsgroups
4111 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
4112 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
4113 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
4114 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
4115 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
4119 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
4120 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
4121 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
4125 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4126 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
4129 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
4130 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
4133 @findex gnus-extra-header
4134 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
4135 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
4136 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
4139 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
4143 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4144 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
4145 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
4146 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
4147 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
4148 headers are used instead.
4152 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
4153 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
4154 to include extra headers when generating overview (@sc{nov}) files. If
4155 you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after changing
4158 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4159 You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the
4160 @code{%n} spec to the @code{%f} spec in the
4161 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable.
4163 In summary, you'd typically put something like the following in
4167 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4169 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
4170 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
4171 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-20,20f%]%) %s\n")
4172 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4176 Now, this is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
4177 the @sc{nov} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
4184 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
4185 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
4188 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
4189 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
4191 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
4192 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
4193 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
4194 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
4196 Here are the elements you can play with:
4202 Unprefixed group name.
4204 Current article number.
4206 Current article score.
4210 Number of unread articles in this group.
4212 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
4215 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
4216 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
4217 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
4218 and no unselected ones.
4220 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
4221 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
4223 Subject of the current article.
4225 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
4227 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
4229 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4231 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4233 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
4235 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
4239 @node Summary Highlighting
4240 @subsection Summary Highlighting
4244 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4245 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4246 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
4247 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
4248 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4250 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
4251 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
4252 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
4253 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4255 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
4256 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
4257 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
4258 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
4260 @item gnus-summary-highlight
4261 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
4262 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
4263 list where the elements are of the format @code{(@var{form}
4264 . @var{face})}. If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be
4265 italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable
4268 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
4269 ((> score default) . bold))
4271 As you may have guessed, if @var{form} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
4272 @var{face} will be applied to the line.
4276 @node Summary Maneuvering
4277 @section Summary Maneuvering
4278 @cindex summary movement
4280 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
4281 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
4283 None of these commands select articles.
4288 @kindex M-n (Summary)
4289 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
4290 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
4291 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
4292 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
4296 @kindex M-p (Summary)
4297 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
4298 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
4299 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
4300 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
4303 @kindex G g (Summary)
4304 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
4305 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
4306 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
4309 If gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
4310 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
4311 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
4312 to the group buffer.
4314 Variables related to summary movement:
4318 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
4319 @item gnus-auto-select-next
4320 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
4321 no more unread articles after the current one, gnus will offer to go to
4322 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
4323 empty, gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
4324 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, gnus will select the
4325 next group, no matter whether it has any unread articles or not. As a
4326 special case, if this variable is @code{quietly}, gnus will select the
4327 next group without asking for confirmation. If this variable is
4328 @code{almost-quietly}, the same will happen only if you are located on
4329 the last article in the group. Finally, if this variable is
4330 @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n} command will go to the next group
4331 without confirmation. Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
4333 @item gnus-auto-select-same
4334 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
4335 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
4336 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
4337 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
4338 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
4339 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
4341 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
4343 @item gnus-summary-check-current
4344 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
4345 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
4346 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
4347 Instead, they will choose the current article.
4349 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
4350 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
4351 If non-@code{nil}, gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
4352 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
4353 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
4354 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
4355 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
4356 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
4359 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
4360 the given number of lines from the top.
4365 @node Choosing Articles
4366 @section Choosing Articles
4367 @cindex selecting articles
4370 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
4371 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
4375 @node Choosing Commands
4376 @subsection Choosing Commands
4378 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
4379 and they all select and display an article.
4381 If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see
4382 @ref{Exiting the Summary Buffer}.
4386 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
4387 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
4388 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
4389 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
4394 @kindex G n (Summary)
4395 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
4396 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
4397 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
4402 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
4403 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
4404 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
4409 @kindex G N (Summary)
4410 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
4411 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
4416 @kindex G P (Summary)
4417 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
4418 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
4421 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
4422 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
4423 Go to the next article with the same subject
4424 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
4427 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
4428 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
4429 Go to the previous article with the same subject
4430 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
4434 @kindex G f (Summary)
4436 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
4437 Go to the first unread article
4438 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
4442 @kindex G b (Summary)
4444 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
4445 Go to the article with the highest score
4446 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}).
4451 @kindex G l (Summary)
4452 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
4453 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
4456 @kindex G o (Summary)
4457 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
4459 @cindex article history
4460 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
4461 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
4462 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
4463 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
4464 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
4465 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
4470 @kindex G j (Summary)
4471 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
4472 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
4473 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
4478 @node Choosing Variables
4479 @subsection Choosing Variables
4481 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
4484 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
4485 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
4486 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
4487 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
4488 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
4489 the server and display it in the article buffer.
4491 @item gnus-select-article-hook
4492 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
4493 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. By default it
4494 exposes any threads hidden under the selected article.
4496 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
4497 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
4498 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
4499 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
4500 @findex gnus-unread-mark
4501 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
4502 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
4503 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
4504 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-unread-mark}. The
4505 only articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
4506 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
4507 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
4508 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
4509 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
4514 @node Paging the Article
4515 @section Scrolling the Article
4516 @cindex article scrolling
4521 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
4522 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
4523 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
4524 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
4525 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
4528 @kindex DEL (Summary)
4529 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
4530 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
4533 @kindex RET (Summary)
4534 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
4535 Scroll the current article one line forward
4536 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
4539 @kindex M-RET (Summary)
4540 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-down
4541 Scroll the current article one line backward
4542 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-down}).
4546 @kindex A g (Summary)
4548 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
4549 @vindex gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
4550 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
4551 given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the
4552 article treatment functions. This will give you a ``raw'' article, just
4553 the way it came from the server.
4555 If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual charset stuff.
4556 @kbd{C-u 0 g cn-gb-2312 RET} will decode the message as if it were
4557 encoded in the @code{cn-gb-2312} charset. If you have
4560 (setq gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
4565 then you can say @kbd{C-u 1 g} to get the same effect.
4570 @kindex A < (Summary)
4571 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
4572 Scroll to the beginning of the article
4573 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
4578 @kindex A > (Summary)
4579 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
4580 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
4584 @kindex A s (Summary)
4586 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
4587 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
4588 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
4592 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
4593 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
4598 @node Reply Followup and Post
4599 @section Reply, Followup and Post
4602 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
4603 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
4604 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
4605 * Canceling and Superseding:: ``Whoops, I shouldn't have called him that.''
4609 @node Summary Mail Commands
4610 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
4612 @cindex composing mail
4614 Commands for composing a mail message:
4620 @kindex S r (Summary)
4622 @findex gnus-summary-reply
4623 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
4624 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
4625 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
4626 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
4631 @kindex S R (Summary)
4632 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
4633 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
4634 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
4635 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
4636 command uses the process/prefix convention.
4639 @kindex S w (Summary)
4640 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
4641 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
4642 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
4643 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
4644 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers.
4647 @kindex S W (Summary)
4648 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
4649 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
4650 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
4651 the process/prefix convention.
4654 @kindex S v (Summary)
4655 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply
4656 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article
4657 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{very wide reply} is a reply
4658 that goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
4659 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers in all the process/prefixed
4660 articles. This command uses the process/prefix convention.
4663 @kindex S W (Summary)
4664 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
4665 Mail a very wide reply to the current article and include the original
4666 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
4667 the process/prefix convention.
4671 @kindex S o m (Summary)
4672 @kindex C-c C-f (Summary)
4673 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
4674 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
4675 Forward the current article to some other person
4676 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If given a prefix, include the full
4677 headers of the forwarded article.
4682 @kindex S m (Summary)
4683 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
4684 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
4685 Send a mail to some other person
4686 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}).
4689 @kindex S D b (Summary)
4690 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
4691 @cindex bouncing mail
4692 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
4693 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
4694 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
4695 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
4696 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
4697 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, gnus will try to fetch
4698 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
4699 very well fail, though.
4702 @kindex S D r (Summary)
4703 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
4704 Not to be confused with the previous command,
4705 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
4706 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
4707 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
4708 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
4709 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
4710 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
4711 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
4713 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
4714 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
4715 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
4716 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
4717 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muß sein!
4719 This command understands the process/prefix convention
4720 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4723 @kindex S O m (Summary)
4724 @findex gnus-summary-digest-mail-forward
4725 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
4726 result using mail (@code{gnus-summary-digest-mail-forward}). This
4727 command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4730 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
4731 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
4732 @cindex crossposting
4733 @cindex excessive crossposting
4734 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
4735 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
4737 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
4738 This command is provided as a way to fight back against the current
4739 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
4740 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
4741 command understands the process/prefix convention
4742 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
4746 Also @pxref{(message)Header Commands} for more information.
4749 @node Summary Post Commands
4750 @subsection Summary Post Commands
4752 @cindex composing news
4754 Commands for posting a news article:
4760 @kindex S p (Summary)
4761 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
4762 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
4763 Post an article to the current group
4764 (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}).
4769 @kindex S f (Summary)
4770 @findex gnus-summary-followup
4771 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
4772 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
4776 @kindex S F (Summary)
4778 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
4779 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
4780 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
4781 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
4782 process/prefix convention.
4785 @kindex S n (Summary)
4786 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
4787 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
4788 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
4791 @kindex S N (Summary)
4792 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original
4793 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
4794 message through mail and include the original message
4795 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
4796 the process/prefix convention.
4799 @kindex S o p (Summary)
4800 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
4801 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
4802 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}). If given a prefix, include the full
4803 headers of the forwarded article.
4806 @kindex S O p (Summary)
4807 @findex gnus-summary-digest-post-forward
4809 @cindex making digests
4810 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
4811 (@code{gnus-summary-digest-post-forward}). This command uses the
4812 process/prefix convention.
4815 @kindex S u (Summary)
4816 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
4817 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
4818 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
4819 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
4822 Also @pxref{(message)Header Commands} for more information.
4825 @node Summary Message Commands
4826 @subsection Summary Message Commands
4830 @kindex S y (Summary)
4831 @findex gnus-summary-yank-message
4832 Yank the current article into an already existing Message composition
4833 buffer (@code{gnus-summary-yank-message}). This command prompts for
4834 what message buffer you want to yank into, and understands the
4835 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4840 @node Canceling and Superseding
4841 @subsection Canceling Articles
4842 @cindex canceling articles
4843 @cindex superseding articles
4845 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
4846 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
4848 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
4850 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
4852 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
4853 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
4854 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
4855 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
4856 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
4857 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4859 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
4860 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
4863 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when canceling. If you
4864 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
4865 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
4867 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
4868 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
4869 your original article.
4871 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
4873 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
4874 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
4875 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
4878 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
4879 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
4880 have posted almost the same article twice.
4882 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
4883 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
4884 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
4885 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
4886 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
4887 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
4888 header by substituting one of those words for the word
4889 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
4890 you would do normally. The previous article will be
4891 canceled/superseded.
4893 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
4896 @node Marking Articles
4897 @section Marking Articles
4898 @cindex article marking
4899 @cindex article ticking
4902 There are several marks you can set on an article.
4904 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
4905 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
4906 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
4908 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
4911 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
4912 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
4913 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
4917 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks:
4921 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
4922 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
4923 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
4927 @node Unread Articles
4928 @subsection Unread Articles
4930 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
4935 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
4936 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
4938 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
4939 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
4940 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
4941 tick it. However, articles can be expired (from news servers by the
4942 news server software, Gnus itself never expires ticked messages), so if
4943 you want to keep an article forever, you'll have to make it persistent
4944 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
4947 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
4948 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
4950 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
4951 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
4952 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
4953 Otherwise (except for the visibility issue), they are just like ticked
4957 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
4958 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
4960 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
4965 @subsection Read Articles
4966 @cindex expirable mark
4968 All the following marks mark articles as read.
4973 @vindex gnus-del-mark
4974 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
4975 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
4978 @vindex gnus-read-mark
4979 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
4982 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
4983 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
4984 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
4987 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
4988 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
4991 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
4992 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
4995 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
4996 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
4999 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
5000 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
5003 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
5004 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
5007 @vindex gnus-souped-mark
5008 @sc{soup}ed article (@code{gnus-souped-mark}). @xref{SOUP}.
5011 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
5012 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
5016 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
5017 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
5018 (@code{gnus-duplicated-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
5022 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
5023 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
5025 One more special mark, though:
5029 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
5030 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
5032 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
5033 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
5034 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
5035 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by gnus at
5041 @subsection Other Marks
5042 @cindex process mark
5045 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
5051 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
5052 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
5053 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
5054 in the article, and gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
5055 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}.
5058 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
5059 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
5060 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
5061 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
5063 @vindex gnus-forwarded-mark
5064 All articles that you have forwarded will be marked with an @samp{O} in
5065 the second column (@code{gnus-forwarded-mark}).
5068 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
5069 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
5070 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5073 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
5074 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
5075 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
5076 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
5079 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
5080 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
5081 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
5082 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
5083 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
5086 @vindex gnus-process-mark
5087 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
5088 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
5089 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
5090 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
5091 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
5095 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
5096 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
5097 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
5099 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
5100 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
5101 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
5105 @subsection Setting Marks
5106 @cindex setting marks
5108 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
5113 @kindex M c (Summary)
5114 @kindex M-u (Summary)
5115 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
5116 @cindex mark as unread
5117 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
5118 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
5124 @kindex M t (Summary)
5125 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
5126 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
5127 @xref{Article Caching}.
5132 @kindex M ? (Summary)
5133 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
5134 Mark the current article as dormant
5135 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5139 @kindex M d (Summary)
5141 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
5142 Mark the current article as read
5143 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
5147 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
5148 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
5149 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
5154 @kindex M k (Summary)
5155 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
5156 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
5157 and then select the next unread article
5158 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
5162 @kindex M K (Summary)
5163 @kindex C-k (Summary)
5164 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
5165 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
5166 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
5169 @kindex M C (Summary)
5170 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
5171 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
5172 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
5175 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
5176 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
5177 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
5178 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
5181 @kindex M H (Summary)
5182 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
5183 Catchup the current group to point (before the point)
5184 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
5187 @kindex M h (Summary)
5188 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-from-here
5189 Catchup the current group from point (after the point)
5190 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-from-here}).
5193 @kindex C-w (Summary)
5194 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
5195 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
5196 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
5199 @kindex M V k (Summary)
5200 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
5201 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
5202 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
5206 @kindex M e (Summary)
5208 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
5209 Mark the current article as expirable
5210 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
5213 @kindex M b (Summary)
5214 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
5215 Set a bookmark in the current article
5216 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
5219 @kindex M B (Summary)
5220 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
5221 Remove the bookmark from the current article
5222 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
5225 @kindex M V c (Summary)
5226 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
5227 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
5228 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
5231 @kindex M V u (Summary)
5232 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
5233 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
5234 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
5237 @kindex M V m (Summary)
5238 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
5239 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
5240 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
5241 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
5244 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
5245 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
5246 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
5247 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
5248 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
5249 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
5250 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
5251 The default is @code{t}.
5254 @node Generic Marking Commands
5255 @subsection Generic Marking Commands
5257 Some people would like the command that ticks an article (@kbd{!}) go to
5258 the next article. Others would like it to go to the next unread
5259 article. Yet others would like it to stay on the current article. And
5260 even though I haven't heard of anybody wanting it to go to the
5261 previous (unread) article, I'm sure there are people that want that as
5264 Multiply these five behaviors with five different marking commands, and
5265 you get a potentially complex set of variable to control what each
5268 To sidestep that mess, Gnus provides commands that do all these
5269 different things. They can be found on the @kbd{M M} map in the summary
5270 buffer. Type @kbd{M M C-h} to see them all---there are too many of them
5271 to list in this manual.
5273 While you can use these commands directly, most users would prefer
5274 altering the summary mode keymap. For instance, if you would like the
5275 @kbd{!} command to go to the next article instead of the next unread
5276 article, you could say something like:
5279 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'my-alter-summary-map)
5280 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
5281 (local-set-key "!" 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-ticked-next))
5287 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
5288 (local-set-key "!" "MM!n"))
5292 @node Setting Process Marks
5293 @subsection Setting Process Marks
5294 @cindex setting process marks
5301 @kindex M P p (Summary)
5302 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
5303 Mark the current article with the process mark
5304 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
5305 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
5309 @kindex M P u (Summary)
5310 @kindex M-# (Summary)
5311 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
5312 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
5315 @kindex M P U (Summary)
5316 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
5317 Remove the process mark from all articles
5318 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
5321 @kindex M P i (Summary)
5322 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
5323 Invert the list of process marked articles
5324 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
5327 @kindex M P R (Summary)
5328 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
5329 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
5330 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
5333 @kindex M P G (Summary)
5334 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp
5335 Unmark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
5336 expression (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp}).
5339 @kindex M P r (Summary)
5340 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
5341 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
5344 @kindex M P t (Summary)
5345 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
5346 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
5347 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
5350 @kindex M P T (Summary)
5351 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
5352 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
5353 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
5356 @kindex M P v (Summary)
5357 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
5358 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
5359 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
5362 @kindex M P s (Summary)
5363 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
5364 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
5367 @kindex M P S (Summary)
5368 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
5369 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
5370 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
5373 @kindex M P a (Summary)
5374 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
5375 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
5378 @kindex M P b (Summary)
5379 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
5380 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
5381 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
5384 @kindex M P k (Summary)
5385 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
5386 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
5387 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
5390 @kindex M P y (Summary)
5391 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
5392 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
5393 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
5396 @kindex M P w (Summary)
5397 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
5398 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
5399 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
5403 Also see the @kbd{&} command in @pxref{Searching for Articles} for how to
5404 set process marks based on article body contents.
5411 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
5412 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
5413 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
5416 All limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched
5417 from the servers. None of these commands query the server for
5418 additional articles.
5424 @kindex / / (Summary)
5425 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
5426 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
5427 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}).
5430 @kindex / a (Summary)
5431 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
5432 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
5433 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}).
5436 @kindex / x (Summary)
5437 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-extra
5438 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match one of the ``extra''
5439 headers (@pxref{To From Newsgroups})
5440 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-extra}).
5444 @kindex / u (Summary)
5446 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
5447 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
5448 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
5449 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
5450 dormant articles will also be excluded.
5453 @kindex / m (Summary)
5454 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
5455 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have been marked
5456 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
5459 @kindex / t (Summary)
5460 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
5461 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
5462 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-age}). If given a prefix, limit to
5463 articles younger than that number of days.
5466 @kindex / n (Summary)
5467 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
5468 Limit the summary buffer to the current article
5469 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}). Uses the process/prefix
5470 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5473 @kindex / w (Summary)
5474 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
5475 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
5476 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
5480 @kindex / v (Summary)
5481 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
5482 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
5483 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
5487 @kindex M S (Summary)
5488 @kindex / E (Summary)
5489 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
5490 Include all expunged articles in the limit
5491 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
5494 @kindex / D (Summary)
5495 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
5496 Include all dormant articles in the limit
5497 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
5500 @kindex / * (Summary)
5501 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
5502 Include all cached articles in the limit
5503 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
5506 @kindex / d (Summary)
5507 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
5508 Exclude all dormant articles from the limit
5509 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
5512 @kindex / M (Summary)
5513 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks
5514 Exclude all marked articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks}).
5517 @kindex / T (Summary)
5518 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
5519 Include all the articles in the current thread in the limit.
5522 @kindex / c (Summary)
5523 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
5524 Exclude all dormant articles that have no children from the limit
5525 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
5528 @kindex / C (Summary)
5529 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
5530 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
5531 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
5532 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
5540 @cindex article threading
5542 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
5543 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
5544 hierarchical fashion.
5546 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
5547 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
5548 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
5549 or simply missing. Weird news propagation exacerbates the problem,
5550 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
5551 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
5552 @pxref{Customizing Threading}.
5554 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
5558 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
5561 A tree-like article structure.
5564 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
5567 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
5568 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
5569 summary buffer. We then typically have many sub-threads that really
5570 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
5571 called loose threads.
5573 @item thread gathering
5574 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
5576 @item sparse threads
5577 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
5578 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
5584 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
5585 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
5589 @node Customizing Threading
5590 @subsection Customizing Threading
5591 @cindex customizing threading
5594 * Loose Threads:: How gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
5595 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
5596 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
5597 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over... but you were wrong!
5602 @subsubsection Loose Threads
5605 @cindex loose threads
5608 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
5609 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
5610 If non-@code{nil}, gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
5611 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
5612 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
5613 read or killed the root in a previous session.
5615 When there is no real root of a thread, gnus will have to fudge
5616 something. This variable says what fudging method gnus should use.
5617 There are four possible values:
5621 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
5622 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-adopt.ps,width=7.5cm}}
5623 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-empty.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
5624 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-none.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
5625 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-dummy.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
5630 @cindex adopting articles
5635 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
5636 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
5637 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
5638 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
5641 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
5642 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
5643 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
5644 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
5645 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
5646 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
5647 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
5650 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
5651 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
5652 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
5656 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
5657 display them after one another.
5660 Don't gather loose threads.
5663 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
5664 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
5665 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
5666 variable is @code{nil}, gnus requires an exact match between the
5667 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
5668 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
5669 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
5670 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
5671 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
5672 variable to a really low number, you'll find that gnus will gather
5673 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
5675 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
5676 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, gnus will
5677 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
5680 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
5681 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
5682 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
5683 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
5684 simplification is used.
5686 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
5687 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
5688 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
5689 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
5691 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
5693 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
5699 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
5700 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
5701 "answer" "reference" "announce"
5702 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
5707 (mapconcat 'identity
5708 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
5710 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
5713 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
5716 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
5717 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
5718 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
5719 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
5720 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
5721 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
5723 Useful functions to put in this list include:
5726 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
5727 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
5728 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
5730 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
5731 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
5734 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
5735 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
5736 Remove excessive whitespace.
5739 You may also write your own functions, of course.
5742 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
5743 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
5744 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
5745 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
5746 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
5747 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
5748 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
5749 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
5751 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
5752 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
5753 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
5754 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
5755 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
5756 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
5757 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
5758 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
5759 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
5763 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
5764 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
5765 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
5766 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
5768 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
5769 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
5770 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
5773 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
5777 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
5778 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
5784 @node Filling In Threads
5785 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
5788 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
5789 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
5790 If non-@code{nil}, gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
5791 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you
5792 would like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still
5793 connect as many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable
5794 to @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than
5795 that number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case,
5796 fetching old headers only works if the backend you are using carries
5797 overview files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and
5798 @code{nnml}. Also remember that if the root of the thread has been
5799 expired by the server, there's not much gnus can do about that.
5801 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
5802 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
5803 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
5805 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
5806 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
5807 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
5808 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
5809 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
5810 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
5811 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where gnus guesses that an article
5812 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
5813 lines. If you select a gap, gnus will try to fetch the article in
5814 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, gnus will display all these
5815 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
5816 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, gnus won't cut
5817 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
5818 @code{nil} by default.
5820 @item gnus-read-all-available-headers
5821 @vindex gnus-read-all-available-headers
5822 This is a rather obscure variable that few will find useful. It's
5823 intended for those non-news newsgroups where the backend has to fetch
5824 quite a lot to present the summary buffer, and where it's impossible to
5825 go back to parents of articles. This is mostly the case in the
5826 web-based groups, like the @code{nnultimate} groups.
5828 If you don't use those, then it's safe to leave this as the default
5829 @code{nil}. If you want to use this variable, it should be a regexp
5830 that matches the group name, or @code{t} for all groups.
5835 @node More Threading
5836 @subsubsection More Threading
5839 @item gnus-show-threads
5840 @vindex gnus-show-threads
5841 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
5842 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
5843 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
5844 slower and more awkward.
5846 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
5847 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
5848 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
5851 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
5852 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
5853 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
5854 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
5855 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
5856 threads are expunged.
5858 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
5859 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
5860 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
5863 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
5864 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
5865 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
5866 this variable is non-@code{nil}, which is the default, the subject
5867 change is ignored. If it is @code{nil}, a change in the subject will
5868 result in a new thread.
5870 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
5871 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
5872 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
5875 @item gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
5876 @vindex gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
5877 Sometimes, particularly with mailing lists, the order in which mails
5878 arrive locally is not necessarily the same as the order in which they
5879 arrived on the mailing list. Consequently, when sorting sub-threads
5880 using the default @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number}, responses can end
5881 up appearing before the article to which they are responding to.
5882 Setting this variable to an alternate value
5883 (e.g. @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}), in a group's parameters or in an
5884 appropriate hook (e.g. @code{gnus-summary-generate-hook}) can produce a
5885 more logical sub-thread ordering in such instances.
5890 @node Low-Level Threading
5891 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
5895 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
5896 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
5897 Hook run before parsing any headers. The default value is
5898 @code{(gnus-set-summary-default-charset)}, which sets up local value of
5899 @code{default-mime-charset} in summary buffer based on variable
5900 @code{gnus-newsgroup-default-charset-alist}.
5902 @item gnus-alter-header-function
5903 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
5904 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
5905 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
5906 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
5907 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
5908 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
5909 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
5910 meaningful. Here's one example:
5913 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
5915 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
5916 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
5918 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
5920 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
5927 @node Thread Commands
5928 @subsection Thread Commands
5929 @cindex thread commands
5935 @kindex T k (Summary)
5936 @kindex M-C-k (Summary)
5937 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
5938 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
5939 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
5940 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
5945 @kindex T l (Summary)
5946 @kindex M-C-l (Summary)
5947 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
5948 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
5949 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
5952 @kindex T i (Summary)
5953 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
5954 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
5955 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
5958 @kindex T # (Summary)
5959 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
5960 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
5961 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
5964 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
5965 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
5966 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
5967 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
5970 @kindex T T (Summary)
5971 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
5972 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
5975 @kindex T s (Summary)
5976 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
5977 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any
5978 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
5981 @kindex T h (Summary)
5982 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
5983 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
5986 @kindex T S (Summary)
5987 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
5988 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
5991 @kindex T H (Summary)
5992 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
5993 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
5996 @kindex T t (Summary)
5997 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
5998 Re-thread the current article's thread
5999 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
6000 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
6003 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
6004 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
6005 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
6006 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
6010 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
6011 understand the numeric prefix.
6016 @kindex T n (Summary)
6018 @kindex M-C-n (Summary)
6020 @kindex M-down (Summary)
6021 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
6022 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
6025 @kindex T p (Summary)
6027 @kindex M-C-p (Summary)
6029 @kindex M-up (Summary)
6030 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
6031 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
6034 @kindex T d (Summary)
6035 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
6036 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
6039 @kindex T u (Summary)
6040 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
6041 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
6044 @kindex T o (Summary)
6045 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
6046 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
6049 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
6050 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
6051 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
6052 a command like `T k' (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
6053 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
6054 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
6055 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
6056 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
6057 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
6058 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
6059 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
6060 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
6064 @node Sorting the Summary Buffer
6065 @section Sorting the Summary Buffer
6067 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
6068 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
6069 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
6070 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
6071 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
6072 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
6073 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
6074 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
6075 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which can be either a single
6076 function, a list of functions, or a list containing functions and
6077 @code{(not some-function)} elements.
6079 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
6080 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
6081 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
6082 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score}, and
6083 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
6085 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
6086 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
6087 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread.
6089 If you use more than one function, the primary sort key should be the
6090 last function in the list. You should probably always include
6091 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
6092 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
6093 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
6094 ascending article order.
6096 If you would like to sort by reverse score, then by subject, and finally
6097 by number, you could do something like:
6100 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
6101 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
6102 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
6103 (not gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score)))
6106 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
6107 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
6108 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
6109 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
6110 which the articles arrived.
6112 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
6116 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
6118 (not (gnus-thread-sort-by-number t1 t2)))
6119 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
6122 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
6123 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
6124 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
6125 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
6128 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
6129 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
6130 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
6131 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
6132 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
6133 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
6134 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or other,
6135 you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions} variable.
6136 It is very similar to the @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that
6137 it uses slightly different functions for article comparison. Available
6138 sorting predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
6139 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject},
6140 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date}, and @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
6142 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
6146 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
6147 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
6148 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
6153 @node Asynchronous Fetching
6154 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
6155 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
6156 @cindex article pre-fetch
6159 If you read your news from an @sc{nntp} server that's far away, the
6160 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
6161 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
6162 article appears. Why can't gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
6163 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
6165 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
6166 article fetching, especially the way gnus does it.
6168 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
6169 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
6170 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
6171 article 3, but since gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
6172 connection is blocked.
6174 To avoid these situations, gnus will open two (count 'em two)
6175 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
6176 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
6177 extra connection takes some time, so gnus startup will be slower.
6179 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
6180 the link between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server will become more
6181 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
6182 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
6185 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing... unless
6188 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
6189 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
6190 happen automatically.
6192 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
6193 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
6194 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
6195 that when you read an article in the group, the backend will pre-fetch
6196 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the backend will
6197 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
6198 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
6200 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
6201 @findex gnus-async-read-p
6202 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
6203 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p} variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This function should
6204 return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is to be
6205 pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-read-p}, which returns
6206 @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an article
6207 data structure as the only parameter.
6209 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter than 100 lines, you could say something like:
6212 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
6213 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
6214 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
6215 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
6218 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
6221 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
6222 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down gnus too much.
6223 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
6225 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
6226 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
6227 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
6228 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
6232 Remove articles when they are read.
6235 Remove articles when exiting the group.
6238 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
6240 @c @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
6241 @c If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
6242 @c from the next group.
6245 @node Article Caching
6246 @section Article Caching
6247 @cindex article caching
6250 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @sc{nntp} connection, you may
6251 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
6252 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
6253 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
6254 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
6256 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
6258 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
6259 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
6260 @vindex gnus-use-cache
6261 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
6262 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
6263 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
6264 cache is flat or hierarchical is controlled by the
6265 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
6267 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
6268 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
6269 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
6270 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
6271 as dormant, and don't worry.
6273 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
6275 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
6276 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
6277 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
6278 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
6279 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
6280 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
6281 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
6282 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
6283 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
6284 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
6286 @findex gnus-jog-cache
6287 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
6288 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
6289 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
6290 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
6291 command if 1) your connection to the @sc{nntp} server is really, really,
6292 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
6293 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
6294 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
6295 not then be downloaded by this command.
6297 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
6298 @vindex gnus-cacheable-groups
6299 It is likely that you do not want caching on all groups. For instance,
6300 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
6301 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
6302 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.
6304 To limit the caching, you could set @code{gnus-cacheable-groups} to a
6305 regexp of groups to cache, @samp{^nntp} for instance, or set the
6306 @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to @samp{^nnml}, for instance.
6307 Both variables are @code{nil} by default. If a group matches both
6308 variables, the group is not cached.
6310 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
6311 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
6312 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
6313 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
6314 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
6315 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, gnus
6316 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
6317 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @sc{nov}
6318 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
6322 @node Persistent Articles
6323 @section Persistent Articles
6324 @cindex persistent articles
6326 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
6327 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
6328 useful in my opinion.
6330 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
6331 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
6332 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
6333 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
6334 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
6335 the expiry going on at the news server.
6337 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
6338 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
6339 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
6345 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
6346 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
6349 @kindex M-* (Summary)
6350 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
6351 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
6352 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
6356 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
6358 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
6359 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
6360 interested in persistent articles:
6363 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
6367 @node Article Backlog
6368 @section Article Backlog
6370 @cindex article backlog
6372 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
6373 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
6374 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where gnus will buffer
6375 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
6376 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
6377 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
6378 that, turning the backlog on will slow gnus down a little bit, and
6379 increase memory usage some.
6381 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
6382 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, gnus will store
6383 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
6384 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, gnus will store
6385 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
6386 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
6387 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
6389 This variable is @code{nil} by default.
6392 @node Saving Articles
6393 @section Saving Articles
6394 @cindex saving articles
6396 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
6397 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
6398 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
6399 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
6400 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
6402 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
6403 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, gnus will not delete
6404 unwanted headers before saving the article.
6406 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
6407 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
6408 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
6409 deleted before saving.
6415 @kindex O o (Summary)
6417 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
6418 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
6419 Save the current article using the default article saver
6420 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
6423 @kindex O m (Summary)
6424 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
6425 Save the current article in mail format
6426 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
6429 @kindex O r (Summary)
6430 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
6431 Save the current article in rmail format
6432 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}).
6435 @kindex O f (Summary)
6436 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
6437 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
6438 Save the current article in plain file format
6439 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
6442 @kindex O F (Summary)
6443 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
6444 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
6445 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
6448 @kindex O b (Summary)
6449 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
6450 Save the current article body in plain file format
6451 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
6454 @kindex O h (Summary)
6455 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
6456 Save the current article in mh folder format
6457 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
6460 @kindex O v (Summary)
6461 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
6462 Save the current article in a VM folder
6463 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
6466 @kindex O p (Summary)
6467 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
6468 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
6469 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
6472 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
6473 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
6474 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
6475 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
6476 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
6477 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
6478 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
6479 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
6480 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
6481 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
6482 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
6483 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
6487 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
6488 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
6489 gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the six ready-made
6490 functions below, or you can create your own.
6494 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
6495 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
6496 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
6497 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
6498 This is the default format, @dfn{babyl}. Uses the function in the
6499 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6500 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
6502 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
6503 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
6504 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
6505 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
6506 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6507 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
6509 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
6510 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
6511 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
6512 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
6513 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
6514 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6515 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
6517 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
6518 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
6519 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
6520 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6521 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
6523 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
6524 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
6525 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
6526 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
6527 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
6530 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
6531 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
6532 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
6533 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
6534 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
6536 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
6537 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
6538 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
6539 reader to use this setting.
6542 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
6543 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
6544 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
6545 @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
6548 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
6549 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
6550 available functions that generate names:
6554 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
6555 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
6556 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
6558 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
6559 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
6560 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
6562 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
6563 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
6564 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
6566 @item gnus-plain-save-name
6567 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
6568 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
6570 @item gnus-sender-save-name
6571 @findex gnus-sender-save-name
6572 File names like @file{~/News/larsi}.
6575 @vindex gnus-split-methods
6576 You can have gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
6577 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
6578 save articles related to gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
6579 related to VM in @code{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
6583 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
6584 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
6585 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
6586 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
6589 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
6590 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
6591 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
6592 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
6593 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
6594 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
6595 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
6596 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
6597 called returns a string or a list of strings.
6599 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
6600 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
6601 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
6602 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
6604 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
6605 means that gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
6606 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
6609 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
6610 lots of mail groups called things like
6611 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
6612 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
6613 following will do just that:
6616 (defun my-save-name (group)
6617 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
6618 (substring group (match-end 0))))
6620 (setq gnus-split-methods
6621 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
6626 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
6627 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
6628 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
6629 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
6630 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
6631 all the files in the top level directory
6632 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
6633 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
6634 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
6635 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
6637 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
6638 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
6639 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
6640 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
6641 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
6644 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
6648 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; to get a hierarchy
6649 (setq gnus-default-article-saver
6650 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; no encoding
6653 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
6654 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
6655 the top level directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
6656 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
6659 @node Decoding Articles
6660 @section Decoding Articles
6661 @cindex decoding articles
6663 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
6664 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
6667 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
6668 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
6669 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
6670 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
6671 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
6672 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
6676 @cindex article series
6677 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
6678 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
6679 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
6680 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
6681 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
6683 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
6684 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
6685 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
6687 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, gnus
6688 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
6689 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
6691 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
6692 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
6693 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
6696 @node Uuencoded Articles
6697 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
6699 @cindex uuencoded articles
6704 @kindex X u (Summary)
6705 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
6706 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
6707 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
6710 @kindex X U (Summary)
6711 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
6712 Uudecodes and saves the current series
6713 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
6716 @kindex X v u (Summary)
6717 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
6718 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
6721 @kindex X v U (Summary)
6722 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
6723 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
6724 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
6728 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
6729 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
6730 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
6731 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
6732 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
6734 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
6735 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
6736 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
6737 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
6740 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
6741 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
6742 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
6743 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
6744 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
6745 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
6749 @node Shell Archives
6750 @subsection Shell Archives
6752 @cindex shell archives
6753 @cindex shared articles
6755 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
6756 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
6757 some commands to deal with these:
6762 @kindex X s (Summary)
6763 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
6764 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
6767 @kindex X S (Summary)
6768 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
6769 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
6772 @kindex X v s (Summary)
6773 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
6774 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
6777 @kindex X v S (Summary)
6778 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
6779 Unshars, views and saves the current series
6780 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
6784 @node PostScript Files
6785 @subsection PostScript Files
6791 @kindex X p (Summary)
6792 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
6793 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
6796 @kindex X P (Summary)
6797 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
6798 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
6799 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
6802 @kindex X v p (Summary)
6803 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
6804 View the current PostScript series
6805 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
6808 @kindex X v P (Summary)
6809 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
6810 View and save the current PostScript series
6811 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
6816 @subsection Other Files
6820 @kindex X o (Summary)
6821 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
6822 Save the current series
6823 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
6826 @kindex X b (Summary)
6827 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
6828 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
6829 doesn't really work yet.
6833 @node Decoding Variables
6834 @subsection Decoding Variables
6836 Adjective, not verb.
6839 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
6840 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
6841 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
6845 @node Rule Variables
6846 @subsubsection Rule Variables
6847 @cindex rule variables
6849 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
6850 variables are of the form
6853 (list '(regexp1 command2)
6860 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
6861 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
6863 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
6864 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @samp{.au} sound file, you could
6867 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
6868 (list '("\\\\.au$" "sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio")))
6871 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
6872 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
6873 This variable is consulted if gnus couldn't make any matches from the
6874 user and default view rules.
6876 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
6877 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
6878 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
6883 @node Other Decode Variables
6884 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
6887 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
6889 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
6890 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
6891 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
6892 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
6893 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
6897 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
6898 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
6901 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
6902 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
6903 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
6906 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
6907 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
6908 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
6909 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
6910 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
6913 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
6914 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
6915 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
6917 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
6918 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
6919 Files with a @sc{mime} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
6920 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
6921 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @sc{mime} package (yet), so this is slightly
6924 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
6925 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
6926 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
6928 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
6929 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
6930 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
6931 looking for files to display.
6933 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
6934 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
6935 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
6938 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
6939 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
6940 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
6943 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
6944 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
6945 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
6948 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
6949 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
6950 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
6953 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
6954 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
6955 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
6956 decoded articles as unread.
6958 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
6959 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
6960 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
6961 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
6963 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
6964 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
6965 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
6967 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
6968 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
6970 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
6971 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @sc{mime}
6972 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
6973 @code{metamail} for viewing.
6975 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
6976 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
6977 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
6978 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
6979 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
6980 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC 1153---no easy way
6981 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
6982 simply dropped them.
6987 @node Uuencoding and Posting
6988 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
6992 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
6993 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
6994 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
6995 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
6996 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
6997 for you when you post the article.
6999 @item gnus-uu-post-length
7000 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
7001 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
7002 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
7004 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
7005 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
7006 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
7007 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
7008 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
7009 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
7010 think that counts...) Default is @code{nil}.
7012 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
7013 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
7014 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
7015 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
7016 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
7017 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
7018 Default is @code{t}.
7024 @subsection Viewing Files
7025 @cindex viewing files
7026 @cindex pseudo-articles
7028 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, gnus will attempt
7029 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
7030 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
7031 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, gnus will
7032 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
7033 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
7034 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
7036 Finally, gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
7037 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
7038 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
7039 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
7041 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
7042 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
7043 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
7045 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
7046 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
7047 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
7048 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
7049 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
7051 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
7052 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
7053 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
7054 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
7055 a list of parameters to that command.
7057 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
7058 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
7059 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
7061 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
7062 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
7063 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
7066 @node Article Treatment
7067 @section Article Treatment
7069 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
7070 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
7071 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
7072 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
7073 these articles easier.
7076 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
7077 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
7078 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
7079 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
7080 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
7081 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
7082 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
7083 * Article Miscellania:: Various other stuff.
7087 @node Article Highlighting
7088 @subsection Article Highlighting
7089 @cindex highlighting
7091 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
7092 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
7097 @kindex W H a (Summary)
7098 @findex gnus-article-highlight
7099 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
7100 Do much highlighting of the current article
7101 (@code{gnus-article-highlight}). This function highlights header, cited
7102 text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.
7105 @kindex W H h (Summary)
7106 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
7107 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
7108 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
7109 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
7110 variable, which is a list where each element has the form
7111 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{name} @var{content})}.
7112 @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
7113 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
7114 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
7115 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
7116 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
7119 @kindex W H c (Summary)
7120 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
7121 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
7123 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
7126 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
7128 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
7129 If the article size if bigger than this variable (which is 25000 by
7130 default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
7132 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
7133 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
7134 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
7136 @item gnus-cite-face-list
7137 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
7138 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
7139 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
7140 gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
7141 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
7143 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
7144 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
7145 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
7147 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
7148 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
7149 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
7151 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
7152 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
7153 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
7154 that it's a citation.
7156 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
7157 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
7158 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
7160 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
7161 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
7162 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
7164 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
7165 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
7166 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
7167 cited text belonging to the attribution.
7173 @kindex W H s (Summary)
7174 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
7175 @vindex gnus-signature-face
7176 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
7177 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
7178 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
7179 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
7180 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
7185 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to highlight articles automatically.
7188 @node Article Fontisizing
7189 @subsection Article Fontisizing
7191 @cindex article emphasis
7193 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
7194 @kindex W e (Summary)
7195 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
7196 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*} or @samp{/this/}. Gnus can make
7197 this look nicer by running the article through the @kbd{W e}
7198 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
7200 @vindex gnus-emphasis-alist
7201 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
7202 @code{gnus-emphasis-alist} variable. This is an alist where the first
7203 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
7204 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
7205 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
7206 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
7207 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
7211 (setq gnus-emphasis-alist
7212 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
7213 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
7222 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
7223 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
7224 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
7225 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
7226 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
7227 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
7228 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
7229 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
7230 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
7231 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
7232 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
7233 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
7234 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
7236 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
7237 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
7238 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
7242 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
7245 @vindex gnus-group-highlight-words-alist
7247 If you want to highlight arbitrary words, you can use the
7248 @code{gnus-group-highlight-words-alist} variable, which uses the same
7249 syntax as @code{gnus-emphasis-alist}. The @code{highlight-words} group
7250 parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) can also be used.
7252 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to fontize articles automatically.
7255 @node Article Hiding
7256 @subsection Article Hiding
7257 @cindex article hiding
7259 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
7260 too much cruft in most articles.
7265 @kindex W W a (Summary)
7266 @findex gnus-article-hide
7267 Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
7268 (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}). In particular, this function will hide
7269 headers, PGP, cited text and the signature.
7272 @kindex W W h (Summary)
7273 @findex gnus-article-toggle-headers
7274 Toggle hiding of headers (@code{gnus-article-toggle-headers}). @xref{Hiding
7278 @kindex W W b (Summary)
7279 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
7280 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
7281 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
7284 @kindex W W s (Summary)
7285 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
7286 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
7290 @kindex W W l (Summary)
7291 @findex gnus-article-hide-list-identifiers
7292 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
7293 Strip list identifiers specified in @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. These
7294 are strings some mailing list servers add to the beginning of all
7295 @code{Subject} headers---for example, @samp{[zebra 4711]}. Any leading
7296 @samp{Re: } is skipped before stripping. @code{gnus-list-identifiers}
7297 may not contain @code{\\(..\\)}.
7301 @item gnus-list-identifiers
7302 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
7303 A regular expression that matches list identifiers to be removed from
7304 subject. This can also be a list of regular expressions.
7309 @kindex W W p (Summary)
7310 @findex gnus-article-hide-pgp
7311 @vindex gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook
7312 Hide @sc{pgp} signatures (@code{gnus-article-hide-pgp}). The
7313 @code{gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook} hook will be run after a @sc{pgp}
7314 signature has been hidden. For example, to automatically verify
7315 articles that have signatures in them do:
7317 ;;; Hide pgp cruft if any.
7319 (setq gnus-treat-strip-pgp t)
7321 ;;; After hiding pgp, verify the message;
7322 ;;; only happens if pgp signature is found.
7324 (add-hook 'gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook
7327 (set-buffer gnus-original-article-buffer)
7332 @kindex W W P (Summary)
7333 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
7334 Hide @sc{pem} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
7335 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
7338 @kindex W W B (Summary)
7339 @findex gnus-article-strip-banner
7342 @cindex stripping advertisements
7343 @cindex advertisements
7344 Strip the banner specified by the @code{banner} group parameter
7345 (@code{gnus-article-strip-banner}). This is mainly used to hide those
7346 annoying banners and/or signatures that some mailing lists and moderated
7347 groups adds to all the messages. The way to use this function is to add
7348 the @code{banner} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to the
7349 group you want banners stripped from. The parameter either be a string,
7350 which will be interpreted as a regular expression matching text to be
7351 removed, or the symbol @code{signature}, meaning that the (last)
7352 signature should be removed, or other symbol, meaning that the
7353 corresponding regular expression in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist} is
7357 @kindex W W c (Summary)
7358 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
7359 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
7360 customizing the hiding:
7364 @item gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
7365 @itemx gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
7366 @vindex gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
7367 @vindex gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
7368 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
7369 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
7370 by these format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
7375 Starting point of the hidden text.
7377 Ending point of the hidden text.
7379 Number of characters in the hidden region.
7381 Number of lines of hidden text.
7384 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
7385 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
7386 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave
7387 shown. This can also be a cons cell with the number of lines at the top
7388 and bottom of the text, respectively, to remain visible.
7393 @kindex W W C-c (Summary)
7394 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe
7396 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe}) depending on the
7397 following two variables:
7400 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
7401 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
7402 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
7403 50), hide the cited text.
7405 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
7406 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
7407 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
7412 @kindex W W C (Summary)
7413 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
7414 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
7415 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
7416 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
7417 have happen automatically (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
7421 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
7422 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
7423 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
7425 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
7426 citation customization.
7428 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to hide article elements
7432 @node Article Washing
7433 @subsection Article Washing
7435 @cindex article washing
7437 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
7438 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
7440 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
7441 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
7444 @xref{Customizing Articles}, if you want to change how Gnus displays
7445 articles by default.
7450 This is not really washing, it's sort of the opposite of washing. If
7451 you type this, you see the article exactly as it exists on disk or on
7455 @kindex W l (Summary)
7456 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
7457 Remove page breaks from the current article
7458 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}). @xref{Misc Article}, for page
7462 @kindex W r (Summary)
7463 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
7464 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
7465 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
7466 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
7467 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
7468 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
7470 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
7471 positions in the alphabet, e. g. @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
7472 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
7473 is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
7477 @kindex W t (Summary)
7479 @findex gnus-article-toggle-headers
7480 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
7481 (@code{gnus-article-toggle-headers}).
7484 @kindex W v (Summary)
7485 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-header
7486 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
7487 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-header}).
7490 @kindex W m (Summary)
7491 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-mime
7492 Toggle whether to run the article through @sc{mime} before displaying
7493 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-mime}).
7496 @kindex W o (Summary)
7497 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
7498 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
7501 @kindex W d (Summary)
7502 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
7503 @vindex gnus-article-dumbquotes-map
7505 @cindex M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s
7507 Treat M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s according to
7508 @code{gnus-article-dumbquotes-map}
7509 (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}). Note that this function guesses
7510 whether a character is a sm*rtq**t* or not, so it should only be used
7513 Sm*rtq**t*s are M****s***'s unilateral extension to the character map in
7514 an attempt to provide more quoting characters. If you see something
7515 like @code{\222} or @code{\264} where you're expecting some kind of
7516 apostrophe or quotation mark, then try this wash.
7519 @kindex W w (Summary)
7520 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
7521 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}).
7523 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
7527 @kindex W Q (Summary)
7528 @findex gnus-article-fill-long-lines
7529 Fill long lines (@code{gnus-article-fill-long-lines}).
7532 @kindex W C (Summary)
7533 @findex gnus-article-capitalize-sentences
7534 Capitalize the first word in each sentence
7535 (@code{gnus-article-capitalize-sentences}).
7538 @kindex W c (Summary)
7539 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
7540 Translate CRLF pairs (i. e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines) into LF
7541 (this takes care of DOS line endings), and then translate any remaining
7542 CRs into LF (this takes care of Mac line endings)
7543 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
7546 @kindex W 6 (Summary)
7547 @findex gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable
7548 Treat base64 (@code{gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable}).
7549 Base64 is one common @sc{mime} encoding employed when sending non-ASCII
7550 (i. e., 8-bit) articles. Note that the this is usually done
7551 automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
7552 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding has
7554 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
7557 @kindex W Z (Summary)
7558 @findex gnus-article-decode-HZ
7559 Treat HZ or HZP (@code{gnus-article-decode-HZ}). HZ (or HZP) is one
7560 common encoding employed when sending Chinese articles. It typically
7561 makes strings look like @samp{~@{<:Ky2;S@{#,NpJ)l6HK!#~@}}.
7564 @kindex W h (Summary)
7565 @findex gnus-article-wash-html
7566 Treat HTML (@code{gnus-article-wash-html}).
7567 Note that the this is usually done automatically by Gnus if the message
7568 in question has a @code{Content-Type} header that says that this type
7570 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
7573 @kindex W f (Summary)
7575 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
7576 @findex gnus-article-x-face-command
7577 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
7578 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
7585 Look for and display any X-Face headers
7586 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}). The command executed by this
7587 function is given by the @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} variable.
7588 If this variable is a string, this string will be executed in a
7589 sub-shell. If it is a function, this function will be called with the
7590 face as the argument. If the @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which
7591 is a regexp) matches the @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
7592 The default action under Emacs is to fork off the @code{display}
7593 program@footnote{@code{display} is from the ImageMagick package. For the
7594 @code{uncompface} and @code{icontopbm} programs look for a package
7595 like `compface' or `faces-xface' on a GNU/Linux system.}
7596 to view the face. Under XEmacs or Emacs 21+ with suitable image
7597 support, the default action is to display the face before the
7598 @code{From} header. (It's nicer if XEmacs has been compiled with X-Face
7599 support---that will make display somewhat faster. If there's no native
7600 X-Face support, Gnus will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using
7601 external programs from the @code{pbmplus} package and
7602 friends.@footnote{On a GNU/Linux system look for packages with names
7603 like @code{netpbm} or @code{libgr-progs}.}) If you
7604 want to have this function in the display hook, it should probably come
7608 @kindex W b (Summary)
7609 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
7610 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
7611 @xref{Article Buttons}.
7614 @kindex W B (Summary)
7615 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
7616 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
7617 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
7620 @kindex W p (Summary)
7621 @findex gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig
7622 Verify a signed control message (@code{gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig}).
7623 Control messages such as @code{newgroup} and @code{checkgroups} are
7624 usually signed by the hierarchy maintainer. You need to add the PGP
7625 public key of the maintainer to your keyring to verify the
7626 message.@footnote{PGP keys for many hierarchies are available at
7627 @uref{ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README.html}}
7630 @kindex W W H (Summary)
7631 @findex gnus-article-strip-headers-from-body
7632 Strip headers like the @code{X-No-Archive} header from the beginning of
7633 article bodies (@code{gnus-article-strip-headers-from-body}).
7636 @kindex W E l (Summary)
7637 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
7638 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
7639 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
7642 @kindex W E m (Summary)
7643 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
7644 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
7645 lines with a single empty line.
7646 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
7649 @kindex W E t (Summary)
7650 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
7651 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
7652 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
7655 @kindex W E a (Summary)
7656 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
7657 Do all the three commands above
7658 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
7661 @kindex W E A (Summary)
7662 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
7663 Remove all blank lines
7664 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
7667 @kindex W E s (Summary)
7668 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
7669 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
7670 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
7673 @kindex W E e (Summary)
7674 @findex gnus-article-strip-trailing-space
7675 Remove all white space from the end of all lines of the article
7676 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-trailing-space}).
7680 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to wash articles automatically.
7683 @node Article Buttons
7684 @subsection Article Buttons
7687 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
7688 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
7689 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
7690 button on these references.
7692 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
7693 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses and Message-IDs. This is controlled by
7694 two variables, one that handles article bodies and one that handles
7699 @item gnus-button-alist
7700 @vindex gnus-button-alist
7701 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
7704 (REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
7710 All text that match this regular expression will be considered an
7711 external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches embedded URLs:
7712 @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}.
7715 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
7716 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
7717 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
7720 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
7721 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
7722 avoid false matches.
7725 This function will be called when you click on this button.
7728 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
7729 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
7733 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
7736 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
7739 @item gnus-header-button-alist
7740 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
7741 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
7742 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
7743 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
7746 (HEADER REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
7749 @var{header} is a regular expression.
7751 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
7752 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
7753 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
7754 default values of the variables above.
7756 @item gnus-article-button-face
7757 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
7758 Face used on buttons.
7760 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
7761 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
7762 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
7766 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to buttonize articles automatically.
7770 @subsection Article Date
7772 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
7773 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
7774 when the article was sent.
7779 @kindex W T u (Summary)
7780 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
7781 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
7782 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
7785 @kindex W T i (Summary)
7786 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
7788 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
7789 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
7792 @kindex W T l (Summary)
7793 @findex gnus-article-date-local
7794 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
7797 @kindex W T p (Summary)
7798 @findex gnus-article-date-english
7799 Display the date in a format that's easily pronounceable in English
7800 (@code{gnus-article-date-english}).
7803 @kindex W T s (Summary)
7804 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
7805 @findex gnus-article-date-user
7806 @findex format-time-string
7807 Display the date using a user-defined format
7808 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
7809 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
7810 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
7811 for a list of possible format specs.
7814 @kindex W T e (Summary)
7815 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
7816 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
7817 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
7818 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
7819 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). It looks something like:
7822 X-Sent: 6 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes, 8 seconds ago
7825 The value of @code{gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header} determines
7826 whether this header will just be added below the old Date one, or will
7829 An advantage of using Gnus to read mail is that it converts simple bugs
7830 into wonderful absurdities.
7832 If you want to have this line updated continually, you can put
7835 (gnus-start-date-timer)
7838 in your @file{.gnus.el} file, or you can run it off of some hook. If
7839 you want to stop the timer, you can use the @code{gnus-stop-date-timer}
7843 @kindex W T o (Summary)
7844 @findex gnus-article-date-original
7845 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
7846 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
7847 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
7848 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
7849 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
7853 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to display the date in your
7854 preferred format automatically.
7857 @node Article Signature
7858 @subsection Article Signature
7860 @cindex article signature
7862 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
7863 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
7864 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
7865 that says what is to be considered a signature is
7866 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
7867 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
7868 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
7869 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
7870 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
7873 (setq gnus-signature-separator
7874 '("^-- $" ; The standard
7875 "^-- *$" ; A common mangling
7876 "^-------*$" ; Many people just use a looong
7877 ; line of dashes. Shame!
7878 "^ *--------*$" ; Double-shame!
7879 "^________*$" ; Underscores are also popular
7880 "^========*$")) ; Pervert!
7883 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
7886 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
7887 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
7888 signature when displaying articles.
7892 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
7895 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
7898 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
7899 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
7901 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
7902 in question is not a signature.
7905 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
7906 listed above. Here's an example:
7909 (setq gnus-signature-limit
7910 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
7913 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
7914 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
7915 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
7916 signature after all.
7919 @node Article Miscellania
7920 @subsection Article Miscellania
7924 @kindex A t (Summary)
7925 @findex gnus-article-babel
7926 Translate the article from one language to another
7927 (@code{gnus-article-babel}).
7933 @section @sc{mime} Commands
7934 @cindex MIME decoding
7936 @cindex viewing attachments
7938 The following commands all understand the numerical prefix. For
7939 instance, @kbd{3 b} means ``view the third @sc{mime} part''.
7945 @kindex K v (Summary)
7946 View the @sc{mime} part.
7949 @kindex K o (Summary)
7950 Save the @sc{mime} part.
7953 @kindex K c (Summary)
7954 Copy the @sc{mime} part.
7957 @kindex K e (Summary)
7958 View the @sc{mime} part externally.
7961 @kindex K i (Summary)
7962 View the @sc{mime} part internally.
7965 @kindex K | (Summary)
7966 Pipe the @sc{mime} part to an external command.
7969 The rest of these @sc{mime} commands do not use the numerical prefix in
7974 @kindex K b (Summary)
7975 Make all the @sc{mime} parts have buttons in front of them. This is
7976 mostly useful if you wish to save (or perform other actions) on inlined
7980 @kindex K m (Summary)
7981 @findex gnus-summary-repair-multipart
7982 Some multipart messages are transmitted with missing or faulty headers.
7983 This command will attempt to ``repair'' these messages so that they can
7984 be viewed in a more pleasant manner
7985 (@code{gnus-summary-repair-multipart}).
7988 @kindex X m (Summary)
7989 @findex gnus-summary-save-parts
7990 Save all parts matching a @sc{mime} type to a directory
7991 (@code{gnus-summary-save-parts}). Understands the process/prefix
7992 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
7995 @kindex M-t (Summary)
7996 @findex gnus-summary-display-buttonized
7997 Toggle the buttonized display of the article buffer
7998 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized}).
8001 @kindex W M w (Summary)
8002 Decode RFC 2047-encoded words in the article headers
8003 (@code{gnus-article-decode-mime-words}).
8006 @kindex W M c (Summary)
8007 Decode encoded article bodies as well as charsets
8008 (@code{gnus-article-decode-charset}).
8010 This command looks in the @code{Content-Type} header to determine the
8011 charset. If there is no such header in the article, you can give it a
8012 prefix, which will prompt for the charset to decode as. In regional
8013 groups where people post using some common encoding (but do not include
8014 MIME headers), you can set the @code{charset} group/topic parameter to
8015 the required charset (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
8018 @kindex W M v (Summary)
8019 View all the @sc{mime} parts in the current article
8020 (@code{gnus-mime-view-all-parts}).
8027 @item gnus-ignored-mime-types
8028 @vindex gnus-ignored-mime-types
8029 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
8030 this list will be completely ignored by Gnus. The default value is
8033 To have all Vcards be ignored, you'd say something like this:
8036 (setq gnus-ignored-mime-types
8040 @item gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
8041 @vindex gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
8042 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
8043 this list won't have @sc{mime} buttons inserted unless they aren't
8044 displayed. The default value is @code{(".*/.*")}.
8046 @item gnus-article-mime-part-function
8047 @vindex gnus-article-mime-part-function
8048 For each @sc{mime} part, this function will be called with the @sc{mime}
8049 handle as the parameter. The function is meant to be used to allow
8050 users to gather information from the article (e. g., add Vcard info to
8051 the bbdb database) or to do actions based on parts (e. g., automatically
8052 save all jpegs into some directory).
8054 Here's an example function the does the latter:
8057 (defun my-save-all-jpeg-parts (handle)
8058 (when (equal (car (mm-handle-type handle)) "image/jpeg")
8060 (insert (mm-get-part handle))
8061 (write-region (point-min) (point-max)
8062 (read-file-name "Save jpeg to: ")))))
8063 (setq gnus-article-mime-part-function
8064 'my-save-all-jpeg-parts)
8067 @vindex gnus-mime-multipart-functions
8068 @item gnus-mime-multipart-functions
8069 Alist of @sc{mime} multipart types and functions to handle them.
8071 @vindex mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
8072 @item mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
8073 List of functions used for rewriting file names of @sc{mime} parts.
8074 Each function takes a file name as input and returns a file name.
8076 Ready-made functions include@*
8077 @code{mm-file-name-delete-whitespace},
8078 @code{mm-file-name-trim-whitespace},
8079 @code{mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace}, and
8080 @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace}. The later uses the value of
8081 the variable @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace} to replace each
8082 whitespace character in a file name with that string; default value
8083 is @code{"_"} (a single underscore).
8084 @findex mm-file-name-delete-whitespace
8085 @findex mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
8086 @findex mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
8087 @findex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
8088 @vindex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
8090 The standard functions @code{capitalize}, @code{downcase},
8091 @code{upcase}, and @code{upcase-initials} may be useful, too.
8093 Everybody knows that whitespace characters in file names are evil,
8094 except those who don't know. If you receive lots of attachments from
8095 such unenlightened users, you can make live easier by adding
8098 (setq mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
8099 '(mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
8100 mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
8101 mm-file-name-replace-whitespace))
8105 to your @file{.gnus} file.
8114 People use different charsets, and we have @sc{mime} to let us know what
8115 charsets they use. Or rather, we wish we had. Many people use
8116 newsreaders and mailers that do not understand or use @sc{mime}, and
8117 just send out messages without saying what character sets they use. To
8118 help a bit with this, some local news hierarchies have policies that say
8119 what character set is the default. For instance, the @samp{fj}
8120 hierarchy uses @code{iso-2022-jp-2}.
8122 @vindex gnus-group-charset-alist
8123 This knowledge is encoded in the @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}
8124 variable, which is an alist of regexps (to match full group names) and
8125 default charsets to be used when reading these groups.
8127 In addition, some people do use soi-disant @sc{mime}-aware agents that
8128 aren't. These blithely mark messages as being in @code{iso-8859-1} even
8129 if they really are in @code{koi-8}. To help here, the
8130 @code{gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets} variable can be used. The
8131 charsets that are listed here will be ignored. The variable can be set
8132 on a group-by-group basis using the group parameters (@pxref{Group
8133 Parameters}). The default value is @code{(unknown-8bit)}, which is
8134 something some agents insist on having in there.
8136 @vindex gnus-group-posting-charset-alist
8137 When posting, @code{gnus-group-posting-charset-alist} is used to
8138 determine which charsets should not be encoded using the @sc{mime}
8139 encodings. For instance, some hierarchies discourage using
8140 quoted-printable header encoding.
8142 This variable is an alist of regexps and permitted unencoded charsets
8143 for posting. Each element of the alist has the form @code{(}@var{test
8144 header body-list}@code{)}, where:
8148 is either a regular expression matching the newsgroup header or a
8151 is the charset which may be left unencoded in the header (@code{nil}
8152 means encode all charsets),
8154 is a list of charsets which may be encoded using 8bit content-transfer
8155 encoding in the body, or one of the special values @code{nil} (always
8156 encode using quoted-printable) or @code{t} (always use 8bit).
8163 @cindex coding system aliases
8164 @cindex preferred charset
8166 Other charset tricks that may be useful, although not Gnus-specific:
8168 If there are several @sc{mime} charsets that encode the same Emacs
8169 charset, you can choose what charset to use by saying the following:
8172 (put-charset-property 'cyrillic-iso8859-5
8173 'preferred-coding-system 'koi8-r)
8176 This means that Russian will be encoded using @code{koi8-r} instead of
8177 the default @code{iso-8859-5} @sc{mime} charset.
8179 If you want to read messages in @code{koi8-u}, you can cheat and say
8182 (define-coding-system-alias 'koi8-u 'koi8-r)
8185 This will almost do the right thing.
8187 And finally, to read charsets like @code{windows-1251}, you can say
8191 (codepage-setup 1251)
8192 (define-coding-system-alias 'windows-1251 'cp1251)
8196 @node Article Commands
8197 @section Article Commands
8204 @kindex A P (Summary)
8205 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
8206 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
8207 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
8208 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will be
8209 run just before printing the buffer.
8214 @node Summary Sorting
8215 @section Summary Sorting
8216 @cindex summary sorting
8218 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
8219 can't really see why you'd want that.
8224 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
8225 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
8226 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
8229 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
8230 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
8231 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
8234 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
8235 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
8236 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
8239 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
8240 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
8241 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
8244 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
8245 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
8246 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
8249 @kindex C-c C-s C-c (Summary)
8250 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-chars
8251 Sort by article length (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-chars}).
8254 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
8255 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
8256 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
8259 @kindex C-c C-s C-o (Summary)
8260 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-original
8261 Sort using the default sorting method
8262 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-original}).
8265 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
8266 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
8267 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
8268 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
8269 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
8273 @node Finding the Parent
8274 @section Finding the Parent
8275 @cindex parent articles
8276 @cindex referring articles
8281 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
8282 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
8283 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
8284 if the current group is fetched by @sc{nntp}, the parent hasn't expired
8285 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
8286 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
8287 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
8288 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
8289 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
8291 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
8292 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
8293 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, gnus will fetch the parent, the
8294 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
8295 @kbd{-3 ^}, gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
8299 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
8300 @kindex A R (Summary)
8301 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
8302 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
8305 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
8306 @kindex A T (Summary)
8307 Display the full thread where the current article appears
8308 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
8309 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
8310 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
8311 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
8312 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
8313 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
8315 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
8316 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i. e.,
8317 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
8318 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
8319 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
8320 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
8323 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
8324 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
8326 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
8327 You can also ask the @sc{nntp} server for an arbitrary article, no
8328 matter what group it belongs to. @kbd{M-^}
8329 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you for a
8330 @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read thingies
8331 that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}. You
8332 have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
8335 The current select method will be used when fetching by
8336 @code{Message-ID} from non-news select method, but you can override this
8337 by giving this command a prefix.
8339 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
8340 If the group you are reading is located on a backend that does not
8341 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
8342 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @sc{nntp} method. It
8343 would, perhaps, be best if the @sc{nntp} server you consult is the one
8344 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
8347 It can also be a list of select methods, as well as the special symbol
8348 @code{current}, which means to use the current select method. If it
8349 is a list, Gnus will try all the methods in the list until it finds a
8352 Here's an example setting that will first try the current method, and
8353 then ask Deja if that fails:
8356 (setq gnus-refer-article-method
8358 (nnweb "refer" (nnweb-type dejanews))))
8361 Most of the mail backends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but do
8362 not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox} and
8363 @code{nnbabyl} are able to locate articles from any groups, while
8364 @code{nnml} and @code{nnfolder} are only able to locate articles that
8365 have been posted to the current group. (Anything else would be too time
8366 consuming.) @code{nnmh} does not support this at all.
8369 @node Alternative Approaches
8370 @section Alternative Approaches
8372 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
8373 gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
8376 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
8377 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
8382 @subsection Pick and Read
8383 @cindex pick and read
8385 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
8386 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
8387 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
8388 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
8390 @findex gnus-pick-mode
8391 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
8392 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
8393 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
8394 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
8395 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
8397 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
8402 @findex gnus-pick-article-or-thread
8403 Pick the article or thread on the current line
8404 (@code{gnus-pick-article-or-thread}). If the variable
8405 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key selects the
8406 entire thread when used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise,
8407 it selects just the article. If given a numerical prefix, go to that
8408 thread or article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
8409 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
8412 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
8413 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
8414 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
8415 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
8419 @findex gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread.
8420 Unpick the thread or article
8421 (@code{gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread}). If the variable
8422 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key unpicks the
8423 thread if used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise it unpicks
8424 just the article. You can give this key a numerical prefix to unpick
8425 the thread or article at that line.
8429 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
8430 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
8431 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
8432 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
8433 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
8434 will still be visible when you are reading.
8438 All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
8439 pick-mode, with the exception of @kbd{u}. However @kbd{!} is available
8440 which is mapped to the same function
8441 @code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}.
8443 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
8446 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
8449 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
8450 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
8452 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
8453 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
8454 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
8456 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
8457 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
8458 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
8459 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
8460 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
8461 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
8462 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
8466 @subsection Binary Groups
8467 @cindex binary groups
8469 @findex gnus-binary-mode
8470 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
8471 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
8472 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
8473 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
8474 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
8475 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
8478 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
8479 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
8480 command, when you have turned on this mode
8481 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
8483 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
8484 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
8488 @section Tree Display
8491 @vindex gnus-use-trees
8492 If you don't like the normal gnus summary display, you might try setting
8493 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
8494 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
8497 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
8500 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
8501 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
8502 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
8504 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
8505 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
8506 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers (@pxref{Mode
8507 Line Formatting}). The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list
8508 of valid specs, @pxref{Summary Buffer Mode Line}.
8510 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
8511 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
8512 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
8513 default is @code{modeline}.
8515 @item gnus-tree-line-format
8516 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
8517 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
8518 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
8519 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
8520 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
8521 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
8527 The name of the poster.
8529 The @code{From} header.
8531 The number of the article.
8533 The opening bracket.
8535 The closing bracket.
8540 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
8542 Variables related to the display are:
8545 @item gnus-tree-brackets
8546 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
8547 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
8548 ``sparse'' articles. The format is @code{((@var{real-open} . @var{real-close})
8549 (@var{sparse-open} . @var{sparse-close}) (@var{dummy-open} . @var{dummy-close}))}, and the
8550 default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
8552 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
8553 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
8554 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
8555 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
8559 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
8560 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
8561 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, gnus will try to keep the tree
8562 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other gnus
8563 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
8564 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
8565 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
8566 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
8567 other windows displayed next to it.
8569 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
8570 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
8571 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
8572 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
8573 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
8574 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
8575 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
8579 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
8582 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
8592 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
8596 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
8597 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
8599 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
8601 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
8606 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
8607 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
8608 following to your @file{.gnus.el} file:
8611 (setq gnus-use-trees t
8612 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
8613 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
8614 (gnus-add-configuration
8618 (summary 0.75 point)
8623 @xref{Windows Configuration}.
8626 @node Mail Group Commands
8627 @section Mail Group Commands
8628 @cindex mail group commands
8630 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
8631 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
8633 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
8634 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
8639 @kindex B e (Summary)
8640 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
8641 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
8642 process (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}). That is, delete all
8643 expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
8644 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
8647 @kindex B M-C-e (Summary)
8648 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
8649 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
8650 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
8651 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
8652 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
8655 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
8656 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
8657 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
8658 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
8659 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
8660 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
8663 @kindex B m (Summary)
8665 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
8666 @vindex gnus-preserve-marks
8667 Move the article from one mail group to another
8668 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}). Marks will be preserved if
8669 @var{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
8672 @kindex B c (Summary)
8674 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
8675 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
8676 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
8677 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}). Marks will be preserved if
8678 @var{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
8681 @kindex B B (Summary)
8682 @cindex crosspost mail
8683 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
8684 Crosspost the current article to some other group
8685 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
8686 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
8687 be properly updated.
8690 @kindex B i (Summary)
8691 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
8692 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
8693 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
8694 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
8697 @kindex B r (Summary)
8698 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
8699 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-respool-article}).
8700 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
8701 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
8702 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
8703 Marks will be preserved if @var{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil}
8704 (which is the default).
8708 @kindex B w (Summary)
8710 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
8711 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
8712 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
8713 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
8714 (@kbd{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
8715 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, gnus won't re-highlight the article.
8718 @kindex B q (Summary)
8719 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
8720 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
8721 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
8722 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
8725 @kindex B t (Summary)
8726 @findex gnus-summary-respool-trace
8727 Similarly, this command will display all fancy splitting patterns used
8728 when repooling, if any (@code{gnus-summary-respool-trace}).
8731 @kindex B p (Summary)
8732 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
8733 Some people have a tendency to send you "courtesy" copies when they
8734 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
8735 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
8736 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
8737 article from your news server (or rather, from
8738 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
8739 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
8740 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
8741 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
8742 just not have arrived yet.
8746 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
8747 @cindex moving articles
8748 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have gnus
8749 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
8750 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
8751 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
8752 suggestions you find reasonable. (Note that
8753 @code{gnus-move-split-methods} uses group names where
8754 @code{gnus-split-methods} uses file names.)
8757 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
8758 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
8759 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
8760 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
8764 @node Various Summary Stuff
8765 @section Various Summary Stuff
8768 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
8769 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
8770 * Summary Generation Commands:: (Re)generating the summary buffer.
8771 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
8775 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
8776 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
8777 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
8779 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
8780 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
8781 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
8782 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
8783 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
8784 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
8787 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
8788 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
8789 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
8790 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
8791 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
8793 @vindex gnus-summary-prepared-hook
8794 @item gnus-summary-prepared-hook
8795 A hook called as the very last thing after the summary buffer has been
8798 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
8799 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
8800 When gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
8801 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
8802 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
8803 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
8804 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), gnus will rename the
8805 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
8806 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
8807 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
8809 @vindex gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
8810 @item gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
8811 This function, which takes two parameters (the group name and the list
8812 of articles to be selected), is called to allow the user to alter the
8813 list of articles to be selected.
8815 For instance, the following function adds the list of cached articles to
8816 the list in one particular group:
8819 (defun my-add-cached-articles (group articles)
8820 (if (string= group "some.group")
8821 (append gnus-newsgroup-cached articles)
8828 @node Summary Group Information
8829 @subsection Summary Group Information
8834 @kindex H f (Summary)
8835 @findex gnus-summary-fetch-faq
8836 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
8837 Try to fetch the FAQ (list of frequently asked questions) for the
8838 current group (@code{gnus-summary-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the
8839 FAQ from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory
8840 on a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
8841 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
8842 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will probably
8843 be used for fetching the file.
8846 @kindex H d (Summary)
8847 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
8848 Give a brief description of the current group
8849 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
8850 rereading the description from the server.
8853 @kindex H h (Summary)
8854 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
8855 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
8856 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
8859 @kindex H i (Summary)
8860 @findex gnus-info-find-node
8861 Go to the gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
8865 @node Searching for Articles
8866 @subsection Searching for Articles
8871 @kindex M-s (Summary)
8872 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
8873 Search through all subsequent articles for a regexp
8874 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
8877 @kindex M-r (Summary)
8878 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
8879 Search through all previous articles for a regexp
8880 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
8884 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
8885 This command will prompt you for a header, a regular expression to match
8886 on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
8887 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If the header is an empty
8888 string, the match is done on the entire article. If given a prefix,
8889 search backward instead.
8891 For instance, @kbd{& RET some.*string #} will put the process mark on
8892 all articles that have heads or bodies that match @samp{some.*string}.
8895 @kindex M-& (Summary)
8896 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
8897 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
8898 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
8901 @node Summary Generation Commands
8902 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
8907 @kindex Y g (Summary)
8908 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
8909 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
8912 @kindex Y c (Summary)
8913 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
8914 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
8915 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
8920 @node Really Various Summary Commands
8921 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
8927 @kindex C-d (Summary)
8928 @kindex A D (Summary)
8929 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
8930 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
8931 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
8932 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
8933 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
8934 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
8935 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
8936 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
8940 @kindex M-C-d (Summary)
8941 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
8942 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
8943 several documents into one biiig group
8944 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
8945 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
8946 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
8947 command understands the process/prefix convention
8948 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
8951 @kindex C-t (Summary)
8952 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
8953 Toggle truncation of summary lines
8954 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
8955 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
8956 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
8960 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
8961 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
8962 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
8965 @kindex M-C-e (Summary)
8966 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
8967 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
8968 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
8971 @kindex M-C-a (Summary)
8972 @findex gnus-summary-customize-parameters
8973 Customize the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
8974 group (@code{gnus-summary-customize-parameters}).
8979 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
8980 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
8981 @cindex summary exit
8982 @cindex exiting groups
8984 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
8985 group and return you to the group buffer.
8991 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
8993 @findex gnus-summary-exit
8994 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
8995 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
8996 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
8997 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
8998 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
8999 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
9000 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
9001 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
9002 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
9003 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
9007 @kindex Z E (Summary)
9009 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
9010 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
9011 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
9015 @kindex Z c (Summary)
9017 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
9018 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
9019 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
9020 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
9023 @kindex Z C (Summary)
9024 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
9025 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
9026 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
9029 @kindex Z n (Summary)
9030 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
9031 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
9032 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
9035 @kindex Z R (Summary)
9036 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
9037 Exit this group, and then enter it again
9038 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
9039 all articles, both read and unread.
9043 @kindex Z G (Summary)
9044 @kindex M-g (Summary)
9045 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
9046 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
9047 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
9048 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
9049 articles, both read and unread.
9052 @kindex Z N (Summary)
9053 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
9054 Exit the group and go to the next group
9055 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
9058 @kindex Z P (Summary)
9059 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
9060 Exit the group and go to the previous group
9061 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
9064 @kindex Z s (Summary)
9065 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
9066 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
9067 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
9068 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
9069 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
9072 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
9073 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current group
9074 with an ``updating'' exit. For instance @kbd{Q}
9075 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}) does not call this hook.
9077 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
9078 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
9079 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
9080 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
9081 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
9082 If you do that, gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
9083 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
9084 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
9085 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
9086 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
9087 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
9088 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
9090 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
9092 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
9093 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
9094 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
9095 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
9096 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
9097 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
9098 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
9099 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
9100 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
9103 @node Crosspost Handling
9104 @section Crosspost Handling
9108 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
9109 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
9110 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
9111 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
9112 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
9113 heinous crime. You may want to try NoCeM handling to filter out spam
9116 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
9117 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
9118 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
9119 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
9120 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
9122 @cindex cross-posting
9125 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
9126 correctly is if you use an @sc{nntp} server that supports @sc{xover}
9127 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
9128 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @sc{nov} lines. This is
9129 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
9130 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
9131 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
9132 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
9133 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
9134 the cross reference mechanism.
9136 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
9137 @cindex overview.fmt
9138 To check whether your @sc{nntp} server includes the @code{Xref} header
9139 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
9140 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
9141 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
9142 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
9143 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
9146 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
9147 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
9148 set @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
9153 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
9156 @node Duplicate Suppression
9157 @section Duplicate Suppression
9159 By default, gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
9160 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
9161 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
9162 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
9167 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
9168 is evil and not very common.
9171 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
9172 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
9175 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
9176 different @sc{nntp} servers.
9179 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
9182 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
9183 well, but these four are the most common situations.
9185 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
9186 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
9187 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
9188 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
9189 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
9190 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
9191 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
9194 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
9195 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
9196 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
9197 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
9198 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
9202 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
9203 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
9204 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
9206 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
9207 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
9208 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
9209 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
9210 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single gnus
9211 session are suppressed.
9213 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
9214 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
9215 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
9216 suppression list. The default is 10000.
9218 @item gnus-duplicate-file
9219 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
9220 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
9221 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
9224 If you have a tendency to stop and start gnus often, setting
9225 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
9226 you leave gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
9227 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
9228 so that means that if you stop and start gnus often, you should set
9229 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
9230 to you to figure out, I think.
9235 Gnus is able to verify PGP or S/MIME signed messages or decrypt PGP
9240 To verify or decrypt PGP messages, you have to install mailcrypt or
9246 @item mm-verify-option
9247 @vindex mm-verify-option
9248 Option of verifying signed parts. @code{never}, not verify;
9249 @code{always}, always verify; @code{known}, only verify known
9250 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
9252 @item mm-decrypt-option
9253 @vindex mm-decrypt-option
9254 Option of decrypting encrypted parts. @code{never}, no decryption;
9255 @code{always}, always decrypt @code{known}, only decrypt known
9256 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
9260 @node Article Buffer
9261 @chapter Article Buffer
9262 @cindex article buffer
9264 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
9265 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
9266 tell gnus otherwise.
9269 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
9270 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
9271 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
9272 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
9273 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
9277 @node Hiding Headers
9278 @section Hiding Headers
9279 @cindex hiding headers
9280 @cindex deleting headers
9282 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
9283 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
9285 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
9286 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
9287 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
9288 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
9289 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
9290 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
9291 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseum---and you'll probably want to get rid
9292 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
9293 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
9295 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
9299 @item gnus-visible-headers
9300 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
9301 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
9302 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
9303 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
9305 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
9306 the article and the subject, you'd say:
9309 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
9312 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
9315 @item gnus-ignored-headers
9316 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
9317 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
9318 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
9319 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
9320 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
9322 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} field
9323 and the @code{Xref} field, you might say:
9326 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
9329 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
9332 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
9333 variable will have no effect.
9337 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
9338 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
9339 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
9340 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
9341 the headers are to be displayed.
9343 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
9344 and then the subject, you might say something like:
9347 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
9350 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
9351 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
9353 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
9354 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
9355 You can hide further boring headers by setting
9356 @code{gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers} to @code{head}. What this function
9357 does depends on the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a
9358 list, but this list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead is
9359 lists various @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove
9362 These conditions are:
9365 Remove all empty headers.
9367 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
9368 @code{Newsgroups} header.
9370 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same address as the
9373 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
9376 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
9377 the current groups's @code{to-address} parameter.
9379 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
9382 Remove the @code{To} header if it is very long.
9384 Remove all @code{To} headers if there are more than one.
9387 To include these three elements, you could say something like;
9390 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
9391 '(empty followup-to reply-to))
9394 This is also the default value for this variable.
9398 @section Using @sc{mime}
9401 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
9402 while people stand around yawning.
9404 @sc{mime}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
9405 while all newsreaders die of fear.
9407 @sc{mime} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
9408 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
9409 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
9411 @vindex gnus-show-mime
9412 @vindex gnus-article-display-method-for-mime
9413 @vindex gnus-strict-mime
9414 @findex gnus-article-display-mime-message
9415 Gnus handles @sc{mime} by pushing the articles through
9416 @code{gnus-article-display-method-for-mime}, which is
9417 @code{gnus-article-display-mime-message} by default. This function
9418 calls the SEMI MIME-View program to actually do the work. For more
9419 information on SEMI MIME-View, see its manual page (however it is not
9420 existed yet, sorry).
9422 Set @code{gnus-show-mime} to @code{t} if you want to use
9423 @sc{mime} all the time. However, if @code{gnus-strict-mime} is
9424 non-@code{nil}, the @sc{mime} method will only be used if there are
9425 @sc{mime} headers in the article. If you have @code{gnus-show-mime}
9426 set, then you'll see some unfortunate display glitches in the article
9427 buffer. These can't be avoided.
9429 In GNUS or Gnus, it might be best to just use the toggling functions
9430 from the summary buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance,
9431 you enter the group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it,
9432 @sc{mime} has decoded the sound file in the article and some horrible
9433 sing-a-long song comes screaming out your speakers, and you can't find
9434 the volume button, because there isn't one, and people are starting to
9435 look at you, and you try to stop the program, but you can't, and you
9436 can't find the program to control the volume, and everybody else in the
9437 room suddenly decides to look at you disdainfully, and you'll feel
9440 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
9442 To avoid such kind of situation, gnus stops to use
9443 @code{metamail-buffer}. So now, you can set @code{gnus-show-mime} to
9444 non-@code{nil} every-time, then you can push button in the article
9445 buffer when there are nobody else.
9447 Also see @pxref{MIME Commands}.
9450 @node Customizing Articles
9451 @section Customizing Articles
9452 @cindex article customization
9454 A slew of functions for customizing how the articles are to look like
9455 exist. You can call these functions interactively, or you can have them
9456 called automatically when you select the articles.
9458 To have them called automatically, you should set the corresponding
9459 ``treatment'' variable. For instance, to have headers hidden, you'd set
9460 @code{gnus-treat-hide-headers}. Below is a list of variables that can
9461 be set, but first we discuss the values these variables can have.
9463 Note: Some values, while valid, make little sense. Check the list below
9464 for sensible values.
9468 @code{nil}: Don't do this treatment.
9471 @code{t}: Do this treatment on all body parts.
9474 @code{head}: Do the treatment on the headers.
9477 @code{last}: Do this treatment on the last part.
9480 An integer: Do this treatment on all body parts that have a length less
9484 A list of strings: Do this treatment on all body parts that are in
9485 articles that are read in groups that have names that match one of the
9486 regexps in the list.
9489 A list where the first element is not a string:
9491 The list is evaluated recursively. The first element of the list is a
9492 predicate. The following predicates are recognized: @code{or},
9493 @code{and}, @code{not} and @code{typep}. Here's an example:
9497 (typep "text/x-vcard"))
9501 @code{mime}: Do this treatment if the value of @code{gnus-show-mime}' is
9506 You may have noticed that the word @dfn{part} is used here. This refers
9507 to the fact that some messages are @sc{mime} multipart articles that may
9508 be divided into several parts. Articles that are not multiparts are
9509 considered to contain just a single part.
9511 @vindex gnus-article-treat-types
9512 Are the treatments applied to all sorts of multipart parts? Yes, if you
9513 want to, but by default, only @samp{text/plain} parts are given the
9514 treatment. This is controlled by the @code{gnus-article-treat-types}
9515 variable, which is a list of regular expressions that are matched to the
9516 type of the part. This variable is ignored if the value of the
9517 controlling variable is a predicate list, as described above.
9519 The following treatment options are available. The easiest way to
9520 customize this is to examine the @code{gnus-article-treat} customization
9521 group. Values in parenthesis are suggested sensible values. Others are
9522 possible but those listed are probably sufficient for most people.
9525 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last)
9526 @item gnus-treat-buttonize (t, integer)
9527 @item gnus-treat-buttonize-head (head)
9528 @item gnus-treat-emphasize (t, head, integer)
9529 @item gnus-treat-fill-article (t, integer)
9530 @item gnus-treat-strip-cr (t, integer)
9531 @item gnus-treat-hide-headers (head)
9532 @item gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers (head)
9533 @item gnus-treat-hide-signature (t, last)
9534 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation (t, integer)
9535 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe (t, integer)
9536 @item gnus-treat-strip-pgp (t, last, integer)
9537 @item gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig (head)
9538 @item gnus-treat-strip-pem (t, last, integer)
9539 @item gnus-treat-highlight-headers (head)
9540 @item gnus-treat-highlight-citation (t, integer)
9541 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last, integer)
9542 @item gnus-treat-date-ut (head)
9543 @item gnus-treat-date-local (head)
9544 @item gnus-treat-date-english (head)
9545 @item gnus-treat-date-lapsed (head)
9546 @item gnus-treat-date-original (head)
9547 @item gnus-treat-date-iso8601 (head)
9548 @item gnus-treat-date-user-defined (head)
9549 @item gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body (t, integer)
9550 @item gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines (t, last, integer)
9551 @item gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines (t, integer)
9552 @item gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines (t, integer)
9553 @item gnus-treat-overstrike (t, integer)
9554 @item gnus-treat-display-xface (head)
9555 @item gnus-treat-display-smileys (t, integer)
9556 @item gnus-treat-display-picons (head)
9557 @item gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences (t, integer)
9558 @item gnus-treat-fill-long-lines (t, integer)
9559 @item gnus-treat-play-sounds
9560 @item gnus-treat-translate
9561 @item gnus-treat-decode-article-as-default-mime-charset
9564 @vindex gnus-part-display-hook
9565 You can, of course, write your own functions to be called from
9566 @code{gnus-part-display-hook}. The functions are called narrowed to the
9567 part, and you can do anything you like, pretty much. There is no
9568 information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can change
9572 @node Article Keymap
9573 @section Article Keymap
9575 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
9576 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
9577 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
9578 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
9581 A few additional keystrokes are available:
9586 @kindex SPACE (Article)
9587 @findex gnus-article-next-page
9588 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
9591 @kindex DEL (Article)
9592 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
9593 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
9596 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
9597 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
9598 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
9599 @kbd{C-c ^}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
9600 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
9603 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
9604 @findex gnus-article-mail
9605 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
9606 given a prefix, include the mail.
9610 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
9611 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
9612 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
9616 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
9617 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
9618 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
9621 @kindex TAB (Article)
9622 @findex gnus-article-next-button
9623 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
9624 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
9627 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
9628 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
9629 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
9635 @section Misc Article
9639 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
9640 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
9641 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
9642 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
9645 @vindex gnus-article-decode-hook
9646 @item gnus-article-decode-hook
9648 Hook used to decode @sc{mime} articles. The default value is
9649 @code{(article-decode-charset article-decode-encoded-words)}
9651 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
9652 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
9653 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
9654 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
9655 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
9656 the contents of the article buffer.
9658 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
9659 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
9660 Hook called in article mode buffers.
9662 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
9663 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
9664 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
9665 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
9667 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
9668 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
9669 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
9670 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
9671 accepts the same format specifications as that variable, with two
9676 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
9677 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
9680 The number of @sc{mime} parts in the article.
9683 @vindex gnus-break-pages
9685 @item gnus-break-pages
9686 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
9687 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
9688 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
9689 paging will not be done.
9691 @item gnus-page-delimiter
9692 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
9693 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
9698 @node Composing Messages
9699 @chapter Composing Messages
9700 @cindex composing messages
9703 @cindex sending mail
9709 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
9710 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
9711 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the
9712 article by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Top, message, The
9713 Message Manual}. Where the message will be posted/mailed to depends
9714 on your setup (@pxref{Posting Server}).
9717 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
9718 * Posting Server:: What server should you post via?
9719 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
9720 * Archived Messages:: Where gnus stores the messages you've sent.
9721 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
9722 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
9723 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
9724 * Using GPG:: How to use GPG and MML to sign and encrypt messages
9727 Also see @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
9728 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
9734 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
9737 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
9738 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
9739 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
9740 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched.
9742 @item gnus-add-to-list
9743 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
9744 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
9745 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
9750 @node Posting Server
9751 @section Posting Server
9753 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
9754 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
9756 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
9758 @vindex gnus-post-method
9760 It can be quite complicated. Normally, Gnus will post using the same
9761 select method as you're reading from (which might be convenient if
9762 you're reading lots of groups from different private servers).
9763 However. If the server you're reading from doesn't allow posting,
9764 just reading, you probably want to use some other server to post your
9765 (extremely intelligent and fabulously interesting) articles. You can
9766 then set the @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
9769 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
9772 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
9773 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
9774 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
9775 the ``current'' server, to get back the default behavior, for posting.
9777 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
9778 gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
9780 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
9781 If that's the case, gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
9784 Finally, if you want to always post using the native select method,
9785 you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
9789 @section Mail and Post
9791 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
9795 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
9796 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
9797 @cindex mailing lists
9799 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
9800 gatewayed to the @sc{nntp} server, you can read those groups without
9801 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
9802 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
9803 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
9804 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
9805 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
9806 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
9807 still a pain, though.
9811 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
9812 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
9813 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
9816 @findex ispell-message
9818 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
9821 If you want to change the @code{ispell} dictionary based on what group
9822 you're in, you could say something like the following:
9825 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
9829 "^de\\." (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
9830 (ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch"))
9832 (ispell-change-dictionary "english")))))
9835 Modify to suit your needs.
9838 @node Archived Messages
9839 @section Archived Messages
9840 @cindex archived messages
9841 @cindex sent messages
9843 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
9844 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
9845 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
9846 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}, which
9849 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
9850 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server gnus is to
9851 use to store sent messages. The default is:
9855 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
9856 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
9857 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
9858 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
9861 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
9862 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likable select method
9863 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
9864 directory chosen, you could say something like:
9867 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
9868 '(nnfolder "archive"
9869 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
9870 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
9871 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
9874 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
9876 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
9877 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
9878 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
9880 This variable can be used to do the following:
9884 Messages will be saved in that group.
9886 Note that you can include a select method in the group name, then the
9887 message will not be stored in the select method given by
9888 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, but in the select method specified
9889 by the group name, instead. Suppose @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
9890 has the default value shown above. Then setting
9891 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{"foo"} means that outgoing
9892 messages are stored in @samp{nnfolder+archive:foo}, but if you use the
9893 value @code{"nnml:foo"}, then outgoing messages will be stored in
9895 @item a list of strings
9896 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
9897 @item an alist of regexps, functions and forms
9898 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
9900 No message archiving will take place. This is the default.
9905 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
9907 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
9910 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
9912 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
9915 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
9917 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
9918 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
9919 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
9920 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
9925 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
9926 '((if (message-news-p)
9931 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
9932 messages in one file per month:
9935 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
9936 '((if (message-news-p)
9938 (concat "mail." (format-time-string "%Y-%m")))))
9941 (XEmacs 19.13 doesn't have @code{format-time-string}, so you'll have to
9942 use a different value for @code{gnus-message-archive-group} there.)
9944 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
9945 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
9946 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
9947 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
9948 gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
9949 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
9950 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
9951 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
9952 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
9953 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
9955 That's the default method of archiving sent messages. Gnus offers a
9956 different way for the people who don't like the default method. In that
9957 case you should set @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{nil};
9958 this will disable archiving.
9961 @item gnus-outgoing-message-group
9962 @vindex gnus-outgoing-message-group
9963 All outgoing messages will be put in this group. If you want to store
9964 all your outgoing mail and articles in the group @samp{nnml:archive},
9965 you set this variable to that value. This variable can also be a list of
9968 If you want to have greater control over what group to put each
9969 message in, you can set this variable to a function that checks the
9970 current newsgroup name and then returns a suitable group name (or list
9973 This variable can be used instead of @code{gnus-message-archive-group},
9974 but the latter is the preferred method.
9976 @item gnus-inews-mark-gcc-as-read
9977 @vindex gnus-inews-mark-gcc-as-read
9978 If non-@code{nil}, automatically mark @code{Gcc} articles as read.
9983 @node Posting Styles
9984 @section Posting Styles
9985 @cindex posting styles
9988 All them variables, they make my head swim.
9990 So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
9991 on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
9992 and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
9995 @vindex gnus-posting-styles
9996 One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
9997 variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
9998 came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
9999 a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
10004 (signature "Peace and happiness")
10005 (organization "What me?"))
10007 (signature "Death to everybody"))
10008 ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
10009 (organization "Emacs is it")))
10012 As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
10013 @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
10014 ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
10015 over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
10016 applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
10017 the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
10018 @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
10019 signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
10021 The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
10022 string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
10023 If it is the symbol @code{header}, then Gnus will look for header (the
10024 next element in the match) in the original article , and compare that to
10025 the last regexp in the match. If it's a function symbol, that function
10026 will be called with no arguments. If it's a variable symbol, then the
10027 variable will be referenced. If it's a list, then that list will be
10028 @code{eval}ed. In any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil} value,
10029 then the style is said to @dfn{match}.
10031 Each style may contain a arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
10032 attribute consists of a @code{(@var{name} @var{value})} pair. The
10033 attribute name can be one of @code{signature}, @code{signature-file},
10034 @code{organization}, @code{address}, @code{name} or @code{body}. The
10035 attribute name can also be a string. In that case, this will be used as
10036 a header name, and the value will be inserted in the headers of the
10037 article; if the value is @code{nil}, the header name will be removed.
10038 If the attribute name is @code{eval}, the form is evaluated, and the
10039 result is thrown away.
10041 The attribute value can be a string (used verbatim), a function with
10042 zero arguments (the return value will be used), a variable (its value
10043 will be used) or a list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value
10044 will be used). The functions and sexps are called/@code{eval}ed in the
10045 message buffer that is being set up. The headers of the current article
10046 are available through the @code{message-reply-headers} variable.
10048 If you wish to check whether the message you are about to compose is
10049 meant to be a news article or a mail message, you can check the values
10050 of the @code{message-news-p} and @code{message-mail-p} functions.
10052 @findex message-mail-p
10053 @findex message-news-p
10055 So here's a new example:
10058 (setq gnus-posting-styles
10060 (signature-file "~/.signature")
10062 ("X-Home-Page" (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
10063 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
10065 (signature my-funny-signature-randomizer))
10066 ((equal (system-name) "gnarly")
10067 (signature my-quote-randomizer))
10069 (signature my-news-signature))
10070 (header "to" "larsi.*org"
10071 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
10072 ((posting-from-work-p)
10073 (signature-file "~/.work-signature")
10074 (address "user@@bar.foo")
10075 (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
10076 (organization "Important Work, Inc"))
10078 (From (save-excursion
10079 (set-buffer gnus-article-buffer)
10080 (message-fetch-field "to"))))
10082 (signature-file "~/.mail-signature"))))
10085 The @samp{nnml:.*} rule means that you use the @code{To} address as the
10086 @code{From} address in all your outgoing replies, which might be handy
10087 if you fill many roles.
10094 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
10095 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
10096 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
10097 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
10098 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
10100 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
10101 some sort using the gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
10102 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
10103 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
10104 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
10108 @vindex nndraft-directory
10109 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
10110 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
10111 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
10112 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
10113 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
10114 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
10116 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
10117 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
10120 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
10121 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
10122 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
10123 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
10124 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
10125 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
10126 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
10127 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
10128 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
10129 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
10130 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
10131 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
10132 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
10133 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
10135 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
10136 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
10137 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
10139 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
10140 @kindex D e (Draft)
10141 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
10142 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
10143 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
10145 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
10148 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
10149 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
10150 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
10151 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
10152 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
10153 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
10154 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
10157 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
10158 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
10159 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
10162 @node Rejected Articles
10163 @section Rejected Articles
10164 @cindex rejected articles
10166 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
10167 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
10168 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
10169 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
10171 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of gnus.
10172 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
10173 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
10174 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So gnus saves these
10175 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
10177 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
10178 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
10179 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
10185 Gnus has an ALPHA support to GPG that's provided by @file{gpg.el}. See
10186 @code{mm-verify-option} and @code{mm-decrypt-option} to enable Gnus to
10187 verify or decrypt messages accordingly.
10189 To use this correctly with GPG, you'll need the following lisp code in your
10190 @file{~/.emacs} or @file{~/.gnus}:
10194 (setq mml2015-use 'gpg)
10195 (setq gpg-temp-directory (expand-file-name "~/.gnupg/tmp"))
10198 The @code{gpg-temp-directory} need to point to a directory with permissions set
10199 to 700, for your own safety.
10201 If you want to benefit of PGP2.6 compatibility, you might create a script named
10202 @file{gpg-2comp} with these instructions:
10206 exec gpg --rfc1991 "$@@"
10209 If you don't want to use such compatibility, you can add the following line to
10210 your @file{~/.emacs} or @file{~/.gnus}:
10213 (setq gpg-command-default-alist (quote ((gpg . "gpg") (gpg-2comp . "gpg"))))
10216 To sign or encrypt your message you may choose to use the MML Security
10217 menu or @kbd{C-c C-m s p} to sign your message using PGP/MIME, @kbd{C-c
10218 C-m s s} to sign your message using S/MIME. There's also @kbd{C-c C-m c
10219 p} to encrypt your message with PGP/MIME and @kbd{C-c C-m c s} to
10220 encrypt using S/MIME.
10222 Gnus will ask for your passphrase and then it will send your message, if
10223 you've typed it correctly.
10225 @node Select Methods
10226 @chapter Select Methods
10227 @cindex foreign groups
10228 @cindex select methods
10230 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
10231 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
10232 @sc{nntp} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
10233 personal mail group.
10235 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
10236 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
10237 list where the first element says what backend to use (e.g. @code{nntp},
10238 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
10239 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
10240 value may have special meaning for the backend in question.
10242 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
10243 we do just that (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
10245 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the backend will recognize the
10248 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @sc{nntp} server
10249 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
10250 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
10251 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
10252 backend just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
10254 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
10257 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
10258 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
10259 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
10260 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
10261 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
10262 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
10263 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
10267 @node Server Buffer
10268 @section Server Buffer
10270 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
10271 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
10272 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
10273 one backend or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
10274 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
10275 backend represents a virtual server.
10277 For instance, the @code{nntp} backend may be used to connect to several
10278 different actual @sc{nntp} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
10279 on the same actual @sc{nntp} server. You tell Gnus which backend to
10280 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
10282 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
10283 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
10284 @sc{nntp} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
10285 hangs if queried for @sc{nov} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
10286 Anyway, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
10287 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
10288 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
10290 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
10291 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
10294 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
10295 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
10296 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
10297 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
10298 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
10299 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
10300 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
10303 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
10304 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
10307 @node Server Buffer Format
10308 @subsection Server Buffer Format
10309 @cindex server buffer format
10311 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
10312 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
10313 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
10314 variable, with some simple extensions:
10319 How the news is fetched---the backend name.
10322 The name of this server.
10325 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
10328 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
10331 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
10332 The mode line can also be customized by using the
10333 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable (@pxref{Mode Line
10334 Formatting}). The following specs are understood:
10344 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
10347 @node Server Commands
10348 @subsection Server Commands
10349 @cindex server commands
10355 @findex gnus-server-add-server
10356 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
10360 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
10361 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
10364 @kindex SPACE (Server)
10365 @findex gnus-server-read-server
10366 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
10370 @findex gnus-server-exit
10371 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
10375 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
10376 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
10380 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
10381 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
10385 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
10386 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
10390 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
10391 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
10395 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
10396 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
10397 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
10402 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
10403 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
10404 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
10405 a mail backend that has gotten out of sync.
10410 @node Example Methods
10411 @subsection Example Methods
10413 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
10416 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
10419 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
10425 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
10426 backend, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
10429 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
10430 @code{(@var{variable} @var{form})} pairs.
10432 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
10433 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
10437 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
10440 You should read the documentation to each backend to find out what
10441 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
10443 @code{nnmh} is a mail backend that reads a spool-like structure. Say
10444 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
10445 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
10449 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
10452 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
10455 Here's the method for a public spool:
10459 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
10460 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
10466 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @sc{nntp}
10467 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
10468 on the firewall machine and telnet from there to the @sc{nntp} server.
10469 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
10470 should probably look something like this:
10474 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet)
10475 (nntp-via-address "the.firewall.machine")
10476 (nntp-address "the.real.nntp.host")
10477 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
10480 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
10481 compressed connection over the modem line, you could add the following
10482 configuration to the example above:
10485 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
10488 If you're behind a firewall, but have direct access to the outside world
10489 through a wrapper command like "runsocks", you could open a socksified
10490 telnet connection to the news server as follows:
10494 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
10495 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-telnet)
10496 (nntp-address "the.news.server")
10497 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
10500 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
10501 provide automatic authorization, of course. And to get a compressed
10502 connection, you have to have the @samp{Compression} option in the
10503 @code{ssh} @file{config} file.
10506 @node Creating a Virtual Server
10507 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
10509 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
10510 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
10512 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
10513 would probably be best to use @code{nnspool} to read the cache. You
10514 could also use @code{nnml} or @code{nnmh}, though.
10516 Type @kbd{a nnspool RET cache RET}.
10518 You should now have a brand new @code{nnspool} virtual server called
10519 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
10520 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
10521 will contain the following:
10531 (nnspool-spool-directory "~/News/cache/")
10532 (nnspool-nov-directory "~/News/cache/")
10533 (nnspool-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
10536 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
10537 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
10538 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
10541 @node Server Variables
10542 @subsection Server Variables
10544 One sticky point when defining variables (both on backends and in Emacs
10545 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
10546 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
10547 change the "base" variable after the variables have been loaded, you
10548 won't change the "derived" variables.
10550 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
10551 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
10552 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
10553 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
10554 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
10555 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
10556 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
10557 variables for each backend, see each backend's section later in this
10558 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
10562 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
10563 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
10564 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
10568 @node Servers and Methods
10569 @subsection Servers and Methods
10571 Wherever you would normally use a select method
10572 (e.g. @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
10573 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
10574 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
10578 @node Unavailable Servers
10579 @subsection Unavailable Servers
10581 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
10582 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
10583 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
10584 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
10585 actually the case or not.
10587 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
10588 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
10589 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
10590 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
10591 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
10592 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
10593 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
10594 it will regard that server as ``down''.
10596 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
10597 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
10599 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{Server Buffer}) and poke it
10600 with the following commands:
10606 @findex gnus-server-open-server
10607 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
10608 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
10612 @findex gnus-server-close-server
10613 Close the connection (if any) to the server
10614 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
10618 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
10619 Mark the current server as unreachable
10620 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
10623 @kindex M-o (Server)
10624 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
10625 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
10626 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
10629 @kindex M-c (Server)
10630 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
10631 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
10632 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
10636 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
10637 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
10638 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
10644 @section Getting News
10645 @cindex reading news
10646 @cindex news backends
10648 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
10649 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @sc{nntp} server,
10650 or it can read from a local spool.
10653 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
10654 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
10659 @subsection @sc{nntp}
10662 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @sc{nntp} server is rather easy.
10663 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @sc{nntp}
10664 server as the, uhm, address.
10666 If the @sc{nntp} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
10667 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
10668 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
10669 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
10671 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
10672 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
10673 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
10675 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
10680 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
10681 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
10682 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
10684 @cindex authentification
10685 @cindex nntp authentification
10686 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
10687 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
10688 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
10689 commands to the @sc{nntp} server after it has been contacted. By
10690 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
10691 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
10692 present in this hook.
10694 @item nntp-authinfo-function
10695 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
10696 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
10697 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
10698 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @sc{nntp}
10699 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
10700 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
10701 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
10702 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
10703 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
10704 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
10705 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
10709 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
10712 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs.
10714 The valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password},
10715 @samp{default}. In addition Gnus introduces two new tokens, not present
10716 in the original @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp} syntax, namely @samp{port} and
10717 @samp{force}. (This is the only way the @file{.authinfo} file format
10718 deviates from the @file{.netrc} file format.) @samp{port} is used to
10719 indicate what port on the server the credentials apply to and
10720 @samp{force} is explained below.
10724 Here's an example file:
10727 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
10728 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
10731 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
10732 have to be first, for instance.
10734 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
10735 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
10736 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
10737 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
10738 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
10739 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
10740 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
10742 You can also add @samp{default} lines that will apply to all servers
10743 that don't have matching @samp{machine} lines.
10749 This will force sending @samp{AUTHINFO} commands to all servers not
10750 previously mentioned.
10752 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
10754 @item nntp-server-action-alist
10755 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
10756 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
10757 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
10758 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
10761 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
10762 '(("innd" (ding))))
10765 You probably don't want to do that, though.
10767 The default value is
10770 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
10771 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook
10772 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
10775 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
10776 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
10778 @item nntp-maximum-request
10779 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
10780 If the @sc{nntp} server doesn't support @sc{nov} headers, this backend
10781 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
10782 speed things up, the backend sends lots of these commands without
10783 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
10784 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
10785 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
10787 @item nntp-connection-timeout
10788 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
10789 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
10790 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @sc{nntp} servers not
10791 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
10792 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
10793 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
10794 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} backend should wait for a
10795 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
10796 no timeouts are done.
10798 @c @item nntp-command-timeout
10799 @c @vindex nntp-command-timeout
10800 @c @cindex PPP connections
10801 @c @cindex dynamic IP addresses
10802 @c If you're running Gnus on a machine that has a dynamically assigned
10803 @c address, Gnus may become confused. If the address of your machine
10804 @c changes after connecting to the @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will simply sit
10805 @c waiting forever for replies from the server. To help with this
10806 @c unfortunate problem, you can set this command to a number. Gnus will
10807 @c then, if it sits waiting for a reply from the server longer than that
10808 @c number of seconds, shut down the connection, start a new one, and resend
10809 @c the command. This should hopefully be transparent to the user. A
10810 @c likely number is 30 seconds.
10812 @c @item nntp-retry-on-break
10813 @c @vindex nntp-retry-on-break
10814 @c If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you can also @kbd{C-g} if Gnus
10815 @c hangs. This will have much the same effect as the command timeout
10816 @c described above.
10818 @item nntp-server-hook
10819 @vindex nntp-server-hook
10820 This hook is run as the last step when connecting to an @sc{nntp}
10823 @item nntp-buggy-select
10824 @vindex nntp-buggy-select
10825 Set this to non-@code{nil} if your select routine is buggy.
10827 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
10828 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
10829 If the @sc{nntp} server does not support @sc{nov}, you could set this
10830 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @sc{nov}
10833 @item nntp-xover-commands
10834 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
10837 List of strings used as commands to fetch @sc{nov} lines from a
10838 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
10842 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
10843 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @sc{nov} lines to
10844 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
10845 if you have read articles 2-5000 in the group, and only want to read
10846 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @sc{nov}
10847 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
10848 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
10849 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
10850 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
10851 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
10852 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
10854 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
10855 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
10856 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @sc{nntp} server.
10858 @item nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
10859 @vindex nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
10860 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, some noise will be made when a
10861 server closes connection.
10863 @item nntp-record-commands
10864 @vindex nntp-record-commands
10865 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
10866 @sc{nntp} server (along with a timestamp) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
10867 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@sc{nntp} connection
10868 that doesn't seem to work.
10870 @item nntp-open-connection-function
10871 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
10872 It is possible to customize how the connection to the nntp server will
10873 be opened. If you specify an @code{nntp-open-connection-function}
10874 parameter, Gnus will use that function to establish the connection.
10875 Five pre-made functions are supplied. These functions can be grouped in
10876 two categories: direct connection functions (three pre-made), and
10877 indirect ones (two pre-made).
10879 @item nntp-list-options
10880 @vindex nntp-list-options
10881 List of newsgroup name used for a option of the LIST command to restrict
10882 the listing output to only the specified newsgroups. Each newsgroup name
10883 can be a shell-style wildcard, for instance, @dfn{fj.*}, @dfn{japan.*},
10884 etc. Fortunately, if the server can accept such a option, it will
10885 probably make gnus run faster. You may use it as a server variable as
10889 (setq gnus-select-method
10890 '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"
10891 (nntp-list-options ("fj.*" "japan.*"))))
10894 @item nntp-options-subscribe
10895 @vindex nntp-options-subscribe
10896 Regexp matching the newsgroup names which will be subscribed
10897 unconditionally. Use @dfn{ } instead of @dfn{$} for a regexp string.
10898 It may be effective as well as @code{nntp-list-options} even though the
10899 server could not accept a shell-style wildcard as a option of the LIST
10900 command. You may use it as a server variable as follows:
10903 (setq gnus-select-method
10904 '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"
10905 (nntp-options-subscribe "^fj\\.\\|^japan\\.")))
10908 @item nntp-options-not-subscribe
10909 @vindex nntp-options-not-subscribe
10910 Regexp matching the newsgroup names which will not be subscribed
10911 unconditionally. Use @dfn{ } instead of @dfn{$} for a regexp string.
10912 It may be effective as well as @code{nntp-list-options} even though the
10913 server could not accept a shell-style wildcard as a option of the LIST
10914 command. You may use it as a server variable as follows:
10917 (setq gnus-select-method
10918 '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"
10919 (nntp-options-not-subscribe "\\.binaries\\.")))
10924 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
10925 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
10926 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
10930 @node Direct Functions
10931 @subsubsection Direct Functions
10932 @cindex direct connection functions
10934 These functions are called direct because they open a direct connection
10935 between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server. The behavior of these
10936 functions is also affected by commonly understood variables
10937 (@pxref{Common Variables}).
10940 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
10941 @item nntp-open-network-stream
10942 This is the default, and simply connects to some port or other on the
10945 @findex nntp-open-ssl-stream
10946 @item nntp-open-ssl-stream
10947 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use this
10948 you must have SSLay installed
10949 (@uref{ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL}, and you also need
10950 @file{ssl.el} (from the W3 distribution, for instance). You then
10951 define a server as follows:
10954 ;; Type `C-c C-c' after you've finished editing.
10956 ;; "snews" is port 563 and is predefined in our /etc/services
10958 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
10959 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-ssl-stream)
10960 (nntp-port-number "snews")
10961 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
10964 @findex nntp-open-telnet-stream
10965 @item nntp-open-telnet-stream
10966 Opens a connection to an @sc{nntp} server by simply @samp{telnet}'ing
10967 it. You might wonder why this function exists, since we have the
10968 default @code{nntp-open-network-stream} which would do the job. (One
10969 of) the reason(s) is that if you are behind a firewall but have direct
10970 connections to the outside world thanks to a command wrapper like
10971 @code{runsocks}, you can use it like this:
10975 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
10976 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-telnet-stream)
10977 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
10980 With the default method, you would need to wrap your whole Emacs
10981 session, which is not a good idea.
10985 @node Indirect Functions
10986 @subsubsection Indirect Functions
10987 @cindex indirect connection functions
10989 These functions are called indirect because they connect to an
10990 intermediate host before actually connecting to the @sc{nntp} server.
10991 All of these functions and related variables are also said to belong to
10992 the "via" family of connection: they're all prefixed with "via" to make
10993 things cleaner. The behavior of these functions is also affected by
10994 commonly understood variables (@pxref{Common Variables}).
10997 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
10998 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
10999 Does an @samp{rlogin} on a remote system, and then does a @samp{telnet}
11000 to the real @sc{nntp} server from there. This is useful for instance if
11001 you need to connect to a firewall machine first.
11003 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet}-specific variables:
11006 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
11007 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
11008 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
11009 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
11012 @item nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
11013 @findex nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
11014 Does essentially the same, but uses @samp{telnet} instead of
11015 @samp{rlogin} to connect to the intermediate host.
11017 @code{nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet}-specific variables:
11020 @item nntp-via-telnet-command
11021 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-command
11022 Command used to @code{telnet} the intermediate host. The default is
11025 @item nntp-via-telnet-switches
11026 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-switches
11027 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
11028 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @samp{("-8")}.
11030 @item nntp-via-user-password
11031 @vindex nntp-via-user-password
11032 Password to use when logging in on the intermediate host.
11034 @item nntp-via-envuser
11035 @vindex nntp-via-envuser
11036 If non-@code{nil}, the intermediate @code{telnet} session (client and
11037 server both) will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for
11038 login name. This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
11040 @item nntp-via-shell-prompt
11041 @vindex nntp-via-shell-prompt
11042 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the intermediate host. The default
11043 is @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
11050 Here are some additional variables that are understood by all the above
11055 @item nntp-via-user-name
11056 @vindex nntp-via-user-name
11057 User name to use when connecting to the intermediate host.
11059 @item nntp-via-address
11060 @vindex nntp-via-address
11061 Address of the intermediate host to connect to.
11066 @node Common Variables
11067 @subsubsection Common Variables
11069 The following variables affect the behavior of all, or several of the
11070 pre-made connection functions. When not specified, all functions are
11075 @item nntp-pre-command
11076 @vindex nntp-pre-command
11077 A command wrapper to use when connecting through a non native connection
11078 function (all except @code{nntp-open-network-stream} and
11079 @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream}. This is where you would put a @samp{SOCKS}
11080 wrapper for instance.
11083 @vindex nntp-address
11084 The address of the @sc{nntp} server.
11086 @item nntp-port-number
11087 @vindex nntp-port-number
11088 Port number to connect to the @sc{nntp} server. The default is @samp{nntp}.
11090 @item nntp-end-of-line
11091 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
11092 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @sc{nntp}
11093 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
11094 using a non native connection function.
11096 @item nntp-telnet-command
11097 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
11098 Command to use when connecting to the @sc{nntp} server through
11099 @samp{telnet}. This is NOT for an intermediate host. This is just for
11100 the real @sc{nntp} server. The default is @samp{telnet}.
11102 @item nntp-telnet-switches
11103 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
11104 A list of switches to pass to @code{nntp-telnet-command}. The default
11111 @subsection News Spool
11115 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
11116 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
11117 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
11120 Anyway, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
11121 anything else) as the address.
11123 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
11124 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
11125 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
11126 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
11130 @item nnspool-inews-program
11131 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
11132 Program used to post an article.
11134 @item nnspool-inews-switches
11135 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
11136 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
11138 @item nnspool-spool-directory
11139 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
11140 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
11141 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
11143 @item nnspool-nov-directory
11144 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
11145 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @sc{nov} files. This is normally
11146 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
11148 @item nnspool-lib-dir
11149 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
11150 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
11152 @item nnspool-active-file
11153 @vindex nnspool-active-file
11154 The path to the active file.
11156 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
11157 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
11158 The path to the group descriptions file.
11160 @item nnspool-history-file
11161 @vindex nnspool-history-file
11162 The path to the news history file.
11164 @item nnspool-active-times-file
11165 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
11166 The path to the active date file.
11168 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
11169 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
11170 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @sc{nov} files
11173 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
11174 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
11176 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
11177 relevant portion from the overview file. If nil, @code{nnspool} will
11178 load the entire file into a buffer and process it there.
11184 @section Getting Mail
11185 @cindex reading mail
11188 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
11192 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
11193 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
11194 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
11195 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
11196 * Mail Backend Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
11197 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
11198 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
11199 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
11200 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
11201 * Washing Mail:: Removing gruft from the mail you get.
11202 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
11203 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail backends for reading other files.
11204 * Choosing a Mail Backend:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
11208 @node Mail in a Newsreader
11209 @subsection Mail in a Newsreader
11211 If you are used to traditional mail readers, but have decided to switch
11212 to reading mail with Gnus, you may find yourself experiencing something
11213 of a culture shock.
11215 Gnus does not behave like traditional mail readers. If you want to make
11216 it behave that way, you can, but it's an uphill battle.
11218 Gnus, by default, handles all its groups using the same approach. This
11219 approach is very newsreaderly---you enter a group, see the new/unread
11220 messages, and when you read the messages, they get marked as read, and
11221 you don't see them any more. (Unless you explicitly ask for them.)
11223 In particular, you do not do anything explicitly to delete messages.
11225 Does this mean that all the messages that have been marked as read are
11226 deleted? How awful!
11228 But, no, it means that old messages are @dfn{expired} according to some
11229 scheme or other. For news messages, the expire process is controlled by
11230 the news administrator; for mail, the expire process is controlled by
11231 you. The expire process for mail is covered in depth in @pxref{Expiring
11234 What many Gnus users find, after using it a while for both news and
11235 mail, is that the transport mechanism has very little to do with how
11236 they want to treat a message.
11238 Many people subscribe to several mailing lists. These are transported
11239 via SMTP, and are therefore mail. But we might go for weeks without
11240 answering, or even reading these messages very carefully. We may not
11241 need to save them because if we should need to read one again, they are
11242 archived somewhere else.
11244 Some people have local news groups which have only a handful of readers.
11245 These are transported via @sc{nntp}, and are therefore news. But we may need
11246 to read and answer a large fraction of the messages very carefully in
11247 order to do our work. And there may not be an archive, so we may need
11248 to save the interesting messages the same way we would personal mail.
11250 The important distinction turns out to be not the transport mechanism,
11251 but other factors such as how interested we are in the subject matter,
11252 or how easy it is to retrieve the message if we need to read it again.
11254 Gnus provides many options for sorting mail into ``groups'' which behave
11255 like newsgroups, and for treating each group (whether mail or news)
11258 Some users never get comfortable using the Gnus (ahem) paradigm and wish
11259 that Gnus should grow up and be a male, er, mail reader. It is possible
11260 to whip Gnus into a more mailreaderly being, but, as said before, it's
11261 not easy. People who prefer proper mail readers should try @sc{vm}
11262 instead, which is an excellent, and proper, mail reader.
11264 I don't mean to scare anybody off, but I want to make it clear that you
11265 may be required to learn a new way of thinking about messages. After
11266 you've been subjected to The Gnus Way, you will come to love it. I can
11267 guarantee it. (At least the guy who sold me the Emacs Subliminal
11268 Brain-Washing Functions that I've put into Gnus did guarantee it. You
11269 Will Be Assimilated. You Love Gnus. You Love The Gnus Mail Way.
11273 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
11274 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
11276 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
11277 mail backend of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
11278 and things will happen automatically.
11280 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a "one file per
11281 mail" backend), you could put the following in your @file{.gnus} file:
11284 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
11285 '((nnml "private")))
11288 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this backend will be queried for new
11289 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
11290 directory, which is @code{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
11291 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
11292 like any other group.
11294 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
11297 (setq nnmail-split-methods
11298 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
11299 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
11303 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
11304 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
11305 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
11308 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
11309 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
11310 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Backend} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
11313 @node Splitting Mail
11314 @subsection Splitting Mail
11315 @cindex splitting mail
11316 @cindex mail splitting
11318 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
11319 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
11320 to be split into groups.
11323 (setq nnmail-split-methods
11324 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
11325 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
11326 ("mail.other" "")))
11329 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
11330 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
11331 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
11332 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
11333 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
11334 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
11335 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
11338 ("list.\\1" "From:.* \\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
11341 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
11342 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
11343 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
11344 mail belongs in that group.
11346 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
11347 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{} so that it matches any mails
11348 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
11349 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first
11350 rule to make a match will "win", unless you have crossposting enabled.
11351 In that case, all matching rules will "win".)
11353 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
11354 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
11355 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
11356 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
11357 thinks should carry this mail message.
11359 Note that the mail backends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
11360 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
11361 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
11362 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
11364 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
11365 The mail backends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
11366 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
11367 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
11368 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{}) group.
11370 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
11373 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
11374 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
11375 links. If that's the case for you, set
11376 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
11377 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
11379 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
11380 @kindex nnmail-split-history
11381 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
11382 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command. If you wish to see
11383 where re-spooling messages would put the messages, you can use
11384 @code{gnus-summary-respool-trace} and related commands (@pxref{Mail
11387 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
11388 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
11389 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
11390 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
11391 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
11392 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
11393 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
11394 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
11395 month's rent money.
11399 @subsection Mail Sources
11401 Mail can be gotten from many different sources---the mail spool, from a
11402 POP mail server, from a procmail directory, or from a maildir, for
11406 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
11407 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
11408 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
11412 @node Mail Source Specifiers
11413 @subsubsection Mail Source Specifiers
11415 @cindex mail server
11418 @cindex mail source
11420 You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by setting @code{mail-sources}
11421 (@pxref{Fetching Mail}) to a @dfn{mail source specifier}.
11426 (pop :server "pop3.mailserver.com" :user "myname")
11429 As can be observed, a mail source specifier is a list where the first
11430 element is a @dfn{mail source type}, followed by an arbitrary number of
11431 @dfn{keywords}. Keywords that are not explicitly specified are given
11434 The following mail source types are available:
11438 Get mail from a single file; typically from the mail spool.
11444 The path of the file. Defaults to the value of the @code{MAIL}
11445 environment variable or @file{/usr/mail/spool/user-name}.
11448 An example file mail source:
11451 (file :path "/usr/spool/mail/user-name")
11454 Or using the default path:
11460 If the mail spool file is not located on the local machine, it's best to
11461 use POP or @sc{imap} or the like to fetch the mail. You can not use ange-ftp
11462 file names here---it has no way to lock the mail spool while moving the
11465 If it's impossible to set up a proper server, you can use ssh instead.
11469 '((file :prescript "ssh host bin/getmail >%t")))
11472 The @samp{getmail} script would look something like the following:
11476 # getmail - move mail from spool to stdout
11479 MOVEMAIL=/usr/lib/emacs/20.3/i386-redhat-linux/movemail
11481 rm -f $TMP; $MOVEMAIL $MAIL $TMP >/dev/null && cat $TMP
11484 Alter this script to fit find the @samp{movemail} you want to use.
11488 Get mail from several files in a directory. This is typically used when
11489 you have procmail split the incoming mail into several files. Setting
11490 @code{nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once} to non-nil forces Gnus to
11491 scan the mail source only once. This is particularly useful if you want
11492 to scan mail groups at a specified level.
11498 The path of the directory where the files are. There is no default
11502 Only files ending with this suffix are used. The default is
11506 Only files that have this predicate return non-@code{nil} are returned.
11507 The default is @code{identity}. This is used as an additional
11508 filter---only files that have the right suffix @emph{and} satisfy this
11509 predicate are considered.
11513 Script run before/after fetching mail.
11517 An example directory mail source:
11520 (directory :path "/home/user-name/procmail-dir/"
11525 Get mail from a POP server.
11531 The name of the POP server. The default is taken from the
11532 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable.
11535 The port number of the POP server. This can be a number (eg,
11536 @samp{:port 1234}) or a string (eg, @samp{:port "pop3"}). If it is a
11537 string, it should be a service name as listed in @file{/etc/services} on
11538 Unix systems. The default is @samp{"pop3"}. On some systems you might
11539 need to specify it as @samp{"pop-3"} instead.
11542 The user name to give to the POP server. The default is the login
11546 The password to give to the POP server. If not specified, the user is
11550 The program to use to fetch mail from the POP server. This should be
11551 a @code{format}-like string. Here's an example:
11554 fetchmail %u@@%s -P %p %t
11557 The valid format specifier characters are:
11561 The name of the file the mail is to be moved to. This must always be
11562 included in this string.
11565 The name of the server.
11568 The port number of the server.
11571 The user name to use.
11574 The password to use.
11577 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
11578 corresponding keywords.
11581 A script to be run before fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
11582 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
11585 A script to be run after fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
11586 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
11589 The function to use to fetch mail from the POP server. The function is
11590 called with one parameter---the name of the file where the mail should
11593 @item :authentication
11594 This can be either the symbol @code{password} or the symbol @code{apop}
11595 and says what authentication scheme to use. The default is
11600 If the @code{:program} and @code{:function} keywords aren't specified,
11601 @code{pop3-movemail} will be used.
11603 Here are some examples. Fetch from the default POP server, using the
11604 default user name, and default fetcher:
11610 Fetch from a named server with a named user and password:
11613 (pop :server "my.pop.server"
11614 :user "user-name" :password "secret")
11617 Use @samp{movemail} to move the mail:
11620 (pop :program "movemail po:%u %t %p")
11624 Get mail from a maildir. This is a type of mailbox that is supported by
11625 at least qmail and postfix, where each file in a special directory
11626 contains exactly one mail.
11632 The path of the directory where the mails are stored. The default is
11633 taken from the @code{MAILDIR} environment variable or
11636 The subdirectories of the Maildir. The default is
11637 @samp{("new" "cur")}.
11639 @c If you sometimes look at your mail through a pop3 daemon before fetching
11640 @c them with Gnus, you may also have to fetch your mails from the
11641 @c @code{cur} directory inside the maildir, like in the first example
11644 You can also get mails from remote hosts (because maildirs don't suffer
11645 from locking problems).
11649 Two example maildir mail sources:
11652 (maildir :path "/home/user-name/Maildir/"
11653 :subdirs ("cur" "new"))
11657 (maildir :path "/user@@remotehost.org:~/Maildir/"
11662 Get mail from a @sc{imap} server. If you don't want to use @sc{imap}
11663 as intended, as a network mail reading protocol (ie with nnimap), for
11664 some reason or other, Gnus let you treat it similar to a POP server
11665 and fetches articles from a given @sc{imap} mailbox. @xref{IMAP}, for
11672 The name of the @sc{imap} server. The default is taken from the
11673 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable.
11676 The port number of the @sc{imap} server. The default is @samp{143}, or
11677 @samp{993} for SSL connections.
11680 The user name to give to the @sc{imap} server. The default is the login
11684 The password to give to the @sc{imap} server. If not specified, the user is
11688 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this is one of the
11689 symbols in @code{imap-stream-alist}. Right now, this means
11690 @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{ssl} or the default @samp{network}.
11692 @item :authentication
11693 Which authenticator to use for authenticating to the server, this is one
11694 of the symbols in @code{imap-authenticator-alist}. Right now, this
11695 means @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{cram-md5}, @samp{anonymous} or the default
11699 When using the `shell' :stream, the contents of this variable is
11700 mapped into the `imap-shell-program' variable. This should be a
11701 @code{format}-like string (or list of strings). Here's an example:
11707 The valid format specifier characters are:
11711 The name of the server.
11714 User name from `imap-default-user'.
11717 The port number of the server.
11720 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
11721 corresponding keywords.
11724 The name of the mailbox to get mail from. The default is @samp{INBOX}
11725 which normally is the mailbox which receive incoming mail.
11728 The predicate used to find articles to fetch. The default, @samp{UNSEEN
11729 UNDELETED}, is probably the best choice for most people, but if you
11730 sometimes peek in your mailbox with a @sc{imap} client and mark some
11731 articles as read (or; SEEN) you might want to set this to @samp{nil}.
11732 Then all articles in the mailbox is fetched, no matter what. For a
11733 complete list of predicates, see RFC 2060 §6.4.4.
11736 How to flag fetched articles on the server, the default @samp{\Deleted}
11737 will mark them as deleted, an alternative would be @samp{\Seen} which
11738 would simply mark them as read. These are the two most likely choices,
11739 but more flags are defined in RFC 2060 §2.3.2.
11742 If non-nil, don't remove all articles marked as deleted in the mailbox
11743 after finishing the fetch.
11747 An example @sc{imap} mail source:
11750 (imap :server "mail.mycorp.com"
11752 :fetchflag "\\Seen")
11756 Get mail from a webmail server, such as www.hotmail.com,
11757 webmail.netscape.com, www.netaddress.com, www.my-deja.com.
11759 NOTE: Now mail.yahoo.com provides POP3 service, so @sc{pop} mail source
11762 NOTE: Webmail largely depends cookies. A "one-line-cookie" patch is
11763 required for url "4.0pre.46".
11765 WARNING: Mails may lost. NO WARRANTY.
11771 The type of the webmail server. The default is @code{hotmail}. The
11772 alternatives are @code{netscape}, @code{netaddress}, @code{my-deja}.
11775 The user name to give to the webmail server. The default is the login
11779 The password to give to the webmail server. If not specified, the user is
11783 If non-nil, only fetch unread articles and don't move them to trash
11784 folder after finishing the fetch.
11788 An example webmail source:
11791 (webmail :subtype 'hotmail
11793 :password "secret")
11798 @item Common Keywords
11799 Common keywords can be used in any type of mail source.
11805 If non-nil, fetch the mail even when Gnus is unplugged. If you use
11806 directory source to get mail, you can specify it as in this example:
11810 '((directory :path "/home/pavel/.Spool/"
11815 Gnus will then fetch your mail even when you are unplugged. This is
11816 useful when you use local mail and news.
11821 @subsubsection Function Interface
11823 Some of the above keywords specify a Lisp function to be executed.
11824 For each keyword @code{:foo}, the Lisp variable @code{foo} is bound to
11825 the value of the keyword while the function is executing. For example,
11826 consider the following mail-source setting:
11829 (setq mail-sources '((pop :user "jrl"
11830 :server "pophost" :function fetchfunc)))
11833 While the function @code{fetchfunc} is executing, the symbol @code{user}
11834 is bound to @code{"jrl"}, and the symbol @code{server} is bound to
11835 @code{"pophost"}. The symbols @code{port}, @code{password},
11836 @code{program}, @code{prescript}, @code{postscript}, @code{function},
11837 and @code{authentication} are also bound (to their default values).
11839 See above for a list of keywords for each type of mail source.
11842 @node Mail Source Customization
11843 @subsubsection Mail Source Customization
11845 The following is a list of variables that influence how the mail is
11846 fetched. You would normally not need to set or change any of these
11850 @item mail-source-crash-box
11851 @vindex mail-source-crash-box
11852 File where mail will be stored while processing it. The default is
11853 @file{~/.emacs-mail-crash-box}.
11855 @item mail-source-delete-incoming
11856 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
11857 If non-@code{nil}, delete incoming files after handling them.
11859 @item mail-source-directory
11860 @vindex mail-source-directory
11861 Directory where files (if any) will be stored. The default is
11862 @file{~/Mail/}. At present, the only thing this is used for is to say
11863 where the incoming files will be stored if the previous variable is
11866 @item mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
11867 @vindex mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
11868 Prefix for file name for storing incoming mail. The default is
11869 @file{Incoming}, in which case files will end up with names like
11870 @file{Incoming30630D_} or @file{Incoming298602ZD}. This is really only
11871 relevant if @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil}.
11873 @item mail-source-default-file-modes
11874 @vindex mail-source-default-file-modes
11875 All new mail files will get this file mode. The default is 384.
11880 @node Fetching Mail
11881 @subsubsection Fetching Mail
11883 @vindex mail-sources
11884 @vindex nnmail-spool-file
11885 The way to actually tell Gnus where to get new mail from is to set
11886 @code{mail-sources} to a list of mail source specifiers
11887 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}).
11889 If this variable (and the obsolescent @code{nnmail-spool-file}) is
11890 @code{nil}, the mail backends will never attempt to fetch mail by
11893 If you want to fetch mail both from your local spool as well as a POP
11894 mail server, you'd say something like:
11899 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
11900 :password "secret")))
11903 Or, if you don't want to use any of the keyword defaults:
11907 '((file :path "/var/spool/mail/user-name")
11908 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
11911 :password "secret")))
11915 When you use a mail backend, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
11916 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
11917 mail if you're not using a mail backend---you have to do a lot of magic
11918 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
11919 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
11920 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
11924 @node Mail Backend Variables
11925 @subsection Mail Backend Variables
11927 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
11931 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
11932 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
11933 The mail backends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
11934 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
11936 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
11937 @item nnmail-split-hook
11938 @findex article-decode-encoded-words
11939 @findex RFC 1522 decoding
11940 @findex RFC 2047 decoding
11941 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
11942 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
11943 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
11944 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
11945 in the buffer will show up in any files.
11946 @code{gnus-article-decode-encoded-words} is one likely function to add
11949 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
11950 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
11951 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
11952 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
11953 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
11954 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
11955 starting to handle the new mail) and
11956 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
11957 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
11958 default file modes the new mail files get:
11961 (add-hook 'gnus-pre-get-new-mail-hook
11962 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 511)))
11964 (add-hook 'gnus-post-get-new-mail-hook
11965 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 551)))
11968 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
11969 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
11970 If non-@code{nil}, the mail backends will use long file and directory
11971 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
11972 (assuming use of @code{nnml} backend) or files (assuming use of
11973 @code{nnfolder} backend) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
11974 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
11976 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
11977 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
11978 @findex delete-file
11979 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
11981 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
11982 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
11983 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
11984 the backend (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
11985 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
11990 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
11991 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
11992 @cindex mail splitting
11993 @cindex fancy mail splitting
11995 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
11996 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
11997 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
11998 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
11999 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
12000 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
12002 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
12005 ;; Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of
12006 ;; the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group
12007 ;; from real errors.
12008 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
12010 ;; Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant
12011 ;; groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the
12012 ;; (ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.
12013 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
12014 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
12015 ;; Other mailing lists...
12016 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
12017 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
12018 ;; Both lists below have the same suffix, so prevent
12019 ;; cross-posting to mkpkg.list of messages posted only to
12020 ;; the bugs- list, but allow cross-posting when the
12021 ;; message was really cross-posted.
12022 (any "bugs-mypackage@@somewhere" "mypkg.bugs")
12023 (any "mypackage@@somewhere\" - "bugs-mypackage" "mypkg.list")
12025 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
12026 ;; Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.
12030 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a (possibly)
12031 recursive structure where each split may contain other splits. Here are
12032 the five possible split syntaxes:
12037 @samp{group}: If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group
12038 name. Normal regexp match expansion will be done. See below for
12042 @code{(@var{field} @var{value} @code{[-} @var{restrict}
12043 @code{[@dots{}]}@code{]} @var{split})}: If the split is a list, the
12044 first element of which is a string, then store the message as
12045 specified by @var{split}, if header @var{field} (a regexp) contains
12046 @var{value} (also a regexp). If @var{restrict} (yet another regexp)
12047 matches some string after @var{field} and before the end of the
12048 matched @var{value}, the @var{split} is ignored. If none of the
12049 @var{restrict} clauses match, @var{split} is processed.
12052 @code{(| @var{split}@dots{})}: If the split is a list, and the first
12053 element is @code{|} (vertical bar), then process each @var{split} until
12054 one of them matches. A @var{split} is said to match if it will cause
12055 the mail message to be stored in one or more groups.
12058 @code{(& @var{split}@dots{})}: If the split is a list, and the first
12059 element is @code{&}, then process all @var{split}s in the list.
12062 @code{junk}: If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save
12063 this message. Use with extreme caution.
12066 @code{(: @var{function} @var{arg1} @var{arg2} @dots{})}: If the split is
12067 a list, and the first element is @code{:}, then the second element will
12068 be called as a function with @var{args} given as arguments. The
12069 function should return a @var{split}.
12072 For instance, the following function could be used to split based on the
12073 body of the messages:
12076 (defun split-on-body ()
12078 (set-buffer " *nnmail incoming*")
12079 (goto-char (point-min))
12080 (when (re-search-forward "Some.*string" nil t)
12084 The @samp{" *nnmail incoming*"} is narrowed to the message in question
12085 when the @code{:} function is run.
12088 @code{(! @var{func} @var{split})}: If the split is a list, and the first
12089 element is @code{!}, then SPLIT will be processed, and FUNC will be
12090 called as a function with the result of SPLIT as argument. FUNC should
12094 @code{nil}: If the split is @code{nil}, it is ignored.
12098 In these splits, @var{field} must match a complete field name.
12099 @var{value} must match a complete word according to the fundamental mode
12100 syntax table. You can use @code{.*} in the regexps to match partial
12101 field names or words. In other words, all @var{value}'s are wrapped in
12102 @samp{\<} and @samp{\>} pairs.
12104 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
12105 @var{field} and @var{value} can also be lisp symbols, in that case they
12106 are expanded as specified by the variable
12107 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells, where
12108 the @code{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @code{cdr} contains the associated
12111 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
12112 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
12113 when all this splitting is performed.
12115 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
12116 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
12117 substitutions in the group names), you can say things like:
12120 (any "debian-\\b\\(\\w+\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
12123 In this example, messages sent to @samp{debian-foo@@lists.debian.org}
12124 will be filed in @samp{mail.debian.foo}.
12126 If the string contains the element @samp{\&}, then the previously
12127 matched string will be substituted. Similarly, the elements @samp{\\1}
12128 up to @samp{\\9} will be substituted with the text matched by the
12129 groupings 1 through 9.
12131 @findex nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent
12132 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} is a function which allows you to
12133 split followups into the same groups their parents are in. Sometimes
12134 you can't make splitting rules for all your mail. For example, your
12135 boss might send you personal mail regarding different projects you are
12136 working on, and as you can't tell your boss to put a distinguishing
12137 string into the subject line, you have to resort to manually moving the
12138 messages into the right group. With this function, you only have to do
12139 it once per thread.
12141 To use this feature, you have to set @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to a
12142 non-nil value. And then you can include
12143 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} using the colon feature, like so:
12145 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
12146 '(| (: nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent)
12147 ;; other splits go here
12151 This feature works as follows: when @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} is
12152 non-nil, Gnus records the message id of every message it sees in the
12153 file specified by the variable @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file},
12154 together with the group it is in (the group is omitted for non-mail
12155 messages). When mail splitting is invoked, the function
12156 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} then looks at the References (and
12157 In-Reply-To) header of each message to split and searches the file
12158 specified by @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file} for the message ids.
12159 When it has found a parent, it returns the corresponding group name. It
12160 is recommended that you set @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length} to a
12161 somewhat higher number than the default so that the message ids are
12162 still in the cache. (A value of 5000 appears to create a file some 300
12164 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
12165 When @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus
12166 also records the message ids of moved articles, so that the followup
12167 messages goes into the new group.
12170 @node Group Mail Splitting
12171 @subsection Group Mail Splitting
12172 @cindex mail splitting
12173 @cindex group mail splitting
12175 @findex gnus-group-split
12176 If you subscribe to dozens of mailing lists but you don't want to
12177 maintain mail splitting rules manually, group mail splitting is for you.
12178 You just have to set @var{to-list} and/or @var{to-address} in group
12179 parameters or group customization and set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to
12180 @code{gnus-group-split}. This splitting function will scan all groups
12181 for those parameters and split mail accordingly, i.e., messages posted
12182 from or to the addresses specified in the parameters @var{to-list} or
12183 @var{to-address} of a mail group will be stored in that group.
12185 Sometimes, mailing lists have multiple addresses, and you may want mail
12186 splitting to recognize them all: just set the @var{extra-aliases} group
12187 parameter to the list of additional addresses and it's done. If you'd
12188 rather use a regular expression, set @var{split-regexp}.
12190 All these parameters in a group will be used to create an
12191 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split, in which the @var{field} is @samp{any},
12192 the @var{value} is a single regular expression that matches
12193 @var{to-list}, @var{to-address}, all of @var{extra-aliases} and all
12194 matches of @var{split-regexp}, and the @var{split} is the name of the
12195 group. @var{restrict}s are also supported: just set the
12196 @var{split-exclude} parameter to a list of regular expressions.
12198 If you can't get the right split to be generated using all these
12199 parameters, or you just need something fancier, you can set the
12200 parameter @var{split-spec} to an @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split. In
12201 this case, all other aforementioned parameters will be ignored by
12202 @code{gnus-group-split}. In particular, @var{split-spec} may be set to
12203 @code{nil}, in which case the group will be ignored by
12204 @code{gnus-group-split}.
12206 @vindex gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group
12207 @code{gnus-group-split} will do cross-posting on all groups that match,
12208 by defining a single @code{&} fancy split containing one split for each
12209 group. If a message doesn't match any split, it will be stored in the
12210 group named in @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}, unless
12211 some group has @var{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all}, in which case
12212 that group is used as the catch-all group. Even though this variable is
12213 often used just to name a group, it may also be set to an arbitrarily
12214 complex fancy split (after all, a group name is a fancy split), and this
12215 may be useful to split mail that doesn't go to any mailing list to
12216 personal mail folders. Note that this fancy split is added as the last
12217 element of a @code{|} split list that also contains a @code{&} split
12218 with the rules extracted from group parameters.
12220 It's time for an example. Assume the following group parameters have
12225 ((to-address . "bar@@femail.com")
12226 (split-regexp . ".*@@femail\\.com"))
12228 ((to-list . "foo@@nowhere.gov")
12229 (extra-aliases "foo@@localhost" "foo-redist@@home")
12230 (split-exclude "bugs-foo" "rambling-foo")
12231 (admin-address . "foo-request@@nowhere.gov"))
12233 ((split-spec . catch-all))
12236 Setting @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{gnus-group-split} will
12237 behave as if @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been selected and variable
12238 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been set as follows:
12241 (| (& (any "\\(bar@@femail\\.com\\|.*@@femail\\.com\\)" "mail.bar")
12242 (any "\\(foo@@nowhere\\.gov\\|foo@@localhost\\|foo-redist@@home\\)"
12243 - "bugs-foo" - "rambling-foo" "mail.foo"))
12247 @findex gnus-group-split-fancy
12248 If you'd rather not use group splitting for all your mail groups, you
12249 may use it for only some of them, by using @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
12253 (: gnus-mlsplt-fancy GROUPS NO-CROSSPOST CATCH-ALL)
12256 @var{groups} may be a regular expression or a list of group names whose
12257 parameters will be scanned to generate the output split.
12258 @var{no-crosspost} can be used to disable cross-posting; in this case, a
12259 single @code{|} split will be output. @var{catch-all} is the fallback
12260 fancy split, used like @var{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}.
12261 If @var{catch-all} is @code{nil}, or if @var{split-regexp} matches the
12262 empty string in any selected group, no catch-all split will be issued.
12263 Otherwise, if some group has @var{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all},
12264 this group will override the value of the @var{catch-all} argument.
12266 @findex gnus-group-split-setup
12267 Unfortunately, scanning all groups and their parameters can be quite
12268 slow, especially considering that it has to be done for every message.
12269 But don't despair! The function @code{gnus-group-split-setup} can be
12270 used to enable @code{gnus-group-split} in a much more efficient way. It
12271 sets @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy} and sets
12272 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} to the split produced by
12273 @code{gnus-group-split-fancy}. Thus, the group parameters are only
12274 scanned once, no matter how many messages are split.
12276 @findex gnus-group-split-update
12277 However, if you change group parameters, you'd have to update
12278 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} manually. You can do it by running
12279 @code{gnus-group-split-update}. If you'd rather have it updated
12280 automatically, just tell @code{gnus-group-split-setup} to do it for
12281 you. For example, add to your @file{.gnus}:
12284 (gnus-group-split-setup AUTO-UPDATE CATCH-ALL)
12287 If @var{auto-update} is non-@code{nil}, @code{gnus-group-split-update}
12288 will be added to @code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook}, so you won't ever
12289 have to worry about updating @code{nnmail-split-fancy} again. If you
12290 don't omit @var{catch-all} (it's optional, equivalent to @code{nil}),
12291 @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group} will be set to its
12294 @vindex gnus-group-split-updated-hook
12295 Because you may want to change @code{nnmail-split-fancy} after it is set
12296 by @code{gnus-group-split-update}, this function will run
12297 @code{gnus-group-split-updated-hook} just before finishing.
12299 @node Incorporating Old Mail
12300 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
12302 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
12303 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
12304 backends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
12307 Doing so can be quite easy.
12309 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
12310 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
12311 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
12312 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
12313 your @code{nnml} groups.
12319 Go to the group buffer.
12322 Type `G f' and give the path to the mbox file when prompted to create an
12323 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
12326 Type `SPACE' to enter the newly created group.
12329 Type `M P b' to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
12330 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
12333 Type `B r' to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
12334 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
12337 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
12338 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
12339 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
12340 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
12341 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
12343 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
12344 backend to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
12345 using the new mail backend.
12348 @node Expiring Mail
12349 @subsection Expiring Mail
12350 @cindex article expiry
12352 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
12353 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
12354 different approach to mail reading.
12356 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
12357 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
12358 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
12359 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
12360 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
12361 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
12364 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
12365 articles as @dfn{expirable}. This does not mean that the articles will
12366 disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
12367 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
12368 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
12369 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
12370 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
12371 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
12373 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
12374 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Groups that
12375 match the regular expression @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will
12376 have all articles that you read marked as expirable automatically. All
12377 articles marked as expirable have an @samp{E} in the first
12378 column in the summary buffer.
12380 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
12381 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
12382 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
12383 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
12386 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
12388 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
12389 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
12390 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
12393 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
12394 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
12395 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
12396 articles expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
12397 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
12399 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
12400 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
12403 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
12404 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
12407 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
12408 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
12410 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
12411 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
12412 don't really mix very well.
12414 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
12415 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
12416 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
12417 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
12420 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
12421 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
12422 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
12423 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
12426 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
12428 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
12430 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
12432 ((string= group "mail.junk")
12434 ((string= group "important")
12440 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
12441 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
12443 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
12444 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
12445 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
12448 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
12449 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
12451 @vindex nnmail-expiry-target
12452 The normal action taken when expiring articles is to delete them.
12453 However, in some circumstances it might make more sense to move them to
12454 other groups instead of deleting them. The variable @code{nnmail-expiry-target}
12455 (and the @code{expiry-target} group parameter) controls this. The
12456 variable supplies a default value for all groups, which can be
12457 overridden for specific groups by the group parameter.
12458 default value is @code{delete}, but this can also be a string (which
12459 should be the name of the group the message should be moved to), or a
12460 function (which will be called in a buffer narrowed to the message in
12461 question, and with the name of the group being moved from as its
12462 parameter) which should return a target -- either a group name or
12465 Here's an example for specifying a group name:
12467 (setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
12471 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
12472 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
12473 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
12474 easier for procmail users.
12476 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
12477 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
12478 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
12479 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
12480 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
12481 caution. Even more dangerous is the
12482 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
12483 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
12484 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
12485 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
12486 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
12487 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
12488 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
12491 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
12493 @vindex gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire
12494 If @code{gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire} is non-@code{nil}, user marking
12495 commands will not mark an article as expirable, even if the group has
12496 auto-expire turned on.
12500 @subsection Washing Mail
12501 @cindex mail washing
12502 @cindex list server brain damage
12503 @cindex incoming mail treatment
12505 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
12506 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC 822 doesn't explicitly
12507 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
12508 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
12509 Yes, but RFC 822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
12510 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
12512 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
12513 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
12514 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
12517 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
12518 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
12519 storing the mail to disc. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
12520 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
12523 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
12524 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
12525 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
12526 grand, sweeping gestures. It is called in a buffer that contains all
12527 the new, incoming mail. Functions to be used include:
12530 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
12531 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
12532 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
12533 Emacs running on MS machines.
12537 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
12538 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
12539 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
12540 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
12543 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
12544 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
12545 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
12546 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
12548 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
12549 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
12550 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
12551 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
12552 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
12553 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
12554 also be a list of regexp. @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} may not contain
12557 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
12558 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
12561 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
12562 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
12565 This can also be done non-destructively with
12566 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}, @xref{Article Hiding}.
12568 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
12569 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
12570 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
12572 @item nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
12573 @findex nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
12575 Eudora produces broken @code{References} headers, but OK
12576 @code{In-Reply-To} headers. This function will get rid of the
12577 @code{References} headers.
12581 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
12582 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
12583 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
12587 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
12588 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
12589 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
12596 @subsection Duplicates
12598 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
12599 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
12600 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
12601 @cindex duplicate mails
12602 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
12603 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
12604 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
12605 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s---
12606 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
12607 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
12608 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
12609 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
12610 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
12611 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
12612 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
12613 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
12614 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
12616 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
12617 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
12618 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
12619 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
12621 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
12624 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
12625 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
12629 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
12630 '(| ;; Messages duplicates go to a separate group.
12631 ("gnus-warning" "duplicat\\(e\\|ion\\) of message" "duplicate")
12632 ;; Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.
12633 (any mail "mail.misc")
12640 (setq nnmail-split-methods
12641 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:")
12646 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
12647 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
12648 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
12649 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
12650 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
12653 @node Not Reading Mail
12654 @subsection Not Reading Mail
12656 If you start using any of the mail backends, they have the annoying
12657 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
12658 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
12660 If you set @code{mail-sources} and @code{nnmail-spool-file} to
12661 @code{nil}, none of the backends will ever attempt to read incoming
12662 mail, which should help.
12664 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
12665 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
12666 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
12667 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
12668 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
12669 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
12670 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old @sc{rmail}
12671 file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All backends have
12672 variables called backend-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
12673 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
12674 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
12676 All the mail backends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
12677 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
12681 @node Choosing a Mail Backend
12682 @subsection Choosing a Mail Backend
12684 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
12685 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
12686 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
12688 There are five different mail backends in the standard Gnus, and more
12689 backends are available separately. The mail backend most people use
12690 (because it is the fastest and most flexible) is @code{nnml}
12691 (@pxref{Mail Spool}).
12694 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
12695 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
12696 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
12697 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like backend.
12698 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
12699 * Comparing Mail Backends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
12703 @node Unix Mail Box
12704 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
12706 @cindex unix mail box
12708 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
12709 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
12710 The @dfn{nnmbox} backend will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
12711 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
12712 which group it belongs in.
12714 Virtual server settings:
12717 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
12718 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
12719 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory. Default is
12722 @item nnmbox-active-file
12723 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
12724 The name of the active file for the mail box. Default is
12725 @file{~/.mbox-active}.
12727 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
12728 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
12729 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
12730 into groups. Default is @code{t}.
12735 @subsubsection Rmail Babyl
12739 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
12740 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
12741 The @dfn{nnbabyl} backend will use a babyl mail box (aka. @dfn{rmail
12742 mbox}) to store mail. @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each
12743 mail article to say which group it belongs in.
12745 Virtual server settings:
12748 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
12749 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
12750 The name of the rmail mbox file. The default is @file{~/RMAIL}
12752 @item nnbabyl-active-file
12753 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
12754 The name of the active file for the rmail box. The default is
12755 @file{~/.rmail-active}
12757 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
12758 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
12759 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail. Default is
12765 @subsubsection Mail Spool
12767 @cindex mail @sc{nov} spool
12769 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
12770 format. It should be used with some caution.
12772 @vindex nnml-directory
12773 If you use this backend, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
12774 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
12775 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
12776 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
12778 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
12781 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
12782 in your account, you should not use this backend. As each mail gets its
12783 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
12784 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
12785 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
12786 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
12787 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
12788 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
12790 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest backend when it comes to article
12791 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
12792 @sc{nov} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it the fastest
12793 backend when it comes to reading mail.
12795 Virtual server settings:
12798 @item nnml-directory
12799 @vindex nnml-directory
12800 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory.
12801 The default is the value of `message-directory' (whose default value is
12804 @item nnml-active-file
12805 @vindex nnml-active-file
12806 The active file for the @code{nnml} server. The default is
12807 @file{~/Mail/active"}.
12809 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
12810 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
12811 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
12812 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups"}.
12814 @item nnml-get-new-mail
12815 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
12816 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail. The default is
12819 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
12820 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
12821 If non-@code{nil}, this backend will ignore any @sc{nov} files. The
12822 default is @code{nil}
12824 @item nnml-nov-file-name
12825 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
12826 The name of the @sc{nov} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
12828 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
12829 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
12830 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
12834 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
12835 If your @code{nnml} groups and @sc{nov} files get totally out of whack,
12836 you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
12837 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
12838 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
12839 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
12840 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
12845 @subsubsection MH Spool
12847 @cindex mh-e mail spool
12849 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
12850 @sc{nov} databases and it doesn't keep an active file. This makes
12851 @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower backend than @code{nnml}, but it also
12852 makes it easier to write procmail scripts for.
12854 Virtual server settings:
12857 @item nnmh-directory
12858 @vindex nnmh-directory
12859 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory. The
12860 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
12863 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
12864 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
12865 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail. The default is
12869 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
12870 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
12871 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks they
12872 are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
12873 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
12874 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not have
12875 to set this variable to @code{t}. The default is @code{nil}.
12880 @subsubsection Mail Folders
12882 @cindex mbox folders
12883 @cindex mail folders
12885 @code{nnfolder} is a backend for storing each mail group in a separate
12886 file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format. @code{nnfolder}
12887 will add extra headers to keep track of article numbers and arrival
12890 Virtual server settings:
12893 @item nnfolder-directory
12894 @vindex nnfolder-directory
12895 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this directory.
12896 The default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
12899 @item nnfolder-active-file
12900 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
12901 The name of the active file. The default is @file{~/Mail/active}.
12903 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
12904 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
12905 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
12906 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups"}
12908 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
12909 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
12910 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail. The default
12913 @item nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
12914 @vindex nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
12915 @cindex backup files
12916 Hook run before saving the folders. Note that Emacs does the normal
12917 backup renaming of files even with the @code{nnfolder} buffers. If you
12918 wish to switch this off, you could say something like the following in
12919 your @file{.emacs} file:
12922 (defun turn-off-backup ()
12923 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
12925 (add-hook 'nnfolder-save-buffer-hook 'turn-off-backup)
12928 @item nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
12929 @vindex nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
12930 Hook run in a buffer narrowed to the message that is to be deleted.
12931 This function can be used to copy the message to somewhere else, or to
12932 extract some information from it before removing it.
12934 @item nnfolder-nov-is-evil
12935 @vindex nnfolder-nov-is-evil
12936 If non-@code{nil}, this backend will ignore any @sc{nov} files. The
12937 default is @code{nil}.
12942 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
12943 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
12944 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
12945 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
12946 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
12947 @code{nnfolder-directory}. This only works if you use long file names,
12950 @node Comparing Mail Backends
12951 @subsubsection Comparing Mail Backends
12953 First, just for terminology, the @dfn{backend} is the common word for a
12954 low-level access method---a transport, if you will, by which something
12955 is acquired. The sense is that one's mail has to come from somewhere,
12956 and so selection of a suitable backend is required in order to get that
12957 mail within spitting distance of Gnus.
12959 The same concept exists for Usenet itself: Though access to articles is
12960 typically done by @sc{nntp} these days, once upon a midnight dreary, everyone
12961 in the world got at Usenet by running a reader on the machine where the
12962 articles lay (the machine which today we call an @sc{nntp} server), and
12963 access was by the reader stepping into the articles' directory spool
12964 area directly. One can still select between either the @code{nntp} or
12965 @code{nnspool} backends, to select between these methods, if one happens
12966 actually to live on the server (or can see its spool directly, anyway,
12969 The goal in selecting a mail backend is to pick one which
12970 simultaneously represents a suitable way of dealing with the original
12971 format plus leaving mail in a form that is convenient to use in the
12972 future. Here are some high and low points on each:
12977 UNIX systems have historically had a single, very common, and well-
12978 defined format. All messages arrive in a single @dfn{spool file}, and
12979 they are delineated by a line whose regular expression matches
12980 @samp{^From_}. (My notational use of @samp{_} is to indicate a space,
12981 to make it clear in this instance that this is not the RFC-specified
12982 @samp{From:} header.) Because Emacs and therefore Gnus emanate
12983 historically from the Unix environment, it is simplest if one does not
12984 mess a great deal with the original mailbox format, so if one chooses
12985 this backend, Gnus' primary activity in getting mail from the real spool
12986 area to Gnus' preferred directory is simply to copy it, with no
12987 (appreciable) format change in the process. It is the ``dumbest'' way
12988 to move mail into availability in the Gnus environment. This makes it
12989 fast to move into place, but slow to parse, when Gnus has to look at
12994 Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and DEC-20, running operating
12995 systems called TOPS and related things, and the usual (only?) mail
12996 reading environment was a thing called Babyl. I don't know what format
12997 was used for mail landing on the system, but Babyl had its own internal
12998 format to which mail was converted, primarily involving creating a
12999 spool-file-like entity with a scheme for inserting Babyl-specific
13000 headers and status bits above the top of each message in the file.
13001 RMAIL was Emacs' first mail reader, it was written by Richard Stallman,
13002 and Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl environment, so he wrote RMAIL
13003 to understand the mail files folks already had in existence. Gnus (and
13004 VM, for that matter) continue to support this format because it's
13005 perceived as having some good qualities in those mailer-specific
13006 headers/status bits stuff. RMAIL itself still exists as well, of
13007 course, and is still maintained by Stallman.
13009 Both of the above forms leave your mail in a single file on your
13010 filesystem, and they must parse that entire file each time you take a
13015 @code{nnml} is the backend which smells the most as though you were
13016 actually operating with an @code{nnspool}-accessed Usenet system. (In
13017 fact, I believe @code{nnml} actually derived from @code{nnspool} code,
13018 lo these years ago.) One's mail is taken from the original spool file,
13019 and is then cut up into individual message files, 1:1. It maintains a
13020 Usenet-style active file (analogous to what one finds in an INN- or
13021 CNews-based news system in (for instance) @file{/var/lib/news/active},
13022 or what is returned via the @samp{NNTP LIST} verb) and also creates
13023 @dfn{overview} files for efficient group entry, as has been defined for
13024 @sc{nntp} servers for some years now. It is slower in mail-splitting,
13025 due to the creation of lots of files, updates to the @code{nnml} active
13026 file, and additions to overview files on a per-message basis, but it is
13027 extremely fast on access because of what amounts to the indexing support
13028 provided by the active file and overviews.
13030 @code{nnml} costs @dfn{inodes} in a big way; that is, it soaks up the
13031 resource which defines available places in the filesystem to put new
13032 files. Sysadmins take a dim view of heavy inode occupation within
13033 tight, shared filesystems. But if you live on a personal machine where
13034 the filesystem is your own and space is not at a premium, @code{nnml}
13037 It is also problematic using this backend if you are living in a
13038 FAT16-based Windows world, since much space will be wasted on all these
13043 The Rand MH mail-reading system has been around UNIX systems for a very
13044 long time; it operates by splitting one's spool file of messages into
13045 individual files, but with little or no indexing support -- @code{nnmh}
13046 is considered to be semantically equivalent to ``@code{nnml} without
13047 active file or overviews''. This is arguably the worst choice, because
13048 one gets the slowness of individual file creation married to the
13049 slowness of access parsing when learning what's new in one's groups.
13053 Basically the effect of @code{nnfolder} is @code{nnmbox} (the first
13054 method described above) on a per-group basis. That is, @code{nnmbox}
13055 itself puts *all* one's mail in one file; @code{nnfolder} provides a
13056 little bit of optimization to this so that each of one's mail groups has
13057 a Unix mail box file. It's faster than @code{nnmbox} because each group
13058 can be parsed separately, and still provides the simple Unix mail box
13059 format requiring minimal effort in moving the mail around. In addition,
13060 it maintains an ``active'' file making it much faster for Gnus to figure
13061 out how many messages there are in each separate group.
13063 If you have groups that are expected to have a massive amount of
13064 messages, @code{nnfolder} is not the best choice, but if you receive
13065 only a moderate amount of mail, @code{nnfolder} is probably the most
13066 friendly mail backend all over.
13071 @node Browsing the Web
13072 @section Browsing the Web
13074 @cindex browsing the web
13078 Web-based discussion forums are getting more and more popular. On many
13079 subjects, the web-based forums have become the most important forums,
13080 eclipsing the importance of mailing lists and news groups. The reason
13081 is easy to understand---they are friendly to new users; you just point
13082 and click, and there's the discussion. With mailing lists, you have to
13083 go through a cumbersome subscription procedure, and most people don't
13084 even know what a news group is.
13086 The problem with this scenario is that web browsers are not very good at
13087 being newsreaders. They do not keep track of what articles you've read;
13088 they do not allow you to score on subjects you're interested in; they do
13089 not allow off-line browsing; they require you to click around and drive
13090 you mad in the end.
13092 So---if web browsers suck at reading discussion forums, why not use Gnus
13095 Gnus has been getting a bit of a collection of backends for providing
13096 interfaces to these sources.
13099 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
13100 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
13101 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
13102 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
13103 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
13104 * Customizing w3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.
13107 All the web sources require Emacs/w3 and the url library to work.
13109 The main caveat with all these web sources is that they probably won't
13110 work for a very long time. Gleaning information from the @sc{html} data
13111 is guesswork at best, and when the layout is altered, the Gnus backend
13112 will fail. If you have reasonably new versions of these backends,
13113 though, you should be ok.
13115 One thing all these Web methods have in common is that the Web sources
13116 are often down, unavailable or just plain too slow to be fun. In those
13117 cases, it makes a lot of sense to let the Gnus Agent (@pxref{Gnus
13118 Unplugged}) handle downloading articles, and then you can read them at
13119 leisure from your local disk. No more World Wide Wait for you.
13123 @subsection Web Searches
13127 @cindex InReference
13128 @cindex Usenet searches
13129 @cindex searching the Usenet
13131 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
13132 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
13133 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
13134 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
13135 searches without having to use a browser.
13137 The @code{nnweb} backend allows an easy interface to the mighty search
13138 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
13139 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
13140 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
13141 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
13143 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
13144 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
13145 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
13146 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
13147 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
13148 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
13149 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
13150 engines (DejaNews, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
13151 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
13152 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
13155 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
13156 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
13157 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'être} is to
13158 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
13159 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
13160 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
13162 You must have the @code{url} and @code{w3} package installed to be able
13163 to use @code{nnweb}.
13165 Virtual server variables:
13170 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
13171 are @code{dejanews}, @code{dejanewsold}, @code{altavista} and
13175 @vindex nnweb-search
13176 The search string to feed to the search engine.
13178 @item nnweb-max-hits
13179 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
13180 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
13183 @item nnweb-type-definition
13184 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
13185 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
13186 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
13191 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
13195 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
13198 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
13201 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
13205 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
13212 @subsection Slashdot
13216 Slashdot (@uref{http://slashdot.org/}) is a popular news site, with
13217 lively discussion following the news articles. @code{nnslashdot} will
13218 let you read this forum in a convenient manner.
13220 The easiest way to read this source is to put something like the
13221 following in your @file{.gnus.el} file:
13224 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
13225 '((nnslashdot "")))
13228 This will make Gnus query the @code{nnslashdot} backend for new comments
13229 and groups. The @kbd{F} command will subscribe each new news article as
13230 a new Gnus group, and you can read the comments by entering these
13231 groups. (Note that the default subscription method is to subscribe new
13232 groups as zombies. Other methods are available (@pxref{Subscription
13235 If you want to remove an old @code{nnslashdot} group, the @kbd{G DEL}
13236 command is the most handy tool (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
13238 When following up to @code{nnslashdot} comments (or posting new
13239 comments), some light @sc{html}izations will be performed. In
13240 particular, text quoted with @samp{> } will be quoted with
13241 @code{blockquote} instead, and signatures will have @code{br} added to
13242 the end of each line. Other than that, you can just write @sc{html}
13243 directly into the message buffer. Note that Slashdot filters out some
13246 The following variables can be altered to change its behavior:
13249 @item nnslashdot-threaded
13250 Whether @code{nnslashdot} should display threaded groups or not. The
13251 default is @code{t}. To be able to display threads, @code{nnslashdot}
13252 has to retrieve absolutely all comments in a group upon entry. If a
13253 threaded display is not required, @code{nnslashdot} will only retrieve
13254 the comments that are actually wanted by the user. Threading is nicer,
13255 but much, much slower than untreaded.
13257 @item nnslashdot-login-name
13258 @vindex nnslashdot-login-name
13259 The login name to use when posting.
13261 @item nnslashdot-password
13262 @vindex nnslashdot-password
13263 The password to use when posting.
13265 @item nnslashdot-directory
13266 @vindex nnslashdot-directory
13267 Where @code{nnslashdot} will store its files. The default is
13268 @samp{~/News/slashdot/}.
13270 @item nnslashdot-active-url
13271 @vindex nnslashdot-active-url
13272 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch the information on
13273 news articles and comments. The default is
13274 @samp{http://slashdot.org/search.pl?section=&min=%d}.
13276 @item nnslashdot-comments-url
13277 @vindex nnslashdot-comments-url
13278 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch comments. The
13280 @samp{http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=%s&threshold=%d&commentsort=%d&mode=flat&startat=%d}.
13282 @item nnslashdot-article-url
13283 @vindex nnslashdot-article-url
13284 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch the news article. The
13286 @samp{http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=%s&mode=nocomment}.
13288 @item nnslashdot-threshold
13289 @vindex nnslashdot-threshold
13290 The score threshold. The default is -1.
13292 @item nnslashdot-group-number
13293 @vindex nnslashdot-group-number
13294 The number of old groups, in addition to the ten latest, to keep
13295 updated. The default is 0.
13302 @subsection Ultimate
13304 @cindex Ultimate Bulletin Board
13306 The Ultimate Bulletin Board (@uref{http://www.ultimatebb.com/}) is
13307 probably the most popular Web bulletin board system used. It has a
13308 quite regular and nice interface, and it's possible to get the
13309 information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
13311 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnultimate} is to say
13312 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnultimate RET
13313 http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubbcgi/ RET}. (Substitute the @sc{url}
13314 (not including @samp{Ultimate.cgi} or the like at the end) for a forum
13315 you're interested in; there's quite a list of them on the Ultimate web
13316 site.) Then subscribe to the groups you're interested in from the
13317 server buffer, and read them from the group buffer.
13319 The following @code{nnultimate} variables can be altered:
13322 @item nnultimate-directory
13323 @vindex nnultimate-directory
13324 The directory where @code{nnultimate} stores its files. The default is
13325 @samp{~/News/ultimate/}.
13330 @subsection Web Archive
13332 @cindex Web Archive
13334 Some mailing lists only have archives on Web servers, such as
13335 @uref{http://www.egroups.com/} and
13336 @uref{http://www.mail-archive.com/}. It has a quite regular and nice
13337 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
13340 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnwarchive} is to say
13341 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{M-x
13342 gnus-group-make-warchive-group RET an_egroup RET egroups RET
13343 www.egroups.com RET your@@email.address RET}. (Substitute the
13344 @sc{an_egroup} with the mailing list you subscribed, the
13345 @sc{your@@email.address} with your email address.), or to browse the
13346 backend by @kbd{B nnwarchive RET mail-archive RET}.
13348 The following @code{nnwarchive} variables can be altered:
13351 @item nnwarchive-directory
13352 @vindex nnwarchive-directory
13353 The directory where @code{nnwarchive} stores its files. The default is
13354 @samp{~/News/warchive/}.
13356 @item nnwarchive-login
13357 @vindex nnwarchive-login
13358 The account name on the web server.
13360 @item nnwarchive-passwd
13361 @vindex nnwarchive-passwd
13362 The password for your account on the web server.
13370 Some sites have RDF site summary (RSS)
13371 @uref{http://purl.org/rss/1.0/spec}. It has a quite regular and nice
13372 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
13375 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnrss} is to say something
13376 like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnrss RET RET}, then
13379 The following @code{nnrss} variables can be altered:
13382 @item nnrss-directory
13383 @vindex nnrss-directory
13384 The directory where @code{nnrss} stores its files. The default is
13385 @samp{~/News/rss/}.
13389 The following code may be helpful, if you want to show the description in
13390 the summary buffer.
13393 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-description-field)
13394 (setq gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-15,15f%]%) %s%uX\n")
13396 (defun gnus-user-format-function-X (header)
13398 (assq nnrss-description-field (mail-header-extra header))))
13399 (if descr (concat "\n\t" (cdr descr)) "")))
13402 @node Customizing w3
13403 @subsection Customizing w3
13409 Gnus uses the url library to fetch web pages and Emacs/w3 to display web
13410 pages. Emacs/w3 is documented in its own manual, but there are some
13411 things that may be more relevant for Gnus users.
13413 For instance, a common question is how to make Emacs/w3 follow links
13414 using the @code{browse-url} functions (which will call some external web
13415 browser like Netscape). Here's one way:
13418 (eval-after-load "w3"
13420 (fset 'w3-fetch-orig (symbol-function 'w3-fetch))
13421 (defun w3-fetch (&optional url target)
13422 (interactive (list (w3-read-url-with-default)))
13423 (if (eq major-mode 'gnus-article-mode)
13425 (w3-fetch-orig url target)))))
13428 Put that in your @file{.emacs} file, and hitting links in w3-rendered
13429 @sc{html} in the Gnus article buffers will use @code{browse-url} to
13433 @node Other Sources
13434 @section Other Sources
13436 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
13437 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
13441 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
13442 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
13443 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
13444 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
13445 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
13446 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @sc{imap} client.
13450 @node Directory Groups
13451 @subsection Directory Groups
13453 @cindex directory groups
13455 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
13456 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
13459 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
13460 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
13461 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
13462 backend to read directories. Big deal.
13464 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
13465 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
13466 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
13467 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
13468 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
13470 @code{nndir} will use @sc{nov} files if they are present.
13472 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' backend---you can't delete or expire
13473 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
13474 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
13475 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
13478 @node Anything Groups
13479 @subsection Anything Groups
13482 From the @code{nndir} backend (which reads a single spool-like
13483 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
13484 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
13487 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
13488 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
13489 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
13490 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're forgetting.
13491 @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it snoops each
13492 file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e., the first
13493 few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head. If this is
13494 just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g. a C source file),
13495 @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It will use
13496 file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
13499 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
13500 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
13501 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
13502 in the article buffer, just as usual.
13504 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
13505 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
13506 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
13507 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
13509 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
13510 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
13511 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
13512 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
13513 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
13514 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
13515 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
13516 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
13521 @item nneething-map-file-directory
13522 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
13523 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
13524 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
13526 @item nneething-exclude-files
13527 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
13528 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
13529 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
13531 @item nneething-include-files
13532 @vindex nneething-include-files
13533 Regexp saying what files to include in the group. If this variable is
13534 non-@code{nil}, only files matching this regexp will be included.
13536 @item nneething-map-file
13537 @vindex nneething-map-file
13538 Name of the map files.
13542 @node Document Groups
13543 @subsection Document Groups
13545 @cindex documentation group
13548 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
13549 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
13556 The babyl (rmail) mail box.
13561 The standard Unix mbox file.
13563 @cindex MMDF mail box
13565 The MMDF mail box format.
13568 Several news articles appended into a file.
13571 @cindex rnews batch files
13572 The rnews batch transport format.
13573 @cindex forwarded messages
13576 Forwarded articles.
13579 Netscape mail boxes.
13582 MIME multipart messages.
13584 @item standard-digest
13585 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
13588 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
13591 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
13592 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
13593 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
13596 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
13597 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
13598 group. And that's it.
13600 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
13601 new & spiffy Gnus mail backend, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
13602 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
13603 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
13604 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
13605 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
13606 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
13607 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
13608 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
13609 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
13611 Virtual server variables:
13614 @item nndoc-article-type
13615 @vindex nndoc-article-type
13616 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
13617 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
13618 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts}, @code{standard-digest},
13619 @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs}, @code{nsmail} or @code{guess}.
13621 @item nndoc-post-type
13622 @vindex nndoc-post-type
13623 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
13624 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
13629 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
13633 @node Document Server Internals
13634 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
13636 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
13637 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
13638 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
13639 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
13641 First, here's an example document type definition:
13645 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
13646 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
13649 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
13650 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
13651 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
13652 types can be defined with very few settings:
13655 @item first-article
13656 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
13657 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
13660 @item article-begin
13661 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
13662 says what the beginning of each article looks like.
13664 @item head-begin-function
13665 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
13668 @item nndoc-head-begin
13669 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
13672 @item nndoc-head-end
13673 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
13674 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
13676 @item body-begin-function
13677 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
13681 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
13684 @item body-end-function
13685 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
13689 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article.
13692 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
13693 regexp will be totally ignored.
13697 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
13698 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
13699 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
13700 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
13701 something that's palatable for Gnus:
13704 @item prepare-body-function
13705 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
13706 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
13707 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
13709 @item article-transform-function
13710 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
13711 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
13712 body of the article.
13714 @item generate-head-function
13715 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
13716 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
13717 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
13718 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
13722 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
13727 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
13728 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
13729 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
13730 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
13731 (head-end . "^ ?$")
13732 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
13733 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
13734 (subtype digest guess))
13737 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
13738 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
13739 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
13740 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
13741 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
13743 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
13744 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first is
13745 the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says where in
13746 the document type definition alist to put this definition. The alist is
13747 traversed sequentially, and @code{nndoc-TYPE-type-p} is called for a given type @code{TYPE}. So @code{nndoc-mmdf-type-p} is called to see whether a document
13748 is of @code{mmdf} type, and so on. These type predicates should return
13749 @code{nil} if the document is not of the correct type; @code{t} if it is
13750 of the correct type; and a number if the document might be of the
13751 correct type. A high number means high probability; a low number means
13752 low probability with @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
13760 In the PC world people often talk about ``offline'' newsreaders. These
13761 are thingies that are combined reader/news transport monstrosities.
13762 With built-in modem programs. Yecchh!
13764 Of course, us Unix Weenie types of human beans use things like
13765 @code{uucp} and, like, @code{nntpd} and set up proper news and mail
13766 transport things like Ghod intended. And then we just use normal
13769 However, it can sometimes be convenient to do something that's a bit
13770 easier on the brain if you have a very slow modem, and you're not really
13771 that interested in doing things properly.
13773 A file format called @sc{soup} has been developed for transporting news
13774 and mail from servers to home machines and back again. It can be a bit
13777 First some terminology:
13782 This is the machine that is connected to the outside world and where you
13783 get news and/or mail from.
13786 This is the machine that you want to do the actual reading and responding
13787 on. It is typically not connected to the rest of the world in any way.
13790 Something that contains messages and/or commands. There are two kinds
13794 @item message packets
13795 These are packets made at the server, and typically contain lots of
13796 messages for you to read. These are called @file{SoupoutX.tgz} by
13797 default, where @var{x} is a number.
13799 @item response packets
13800 These are packets made at the home machine, and typically contains
13801 replies that you've written. These are called @file{SoupinX.tgz} by
13802 default, where @var{x} is a number.
13812 You log in on the server and create a @sc{soup} packet. You can either
13813 use a dedicated @sc{soup} thingie (like the @code{awk} program), or you
13814 can use Gnus to create the packet with its @sc{soup} commands (@kbd{O
13815 s} and/or @kbd{G s b}; and then @kbd{G s p}) (@pxref{SOUP Commands}).
13818 You transfer the packet home. Rail, boat, car or modem will do fine.
13821 You put the packet in your home directory.
13824 You fire up Gnus on your home machine using the @code{nnsoup} backend as
13825 the native or secondary server.
13828 You read articles and mail and answer and followup to the things you
13829 want (@pxref{SOUP Replies}).
13832 You do the @kbd{G s r} command to pack these replies into a @sc{soup}
13836 You transfer this packet to the server.
13839 You use Gnus to mail this packet out with the @kbd{G s s} command.
13842 You then repeat until you die.
13846 So you basically have a bipartite system---you use @code{nnsoup} for
13847 reading and Gnus for packing/sending these @sc{soup} packets.
13850 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
13851 * SOUP Groups:: A backend for reading @sc{soup} packets.
13852 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
13856 @node SOUP Commands
13857 @subsubsection SOUP Commands
13859 These are commands for creating and manipulating @sc{soup} packets.
13863 @kindex G s b (Group)
13864 @findex gnus-group-brew-soup
13865 Pack all unread articles in the current group
13866 (@code{gnus-group-brew-soup}). This command understands the
13867 process/prefix convention.
13870 @kindex G s w (Group)
13871 @findex gnus-soup-save-areas
13872 Save all @sc{soup} data files (@code{gnus-soup-save-areas}).
13875 @kindex G s s (Group)
13876 @findex gnus-soup-send-replies
13877 Send all replies from the replies packet
13878 (@code{gnus-soup-send-replies}).
13881 @kindex G s p (Group)
13882 @findex gnus-soup-pack-packet
13883 Pack all files into a @sc{soup} packet (@code{gnus-soup-pack-packet}).
13886 @kindex G s r (Group)
13887 @findex nnsoup-pack-replies
13888 Pack all replies into a replies packet (@code{nnsoup-pack-replies}).
13891 @kindex O s (Summary)
13892 @findex gnus-soup-add-article
13893 This summary-mode command adds the current article to a @sc{soup} packet
13894 (@code{gnus-soup-add-article}). It understands the process/prefix
13895 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
13900 There are a few variables to customize where Gnus will put all these
13905 @item gnus-soup-directory
13906 @vindex gnus-soup-directory
13907 Directory where Gnus will save intermediate files while composing
13908 @sc{soup} packets. The default is @file{~/SoupBrew/}.
13910 @item gnus-soup-replies-directory
13911 @vindex gnus-soup-replies-directory
13912 This is what Gnus will use as a temporary directory while sending our
13913 reply packets. @file{~/SoupBrew/SoupReplies/} is the default.
13915 @item gnus-soup-prefix-file
13916 @vindex gnus-soup-prefix-file
13917 Name of the file where Gnus stores the last used prefix. The default is
13918 @samp{gnus-prefix}.
13920 @item gnus-soup-packer
13921 @vindex gnus-soup-packer
13922 A format string command for packing a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
13923 @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupout%d.tgz}.
13925 @item gnus-soup-unpacker
13926 @vindex gnus-soup-unpacker
13927 Format string command for unpacking a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
13928 @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
13930 @item gnus-soup-packet-directory
13931 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-directory
13932 Where Gnus will look for reply packets. The default is @file{~/}.
13934 @item gnus-soup-packet-regexp
13935 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-regexp
13936 Regular expression matching @sc{soup} reply packets in
13937 @code{gnus-soup-packet-directory}.
13943 @subsubsection @sc{soup} Groups
13946 @code{nnsoup} is the backend for reading @sc{soup} packets. It will
13947 read incoming packets, unpack them, and put them in a directory where
13948 you can read them at leisure.
13950 These are the variables you can use to customize its behavior:
13954 @item nnsoup-tmp-directory
13955 @vindex nnsoup-tmp-directory
13956 When @code{nnsoup} unpacks a @sc{soup} packet, it does it in this
13957 directory. (@file{/tmp/} by default.)
13959 @item nnsoup-directory
13960 @vindex nnsoup-directory
13961 @code{nnsoup} then moves each message and index file to this directory.
13962 The default is @file{~/SOUP/}.
13964 @item nnsoup-replies-directory
13965 @vindex nnsoup-replies-directory
13966 All replies will be stored in this directory before being packed into a
13967 reply packet. The default is @file{~/SOUP/replies/"}.
13969 @item nnsoup-replies-format-type
13970 @vindex nnsoup-replies-format-type
13971 The @sc{soup} format of the replies packets. The default is @samp{?n}
13972 (rnews), and I don't think you should touch that variable. I probably
13973 shouldn't even have documented it. Drats! Too late!
13975 @item nnsoup-replies-index-type
13976 @vindex nnsoup-replies-index-type
13977 The index type of the replies packet. The default is @samp{?n}, which
13978 means ``none''. Don't fiddle with this one either!
13980 @item nnsoup-active-file
13981 @vindex nnsoup-active-file
13982 Where @code{nnsoup} stores lots of information. This is not an ``active
13983 file'' in the @code{nntp} sense; it's an Emacs Lisp file. If you lose
13984 this file or mess it up in any way, you're dead. The default is
13985 @file{~/SOUP/active}.
13987 @item nnsoup-packer
13988 @vindex nnsoup-packer
13989 Format string command for packing a reply @sc{soup} packet. The default
13990 is @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupin%d.tgz}.
13992 @item nnsoup-unpacker
13993 @vindex nnsoup-unpacker
13994 Format string command for unpacking incoming @sc{soup} packets. The
13995 default is @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
13997 @item nnsoup-packet-directory
13998 @vindex nnsoup-packet-directory
13999 Where @code{nnsoup} will look for incoming packets. The default is
14002 @item nnsoup-packet-regexp
14003 @vindex nnsoup-packet-regexp
14004 Regular expression matching incoming @sc{soup} packets. The default is
14007 @item nnsoup-always-save
14008 @vindex nnsoup-always-save
14009 If non-@code{nil}, save the replies buffer after each posted message.
14015 @subsubsection SOUP Replies
14017 Just using @code{nnsoup} won't mean that your postings and mailings end
14018 up in @sc{soup} reply packets automagically. You have to work a bit
14019 more for that to happen.
14021 @findex nnsoup-set-variables
14022 The @code{nnsoup-set-variables} command will set the appropriate
14023 variables to ensure that all your followups and replies end up in the
14026 In specific, this is what it does:
14029 (setq message-send-news-function 'nnsoup-request-post)
14030 (setq message-send-mail-function 'nnsoup-request-mail)
14033 And that's it, really. If you only want news to go into the @sc{soup}
14034 system you just use the first line. If you only want mail to be
14035 @sc{soup}ed you use the second.
14038 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
14039 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
14040 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
14043 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
14044 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
14045 The @code{nngateway} backend provides the interface.
14047 Note that you can't read anything from this backend---it can only be
14053 @item nngateway-address
14054 @vindex nngateway-address
14055 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
14057 @item nngateway-header-transformation
14058 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
14059 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
14060 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
14061 transformation should be called, and defaults to
14062 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
14063 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
14066 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
14067 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
14068 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
14071 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
14074 will get this @code{From} header inserted:
14077 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
14080 The following pre-defined functions exist:
14082 @findex nngateway-simple-header-transformation
14085 @item nngateway-simple-header-transformation
14086 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
14087 @var{newsgroup}@@@code{nngateway-address}.
14089 @findex nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
14091 @item nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
14092 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
14093 @code{nngateway-address}.
14098 (setq gnus-post-method
14100 "mail2news@@replay.com"
14101 (nngateway-header-transformation
14102 nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation)))
14110 So, to use this, simply say something like:
14113 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
14119 @subsection @sc{imap}
14123 @sc{imap} is a network protocol for reading mail (or news, or ...),
14124 think of it as a modernized @sc{nntp}. Connecting to a @sc{imap}
14125 server is much similar to connecting to a news server, you just
14126 specify the network address of the server.
14128 @sc{imap} has two properties. First, @sc{imap} can do everything that
14129 POP can, it can hence be viewed as POP++. Secondly, @sc{imap} is a
14130 mail storage protocol, similar to @sc{nntp} being a news storage
14131 protocol. (@sc{imap} offers more features than @sc{nntp} because news
14132 is more or less read-only whereas mail is read-write.)
14134 If you want to use @sc{imap} as POP++, use an imap entry in
14135 mail-sources. With this, Gnus will fetch mails from the @sc{imap}
14136 server and store them on the local disk. This is not the usage
14137 described in this section. @xref{Mail Sources}.
14139 If you want to use @sc{imap} as a mail storage protocol, use an nnimap
14140 entry in gnus-secondary-select-methods. With this, Gnus will
14141 manipulate mails stored on the @sc{imap} server. This is the kind of
14142 usage explained in this section.
14144 A server configuration in @code{~/.gnus} with a few @sc{imap} servers
14145 might look something like this:
14148 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
14149 '((nnimap "simpleserver") ; no special configuration
14150 ; perhaps a ssh port forwarded server:
14152 (nnimap-address "localhost")
14153 (nnimap-server-port 1430))
14154 ; a UW server running on localhost
14156 (nnimap-server-port 143)
14157 (nnimap-address "localhost")
14158 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "mail/*")))
14159 ; anonymous public cyrus server:
14160 (nnimap "cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu"
14161 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous)
14162 (nnimap-list-pattern "archive.*")
14163 (nnimap-stream network))
14164 ; a ssl server on a non-standard port:
14166 (nnimap-address "vic20.somewhere.com")
14167 (nnimap-server-port 9930)
14168 (nnimap-stream ssl))))
14171 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nnimap}
14176 @item nnimap-address
14177 @vindex nnimap-address
14179 The address of the remote @sc{imap} server. Defaults to the virtual
14180 server name if not specified.
14182 @item nnimap-server-port
14183 @vindex nnimap-server-port
14184 Port on server to contact. Defaults to port 143, or 993 for SSL.
14186 Note that this should be a integer, example server specification:
14189 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14190 (nnimap-server-port 4711))
14193 @item nnimap-list-pattern
14194 @vindex nnimap-list-pattern
14195 String or list of strings of mailboxes to limit available groups to.
14196 This is used when the server has very many mailboxes and you're only
14197 interested in a few -- some servers export your home directory via
14198 @sc{imap}, you'll probably want to limit the mailboxes to those in
14199 @file{~/Mail/*} then.
14201 The string can also be a cons of REFERENCE and the string as above, what
14202 REFERENCE is used for is server specific, but on the University of
14203 Washington server it's a directory that will be concatenated with the
14206 Example server specification:
14209 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14210 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "Mail/*" "alt.sex.*"
14211 ("~friend/Mail/" . "list/*"))))
14214 @item nnimap-stream
14215 @vindex nnimap-stream
14216 The type of stream used to connect to your server. By default, nnimap
14217 will detect and automatically use all of the below, with the exception
14218 of SSL. (SSL is being replaced by STARTTLS, which can be automatically
14219 detected, but it's not widely deployed yet).
14221 Example server specification:
14224 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14225 (nnimap-stream ssl))
14228 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-stream} is a symbol!
14232 @dfn{gssapi:} Connect with GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5). Requires the
14233 @samp{imtest} program.
14235 @dfn{kerberos4:} Connect with kerberos 4. Requires the @samp{imtest} program.
14237 @dfn{starttls:} Connect via the STARTTLS extension (similar to
14238 SSL). Requires the external library @samp{starttls.el} and program
14241 @dfn{ssl:} Connect through SSL. Requires OpenSSL (the
14242 program @samp{openssl}) or SSLeay (@samp{s_client}).
14244 @dfn{shell:} Use a shell command to start @sc{imap} connection.
14246 @dfn{network:} Plain, TCP/IP network connection.
14249 @vindex imap-kerberos4-program
14250 The @samp{imtest} program is shipped with Cyrus IMAPD. If you're
14251 using @samp{imtest} from Cyrus IMAPD < 2.0.14 (which includes version
14252 1.5.x and 1.6.x) you need to frob @code{imap-process-connection-type}
14253 to make @code{imap.el} use a pty instead of a pipe when communicating
14254 with @samp{imtest}. You will then suffer from a line length
14255 restrictions on IMAP commands, which might make Gnus seem to hang
14256 indefinitely if you have many articles in a mailbox. The variable
14257 @code{imap-kerberos4-program} contain parameters to pass to the imtest
14260 @vindex imap-ssl-program
14261 For SSL connections, the OpenSSL program is available from
14262 @uref{http://www.openssl.org/}. OpenSSL was formerly known as SSLeay,
14263 and nnimap support it too - although the most recent versions of
14264 SSLeay, 0.9.x, are known to have serious bugs making it
14265 useless. Earlier versions, especially 0.8.x, of SSLeay are known to
14266 work. The variable @code{imap-ssl-program} contain parameters to pass
14269 @vindex imap-shell-program
14270 @vindex imap-shell-host
14271 For @sc{imap} connections using the @code{shell} stream, the variable
14272 @code{imap-shell-program} specify what program to call.
14274 @item nnimap-authenticator
14275 @vindex nnimap-authenticator
14277 The authenticator used to connect to the server. By default, nnimap
14278 will use the most secure authenticator your server is capable of.
14280 Example server specification:
14283 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14284 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous))
14287 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-authenticator} is a symbol!
14291 @dfn{gssapi:} GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5) authentication. Require
14292 external program @code{imtest}.
14294 @dfn{kerberos4:} Kerberos authentication. Require external program
14297 @dfn{digest-md5:} Encrypted username/password via DIGEST-MD5. Require
14298 external library @code{digest-md5.el}.
14300 @dfn{cram-md5:} Encrypted username/password via CRAM-MD5.
14302 @dfn{login:} Plain-text username/password via LOGIN.
14304 @dfn{anonymous:} Login as `anonymous', supplying your emailadress as password.
14307 @item nnimap-expunge-on-close
14309 @vindex nnimap-expunge-on-close
14310 Unlike Parmenides the @sc{imap} designers has decided that things that
14311 doesn't exist actually does exist. More specifically, @sc{imap} has
14312 this concept of marking articles @code{Deleted} which doesn't actually
14313 delete them, and this (marking them @code{Deleted}, that is) is what
14314 nnimap does when you delete a article in Gnus (with @kbd{G DEL} or
14317 Since the articles aren't really removed when we mark them with the
14318 @code{Deleted} flag we'll need a way to actually delete them. Feel like
14319 running in circles yet?
14321 Traditionally, nnimap has removed all articles marked as @code{Deleted}
14322 when closing a mailbox but this is now configurable by this server
14325 The possible options are:
14330 The default behavior, delete all articles marked as "Deleted" when
14333 Never actually delete articles. Currently there is no way of showing
14334 the articles marked for deletion in nnimap, but other @sc{imap} clients
14335 may allow you to do this. If you ever want to run the EXPUNGE command
14336 manually, @xref{Expunging mailboxes}.
14338 When closing mailboxes, nnimap will ask if you wish to expunge deleted
14343 @item nnimap-importantize-dormant
14344 @vindex nnimap-importantize-dormant
14346 If non-nil, marks dormant articles as ticked (as well), for other IMAP
14347 clients. Within Gnus, dormant articles will naturally still (only) be
14348 marked as ticked. This is to make dormant articles stand out, just
14349 like ticked articles, in other IMAP clients. (In other words, Gnus has
14350 two ``Tick'' marks and IMAP has only one.)
14352 Probably the only reason for frobing this would be if you're trying
14353 enable per-user persistant dormant flags, using something like:
14356 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-flag-alist)
14357 (format "gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
14358 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-predicate-alist)
14359 (format "KEYWORD gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
14362 In this case, you would not want the per-user dormant flag showing up
14363 as ticked for other users.
14365 @item nnimap-expunge-search-string
14367 @vindex nnimap-expunge-search-string
14369 This variable contain the IMAP search command sent to server when
14370 searching for articles eligible for expiring. The default is
14371 @code{"UID %s NOT SINCE %s"}, where the first @code{%s} is replaced by
14372 UID set and the second @code{%s} is replaced by a date.
14374 Probably the only useful value to change this to is
14375 @code{"UID %s NOT SENTSINCE %s"}, which makes nnimap use the Date: in
14376 messages instead of the internal article date. See section 6.4.4 of
14377 RFC 2060 for more information on valid strings.
14379 @item nnimap-authinfo-file
14380 @vindex nnimap-authinfo-file
14382 A file containing credentials used to log in on servers. The format is
14383 (almost) the same as the @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file. See the
14384 variable @code{nntp-authinfo-file} for exact syntax; also see
14390 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
14391 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
14392 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a "compress mailbox" button.
14397 @node Splitting in IMAP
14398 @subsubsection Splitting in @sc{imap}
14399 @cindex splitting imap mail
14401 Splitting is something Gnus users has loved and used for years, and now
14402 the rest of the world is catching up. Yeah, dream on, not many
14403 @sc{imap} server has server side splitting and those that have splitting
14404 seem to use some non-standard protocol. This means that @sc{imap}
14405 support for Gnus has to do it's own splitting.
14409 Here are the variables of interest:
14413 @item nnimap-split-crosspost
14414 @cindex splitting, crosspost
14416 @vindex nnimap-split-crosspost
14418 If non-nil, do crossposting if several split methods match the mail. If
14419 nil, the first match in @code{nnimap-split-rule} found will be used.
14421 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-crosspost}.
14423 @item nnimap-split-inbox
14424 @cindex splitting, inbox
14426 @vindex nnimap-split-inbox
14428 A string or a list of strings that gives the name(s) of @sc{imap}
14429 mailboxes to split from. Defaults to nil, which means that splitting is
14433 (setq nnimap-split-inbox
14434 '("INBOX" ("~/friend/Mail" . "lists/*") "lists.imap"))
14437 No nnmail equivalent.
14439 @item nnimap-split-rule
14440 @cindex Splitting, rules
14441 @vindex nnimap-split-rule
14443 New mail found in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be split according to
14446 This variable contains a list of lists, where the first element in the
14447 sublist gives the name of the @sc{imap} mailbox to move articles
14448 matching the regexp in the second element in the sublist. Got that?
14449 Neither did I, we need examples.
14452 (setq nnimap-split-rule
14454 "^Sender: owner-nnimap@@vic20.globalcom.se")
14455 ("INBOX.junk" "^Subject:.*MAKE MONEY")
14456 ("INBOX.private" "")))
14459 This will put all articles from the nnimap mailing list into mailbox
14460 INBOX.nnimap, all articles containing MAKE MONEY in the Subject: line
14461 into INBOX.junk and everything else in INBOX.private.
14463 The first string may contain `\\1' forms, like the ones used by
14464 replace-match to insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For
14468 ("INBOX.lists.\\1" "^Sender: owner-\\([a-z-]+\\)@@")
14471 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
14472 called with the first element of the rule as the argument, in a buffer
14473 containing the headers of the article. It should return a non-nil value
14474 if it thinks that the mail belongs in that group.
14476 Nnmail users might recollect that the last regexp had to be empty to
14477 match all articles (like in the example above). This is not required in
14478 nnimap. Articles not matching any of the regexps will not be moved out
14479 of your inbox. (This might affect performance if you keep lots of
14480 unread articles in your inbox, since the splitting code would go over
14481 them every time you fetch new mail.)
14483 These rules are processed from the beginning of the alist toward the
14484 end. The first rule to make a match will "win", unless you have
14485 crossposting enabled. In that case, all matching rules will "win".
14487 This variable can also have a function as its value, the function will
14488 be called with the headers narrowed and should return a group where it
14489 thinks the article should be split to. See @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
14491 The splitting code tries to create mailboxes if it need too.
14493 To allow for different split rules on different virtual servers, and
14494 even different split rules in different inboxes on the same server,
14495 the syntax of this variable have been extended along the lines of:
14498 (setq nnimap-split-rule
14499 '(("my1server" (".*" (("ding" "ding@@gnus.org")
14500 ("junk" "From:.*Simon")))
14501 ("my2server" ("INBOX" nnimap-split-fancy))
14502 ("my[34]server" (".*" (("private" "To:.*Simon")
14503 ("junk" my-junk-func)))))
14506 The virtual server name is in fact a regexp, so that the same rules
14507 may apply to several servers. In the example, the servers
14508 @code{my3server} and @code{my4server} both use the same rules.
14509 Similarly, the inbox string is also a regexp. The actual splitting
14510 rules are as before, either a function, or a list with group/regexp or
14511 group/function elements.
14513 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
14515 @item nnimap-split-predicate
14517 @vindex nnimap-split-predicate
14519 Mail matching this predicate in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be
14520 split, it is a string and the default is @samp{UNSEEN UNDELETED}.
14522 This might be useful if you use another @sc{imap} client to read mail in
14523 your inbox but would like Gnus to split all articles in the inbox
14524 regardless of readedness. Then you might change this to
14527 @item nnimap-split-fancy
14528 @cindex splitting, fancy
14529 @findex nnimap-split-fancy
14530 @vindex nnimap-split-fancy
14532 It's possible to set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
14533 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} if you want to use fancy
14534 splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
14536 However, to be able to have different fancy split rules for nnmail and
14537 nnimap backends you can set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
14538 @code{nnimap-split-fancy} and define the nnimap specific fancy split
14539 rule in @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
14544 (setq nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
14545 nnimap-split-fancy ...)
14548 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
14552 @node Editing IMAP ACLs
14553 @subsubsection Editing @sc{imap} ACLs
14554 @cindex editing imap acls
14555 @cindex Access Control Lists
14556 @cindex Editing @sc{imap} ACLs
14558 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-edit-acl
14560 ACL stands for Access Control List. ACLs are used in @sc{imap} for
14561 limiting (or enabling) other users access to your mail boxes. Not all
14562 @sc{imap} servers support this, this function will give an error if it
14565 To edit a ACL for a mailbox, type @kbd{G l}
14566 (@code{gnus-group-edit-nnimap-acl}) and you'll be presented with a ACL
14567 editing window with detailed instructions.
14569 Some possible uses:
14573 Giving "anyone" the "lrs" rights (lookup, read, keep seen/unseen flags)
14574 on your mailing list mailboxes enables other users on the same server to
14575 follow the list without subscribing to it.
14577 At least with the Cyrus server, you are required to give the user
14578 "anyone" posting ("p") capabilities to have "plussing" work (that is,
14579 mail sent to user+mailbox@@domain ending up in the @sc{imap} mailbox
14583 @node Expunging mailboxes
14584 @subsubsection Expunging mailboxes
14588 @cindex Manual expunging
14590 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-expunge
14592 If you're using the @code{never} setting of @code{nnimap-expunge-on-close},
14593 you may want the option of expunging all deleted articles in a mailbox
14594 manually. This is exactly what @kbd{G x} does.
14596 Currently there is no way of showing deleted articles, you can just
14601 @node Combined Groups
14602 @section Combined Groups
14604 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
14608 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
14609 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
14613 @node Virtual Groups
14614 @subsection Virtual Groups
14616 @cindex virtual groups
14617 @cindex merging groups
14619 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
14622 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
14623 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
14624 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
14626 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
14627 regexp to match component groups.
14629 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
14630 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
14631 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it came.
14632 (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be shown in
14633 the virtual group.)
14635 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
14636 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
14639 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
14642 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
14643 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
14645 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
14646 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
14647 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
14648 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
14651 "^nntp\\+server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
14654 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
14655 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
14656 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
14658 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
14659 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
14660 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
14661 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
14662 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
14664 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
14665 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
14666 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
14668 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
14669 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} is non-@code{nil},
14670 @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread articles when
14671 entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
14672 default) and you read articles in a component group after the virtual
14673 group has been activated, the read articles from the component group
14674 will show up when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this
14675 effect if you have two virtual groups that have a component group in
14676 common. If that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}.
14677 Or you can just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before
14678 you enter it---it'll have much the same effect.
14680 @code{nnvirtual} can have both mail and news groups as component groups.
14681 When responding to articles in @code{nnvirtual} groups, @code{nnvirtual}
14682 has to ask the backend of the component group the article comes from
14683 whether it is a news or mail backend. However, when you do a @kbd{^},
14684 there is typically no sure way for the component backend to know this,
14685 and in that case @code{nnvirtual} tells Gnus that the article came from a
14686 not-news backend. (Just to be on the safe side.)
14688 @kbd{C-c C-t} in the message buffer will insert the @code{Newsgroups}
14689 line from the article you respond to in these cases.
14693 @node Kibozed Groups
14694 @subsection Kibozed Groups
14698 @dfn{Kibozing} is defined by @sc{oed} as ``grepping through (parts of)
14699 the news feed''. @code{nnkiboze} is a backend that will do this for
14700 you. Oh joy! Now you can grind any @sc{nntp} server down to a halt
14701 with useless requests! Oh happiness!
14703 @kindex G k (Group)
14704 To create a kibozed group, use the @kbd{G k} command in the group
14707 The address field of the @code{nnkiboze} method is, as with
14708 @code{nnvirtual}, a regexp to match groups to be ``included'' in the
14709 @code{nnkiboze} group. That's where most similarities between @code{nnkiboze}
14710 and @code{nnvirtual} end.
14712 In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an @code{nnkiboze} group
14713 must have a score file to say what articles are to be included in
14714 the group (@pxref{Scoring}).
14716 @kindex M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups
14717 @findex nnkiboze-generate-groups
14718 You must run @kbd{M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups} after creating the
14719 @code{nnkiboze} groups you want to have. This command will take time. Lots of
14720 time. Oodles and oodles of time. Gnus has to fetch the headers from
14721 all the articles in all the component groups and run them through the
14722 scoring process to determine if there are any articles in the groups
14723 that are to be part of the @code{nnkiboze} groups.
14725 Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
14726 regexps. Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
14727 @sc{nntp} site may throw you off and never let you back in again.
14728 Stranger things have happened.
14730 @code{nnkiboze} component groups do not have to be alive---they can be dead,
14731 and they can be foreign. No restrictions.
14733 @vindex nnkiboze-directory
14734 The generation of an @code{nnkiboze} group means writing two files in
14735 @code{nnkiboze-directory}, which is @file{~/News/} by default. One
14736 contains the @sc{nov} header lines for all the articles in the group,
14737 and the other is an additional @file{.newsrc} file to store information
14738 on what groups have been searched through to find component articles.
14740 Articles marked as read in the @code{nnkiboze} group will have
14741 their @sc{nov} lines removed from the @sc{nov} file.
14744 @node Gnus Unplugged
14745 @section Gnus Unplugged
14750 @cindex Gnus Unplugged
14752 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
14753 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
14754 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
14755 read news. Believe it or not.
14757 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
14758 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
14759 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
14760 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
14761 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
14763 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
14764 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
14765 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
14766 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
14767 reading news on a machine.
14769 Using Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple.
14773 First, set up Gnus as you would do if you were running it on a machine
14774 that has full connection to the net. Go ahead. I'll still be waiting
14778 Then, put the following magical incantation at the end of your
14779 @file{.gnus.el} file:
14786 That's it. Gnus is now an ``offline'' newsreader.
14788 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
14791 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
14792 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
14793 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
14794 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
14795 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with IMAP.
14796 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
14797 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
14798 * Example Setup:: An example @file{.gnus.el} file for offline people.
14799 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
14800 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
14805 @subsection Agent Basics
14807 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
14809 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
14810 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
14811 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
14812 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
14814 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
14815 connected to the net continuously.
14817 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
14818 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
14820 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
14825 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
14826 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
14827 already fetched while in this mode.
14830 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
14831 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
14832 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged} and use @kbd{g} to check for new mail
14833 as usual. To check for new mail in unplugged mode, see (@pxref{Mail
14834 Source Specifiers}).
14837 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the news
14838 onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press @kbd{g}
14839 to check if there are any new news and then @kbd{J
14840 s} to fetch all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus
14841 know which articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}.)
14844 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
14845 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
14846 then you read the news offline.
14849 And then you go to step 2.
14852 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
14858 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
14859 backend, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
14860 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
14861 @kbd{J a} the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
14862 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}). This will typically be only the
14863 primary select method, which is listed on the bottom in the buffer.
14866 Decide on download policy. @xref{Agent Categories}.
14873 @node Agent Categories
14874 @subsection Agent Categories
14876 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
14877 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
14878 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
14879 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
14880 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
14881 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
14882 you're interested in the articles anyway.
14884 The main way to control what is to be downloaded is to create a
14885 @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all) groups to this category.
14886 Groups that do not belong in any other category belong to the
14887 @code{default} category. Gnus has its own buffer for creating and
14888 managing categories.
14891 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
14892 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
14893 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
14897 @node Category Syntax
14898 @subsubsection Category Syntax
14900 A category consists of two things.
14904 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
14905 are eligible for downloading; and
14908 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
14909 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
14910 score} is not necessarily related to normal scores.)
14913 A predicate in its simplest form can be a single predicate such as
14914 @code{true} or @code{false}. These two will download every available
14915 article or nothing respectively. In the case of these two special
14916 predicates an additional score rule is superfluous.
14918 Predicates of @code{high} or @code{low} download articles in respect of
14919 their scores in relationship to @code{gnus-agent-high-score} and
14920 @code{gnus-agent-low-score} as described below.
14922 To gain even finer control of what is to be regarded eligible for
14923 download a predicate can consist of a number of predicates with logical
14924 operators sprinkled in between.
14926 Perhaps some examples are in order.
14928 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
14929 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
14935 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
14936 short (for some value of ``short'').
14938 Here's a more complex predicate:
14947 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
14948 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
14951 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
14952 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
14953 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
14955 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
14956 you want to do, you can write your own.
14960 True iff the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
14961 lines; default 100.
14964 True iff the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
14965 lines; default 200.
14968 True iff the article has a download score less than
14969 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
14972 True iff the article has a download score greater than
14973 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
14976 True iff the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
14977 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
14978 checksum and sees whether articles match.
14987 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
14988 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
14989 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
14992 For example, you could decide that you don't want to download articles
14993 that were posted more than a certain number of days ago (e.g. posted
14994 more than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} ago) you might write a function
14995 something along the lines of the following:
14998 (defun my-article-old-p ()
14999 "Say whether an article is old."
15000 (< (time-to-days (date-to-time (mail-header-date gnus-headers)))
15001 (- (time-to-days (current-time)) gnus-agent-expire-days)))
15004 with the predicate then defined as:
15007 (not my-article-old-p)
15010 or you could append your predicate to the predefined
15011 @code{gnus-category-predicate-alist} in your @file{~/.gnus.el} or
15012 wherever. (Note: this would have to be at a point *after*
15013 @code{gnus-agent} has been loaded via @code{(gnus-agentize)})
15016 (setq gnus-category-predicate-alist
15017 (append gnus-category-predicate-alist
15018 '((old . my-article-old-p))))
15021 and simply specify your predicate as:
15027 If/when using something like the above, be aware that there are many
15028 misconfigured systems/mailers out there and so an article's date is not
15029 always a reliable indication of when it was posted. Hell, some people
15030 just don't give a damn.
15032 The above predicates apply to *all* the groups which belong to the
15033 category. However, if you wish to have a specific predicate for an
15034 individual group within a category, or you're just too lazy to set up a
15035 new category, you can enter a group's individual predicate in it's group
15036 parameters like so:
15039 (agent-predicate . short)
15042 This is the group parameter equivalent of the agent category default.
15043 Note that when specifying a single word predicate like this, the
15044 @code{agent-predicate} specification must be in dotted pair notation.
15046 The equivalent of the longer example from above would be:
15049 (agent-predicate or high (and (not low) (not long)))
15052 The outer parenthesis required in the category specification are not
15053 entered here as, not being in dotted pair notation, the value of the
15054 predicate is assumed to be a list.
15057 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
15058 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
15059 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
15060 following headers can be scored on: @code{Subject}, @code{From},
15061 @code{Date}, @code{Message-ID}, @code{References}, @code{Chars},
15062 @code{Lines}, and @code{Xref}.
15064 As with predicates, the specification of the @code{download score rule}
15065 to use in respect of a group can be in either the category definition if
15066 it's to be applicable to all groups in therein, or a group's parameters
15067 if it's to be specific to that group.
15069 In both of these places the @code{download score rule} can take one of
15076 This has the same syntax as a normal gnus score file except only a
15077 subset of scoring keywords are available as mentioned above.
15083 Category specification
15087 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
15093 Group Parameter specification
15096 (agent-score ("from"
15097 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
15102 Again, note the omission of the outermost parenthesis here.
15108 These score files must *only* contain the permitted scoring keywords
15115 Category specification
15118 ("~/News/agent.SCORE")
15124 ("~/News/agent.SCORE" "~/News/agent.group.SCORE")
15128 Group Parameter specification
15131 (agent-score "~/News/agent.SCORE")
15134 Additional score files can be specified as above. Need I say anything
15139 Use @code{normal} score files
15141 If you don't want to maintain two sets of scoring rules for a group, and
15142 your desired @code{downloading} criteria for a group are the same as your
15143 @code{reading} criteria then you can tell the agent to refer to your
15144 @code{normal} score files when deciding what to download.
15146 These directives in either the category definition or a group's
15147 parameters will cause the agent to read in all the applicable score
15148 files for a group, *filtering out* those sections that do not
15149 relate to one of the permitted subset of scoring keywords.
15153 Category Specification
15160 Group Parameter specification
15163 (agent-score . file)
15168 @node Category Buffer
15169 @subsubsection Category Buffer
15171 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
15172 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
15173 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
15175 The following commands are available in this buffer:
15179 @kindex q (Category)
15180 @findex gnus-category-exit
15181 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
15184 @kindex k (Category)
15185 @findex gnus-category-kill
15186 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
15189 @kindex c (Category)
15190 @findex gnus-category-copy
15191 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
15194 @kindex a (Category)
15195 @findex gnus-category-add
15196 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
15199 @kindex p (Category)
15200 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
15201 Edit the predicate of the current category
15202 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
15205 @kindex g (Category)
15206 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
15207 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
15208 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
15211 @kindex s (Category)
15212 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
15213 Edit the download score rule of the current category
15214 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
15217 @kindex l (Category)
15218 @findex gnus-category-list
15219 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
15223 @node Category Variables
15224 @subsubsection Category Variables
15227 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
15228 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
15229 Hook run in category buffers.
15231 @item gnus-category-line-format
15232 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
15233 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
15234 Variables}). Valid elements are:
15238 The name of the category.
15241 The number of groups in the category.
15244 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
15245 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
15246 Format of the category mode line (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}).
15248 @item gnus-agent-short-article
15249 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
15250 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
15252 @item gnus-agent-long-article
15253 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
15254 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
15256 @item gnus-agent-low-score
15257 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
15258 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
15261 @item gnus-agent-high-score
15262 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
15263 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
15269 @node Agent Commands
15270 @subsection Agent Commands
15272 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
15273 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged} command works in all modes, and
15274 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
15278 * Group Agent Commands::
15279 * Summary Agent Commands::
15280 * Server Agent Commands::
15283 You can run a complete batch fetch from the command line with the
15284 following incantation:
15286 @cindex gnus-agent-batch-fetch
15288 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-agent-batch-fetch
15293 @node Group Agent Commands
15294 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
15298 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
15299 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
15300 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
15301 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
15304 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
15305 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
15306 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
15309 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
15310 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
15311 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
15312 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
15315 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
15316 @findex gnus-group-send-drafts
15317 Send all sendable messages in the draft group
15318 (@code{gnus-group-send-drafts}). @xref{Drafts}.
15321 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
15322 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
15323 Add the current group to an Agent category
15324 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}). This command understands the
15325 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
15328 @kindex J r (Agent Group)
15329 @findex gnus-agent-remove-group
15330 Remove the current group from its category, if any
15331 (@code{gnus-agent-remove-group}). This command understands the
15332 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
15335 @kindex J Y (Agent Group)
15336 @findex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
15337 Synchronize flags changed while unplugged with remote server, if any.
15343 @node Summary Agent Commands
15344 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
15348 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
15349 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
15350 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
15353 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
15354 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
15355 Remove the downloading mark from the article
15356 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
15359 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
15360 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
15361 Toggle whether to download the article (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}).
15364 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
15365 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
15366 Mark all undownloaded articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}).
15371 @node Server Agent Commands
15372 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
15376 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
15377 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
15378 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
15379 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
15382 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
15383 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
15384 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
15385 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
15391 @subsection Agent Expiry
15393 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
15394 @findex gnus-agent-expire
15395 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire
15396 @cindex Agent expiry
15397 @cindex Gnus Agent expiry
15400 @code{nnagent} doesn't handle expiry. Instead, there's a special
15401 @code{gnus-agent-expire} command that will expire all read articles that
15402 are older than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} days. It can be run
15403 whenever you feel that you're running out of space. It's not
15404 particularly fast or efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to
15405 interrupt it (with @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started it.
15407 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
15408 if @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, this command will
15409 expire all articles---unread, read, ticked and dormant. If @code{nil}
15410 (which is the default), only read articles are eligible for expiry, and
15411 unread, ticked and dormant articles will be kept indefinitely.
15414 @node Agent and IMAP
15415 @subsection Agent and IMAP
15417 The Agent work with any Gnus backend, including nnimap. However,
15418 since there are some conceptual differences between @sc{nntp} and
15419 @sc{imap}, this section (should) provide you with some information to
15420 make Gnus Agent work smoother as a @sc{imap} Disconnected Mode client.
15422 The first thing to keep in mind is that all flags (read, ticked, etc)
15423 are kept on the @sc{imap} server, rather than in @code{.newsrc} as is the
15424 case for nntp. Thus Gnus need to remember flag changes when
15425 disconnected, and synchronize these flags when you plug back in.
15427 Gnus keep track of flag changes when reading nnimap groups under the
15428 Agent by default. When you plug back in, by default Gnus will check if
15429 you have any changed any flags and ask if you wish to synchronize these
15430 with the server. This behavior is customizable with
15431 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags}.
15433 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
15434 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
15435 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, the
15436 default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so ask if
15437 you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has any other
15438 value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
15440 If you do not wish to automatically synchronize flags when you
15441 re-connect, this can be done manually with the
15442 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} command that is bound to @kbd{J Y}
15443 in the group buffer by default.
15445 Some things are currently not implemented in the Agent that you'd might
15446 expect from a disconnected @sc{imap} client, including:
15451 Copying/moving articles into nnimap groups when unplugged.
15454 Creating/deleting nnimap groups when unplugged.
15458 Technical note: the synchronization algorithm does not work by "pushing"
15459 all local flags to the server, but rather incrementally update the
15460 server view of flags by changing only those flags that were changed by
15461 the user. Thus, if you set one flag on a article, quit the group and
15462 re-select the group and remove the flag; the flag will be set and
15463 removed from the server when you "synchronize". The queued flag
15464 operations can be found in the per-server @code{flags} file in the Agent
15465 directory. It's emptied when you synchronize flags.
15468 @node Outgoing Messages
15469 @subsection Outgoing Messages
15471 When Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail and news) are
15472 stored in the draft groups (@pxref{Drafts}). You can view them there
15473 after posting, and edit them at will.
15475 When Gnus is plugged again, you can send the messages either from the
15476 draft group with the special commands available there, or you can use
15477 the @kbd{J S} command in the group buffer to send all the sendable
15478 messages in the draft group.
15482 @node Agent Variables
15483 @subsection Agent Variables
15486 @item gnus-agent-directory
15487 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
15488 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
15489 @file{~/News/agent/}.
15491 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
15492 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
15493 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
15494 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
15495 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
15498 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
15499 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
15500 Hook run when connecting to the network.
15502 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
15503 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
15504 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
15509 @node Example Setup
15510 @subsection Example Setup
15512 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
15513 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
15514 @file{.gnus.el} file to get started.
15517 ;;; Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over @sc{nntp}
15518 ;;; from your ISP's server.
15519 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.your-isp.com"))
15521 ;;; Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from
15522 ;;; your ISP's POP server.
15523 (setq mail-sources '((pop :server "pop.your-isp.com")))
15525 ;;; Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.
15526 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
15528 ;;; Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.
15532 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
15533 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
15536 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
15537 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
15538 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
15539 @sc{nntp} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
15540 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
15543 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
15544 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
15545 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
15546 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
15547 back all the killed groups.)
15549 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
15550 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
15551 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
15554 @node Batching Agents
15555 @subsection Batching Agents
15557 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
15558 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
15559 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
15563 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -f gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null
15567 @node Agent Caveats
15568 @subsection Agent Caveats
15570 The Gnus Agent doesn't seem to work like most other offline
15571 newsreaders. Here are some common questions that some imaginary people
15575 @item If I read an article while plugged, do they get entered into the
15580 @item If I read an article while plugged, and the article already exists
15581 in the Agent, will it get downloaded once more?
15587 In short, when Gnus is unplugged, it only looks into the locally stored
15588 articles; when it's plugged, it only talks to your ISP.
15595 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
15596 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
15597 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
15600 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
15601 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
15602 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
15603 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
15604 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
15606 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
15607 before generating the summary buffer.
15609 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
15610 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
15611 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
15613 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
15614 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
15615 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
15616 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
15619 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
15620 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
15621 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
15622 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
15623 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
15624 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
15625 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
15626 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
15627 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
15628 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
15629 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
15630 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
15631 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
15632 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
15633 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
15634 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
15638 @node Summary Score Commands
15639 @section Summary Score Commands
15640 @cindex score commands
15642 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
15643 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
15644 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
15645 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
15646 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
15648 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
15649 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
15650 some other score file (e.g. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
15651 score file the current one.
15653 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
15658 @kindex V s (Summary)
15659 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
15660 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
15663 @kindex V S (Summary)
15664 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
15665 Display the score of the current article
15666 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
15669 @kindex V t (Summary)
15670 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
15671 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
15672 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}).
15675 @kindex V R (Summary)
15676 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
15677 Run the current summary through the scoring process
15678 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
15679 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
15680 effect you're having.
15683 @kindex V c (Summary)
15684 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
15685 Make a different score file the current
15686 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
15689 @kindex V e (Summary)
15690 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
15691 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
15692 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
15696 @kindex V f (Summary)
15697 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
15698 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
15699 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
15702 @kindex V F (Summary)
15703 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
15704 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
15705 after editing score files.
15708 @kindex V C (Summary)
15709 @findex gnus-score-customize
15710 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
15711 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
15715 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
15720 @kindex V m (Summary)
15721 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
15722 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
15723 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
15726 @kindex V x (Summary)
15727 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
15728 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
15729 expunge all articles below this score
15730 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
15733 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
15734 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
15737 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
15738 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
15742 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
15743 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
15745 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
15746 keys are available:
15750 Score on the author name.
15753 Score on the subject line.
15756 Score on the @code{Xref} line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
15759 Score on the @code{References} line.
15765 Score on the number of lines.
15768 Score on the @code{Message-ID} header.
15771 Score on followups---this matches the author name, and adds scores to
15772 the followups to this author. (Using this key leads to the creation of
15773 @file{ADAPT} files.)
15782 Score on thread. (Using this key leads to the creation of @file{ADAPT}
15788 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
15789 what headers you are scoring on.
15801 Substring matching.
15804 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
15833 Greater than number.
15838 The fourth and final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e., expiring)
15839 score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry, or whether
15840 it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score file.
15844 Temporary score entry.
15847 Permanent score entry.
15850 Immediately scoring.
15855 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
15856 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
15857 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
15858 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
15860 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
15861 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
15862 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
15863 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
15864 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
15866 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
15867 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
15868 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
15869 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
15870 current score file.
15872 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
15873 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
15874 pretend they are keymaps or not.
15877 @node Group Score Commands
15878 @section Group Score Commands
15879 @cindex group score commands
15881 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
15886 @kindex W f (Group)
15887 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
15888 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
15889 all the time. This command will flush the cache
15890 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
15894 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
15896 @findex gnus-batch-score
15897 @cindex batch scoring
15899 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-batch-score
15903 @node Score Variables
15904 @section Score Variables
15905 @cindex score variables
15909 @item gnus-use-scoring
15910 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
15911 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
15912 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
15914 @item gnus-kill-killed
15915 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
15916 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
15917 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
15918 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
15919 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
15920 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
15921 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
15923 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
15924 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
15925 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
15926 initialized from the @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
15927 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
15929 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
15930 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
15931 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
15932 (@samp{SCORE} by default.)
15934 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
15935 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
15936 @cindex score cache
15937 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
15938 score files. However, if this might make your Emacs grow big and
15939 bloated, so this regexp can be used to weed out score files unlikely to be needed again. It would be a bad idea to deny caching of
15940 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
15941 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
15942 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
15945 @item gnus-save-score
15946 @vindex gnus-save-score
15947 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
15948 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
15949 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
15951 If you do not set this to @code{t}, then manual scores (like those set
15952 with @kbd{V s} (@code{gnus-summary-set-score})) will not be preserved
15953 across group visits.
15955 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
15956 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
15957 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
15958 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
15959 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
15960 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
15961 manually entered data.
15963 @item gnus-summary-default-score
15964 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
15965 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
15967 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
15968 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
15969 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
15970 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
15971 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
15972 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
15974 @item gnus-score-over-mark
15975 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
15976 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
15977 default. Default is @samp{+}.
15979 @item gnus-score-below-mark
15980 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
15981 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
15982 default. Default is @samp{-}.
15984 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
15985 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
15986 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
15987 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
15989 Predefined functions available are:
15992 @item gnus-score-find-single
15993 @findex gnus-score-find-single
15994 Only apply the group's own score file.
15996 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
15997 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
15998 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
15999 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
16000 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
16001 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
16002 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
16003 then a regexp match is done.
16005 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
16006 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
16008 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
16009 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
16010 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
16011 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
16013 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
16014 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
16015 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
16016 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
16017 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE} for each
16021 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all these
16022 functions will be called with the group name as argument, and all the
16023 returned lists of score files will be applied. These functions can also
16024 return lists of score alists directly. In that case, the functions that
16025 return these non-file score alists should probably be placed before the
16026 ``real'' score file functions, to ensure that the last score file
16027 returned is the local score file. Phu.
16029 For example, to do hierarchical scoring but use a non-server-specific
16030 overall score file, you could use the value
16032 (list (lambda (group) ("all.SCORE"))
16033 'gnus-score-find-hierarchical)
16036 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
16037 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
16038 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
16039 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
16040 are expired. It's 7 by default.
16042 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
16043 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
16044 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, matching score entries will have
16045 their dates updated. (This is how Gnus controls expiry---all
16046 non-matching entries will become too old while matching entries will
16047 stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this variable to @code{nil},
16048 even matching entries will grow old and will have to face that oh-so
16051 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
16052 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
16053 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
16055 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
16056 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
16057 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be simplified
16058 for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
16059 threading---according to the current value of
16060 gnus-simplify-subject-functions. If the scoring entry uses
16061 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
16062 simplified in this manner.
16067 @node Score File Format
16068 @section Score File Format
16069 @cindex score file format
16071 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
16072 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
16073 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
16075 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
16079 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
16081 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
16083 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
16085 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
16090 (mark-and-expunge -10)
16094 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
16095 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
16096 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
16097 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
16101 This example demonstrates most score file elements. For a different
16102 approach, see @pxref{Advanced Scoring}.
16104 Even though this looks much like lisp code, nothing here is actually
16105 @code{eval}ed. The lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
16106 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
16108 Six keys are supported by this alist:
16113 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
16114 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
16115 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
16116 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
16117 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
16118 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
16119 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
16120 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
16121 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
16122 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
16123 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
16124 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
16125 to articles that matches these score entries.
16127 Following this key is a arbitrary number of score entries, where each
16128 score entry has one to four elements.
16132 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
16133 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
16137 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
16138 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
16139 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
16140 is successful. If this element is not present, the
16141 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
16142 instead. This is 1000 by default.
16145 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
16146 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
16147 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
16148 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
16149 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
16152 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
16153 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
16154 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
16155 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
16158 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
16159 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
16160 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
16161 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
16162 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
16163 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
16164 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
16165 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
16166 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
16167 instead, if you feel like.
16170 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
16171 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
16173 These predicates are true if
16176 (PREDICATE HEADER MATCH)
16179 evaluates to non-@code{nil}. For instance, the advanced match
16180 @code{("lines" 4 <)} (@pxref{Advanced Scoring}) will result in the
16187 Or to put it another way: When using @code{<} on @code{Lines} with 4 as
16188 the match, we get the score added if the article has less than 4 lines.
16189 (It's easy to get confused and think it's the other way around. But
16190 it's not. I think.)
16192 When matching on @code{Lines}, be careful because some backends (like
16193 @code{nndir}) do not generate @code{Lines} header, so every article ends
16194 up being marked as having 0 lines. This can lead to strange results if
16195 you happen to lower score of the articles with few lines.
16198 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
16199 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
16200 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
16201 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
16202 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
16203 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
16204 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
16208 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
16209 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
16210 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
16211 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
16212 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
16213 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
16214 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
16215 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
16218 @item Head, Body, All
16219 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
16223 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
16224 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
16225 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
16226 you e.g. increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
16227 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
16228 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
16229 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
16233 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
16234 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an
16235 article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{x}, then you add a @samp{thread}
16236 match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each article that
16237 has @var{x} in its @code{References} header. (These new @samp{thread}
16238 matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching articles.)
16239 This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an entire thread,
16240 even though some articles in the thread may not have complete
16241 @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
16242 undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
16243 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
16247 @cindex Score File Atoms
16249 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
16250 lower than this number will be marked as read.
16253 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
16254 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
16256 @item mark-and-expunge
16257 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
16258 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
16261 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
16262 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
16263 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
16264 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
16265 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
16268 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
16269 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
16272 @item exclude-files
16273 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
16274 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
16278 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}el. This element will be
16279 ignored when handling global score files.
16282 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
16283 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
16284 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
16285 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
16288 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
16289 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
16290 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
16291 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
16293 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
16297 (mark-and-expunge -100)
16300 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
16301 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
16302 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{C y}) the
16303 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
16304 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
16306 I.e.---the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where a few
16307 interesting threads which can't be found automatically by ordinary
16308 scoring rules exist.
16311 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
16312 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
16313 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
16314 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
16315 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
16316 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
16317 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
16318 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
16319 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
16320 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
16321 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
16325 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
16326 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
16327 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
16328 file for a number of groups.
16331 @cindex local variables
16332 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(VAR VALUE)} pairs.
16333 Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the current summary buffer,
16334 and set to the value specified. This is a convenient, if somewhat
16335 strange, way of setting variables in some groups if you don't like hooks
16336 much. Note that the @var{value} won't be evaluated.
16340 @node Score File Editing
16341 @section Score File Editing
16343 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
16344 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
16345 with a mode for that.
16347 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
16348 additional commands:
16353 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
16354 @findex gnus-score-edit-done
16355 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
16356 (@code{gnus-score-edit-done}).
16359 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
16360 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
16361 Insert the current date in numerical format
16362 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
16363 you were wondering.
16366 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
16367 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
16368 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
16369 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
16370 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
16375 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
16377 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
16378 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
16380 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f} and @kbd{V
16381 e} to begin editing score files.
16384 @node Adaptive Scoring
16385 @section Adaptive Scoring
16386 @cindex adaptive scoring
16388 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
16389 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
16390 stupidity, to be precise.
16392 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
16393 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
16394 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
16395 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
16396 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
16397 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
16398 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
16399 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
16400 variable to @code{(word line)}.
16402 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
16403 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
16404 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
16405 might look something like this:
16408 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
16409 '((gnus-unread-mark)
16410 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
16411 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
16412 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
16413 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
16414 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
16415 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
16416 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
16417 (gnus-ancient-mark)
16418 (gnus-low-score-mark)
16419 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
16422 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
16423 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
16424 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
16425 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
16426 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
16427 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
16430 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
16431 will be applied to each article.
16433 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
16434 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{D}) will have a
16435 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
16436 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
16438 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
16439 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
16440 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
16441 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
16443 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
16444 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
16445 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
16446 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
16448 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
16449 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
16450 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
16451 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
16452 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
16453 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
16455 You can also score on @code{thread}, which will try to score all
16456 articles that appear in a thread. @code{thread} matches uses a
16457 @code{Message-ID} to match on the @code{References} header of the
16458 article. If the match is made, the @code{Message-ID} of the article is
16459 added to the @code{thread} rule. (Think about it. I'd recommend two
16460 aspirins afterwards.)
16462 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
16463 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
16464 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
16466 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
16467 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
16468 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
16470 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
16471 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
16472 let you use different rules in different groups.
16474 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
16475 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
16476 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
16479 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
16480 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
16481 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
16482 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
16483 the length of the match is less than
16484 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
16485 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
16488 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
16489 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
16490 headers. If you adapt on words, the
16491 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
16492 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
16495 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
16496 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
16497 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
16498 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
16499 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
16502 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
16503 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
16504 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
16505 score with 30 points.
16507 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
16508 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
16509 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
16510 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
16511 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
16513 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit
16514 Some may feel that short words shouldn't count when doing adaptive
16515 scoring. If so, you may set @code{gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit} to
16516 an integer. Words shorter than this number will be ignored. This
16517 variable defaults til @code{nil}.
16519 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
16520 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
16521 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
16522 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
16524 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
16525 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
16526 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
16527 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
16529 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words
16530 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words} is set to @code{t}, gnus
16531 won't adaptively word score any of the words in the group name. Useful
16532 for groups like @samp{comp.editors.emacs}, where most of the subject
16533 lines contain the word @samp{emacs}.
16535 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
16536 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
16537 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
16539 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
16540 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
16541 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
16542 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
16545 @node Home Score File
16546 @section Home Score File
16548 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
16549 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
16550 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
16551 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
16553 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
16554 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
16555 could perhaps use the same home score file.
16557 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
16558 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
16563 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
16567 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
16568 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
16572 A list. The elements in this list can be:
16576 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{file-name})}. If the @var{regexp} matches the
16577 group name, the @var{file-name} will be used as the home score file.
16580 A function. If the function returns non-nil, the result will be used as
16581 the home score file.
16584 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
16587 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
16592 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
16595 (setq gnus-home-score-file
16596 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
16599 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
16600 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
16602 @findex gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file
16604 (setq gnus-home-score-file
16605 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
16608 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
16609 Other functions include
16612 @item gnus-current-home-score-file
16613 @findex gnus-current-home-score-file
16614 Return the ``current'' regular score file. This will make scoring
16615 commands add entry to the ``innermost'' matching score file.
16619 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
16620 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
16621 their own home score files:
16624 (setq gnus-home-score-file
16625 ;; All groups that match the regexp "\\.emacs"
16626 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
16627 ;; All the comp groups in one score file
16628 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
16631 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
16632 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
16633 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
16634 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
16635 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
16637 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
16638 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
16639 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
16640 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
16641 precedence over this variable.
16644 @node Followups To Yourself
16645 @section Followups To Yourself
16647 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
16648 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
16649 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
16650 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
16651 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
16652 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
16656 @item gnus-score-followup-article
16657 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
16658 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
16661 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
16662 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
16663 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
16667 @vindex message-sent-hook
16668 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
16669 @code{message-sent-hook}, like this:
16671 (add-hook 'message-sent-hook 'gnus-score-followup-thread)
16675 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
16676 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
16680 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
16681 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
16684 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
16685 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
16690 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore\\.no>"
16694 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
16695 is system-dependent.
16699 @section Scoring Tips
16700 @cindex scoring tips
16706 @cindex scoring crossposts
16707 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
16708 the @code{Xref} header.
16710 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
16713 @item Multiple crossposts
16714 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
16715 more than, say, 3 groups:
16718 ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+"
16722 @item Matching on the body
16723 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
16724 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
16725 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
16726 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
16727 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
16728 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
16729 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
16732 @item Marking as read
16733 You will probably want to mark articles that have scores below a certain
16734 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
16735 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
16739 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
16741 @item Negated character classes
16742 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
16743 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
16744 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
16748 @node Reverse Scoring
16749 @section Reverse Scoring
16750 @cindex reverse scoring
16752 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
16753 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
16754 like this in your score file:
16758 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
16763 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
16764 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
16767 @node Global Score Files
16768 @section Global Score Files
16769 @cindex global score files
16771 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
16772 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
16773 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
16775 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
16776 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
16777 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
16779 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
16780 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
16781 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
16782 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
16783 files are applicable to which group.
16785 To use the score file
16786 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
16787 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory,
16791 (setq gnus-global-score-files
16792 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
16793 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
16796 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
16798 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
16799 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
16800 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
16801 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
16803 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
16804 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
16806 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
16807 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
16808 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
16809 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
16810 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
16811 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
16813 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
16819 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
16821 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
16823 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
16825 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
16826 lowered out of existence.
16828 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
16829 articles completely.
16832 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
16833 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
16834 old articles for a long time.
16837 ... I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
16838 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
16839 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
16840 holding our breath yet?
16844 @section Kill Files
16847 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
16848 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
16849 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
16851 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
16852 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
16853 files into score files.
16855 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
16856 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
16857 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
16858 that isn't a very good idea.
16860 Normal kill files look like this:
16863 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
16864 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
16868 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
16869 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
16871 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
16872 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
16875 Two summary functions for editing a GNUS kill file:
16880 @kindex M-k (Summary)
16881 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
16882 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
16885 @kindex M-K (Summary)
16886 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
16887 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
16890 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
16895 @kindex M-k (Group)
16896 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
16897 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
16900 @kindex M-K (Group)
16901 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
16902 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
16905 Kill file variables:
16908 @item gnus-kill-file-name
16909 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
16910 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
16911 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
16912 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
16913 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
16914 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
16916 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
16917 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
16918 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
16919 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
16922 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
16923 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
16924 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
16925 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
16926 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
16927 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
16928 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
16929 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
16930 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
16932 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
16933 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
16934 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
16939 @node Converting Kill Files
16940 @section Converting Kill Files
16942 @cindex converting kill files
16944 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
16945 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
16946 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
16949 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Gnus by default.
16950 You can fetch it from
16951 @uref{http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-various/gnus-kill-to-score.el}.
16953 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
16954 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
16955 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
16963 GroupLens is a collaborative filtering system that helps you work
16964 together with other people to find the quality news articles out of the
16965 huge volume of news articles generated every day.
16967 To accomplish this the GroupLens system combines your opinions about
16968 articles you have already read with the opinions of others who have done
16969 likewise and gives you a personalized prediction for each unread news
16970 article. Think of GroupLens as a matchmaker. GroupLens watches how you
16971 rate articles, and finds other people that rate articles the same way.
16972 Once it has found some people you agree with it tells you, in the form
16973 of a prediction, what they thought of the article. You can use this
16974 prediction to help you decide whether or not you want to read the
16978 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
16979 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
16980 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
16981 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
16985 @node Using GroupLens
16986 @subsection Using GroupLens
16988 To use GroupLens you must register a pseudonym with your local Better
16990 @uref{http://www.cs.umn.edu/Research/GroupLens/bbb.html} is the only
16991 better bit in town at the moment.
16993 Once you have registered you'll need to set a couple of variables.
16997 @item gnus-use-grouplens
16998 @vindex gnus-use-grouplens
16999 Setting this variable to a non-@code{nil} value will make Gnus hook into
17000 all the relevant GroupLens functions.
17002 @item grouplens-pseudonym
17003 @vindex grouplens-pseudonym
17004 This variable should be set to the pseudonym you got when registering
17005 with the Better Bit Bureau.
17007 @item grouplens-newsgroups
17008 @vindex grouplens-newsgroups
17009 A list of groups that you want to get GroupLens predictions for.
17013 That's the minimum of what you need to get up and running with GroupLens.
17014 Once you've registered, GroupLens will start giving you scores for
17015 articles based on the average of what other people think. But, to get
17016 the real benefit of GroupLens you need to start rating articles
17017 yourself. Then the scores GroupLens gives you will be personalized for
17018 you, based on how the people you usually agree with have already rated.
17021 @node Rating Articles
17022 @subsection Rating Articles
17024 In GroupLens, an article is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, inclusive.
17025 Where 1 means something like this article is a waste of bandwidth and 5
17026 means that the article was really good. The basic question to ask
17027 yourself is, "on a scale from 1 to 5 would I like to see more articles
17030 There are four ways to enter a rating for an article in GroupLens.
17035 @kindex r (GroupLens)
17036 @findex bbb-summary-rate-article
17037 This function will prompt you for a rating on a scale of one to five.
17040 @kindex k (GroupLens)
17041 @findex grouplens-score-thread
17042 This function will prompt you for a rating, and rate all the articles in
17043 the thread. This is really useful for some of those long running giant
17044 threads in rec.humor.
17048 The next two commands, @kbd{n} and @kbd{,} take a numerical prefix to be
17049 the score of the article you're reading.
17054 @kindex n (GroupLens)
17055 @findex grouplens-next-unread-article
17056 Rate the article and go to the next unread article.
17059 @kindex , (GroupLens)
17060 @findex grouplens-best-unread-article
17061 Rate the article and go to the next unread article with the highest score.
17065 If you want to give the current article a score of 4 and then go to the
17066 next article, just type @kbd{4 n}.
17069 @node Displaying Predictions
17070 @subsection Displaying Predictions
17072 GroupLens makes a prediction for you about how much you will like a
17073 news article. The predictions from GroupLens are on a scale from 1 to
17074 5, where 1 is the worst and 5 is the best. You can use the predictions
17075 from GroupLens in one of three ways controlled by the variable
17076 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring}.
17078 @vindex gnus-grouplens-override-scoring
17079 There are three ways to display predictions in grouplens. You may
17080 choose to have the GroupLens scores contribute to, or override the
17081 regular gnus scoring mechanism. override is the default; however, some
17082 people prefer to see the Gnus scores plus the grouplens scores. To get
17083 the separate scoring behavior you need to set
17084 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'separate}. To have the
17085 GroupLens predictions combined with the grouplens scores set it to
17086 @code{'override} and to combine the scores set
17087 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'combine}. When you use
17088 the combine option you will also want to set the values for
17089 @code{grouplens-prediction-offset} and
17090 @code{grouplens-score-scale-factor}.
17092 @vindex grouplens-prediction-display
17093 In either case, GroupLens gives you a few choices for how you would like
17094 to see your predictions displayed. The display of predictions is
17095 controlled by the @code{grouplens-prediction-display} variable.
17097 The following are valid values for that variable.
17100 @item prediction-spot
17101 The higher the prediction, the further to the right an @samp{*} is
17104 @item confidence-interval
17105 A numeric confidence interval.
17107 @item prediction-bar
17108 The higher the prediction, the longer the bar.
17110 @item confidence-bar
17111 Numerical confidence.
17113 @item confidence-spot
17114 The spot gets bigger with more confidence.
17116 @item prediction-num
17117 Plain-old numeric value.
17119 @item confidence-plus-minus
17120 Prediction +/- confidence.
17125 @node GroupLens Variables
17126 @subsection GroupLens Variables
17130 @item gnus-summary-grouplens-line-format
17131 The summary line format used in GroupLens-enhanced summary buffers. It
17132 accepts the same specs as the normal summary line format (@pxref{Summary
17133 Buffer Lines}). The default is @samp{%U%R%z%l%I%(%[%4L: %-20,20n%]%)
17136 @item grouplens-bbb-host
17137 Host running the bbbd server. @samp{grouplens.cs.umn.edu} is the
17140 @item grouplens-bbb-port
17141 Port of the host running the bbbd server. The default is 9000.
17143 @item grouplens-score-offset
17144 Offset the prediction by this value. In other words, subtract the
17145 prediction value by this number to arrive at the effective score. The
17148 @item grouplens-score-scale-factor
17149 This variable allows the user to magnify the effect of GroupLens scores.
17150 The scale factor is applied after the offset. The default is 1.
17155 @node Advanced Scoring
17156 @section Advanced Scoring
17158 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
17159 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
17160 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
17161 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
17162 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
17164 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
17168 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
17169 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
17170 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
17174 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
17175 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
17177 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
17178 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
17179 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
17180 non-@code{nil} value.
17182 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
17183 operator, and various match operators.
17190 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
17191 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
17192 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
17197 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
17198 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
17199 then this operator will return @code{false}.
17204 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
17205 logical negation of the value of its argument.
17209 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
17210 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
17211 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
17212 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
17213 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
17214 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
17215 the ancestry you want to go.
17217 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
17218 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
17219 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
17220 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
17221 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
17224 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
17225 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
17227 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
17228 when he's talking about Gnus:
17232 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
17233 ("subject" "Gnus"))
17239 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
17243 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
17250 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
17251 really don't want to read what he's written:
17255 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
17256 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigir Logge")))
17260 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
17261 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
17262 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
17269 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
17270 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
17271 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
17272 ("body" "white.*socks"))
17276 The possibilities are endless.
17279 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
17280 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
17282 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
17283 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
17284 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
17285 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
17286 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
17287 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
17288 @samp{subject}) first.
17290 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
17291 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
17302 Then that means "score on the from header of the grandparent of the
17303 current article". An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
17309 ("subject" "Gnus")))
17316 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
17317 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
17322 @section Score Decays
17323 @cindex score decays
17326 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
17327 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
17328 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
17329 use them in any sensible way.
17331 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
17332 @findex gnus-decay-score
17333 @vindex gnus-decay-score-function
17334 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
17335 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
17336 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
17337 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
17338 The decay itself if performed by the @code{gnus-decay-score-function}
17339 function, which is @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the
17340 definition of that function:
17343 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
17345 This is done according to `gnus-score-decay-constant'
17346 and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
17349 (* (if (< score 0) 1 -1)
17351 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
17353 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
17356 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
17357 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
17358 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
17359 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
17363 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
17366 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
17369 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
17373 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
17374 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
17375 the new score, which should be an integer.
17377 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
17378 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
17385 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
17386 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
17387 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
17388 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
17389 * Windows Configuration:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
17390 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
17391 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
17392 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
17393 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
17394 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
17395 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
17396 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
17397 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
17398 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
17399 * XEmacs Enhancements:: There are more pictures and stuff under XEmacs.
17400 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
17401 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
17402 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
17406 @node Process/Prefix
17407 @section Process/Prefix
17408 @cindex process/prefix convention
17410 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
17411 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
17413 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
17414 command to be performed on.
17418 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
17419 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
17420 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
17421 with the current one.
17423 @vindex transient-mark-mode
17424 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
17425 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
17427 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
17428 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
17431 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
17432 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
17434 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
17437 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
17438 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
17439 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
17440 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
17442 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
17443 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
17444 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
17445 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
17446 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
17447 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
17448 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
17449 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
17451 Many commands do not use the process/prefix convention. All commands
17452 that do explicitly say so in this manual. To apply the process/prefix
17453 convention to commands that do not use it, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
17454 command. For instance, to mark all the articles in the group as
17455 expirable, you could say `M P b M-& E'.
17459 @section Interactive
17460 @cindex interaction
17464 @item gnus-novice-user
17465 @vindex gnus-novice-user
17466 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
17467 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
17468 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
17469 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
17472 @item gnus-expert-user
17473 @vindex gnus-expert-user
17474 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
17475 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing, no
17476 matter how strange.
17478 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
17479 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
17480 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
17481 is @code{t} by default.
17483 @item gnus-interactive-exit
17484 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
17485 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
17490 @node Symbolic Prefixes
17491 @section Symbolic Prefixes
17492 @cindex symbolic prefixes
17494 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
17495 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four characters forward, and
17496 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
17497 rule of 900 to the current article.
17499 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
17500 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
17501 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
17502 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
17503 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
17504 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
17505 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
17507 @kindex M-i (Summary)
17508 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
17509 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
17510 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
17511 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
17512 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a M-C-u} means ``feed the @kbd{M-C-u}
17513 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b M-C-u} means
17514 ``feed the @kbd{M-C-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
17515 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
17517 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
17518 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
17519 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
17521 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
17525 @node Formatting Variables
17526 @section Formatting Variables
17527 @cindex formatting variables
17529 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called
17530 things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
17531 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
17532 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
17533 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
17536 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
17537 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
17538 lots of percentages everywhere.
17541 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
17542 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
17543 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
17544 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
17545 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
17548 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
17549 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
17550 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
17551 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
17552 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
17553 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
17554 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
17555 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
17557 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
17558 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
17560 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
17561 @findex gnus-update-format
17562 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
17563 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
17564 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
17565 examine the resulting lisp code to be run to generate the line.
17569 @node Formatting Basics
17570 @subsection Formatting Basics
17572 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
17573 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
17574 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
17576 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
17577 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
17578 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
17579 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
17580 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
17583 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
17584 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
17585 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
17586 less than 4 characters wide.
17589 @node Mode Line Formatting
17590 @subsection Mode Line Formatting
17592 Mode line formatting variables (e.g.,
17593 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}) follow the same rules as other,
17594 buffer line oriented formatting variables (@pxref{Formatting Basics})
17595 with the following two differences:
17600 There must be no newline (@samp{\n}) at the end.
17603 The special @samp{%%b} spec can be used to display the buffer name.
17604 Well, it's no spec at all, really---@samp{%%} is just a way to quote
17605 @samp{%} to allow it to pass through the formatting machinery unmangled,
17606 so that Emacs receives @samp{%b}, which is something the Emacs mode line
17607 display interprets to mean ``show the buffer name''. For a full list of
17608 mode line specs Emacs understands, see the documentation of the
17609 @code{mode-line-format} variable.
17614 @node Advanced Formatting
17615 @subsection Advanced Formatting
17617 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
17618 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
17619 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
17620 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
17622 These are the valid modifiers:
17627 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
17631 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
17636 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
17639 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
17644 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
17647 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
17650 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
17653 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
17657 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
17658 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
17659 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
17660 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
17661 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
17662 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
17663 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
17665 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
17666 last operation, padding.
17668 @vindex gnus-compile-user-specs
17669 If @code{gnus-compile-user-specs} is set to @code{nil} (@code{t} by
17670 default) with your strong personality, and use a lots of these advanced
17671 thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets quite slow. This can be helped
17672 enormously by running @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} when you are satisfied with
17673 the look of your lines.
17674 @xref{Compilation}.
17677 @node User-Defined Specs
17678 @subsection User-Defined Specs
17680 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
17681 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
17682 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
17683 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
17684 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
17685 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
17686 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
17687 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
17688 should protect against that.
17690 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
17691 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
17692 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
17693 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
17697 @node Formatting Fonts
17698 @subsection Formatting Fonts
17700 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
17701 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
17702 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
17703 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
17706 Text inside the @samp{%@{} and @samp{%@}} specifiers will have their
17707 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
17708 default. If you say @samp{%1@{}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
17709 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
17710 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
17711 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
17713 Text inside the @samp{%<} and @samp{%>} specifiers will get the special
17714 @code{balloon-help} property set to @code{gnus-balloon-face-0}. If you
17715 say @samp{%1<}, you'll get @code{gnus-balloon-face-1} and so on. The
17716 @code{gnus-balloon-face-*} variables should be either strings or symbols
17717 naming functions that return a string. Under @code{balloon-help-mode},
17718 when the mouse passes over text with this property set, a balloon window
17719 will appear and display the string. Please refer to the doc string of
17720 @code{balloon-help-mode} for more information on this.
17722 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
17725 ;; Create three face types.
17726 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
17727 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
17729 ;; We want the article count to be in
17730 ;; a bold and green face. So we create
17731 ;; a new face called `my-green-bold'.
17732 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
17734 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
17735 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
17737 ;; Set the new & fancy format.
17738 (setq gnus-group-line-format
17739 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
17742 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
17743 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
17745 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
17746 mode-line variables.
17749 @node Windows Configuration
17750 @section Windows Configuration
17751 @cindex windows configuration
17753 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
17755 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
17756 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
17757 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
17758 @code{t} by default.
17760 Setting this variable to @code{nil} kinda works, but there are
17761 glitches. Use at your own peril.
17763 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
17764 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
17765 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
17768 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)
17769 (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4))))
17770 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
17774 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
17775 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
17776 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
17777 possible names is listed below.
17779 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
17780 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example -
17783 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
17787 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
17788 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
17789 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
17790 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
17791 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
17792 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
17793 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
17794 size spec per split.
17796 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
17797 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
17798 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e. is the third or
17799 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
17800 present) gets focus.
17802 Here's a more complicated example:
17805 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
17806 (summary 0.25 point)
17807 (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4))
17811 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
17812 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
17813 occupy, not a percentage.
17815 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
17816 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
17817 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
17818 be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if
17819 @code{gnus-carpal} is @code{nil}, and four buffers if @code{gnus-carpal}
17822 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
17825 (article (horizontal 1.0
17830 (summary 0.25 point)
17835 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
17836 @code{horizontal} thingie?
17838 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
17839 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
17840 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
17841 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
17842 the screen is to be given to this strip.
17844 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
17845 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
17846 lines from the splits.
17848 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
17852 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
17853 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
17854 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
17855 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
17856 buffer = "(" buf-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
17857 size = number | frame-params
17858 buf-name = group | article | summary ...
17861 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
17862 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
17863 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
17864 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
17866 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
17867 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
17868 @cindex window height
17869 @cindex window width
17870 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
17871 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
17872 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
17873 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
17874 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
17875 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
17877 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
17878 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
17879 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
17880 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
17882 @findex gnus-configure-frame
17883 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
17884 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
17885 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
17886 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
17887 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
17888 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
17889 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
17890 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
17891 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
17892 configuration list.
17895 (gnus-configure-frame
17899 (article 0.3 point))
17907 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
17908 @code{frame} split:
17911 (gnus-configure-frame
17914 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
17916 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
17917 (user-position . t)
17918 (left . -1) (top . 1))
17923 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
17924 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
17925 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
17926 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
17927 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
17928 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
17929 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
17930 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
17932 The list of all possible keys for @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} can
17933 be found in its default value.
17935 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
17936 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
17937 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
17941 (message (horizontal 1.0
17942 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
17944 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
17949 One common desire for a multiple frame split is to have a separate frame
17950 for composing mail and news while leaving the original frame intact. To
17951 accomplish that, something like the following can be done:
17956 (if (not (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer))
17957 (car (cdr (assoc 'group gnus-buffer-configuration)))
17958 (car (cdr (assoc 'summary gnus-buffer-configuration))))
17959 (vertical ((user-position . t) (top . 1) (left . 1)
17960 (name . "Message"))
17961 (message 1.0 point))))
17964 @findex gnus-add-configuration
17965 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
17966 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
17967 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
17968 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
17971 (gnus-add-configuration
17972 '(article (vertical 1.0
17974 (summary .25 point)
17978 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
17979 @file{.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
17980 Gnus has been loaded.
17982 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
17983 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
17984 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
17985 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
17986 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
17988 If you're using tree displays (@pxref{Tree Display}), and the tree
17989 window is displayed vertically next to another window, you may also want
17990 to fiddle with @code{gnus-tree-minimize-window} to avoid having the
17993 @subsection Example Window Configurations
17997 Narrow left hand side occupied by group buffer. Right hand side split
17998 between summary buffer (top one-sixth) and article buffer (bottom).
18013 (gnus-add-configuration
18016 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
18018 (summary 0.16 point)
18021 (gnus-add-configuration
18024 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
18025 (vertical 1.0 (summary 1.0 point)))))
18031 @node Faces and Fonts
18032 @section Faces and Fonts
18037 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
18038 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
18039 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
18044 @section Compilation
18045 @cindex compilation
18046 @cindex byte-compilation
18048 @findex gnus-compile
18050 Remember all those line format specification variables?
18051 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}, @code{gnus-group-line-format}, and so
18052 on. By default, T-gnus will use the byte-compiled codes of these
18053 variables and we can keep a slow-down to a minimum. However, if you set
18054 @code{gnus-compile-user-specs} to @code{nil} (@code{t} by default),
18055 unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down.
18056 (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions
18057 associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of
18060 To help with this, you can run @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} after you've
18061 fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of)
18062 satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and
18063 you'll get top speed again. Note that T-gnus will not save these
18064 compiled specs in the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
18067 @item gnus-compile-user-specs
18068 @vindex gnus-compile-user-specs
18069 If it is non-nil, the user-defined format specs will be byte-compiled
18070 automatically. The default value of this variable is @code{t}. It has
18071 an effect on the values of @code{gnus-*-line-format-spec}.
18076 @section Mode Lines
18079 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
18080 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
18081 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
18082 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
18083 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
18084 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
18085 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
18088 @cindex display-time
18090 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
18091 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
18092 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
18093 to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
18094 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
18095 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
18096 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
18097 additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify
18100 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
18102 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
18103 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
18105 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
18106 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
18107 (length display-time-string)))))
18110 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
18111 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
18112 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
18113 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
18114 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
18117 @node Highlighting and Menus
18118 @section Highlighting and Menus
18120 @cindex highlighting
18123 @vindex gnus-visual
18124 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
18125 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
18126 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
18129 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
18130 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
18133 @item group-highlight
18134 Do highlights in the group buffer.
18135 @item summary-highlight
18136 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
18137 @item article-highlight
18138 Do highlights in the article buffer.
18140 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
18142 Create menus in the group buffer.
18144 Create menus in the summary buffers.
18146 Create menus in the article buffer.
18148 Create menus in the browse buffer.
18150 Create menus in the server buffer.
18152 Create menus in the score buffers.
18154 Create menus in all buffers.
18157 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
18158 buffers, you could say something like:
18161 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
18164 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
18167 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
18170 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
18171 in all Gnus buffers.
18173 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
18176 @item gnus-mouse-face
18177 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
18178 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
18179 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
18183 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
18187 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
18188 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
18189 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
18191 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
18192 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
18193 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
18195 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
18196 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
18197 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
18199 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
18200 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
18201 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
18203 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
18204 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
18205 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
18207 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
18208 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
18209 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
18220 Those new-fangled @dfn{mouse} contraptions is very popular with the
18221 young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things
18222 these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was
18223 using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single
18224 machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah!
18228 @vindex gnus-carpal
18229 Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to
18230 do anything by setting @code{gnus-carpal} to @code{t}. Pretty simple,
18231 really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you.
18236 @item gnus-carpal-mode-hook
18237 @vindex gnus-carpal-mode-hook
18238 Hook run in all carpal mode buffers.
18240 @item gnus-carpal-button-face
18241 @vindex gnus-carpal-button-face
18242 Face used on buttons.
18244 @item gnus-carpal-header-face
18245 @vindex gnus-carpal-header-face
18246 Face used on carpal buffer headers.
18248 @item gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
18249 @vindex gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
18250 Buttons in the group buffer.
18252 @item gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
18253 @vindex gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
18254 Buttons in the summary buffer.
18256 @item gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
18257 @vindex gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
18258 Buttons in the server buffer.
18260 @item gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
18261 @vindex gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
18262 Buttons in the browse buffer.
18265 All the @code{buttons} variables are lists. The elements in these list
18266 are either cons cells where the @code{car} contains a text to be displayed and
18267 the @code{cdr} contains a function symbol, or a simple string.
18275 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
18276 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
18277 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
18278 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
18279 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
18281 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
18282 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
18283 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
18285 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
18286 been idle for thirty minutes:
18289 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
18292 Here's a handler that scans for PGP headers every hour when Emacs is
18296 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
18299 This @var{time} parameter and than @var{idle} parameter work together
18300 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
18301 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
18303 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
18304 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
18305 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
18306 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
18308 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
18309 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
18310 @var{idle} minutes.
18312 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
18313 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
18316 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
18317 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
18318 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
18320 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
18321 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
18322 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
18323 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
18325 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
18326 your @file{.gnus} file:
18328 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
18330 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
18333 @findex gnus-demon-add-nocem
18334 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
18335 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
18336 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
18337 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
18338 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
18339 @code{gnus-demon-add-nocem}, @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
18340 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
18341 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
18342 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
18343 @file{.gnus} if you want those abilities.
18345 @findex gnus-demon-init
18346 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
18347 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
18348 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
18349 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
18350 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
18352 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it. Adding
18353 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
18354 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
18363 @dfn{Spamming} is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
18364 Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
18366 Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various anti-spamming
18367 agencies. These agencies usually also send out @dfn{NoCeM} messages.
18368 NoCeM is pronounced ``no see-'em'', and means what the name
18369 implies---these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
18372 What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled anyway?
18373 Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just honor cancels
18374 from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use of the NoCeM
18375 messages, which are distributed in the @samp{alt.nocem.misc} newsgroup.
18377 Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
18378 this will make spam disappear.
18380 There are some variables to customize, of course:
18383 @item gnus-use-nocem
18384 @vindex gnus-use-nocem
18385 Set this variable to @code{t} to set the ball rolling. It is @code{nil}
18388 @item gnus-nocem-groups
18389 @vindex gnus-nocem-groups
18390 Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
18391 default is @code{("news.lists.filters" "news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins"
18392 "alt.nocem.misc" "news.admin.net-abuse.announce")}.
18394 @item gnus-nocem-issuers
18395 @vindex gnus-nocem-issuers
18396 There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
18397 people you want to listen to. The default is @code{("Automoose-1"
18398 "clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" "cosmo.roadkill" "SpamHippo"
18399 "hweede@@snafu.de")}; fine, upstanding citizens all of them.
18401 Known despammers that you can put in this list are listed at
18402 @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~rosalind/nocemreg/nocemreg.html}.
18404 You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people---just the
18405 ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all NoCeM
18406 messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a @dfn{type}
18407 header that gives the message a (more or less, usually less) rigorous
18408 definition. Common types are @samp{spam}, @samp{spew}, @samp{mmf},
18409 @samp{binary}, and @samp{troll}. To specify this, you have to use
18410 @code{(@var{issuer} @var{conditions} @dots{})} elements in the list.
18411 Each condition is either a string (which is a regexp that matches types
18412 you want to use) or a list on the form @code{(not @var{string})}, where
18413 @var{string} is a regexp that matches types you don't want to use.
18415 For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis except his
18416 @samp{troll} messages, you'd say:
18419 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
18422 On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his @samp{spam} and
18423 @samp{spew} messages, you'd say:
18426 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
18429 The specs are applied left-to-right.
18432 @item gnus-nocem-verifyer
18433 @vindex gnus-nocem-verifyer
18435 This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is who she
18436 says she is. The default is @code{mc-verify}, which is a Mailcrypt
18437 function. If this is too slow and you don't care for verification
18438 (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
18440 If you want signed NoCeM messages to be verified and unsigned messages
18441 not to be verified (but used anyway), you could do something like:
18444 (setq gnus-nocem-verifyer 'my-gnus-mc-verify)
18446 (defun my-gnus-mc-verify ()
18454 This might be dangerous, though.
18456 @item gnus-nocem-directory
18457 @vindex gnus-nocem-directory
18458 This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default is
18459 @file{~/News/NoCeM/}.
18461 @item gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
18462 @vindex gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
18463 The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the cache.
18464 The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be faster, but you
18465 might then see old spam.
18467 @item gnus-nocem-check-from
18468 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-from
18469 Non-@code{nil} means check for valid issuers in message bodies.
18470 Otherwise don't bother fetching articles unless their author matches a
18471 valid issuer; that is much faster if you are selective about the
18474 @item gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
18475 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
18476 If non-@code{nil}, the maximum number of articles to check in any NoCeM
18477 group. NoCeM groups can be huge and very slow to process.
18481 Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many living
18482 (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process will grow
18483 big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most) of your
18484 unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Subscription Commands}).
18491 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
18492 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
18493 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
18495 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
18496 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
18497 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
18498 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
18499 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
18500 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
18501 @code{undo} function.
18503 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
18504 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
18505 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
18506 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
18507 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
18508 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
18509 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
18510 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
18511 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
18512 never be totally undoable.
18514 @findex gnus-undo-mode
18515 @vindex gnus-use-undo
18517 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
18518 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
18519 default. The @kbd{M-C-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo}
18520 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
18525 @section Moderation
18528 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
18529 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
18530 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
18533 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
18537 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
18540 in your @file{.gnus.el} file.
18542 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
18547 You split your incoming mail by matching on
18548 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
18549 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
18552 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
18553 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
18556 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
18557 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
18561 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
18564 (setq gnus-moderated-list
18565 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
18569 @node XEmacs Enhancements
18570 @section XEmacs Enhancements
18573 XEmacs is able to display pictures and stuff, so Gnus has taken
18577 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what your reading.
18578 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
18579 * Toolbar:: Click'n'drool.
18580 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
18593 So@dots{} You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
18594 good way to do so. Its also a great way to impress people staring
18595 over your shoulder as you read news.
18598 * Picon Basics:: What are picons and How do I get them.
18599 * Picon Requirements:: Don't go further if you aren't using XEmacs.
18600 * Easy Picons:: Displaying Picons---the easy way.
18601 * Hard Picons:: The way you should do it. You'll learn something.
18602 * Picon Useless Configuration:: Other variables you can trash/tweak/munge/play with.
18607 @subsubsection Picon Basics
18609 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
18618 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
18619 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
18620 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
18621 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
18622 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
18623 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
18624 @code{GIF} formats.
18627 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
18628 If you have a permanent connection to the Internet you can use Steve
18629 Kinzler's Picons Search engine by setting
18630 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} to the string @*
18631 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/search.html}.
18633 @vindex gnus-picons-database
18634 Otherwise you need a local copy of his database. For instructions on
18635 obtaining and installing the picons databases, point your Web browser at @*
18636 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}. Gnus expects
18637 picons to be installed into a location pointed to by
18638 @code{gnus-picons-database}.
18641 @node Picon Requirements
18642 @subsubsection Picon Requirements
18644 To have Gnus display Picons for you, you must be running XEmacs
18645 19.13 or greater since all other versions of Emacs aren't yet able to
18648 Additionally, you must have @code{x} support compiled into XEmacs. To
18649 display color picons which are much nicer than the black & white one,
18650 you also need one of @code{xpm} or @code{gif} compiled into XEmacs.
18652 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
18653 If you want to display faces from @code{X-Face} headers, you should have
18654 the @code{xface} support compiled into XEmacs. Otherwise you must have
18655 the @code{netpbm} utilities installed, or munge the
18656 @code{gnus-picons-convert-x-face} variable to use something else.
18660 @subsubsection Easy Picons
18662 To enable displaying picons, simply put the following line in your
18663 @file{~/.gnus} file and start Gnus.
18666 (setq gnus-use-picons t)
18667 (setq gnus-treat-display-picons t)
18670 and make sure @code{gnus-picons-database} points to the directory
18671 containing the Picons databases.
18673 Alternatively if you want to use the web piconsearch engine add this:
18676 (setq gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
18677 "http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch")
18682 @subsubsection Hard Picons
18690 Gnus can display picons for you as you enter and leave groups and
18691 articles. It knows how to interact with three sections of the picons
18692 database. Namely, it can display the picons newsgroup pictures,
18693 author's face picture(s), and the authors domain. To enable this
18694 feature, you need to select where to get the picons from, and where to
18699 @item gnus-picons-database
18700 @vindex gnus-picons-database
18701 The location of the picons database. Should point to a directory
18702 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
18703 subdirectories. This is only useful if
18704 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} is @code{nil}. Defaults to
18705 @file{/usr/local/faces/}.
18707 @item gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
18708 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
18709 The URL for the web picons search engine. The only currently known
18710 engine is @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch}. To
18711 workaround network delays, icons will be fetched in the background. If
18712 this is @code{nil} 'the default), then picons are fetched from local
18713 database indicated by @code{gnus-picons-database}.
18715 @item gnus-picons-display-where
18716 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
18717 Where the picon images should be displayed. It is @code{picons} by
18718 default (which by default maps to the buffer @samp{*Picons*}). Other
18719 valid places could be @code{article}, @code{summary}, or
18720 @samp{*scratch*} for all I care. Just make sure that you've made the
18721 buffer visible using the standard Gnus window configuration
18722 routines---@pxref{Windows Configuration}.
18724 @item gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
18725 @vindex gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
18726 Groups that are matched by this regexp won't have their group icons
18731 Note: If you set @code{gnus-use-picons} to @code{t}, it will set up your
18732 window configuration for you to include the @code{picons} buffer.
18734 Now that you've made those decision, you need to add the following
18735 functions to the appropriate hooks so these pictures will get displayed
18738 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
18740 @item gnus-article-display-picons
18741 @findex gnus-article-display-picons
18742 Looks up and displays the picons for the author and the author's domain
18743 in the @code{gnus-picons-display-where} buffer.
18745 @item gnus-picons-article-display-x-face
18746 @findex gnus-article-display-picons
18747 Decodes and displays the X-Face header if present.
18753 @node Picon Useless Configuration
18754 @subsubsection Picon Useless Configuration
18762 The following variables offer further control over how things are
18763 done, where things are located, and other useless stuff you really
18764 don't need to worry about.
18768 @item gnus-picons-news-directories
18769 @vindex gnus-picons-news-directories
18770 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
18771 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
18773 @item gnus-picons-user-directories
18774 @vindex gnus-picons-user-directories
18775 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for user
18776 faces. @code{("local" "users" "usenix" "misc")} is the default.
18778 @item gnus-picons-domain-directories
18779 @vindex gnus-picons-domain-directories
18780 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
18781 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
18782 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
18784 @item gnus-picons-convert-x-face
18785 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
18786 If you don't have @code{xface} support builtin XEmacs, this is the
18787 command to use to convert the @code{X-Face} header to an X bitmap
18788 (@code{xbm}). Defaults to @code{(format "@{ echo '/* Width=48,
18789 Height=48 */'; uncompface; @} | icontopbm | pbmtoxbm > %s"
18790 gnus-picons-x-face-file-name)}
18792 @item gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
18793 @vindex gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
18794 Names a temporary file to store the @code{X-Face} bitmap in. Defaults
18795 to @code{(format "/tmp/picon-xface.%s.xbm" (user-login-name))}.
18797 @item gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
18798 @vindex gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
18799 If you have set @code{gnus-picons-display-where} to @code{picons}, your
18800 XEmacs frame will become really cluttered. To alleviate this a bit you
18801 can set @code{gnus-picons-has-modeline-p} to @code{nil}; this will
18802 remove the mode line from the Picons buffer. This is only useful if
18803 @code{gnus-picons-display-where} is @code{picons}.
18805 @item gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
18806 @vindex gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
18807 If non-nil, display the article buffer before computing the picons.
18808 Defaults to @code{nil}.
18810 @item gnus-picons-display-as-address
18811 @vindex gnus-picons-display-as-address
18812 If @code{t} display textual email addresses along with pictures.
18813 Defaults to @code{t}.
18815 @item gnus-picons-file-suffixes
18816 @vindex gnus-picons-file-suffixes
18817 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
18818 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not builtin your XEmacs.
18820 @item gnus-picons-setup-hook
18821 @vindex gnus-picons-setup-hook
18822 Hook run in the picon buffer, if that is displayed.
18824 @item gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
18825 @vindex gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
18826 Whether to move point to first empty line when displaying picons. This
18827 has only an effect if `gnus-picons-display-where' has value `article'.
18829 If @code{nil}, display the picons in the @code{From} and
18830 @code{Newsgroups} lines. This is the default.
18832 @item gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
18833 @vindex gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
18834 Whether to clear the picons cache when exiting gnus. Gnus caches every
18835 picons it finds while it is running. This saves some time in the search
18836 process but eats some memory. If this variable is set to @code{nil},
18837 Gnus will never clear the cache itself; you will have to manually call
18838 @code{gnus-picons-clear-cache} to clear it. Otherwise the cache will be
18839 cleared every time you exit Gnus. Defaults to @code{t}.
18850 @subsection Smileys
18855 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/BigFace.ps,height=20cm}}
18860 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
18861 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
18863 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
18864 @file{.gnus.el} file:
18867 (setq gnus-treat-display-smileys t)
18870 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{:-=}, @samp{:-(} and
18871 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
18872 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
18873 text and maps that to file names.
18875 @vindex smiley-nosey-regexp-alist
18876 @vindex smiley-deformed-regexp-alist
18877 Smiley supplies two example conversion alists by default:
18878 @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist} (which matches @samp{:)}, @samp{:(}
18879 and so on), and @code{smiley-nosey-regexp-alist} (which matches
18880 @samp{:-)}, @samp{:-(} and so on).
18882 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist} variable,
18883 which defaults to the value of @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist}.
18885 The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched; the second
18886 element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by the picture;
18887 and the third element is the name of the file to be displayed.
18889 The following variables customize where Smiley will look for these
18890 files, as well as the color to be used and stuff:
18894 @item smiley-data-directory
18895 @vindex smiley-data-directory
18896 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files.
18898 @item smiley-flesh-color
18899 @vindex smiley-flesh-color
18900 Skin color. The default is @samp{yellow}, which is really racist.
18902 @item smiley-features-color
18903 @vindex smiley-features-color
18904 Color of the features of the face. The default is @samp{black}.
18906 @item smiley-tongue-color
18907 @vindex smiley-tongue-color
18908 Color of the tongue. The default is @samp{red}.
18910 @item smiley-circle-color
18911 @vindex smiley-circle-color
18912 Color of the circle around the face. The default is @samp{black}.
18914 @item smiley-mouse-face
18915 @vindex smiley-mouse-face
18916 Face used for mouse highlighting over the smiley face.
18922 @subsection Toolbar
18932 @item gnus-use-toolbar
18933 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
18934 If @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If non-@code{nil}, it should be
18935 one of @code{default-toolbar}, @code{top-toolbar}, @code{bottom-toolbar},
18936 @code{right-toolbar}, or @code{left-toolbar}.
18938 @item gnus-group-toolbar
18939 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
18940 The toolbar in the group buffer.
18942 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
18943 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
18944 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
18946 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
18947 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
18948 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
18954 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
18957 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
18958 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
18959 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
18960 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
18961 unusual directory structure.
18963 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
18964 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
18965 This is an alist where the key is a type symbol and the values are the
18966 foreground and background color of the splash page glyph.
18968 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
18969 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
18970 This is the key used to look up the color in the alist described above.
18971 Valid values include @code{flame}, @code{pine}, @code{moss},
18972 @code{irish}, @code{sky}, @code{tin}, @code{velvet}, @code{grape},
18973 @code{labia}, @code{berry}, @code{neutral}, and @code{september}.
18975 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
18976 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
18977 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
18991 @node Fuzzy Matching
18992 @section Fuzzy Matching
18993 @cindex fuzzy matching
18995 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
18996 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
18998 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
18999 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
19000 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
19002 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
19003 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
19004 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
19005 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
19006 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
19009 @node Thwarting Email Spam
19010 @section Thwarting Email Spam
19014 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
19016 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
19017 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
19018 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
19019 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
19020 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
19021 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
19022 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
19023 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
19026 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
19027 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
19028 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
19029 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
19030 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!'')
19031 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
19035 The way to deal with this is having Gnus split out all spam into a
19036 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
19038 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
19039 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
19040 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
19041 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
19042 sysadmin whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
19043 part of the mail address.)
19046 (setq message-default-news-headers
19047 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
19050 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
19051 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
19056 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
19057 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
19058 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
19064 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
19065 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
19066 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
19067 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
19069 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @code{smtp} server
19070 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
19071 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
19072 thwarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
19073 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
19074 your fancy split rule in this way:
19079 (to "larsi" "misc")
19083 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
19084 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
19085 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
19086 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
19087 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
19089 If you are also a lazy net citizen, you will probably prefer complaining
19090 automatically with the @file{gnus-junk.el} package, available FOR FREE
19091 at @* @uref{http://stud2.tuwien.ac.at/~e9426626/gnus-junk.html}.
19092 Since most e-mail spam is sent automatically, this may reconcile the
19093 cosmic balance somewhat.
19095 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
19096 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
19097 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
19098 to non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
19101 @node Various Various
19102 @section Various Various
19108 @item gnus-home-directory
19109 All Gnus path variables will be initialized from this variable, which
19110 defaults to @file{~/}.
19112 @item gnus-directory
19113 @vindex gnus-directory
19114 Most Gnus storage path variables will be initialized from this variable,
19115 which defaults to the @samp{SAVEDIR} environment variable, or
19116 @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
19118 Note that gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{.gnus.el} file is read.
19119 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
19120 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
19121 @file{.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
19123 @item gnus-default-directory
19124 @vindex gnus-default-directory
19125 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
19126 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
19127 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
19128 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
19129 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
19130 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
19133 @vindex gnus-verbose
19134 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
19135 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
19136 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
19137 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
19138 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
19140 @item gnus-verbose-backends
19141 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
19142 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
19143 to the Gnus backends instead of Gnus proper.
19145 @item nnheader-max-head-length
19146 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
19147 When the backends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
19148 as little as possible. This variable (default 4096) specifies
19149 the absolute max length the backends will try to read before giving up
19150 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
19151 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
19152 @code{t}, the backends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
19153 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
19154 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
19156 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
19157 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
19158 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
19159 read when doing the operation described above.
19161 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
19162 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
19164 @cindex invalid characters in file names
19165 @cindex characters in file names
19166 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
19167 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
19168 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
19171 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
19175 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
19176 Windows (phooey) systems.
19178 @item gnus-hidden-properties
19179 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
19180 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
19181 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
19182 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
19184 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
19185 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
19186 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
19187 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
19188 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
19190 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
19191 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
19192 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
19194 @item gnus-invalid-group-regexp
19195 @vindex gnus-invalid-group-regexp
19197 Regexp to match ``invalid'' group names when querying user for a group
19198 name. The default value catches some @strong{really} invalid group
19199 names who could possibly mess up Gnus internally (like allowing
19200 @samp{:} in a group name, which is normally used to delimit method and
19203 @sc{imap} users might want to allow @samp{/} in group names though.
19212 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
19213 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
19215 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
19217 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
19223 Not because of victories @*
19226 but for the common sunshine,@*
19228 the largess of the spring.
19232 but for the day's work done@*
19233 as well as I was able;@*
19234 not for a seat upon the dais@*
19235 but at the common table.@*
19240 @chapter Appendices
19243 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
19244 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
19245 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
19246 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
19247 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
19248 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
19249 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
19250 * Frequently Asked Questions:: A question-and-answer session.
19258 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
19259 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
19261 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage,
19262 you can point your (feh!) web browser to
19263 @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/}. This is also the primary
19264 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is
19265 known as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
19267 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
19268 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
19269 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
19270 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
19271 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
19272 appropriate name, don't you think?)
19274 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
19275 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
19276 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
19277 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
19280 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
19281 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
19282 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
19283 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
19284 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
19285 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
19286 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
19287 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
19288 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
19292 @node Gnus Versions
19293 @subsection Gnus Versions
19294 @cindex Pterodactyl Gnus
19296 @cindex September Gnus
19297 @cindex Quassia Gnus
19299 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
19300 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
19301 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
19303 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
19304 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
19306 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
19307 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4'' (67 releases).
19309 On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37 releases.
19310 If was released as ``Gnus 5.6'' on March 8th 1998 (46 releases).
19312 Gnus 5.6 begat Pterodactyl Gnus on August 29th 1998 and was released as
19313 ``Gnus 5.8'' (after 99 releases and a CVS repository) on December 3rd
19316 On the 26th of October 2000, Oort Gnus was begun.
19318 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name --
19319 ``(ding) Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'',
19320 ``Pterodactyl Gnus'', ``Oort Gnus'' -- don't panic. Don't let it know
19321 that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly. Whatever you do, don't
19322 run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its reach. Find a proper
19323 released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that instead.
19326 @node Other Gnus Versions
19327 @subsection Other Gnus Versions
19330 In addition to the versions of Gnus which have had their releases
19331 coordinated by Lars, one major development has been Semi-gnus from
19332 Japan. It's based on a library called @sc{semi}, which provides
19333 @sc{mime} capabilities.
19335 These Gnusae are based mainly on Gnus 5.6 and Pterodactyl Gnus.
19336 Collectively, they are called ``Semi-gnus'', and different strains are
19337 called T-gnus, ET-gnus, Nana-gnus and Chaos. These provide powerful
19338 @sc{mime} and multilingualization things, especially important for
19345 What's the point of Gnus?
19347 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
19348 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
19349 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
19350 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
19351 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
19352 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
19353 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
19354 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
19355 keep track of millions of people who post?
19357 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
19358 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
19359 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
19360 to separate the newsreader from the backends, Gnus now offers a simple
19361 interface for anybody who wants to write new backends for fetching mail
19362 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
19363 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
19364 every one of you to explore and invent.
19366 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
19367 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
19370 @node Compatibility
19371 @subsection Compatibility
19373 @cindex compatibility
19374 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
19375 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
19376 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
19381 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
19385 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
19388 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
19391 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
19392 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
19393 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
19394 important variables have their values copied into their global
19395 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
19396 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
19398 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
19399 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
19400 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
19401 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
19402 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
19406 @cindex highlighting
19407 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
19408 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
19409 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
19410 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
19411 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
19412 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
19415 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
19416 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
19417 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
19418 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
19420 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
19421 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
19422 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
19423 to stop doing it the old way.
19425 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
19427 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
19429 @cindex reporting bugs
19431 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
19432 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
19433 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
19435 @vindex gnus-bug-create-help-buffer
19436 If you are in the habit of sending bug reports @emph{very} often, you
19437 may find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
19438 @code{gnus-bug-create-help-buffer} to @code{nil} to avoid having it pop
19443 @subsection Conformity
19445 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
19446 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
19453 There are no known breaches of this standard.
19457 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
19459 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
19460 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
19461 We do have some breaches to this one.
19467 These are considered to be ``vanity headers'', while I consider them
19468 to be consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted
19469 articles coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use
19470 either of those for posting articles. I would not have known that if
19471 it wasn't for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
19476 USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036, based
19477 on Son-of-RFC 1036. They have produced a number of drafts proposing
19478 various changes to the format of news articles. The Gnus towers will
19479 look into implementing the changes when the draft is accepted as an RFC.
19483 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
19484 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
19489 @subsection Emacsen
19495 Gnus should work on :
19503 XEmacs 21.1.1 and up.
19507 This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
19508 that. Not reliably, at least. Older versions of Gnus may work on older
19509 Emacs versions. However, T-gnus does support ``Mule 2.3 based on Emacs
19510 19.34'' and possibly the versions of XEmacs prior to 21.1.1, e.g. 20.4.
19511 See the file ``README'' in the T-gnus distribution for more details.
19513 There are some vague differences between Gnus on the various
19514 platforms---XEmacs features more graphics (a logo and a toolbar)---but
19515 other than that, things should look pretty much the same under all
19519 @node Gnus Development
19520 @subsection Gnus Development
19522 Gnus is developed in a two-phased cycle. The first phase involves much
19523 discussion on the @samp{ding@@gnus.org} mailing list, where people
19524 propose changes and new features, post patches and new backends. This
19525 phase is called the @dfn{alpha} phase, since the Gnusae released in this
19526 phase are @dfn{alpha releases}, or (perhaps more commonly in other
19527 circles) @dfn{snapshots}. During this phase, Gnus is assumed to be
19528 unstable and should not be used by casual users. Gnus alpha releases
19529 have names like ``Red Gnus'' and ``Quassia Gnus''.
19531 After futzing around for 50-100 alpha releases, Gnus is declared
19532 @dfn{frozen}, and only bug fixes are applied. Gnus loses the prefix,
19533 and is called things like ``Gnus 5.6.32'' instead. Normal people are
19534 supposed to be able to use these, and these are mostly discussed on the
19535 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} newsgroup.
19538 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
19539 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae.
19540 In particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} defaults to @code{nil} in
19541 alpha Gnusae and @code{t} in released Gnusae. This is to prevent
19542 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
19544 The division of discussion between the ding mailing list and the Gnus
19545 newsgroup is not purely based on publicity concerns. It's true that
19546 having people write about the horrible things that an alpha Gnus release
19547 can do (sometimes) in a public forum may scare people off, but more
19548 importantly, talking about new experimental features that have been
19549 introduced may confuse casual users. New features are frequently
19550 introduced, fiddled with, and judged to be found wanting, and then
19551 either discarded or totally rewritten. People reading the mailing list
19552 usually keep up with these rapid changes, while people on the newsgroup
19553 can't be assumed to do so.
19558 @subsection Contributors
19559 @cindex contributors
19561 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
19562 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
19563 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
19564 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
19565 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
19566 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
19567 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
19568 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
19569 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
19570 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
19572 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for... oops,
19578 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
19581 Shenghuo Zhu---uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el, webmail.el,
19582 nnwarchive and many, many other things connected with @sc{mime} and
19583 other types of en/decoding, as well as general bug fixing, new
19584 functionality and stuff.
19587 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
19588 well as numerous other things).
19591 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
19594 Justin Sheehy--the FAQ maintainer.
19597 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
19600 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
19601 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
19604 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
19607 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section
19608 (@pxref{GroupLens}).
19611 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
19614 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
19617 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and fixes.
19620 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
19623 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
19624 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
19627 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
19630 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
19633 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
19636 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
19640 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
19643 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
19646 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
19649 François Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
19650 well as autoconf support.
19654 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
19655 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
19657 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
19666 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
19670 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
19680 Alexei V. Barantsev,
19695 Massimo Campostrini,
19700 Jae-you Chung, @c ?
19701 James H. Cloos, Jr.,
19705 Andrew J. Cosgriff,
19708 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
19714 Michael Welsh Duggan,
19719 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
19723 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
19731 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
19733 Michelangelo Grigni,
19737 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
19739 Yoshiki Hayashi, @c ?
19741 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
19748 François Felix Ingrand,
19749 Tatsuya Ichikawa, @c ?
19750 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
19752 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
19763 Peter Skov Knudsen,
19764 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
19766 Koseki Yoshinori, @c Koseki
19767 Thor Kristoffersen,
19770 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
19788 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
19789 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
19796 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
19801 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
19805 John McClary Prevost,
19811 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
19816 Christian von Roques,
19819 Wolfgang Rupprecht,
19826 Philippe Schnoebelen,
19828 Randal L. Schwartz,
19842 Kiyokazu Suto, @c Suto
19847 Tozawa Akihiko, @c Tozawa
19863 Katsumi Yamaoka @c Yamaoka
19868 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
19869 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
19870 (550kB and counting).
19872 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
19875 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
19876 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
19880 @subsection New Features
19881 @cindex new features
19884 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
19885 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
19886 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
19887 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
19888 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
19891 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
19892 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
19893 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
19896 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
19898 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
19903 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
19904 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
19907 Local spool and several @sc{nntp} servers can be used at once
19908 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
19911 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
19914 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
19915 All the mail backends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
19916 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
19919 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
19920 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
19921 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
19922 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
19925 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
19926 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
19929 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
19930 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
19931 (@pxref{The Active File}).
19934 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
19935 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
19938 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
19939 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
19940 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
19943 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
19944 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
19945 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
19948 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{.gnus}) to avoid cluttering up
19949 the @file{.emacs} file.
19952 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
19953 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
19956 You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
19957 results (@pxref{Kibozed Groups}).
19960 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
19961 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
19964 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
19965 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
19968 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
19969 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
19972 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
19975 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
19976 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
19979 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
19980 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
19983 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
19984 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
19987 Gnus can fetch FAQs and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
19990 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
19991 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
19994 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
19998 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
20002 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
20003 configuration (@pxref{Windows Configuration}).
20006 You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard
20012 @node September Gnus
20013 @subsubsection September Gnus
20017 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/september.ps,height=20cm}}
20021 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
20026 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
20027 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
20031 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
20032 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
20036 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
20040 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
20041 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
20044 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
20048 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions (@pxref{GroupLens}).
20051 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
20054 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
20057 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
20061 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
20062 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
20065 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
20069 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
20073 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
20077 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
20081 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
20084 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
20085 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
20088 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
20092 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
20093 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
20096 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
20099 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
20100 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
20101 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
20104 Gnus has a new backend (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets
20108 The Gnus cache is much faster.
20111 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
20115 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
20116 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
20119 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
20120 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
20123 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
20124 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
20127 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
20128 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
20129 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
20132 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
20133 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
20136 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
20139 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
20142 All mail backends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
20145 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
20148 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
20149 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
20152 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Windows
20156 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
20159 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=tmp/fseptember.ps,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/fseptember.ps,height=5cm}}
20164 Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (@pxref{NoCeM}).
20167 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
20171 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
20174 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
20178 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
20181 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
20184 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
20185 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
20188 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
20189 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
20193 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
20194 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
20197 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
20201 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
20202 buffer to allow easier treatment.
20205 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
20208 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
20212 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
20216 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
20217 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
20220 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
20224 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
20225 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
20228 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
20229 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
20232 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
20236 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
20239 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
20242 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
20248 @subsubsection Red Gnus
20250 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
20254 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/red.ps,height=20cm}}
20261 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
20264 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
20265 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
20268 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
20269 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
20273 Article washing status can be displayed in the
20274 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
20277 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
20280 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
20281 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
20284 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
20288 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
20289 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
20293 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extendable (@pxref{Document
20294 Server Internals}).
20297 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
20301 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
20304 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
20305 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
20308 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
20309 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
20310 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
20313 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
20314 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
20317 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
20318 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
20321 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{M-C-_}
20325 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
20326 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
20329 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
20330 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
20333 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
20337 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
20340 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
20344 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
20345 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
20348 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
20349 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
20352 A new command for reading collections of documents
20353 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{M-C-d}
20354 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
20357 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
20361 A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post even when the @sc{nntp}
20362 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
20365 A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
20366 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
20367 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
20370 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
20371 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
20375 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
20379 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
20383 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=tmp/fred.ps,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/fred.ps,width=3cm}}
20388 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
20392 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
20396 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
20397 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
20400 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
20406 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
20408 New features in Gnus 5.6:
20413 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
20414 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See
20415 @pxref{Gnus Unplugged} for the full story.
20418 The @code{nndraft} backend has returned, but works differently than
20419 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
20420 group, which is created automatically.
20423 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
20427 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-ID's.
20430 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
20431 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
20434 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
20438 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
20441 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
20442 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
20445 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
20448 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
20449 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
20452 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
20453 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
20456 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
20457 control over simplification.
20460 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
20463 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
20467 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
20470 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
20473 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
20474 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
20475 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
20478 Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
20479 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
20482 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
20486 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
20487 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
20490 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
20491 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @sc{nntp} servers.
20494 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
20498 A history of where mails have been split is available.
20501 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
20504 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
20505 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
20508 A new function for citing in Message has been
20509 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
20512 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
20515 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
20519 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
20520 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
20523 The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
20524 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
20527 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} backend.
20530 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
20534 @node Pterodactyl Gnus
20535 @subsubsection Pterodactyl Gnus
20537 New features in Gnus 5.8:
20541 @item The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
20542 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
20544 If you used procmail like in
20547 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
20548 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
20549 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
20550 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
20553 this now has changed to
20557 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
20561 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
20562 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
20564 @item Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
20565 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
20567 @item Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too
20568 many parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
20570 @item @code{gnus-auto-select-first} can now be a function to be
20571 called to position point.
20573 @item The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
20574 summary buffers and NOV files.
20576 @item @code{gnus-article-display-hook} has been removed. Instead, a number
20577 of variables starting with @code{gnus-treat-} have been added.
20579 @item The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now works in a
20580 subtly different manner.
20582 @item New web-based backends have been added: @code{nnslashdot},
20583 @code{nnwarchive} and @code{nnultimate}. nnweb has been revamped,
20584 again, to keep up with ever-changing layouts.
20586 @item Gnus can now read IMAP mail via @code{nnimap}.
20594 @section The Manual
20598 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
20599 either @code{texi2dvi}
20601 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
20602 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
20604 to get what you hold in your hands now.
20606 The following conventions have been used:
20611 This is a @samp{string}
20614 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
20617 This is a @file{file}
20620 This is a @code{symbol}
20624 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
20628 (setq flargnoze "yes")
20631 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
20634 (setq flumphel 'yes)
20637 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
20638 ever get them confused.
20642 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
20643 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
20644 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
20645 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
20646 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
20647 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
20648 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
20654 @node On Writing Manuals
20655 @section On Writing Manuals
20657 I guess most manuals are written after-the-fact; documenting a program
20658 that's already there. This is not how this manual is written. When
20659 implementing something, I write the manual entry for that something
20660 straight away. I then see that it's difficult to explain the
20661 functionality, so I write how it's supposed to be, and then I change the
20662 implementation. Writing the documentation and writing the code goes
20665 This, of course, means that this manual has no, or little, flow. It
20666 documents absolutely everything in Gnus, but often not where you're
20667 looking for it. It is a reference manual, and not a guide to how to get
20670 That would be a totally different book, that should be written using the
20671 reference manual as source material. It would look quite differently.
20676 @section Terminology
20678 @cindex terminology
20683 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
20684 News is generally fetched from a nearby @sc{nntp} server, and is
20685 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
20686 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
20687 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
20691 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
20692 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
20693 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
20694 not posting, and replying is not following up.
20698 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
20702 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
20707 Gnus gets fed articles from a number of backends, both news and mail
20708 backends. Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this
20709 is all done by the backends.
20713 Gnus will always use one method (and backend) as the @dfn{native}, or
20714 default, way of getting news.
20718 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same time.
20719 These are groups that use non-native non-secondary backends for getting
20724 Secondary backends are somewhere half-way between being native and being
20725 foreign, but they mostly act like they are native.
20729 A message that has been posted as news.
20732 @cindex mail message
20733 A message that has been mailed.
20737 A mail message or news article
20741 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.) is
20746 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
20751 A line from the head of an article.
20755 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
20756 collection of @sc{nov} lines.
20760 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the backend for the headers of all
20761 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
20762 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
20763 normal @sc{head} format.
20767 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
20768 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
20769 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
20770 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
20771 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
20772 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
20774 @item killed groups
20775 @cindex killed groups
20776 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
20777 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
20779 @item zombie groups
20780 @cindex zombie groups
20781 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
20784 @cindex active file
20785 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
20786 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
20787 is rather large, as you might surmise.
20790 @cindex bogus groups
20791 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
20792 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
20793 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
20796 @cindex activating groups
20797 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
20798 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
20799 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
20803 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
20805 @item select method
20806 @cindex select method
20807 A structure that specifies the backend, the server and the virtual
20810 @item virtual server
20811 @cindex virtual server
20812 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
20813 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
20814 whole is a virtual server.
20818 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
20819 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
20822 @item ephemeral groups
20823 @cindex ephemeral groups
20824 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
20825 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
20826 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
20829 @cindex solid groups
20830 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
20831 group buffer are solid groups.
20833 @item sparse articles
20834 @cindex sparse articles
20835 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
20836 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
20840 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
20841 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
20845 @cindex thread root
20846 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
20847 articles in the thread.
20851 An article that has responses.
20855 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
20859 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
20860 specified by RFC 1153.
20866 @node Customization
20867 @section Customization
20868 @cindex general customization
20870 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
20871 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
20872 for some quite common situations.
20875 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
20876 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
20877 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
20878 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
20882 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
20883 @subsection Slow/Expensive @sc{nntp} Connection
20885 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
20886 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
20887 Gnus has to get from the @sc{nntp} server.
20891 @item gnus-read-active-file
20892 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
20893 entire active file from the server. This file is often v. large. You
20894 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
20895 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
20896 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
20898 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
20899 This one has to be @code{nil}. If not, grabbing article headers from
20900 the @sc{nntp} server will not be very fast. Not all @sc{nntp} servers
20901 support @sc{xover}; Gnus will detect this by itself.
20905 @node Slow Terminal Connection
20906 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
20908 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
20909 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
20910 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
20914 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
20915 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
20916 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
20917 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
20918 horizontal and vertical recentering.
20920 @item gnus-visible-headers
20921 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
20922 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
20923 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
20924 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
20926 Set this hook to all the available hiding commands:
20928 (setq gnus-treat-hide-headers 'head
20929 gnus-treat-hide-signature t
20930 gnus-treat-hide-citation t)
20933 @item gnus-use-full-window
20934 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
20935 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
20936 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
20937 want to read them anyway.
20939 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
20940 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
20943 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
20944 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
20945 lines, which might save some time.
20949 @node Little Disk Space
20950 @subsection Little Disk Space
20953 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
20954 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
20958 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
20959 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
20960 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
20961 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
20964 @item gnus-read-newsrc-file
20965 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never read @file{.newsrc}---it will
20966 only read @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
20967 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
20970 @item gnus-save-killed-list
20971 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
20972 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
20973 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
20974 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
20980 @subsection Slow Machine
20981 @cindex slow machine
20983 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
20984 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
20986 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
20987 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
20989 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
20990 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
20991 summary buffer faster.
20995 @node Troubleshooting
20996 @section Troubleshooting
20997 @cindex troubleshooting
20999 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
21007 Make sure your computer is switched on.
21010 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
21011 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
21015 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
21016 like @samp{T-gnus 6.15.* (based on Oort Gnus v0.*; for SEMI 1.1*, FLIM
21017 1.1*)} you have the right files loaded. If, on the other hand, you get
21018 something like @samp{NNTP 3.x} or @samp{nntp flee}, you have some old
21019 @file{.el} files lying around. Delete these.
21022 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a FAQ and a
21026 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
21027 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
21028 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
21029 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
21030 something like that.
21033 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
21036 @cindex reporting bugs
21038 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
21040 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
21041 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
21042 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
21043 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
21045 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
21046 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
21047 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
21048 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
21051 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
21052 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
21053 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
21054 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
21055 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
21056 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
21058 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
21059 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
21060 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
21063 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
21064 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful.
21066 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
21067 @cindex ding mailing list
21068 You can also ask on the ding mailing list---@samp{ding@@gnus.org}.
21069 Write to @samp{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
21073 @node Gnus Reference Guide
21074 @section Gnus Reference Guide
21076 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
21077 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
21078 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
21079 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
21082 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
21083 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
21084 backends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
21085 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
21086 and general methods of operation.
21089 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
21090 * Backend Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
21091 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
21092 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
21093 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
21094 * Group Info:: The group info format.
21095 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
21096 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
21097 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
21101 @node Gnus Utility Functions
21102 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
21103 @cindex Gnus utility functions
21104 @cindex utility functions
21106 @cindex internal variables
21108 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
21109 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
21110 Below is a list of the most common ones.
21114 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
21115 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
21116 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
21118 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
21119 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
21120 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
21122 @item gnus-group-real-name
21123 @findex gnus-group-real-name
21124 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
21127 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
21128 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
21129 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
21130 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
21132 @item gnus-get-info
21133 @findex gnus-get-info
21134 Returns the group info list for @var{group}.
21136 @item gnus-group-unread
21137 @findex gnus-group-unread
21138 The number of unread articles in @var{group}, or @code{t} if that is
21142 @findex gnus-active
21143 The active entry for @var{group}.
21145 @item gnus-set-active
21146 @findex gnus-set-active
21147 Set the active entry for @var{group}.
21149 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
21150 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
21151 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
21154 @item gnus-continuum-version
21155 @findex gnus-continuum-version
21156 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
21157 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
21160 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
21161 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
21162 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
21164 @item gnus-news-group-p
21165 @findex gnus-news-group-p
21166 Says whether @var{group} came from a news backend.
21168 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
21169 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
21170 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
21172 @item gnus-server-to-method
21173 @findex gnus-server-to-method
21174 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
21176 @item gnus-server-equal
21177 @findex gnus-server-equal
21178 Says whether two virtual servers are equal.
21180 @item gnus-group-native-p
21181 @findex gnus-group-native-p
21182 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
21184 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
21185 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
21186 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
21188 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
21189 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
21190 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
21192 @item group-group-find-parameter
21193 @findex group-group-find-parameter
21194 Returns the parameter list of @var{group}. If given a second parameter,
21195 returns the value of that parameter for @var{group}.
21197 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
21198 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
21199 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
21201 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
21202 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
21203 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
21205 @item gnus-check-backend-function
21206 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
21207 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the backend
21208 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
21211 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
21215 @item gnus-read-method
21216 @findex gnus-read-method
21217 Prompts the user for a select method.
21222 @node Backend Interface
21223 @subsection Backend Interface
21225 Gnus doesn't know anything about @sc{nntp}, spools, mail or virtual
21226 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
21227 server is a @dfn{backend} and some @dfn{backend variables}. As examples
21228 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
21229 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
21230 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
21232 When Gnus asks for information from a backend---say @code{nntp}---on
21233 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
21234 function parameters. (If not, the backend should use the ``current''
21235 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
21236 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
21237 been opened, the function should fail.
21239 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
21240 name. Take this example:
21244 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
21245 (nntp-port-number 4324))
21248 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
21249 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
21251 The backends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
21252 The standard backends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
21253 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
21255 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
21256 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
21257 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
21259 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
21260 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
21261 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
21262 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
21263 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
21264 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
21267 Some backends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} backends, and
21268 some might be said not to be. The latter are backends that generally
21269 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server''
21270 -- they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
21273 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary backend
21276 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
21279 * Required Backend Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
21280 * Optional Backend Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
21281 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
21282 * Writing New Backends:: Extending old backends.
21283 * Hooking New Backends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
21284 * Mail-like Backends:: Some tips on mail backends.
21288 @node Required Backend Functions
21289 @subsubsection Required Backend Functions
21293 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
21295 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
21296 @code{Message-ID}s. Current backends do not fully support either---only
21297 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most backends do not support
21298 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
21300 The result data should either be HEADs or NOV lines, and the result
21301 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
21302 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
21303 of HEADs and NOV lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
21305 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching "extra
21306 headers", in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
21307 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
21308 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
21309 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the backend finds it
21310 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
21311 number, do maximum fetches.
21313 Here's an example HEAD:
21316 221 1056 Article retrieved.
21317 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
21318 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
21319 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
21320 Subject: Re: Something very droll
21321 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
21322 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
21324 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
21325 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
21326 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
21330 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
21331 these in the data buffer.
21333 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
21337 head = error / valid-head
21338 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
21339 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
21340 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
21341 header = <text> eol
21344 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
21345 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
21349 nov-buffer = *nov-line
21350 nov-line = 8*9 [ field <TAB> ] eol
21351 field = <text except TAB>
21354 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
21358 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
21360 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
21361 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
21363 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The backend
21364 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
21365 server. In fact, it should do so.
21367 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
21368 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
21371 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
21373 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
21374 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
21377 There should be no data returned.
21380 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
21382 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the backend
21383 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that backend
21384 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
21385 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
21387 There should be no data returned.
21390 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
21392 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
21393 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
21394 non-@code{nil} vlue. This function should under no circumstances
21395 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
21397 There should be no data returned.
21400 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
21402 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
21404 There should be no data returned.
21407 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
21409 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
21410 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
21411 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
21412 it would be nice if that were possible.
21414 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
21415 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
21416 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
21417 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
21418 into its article buffer.
21420 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
21421 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
21422 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
21423 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
21424 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
21425 on successful article retrieval.
21428 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST)
21430 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
21431 making @var{group} the current group.
21433 If @var{fast}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
21436 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
21439 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
21442 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
21443 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
21444 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
21445 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
21446 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
21447 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
21448 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
21449 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader.
21452 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
21453 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
21454 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
21458 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
21460 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
21461 a no-op on most backends.
21463 There should be no data returned.
21466 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
21468 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
21471 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
21474 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
21475 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
21478 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
21479 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag.
21482 active-file = *active-line
21483 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
21485 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
21488 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
21489 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
21490 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
21493 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
21495 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
21496 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
21497 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
21498 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
21499 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
21500 clear if the posting could not be completed.
21502 There should be no result data from this function.
21507 @node Optional Backend Functions
21508 @subsubsection Optional Backend Functions
21512 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
21514 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
21515 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
21516 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
21518 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
21519 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
21520 former is in the same format as the data from
21521 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
21522 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
21525 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
21529 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
21531 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the backend for
21532 alterations. This comes in handy if the backend really carries all the
21533 information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
21534 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
21535 should return the (altered) group info.
21537 There should be no result data from this function.
21540 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
21542 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
21543 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
21544 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
21545 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
21546 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
21547 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
21548 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
21549 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
21551 There should be no result data from this function.
21554 @item (nnchoke-request-set-mark GROUP ACTION &optional SERVER)
21556 Set/remove/add marks on articles. Normally Gnus handles the article
21557 marks (such as read, ticked, expired etc) internally, and store them in
21558 @code{~/.newsrc.eld}. Some backends (such as @sc{imap}) however carry
21559 all information about the articles on the server, so Gnus need to
21560 propagate the mark information to the server.
21562 ACTION is a list of mark setting requests, having this format:
21565 (RANGE ACTION MARK)
21568 RANGE is a range of articles you wish to update marks on. ACTION is
21569 @code{set}, @code{add} or @code{del}, respectively used for removing all
21570 existing marks and setting them as specified, adding (preserving the
21571 marks not mentioned) mark and removing (preserving the marks not
21572 mentioned) marks. MARK is a list of marks; where each mark is a symbol.
21573 Currently used marks are @code{read}, @code{tick}, @code{reply},
21574 @code{expire}, @code{killed}, @code{dormant}, @code{save},
21575 @code{download} and @code{unsend}, but your backend should, if possible,
21576 not limit itself to these.
21578 Given contradictory actions, the last action in the list should be the
21579 effective one. That is, if your action contains a request to add the
21580 @code{tick} mark on article 1 and, later in the list, a request to
21581 remove the mark on the same article, the mark should in fact be removed.
21583 An example action list:
21586 (((5 12 30) 'del '(tick))
21587 ((10 . 90) 'add '(read expire))
21588 ((92 94) 'del '(read)))
21591 The function should return a range of articles it wasn't able to set the
21592 mark on (currently not used for anything).
21594 There should be no result data from this function.
21596 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
21598 If the user tries to set a mark that the backend doesn't like, this
21599 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
21600 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
21601 @var{mark}. If the backend doesn't care, it must return the original
21602 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
21604 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
21605 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
21606 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
21609 There should be no result data from this function.
21612 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
21614 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
21615 request that the backend check for incoming articles, in one way or
21616 another. A mail backend will typically read the spool file or query the
21617 POP server when this function is invoked. The @var{group} doesn't have
21618 to be heeded---if the backend decides that it is too much work just
21619 scanning for a single group, it may do a total scan of all groups. It
21620 would be nice, however, to keep things local if that's practical.
21622 There should be no result data from this function.
21625 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
21627 The result data from this function should be a description of
21631 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
21633 description = <text>
21636 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
21638 The result data from this function should be the description of all
21639 groups available on the server.
21642 description-buffer = *description-line
21646 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
21648 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
21649 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date
21650 format. The data should be in the active buffer format.
21653 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
21655 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
21657 There should be no return data.
21660 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
21662 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
21663 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
21664 numbers.) It is left up to the backend to decide how old articles
21665 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
21666 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
21669 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
21672 There should be no result data returned.
21675 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM
21678 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
21679 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
21681 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
21682 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
21683 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
21684 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
21685 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
21686 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
21688 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
21689 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
21692 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
21693 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
21695 There should be no data returned.
21698 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
21700 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
21701 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
21702 this function in short order.
21704 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
21705 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
21707 There should be no data returned.
21710 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
21712 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
21713 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
21715 There should be no data returned.
21718 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
21720 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
21721 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
21722 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
21724 There should be no data returned.
21727 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
21729 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
21730 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
21732 There should be no data returned.
21737 @node Error Messaging
21738 @subsubsection Error Messaging
21740 @findex nnheader-report
21741 @findex nnheader-get-report
21742 The backends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
21743 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
21744 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the backend
21745 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
21746 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
21747 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
21750 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
21752 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
21755 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
21756 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
21757 recently reported message for the backend in question. This function
21758 takes one argument---the server symbol.
21760 Internally, these functions access @var{backend}@code{-status-string},
21761 so the @code{nnchoke} backend will have its error message stored in
21762 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
21765 @node Writing New Backends
21766 @subsubsection Writing New Backends
21768 Many backends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
21769 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
21770 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
21771 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
21772 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
21775 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
21776 backends when writing new backends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
21777 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
21779 All the backends declare their public variables and functions by using a
21780 package called @code{nnoo}.
21782 To inherit functions from other backends (and allow other backends to
21783 inherit functions from the current backend), you should use the
21789 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
21790 parameters. For instance:
21793 (nnoo-declare nndir
21797 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
21798 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
21801 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
21802 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
21803 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
21805 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
21806 variables in the parent backends to map the variable to when executing
21807 a function in those backends.
21810 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
21811 "Where nndir will look for groups."
21812 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
21815 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
21816 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
21817 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
21819 @item nnoo-define-basics
21820 This macro defines some common functions that almost all backends should
21824 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
21828 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
21829 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
21830 function as being public so that other backends can inherit it.
21832 @item nnoo-map-functions
21833 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current backend to
21834 functions from the parent backends.
21837 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
21838 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
21839 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
21842 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
21843 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
21844 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
21845 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
21848 This macro allows importing functions from backends. It should be the
21849 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
21850 haven't already been defined.
21856 nnmh-request-newgroups)
21860 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
21861 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
21862 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
21867 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} backend.
21870 ;;; nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus
21871 ;; Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
21875 (require 'nnheader)
21879 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
21881 (nnoo-declare nndir
21884 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
21885 "Where nndir will look for groups."
21886 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
21888 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
21889 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
21892 (defvoo nndir-current-group ""
21894 nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
21895 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
21896 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
21898 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
21899 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
21901 ;;; Interface functions.
21903 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
21905 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
21906 (setq nndir-directory
21907 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
21909 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
21910 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
21911 (push `(nndir-current-group
21912 ,(file-name-nondirectory
21913 (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
21915 (push `(nndir-top-directory
21916 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
21918 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
21920 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
21921 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
21922 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
21923 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
21924 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
21928 nnmh-status-message
21930 nnmh-request-newgroups))
21936 @node Hooking New Backends Into Gnus
21937 @subsubsection Hooking New Backends Into Gnus
21939 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
21940 Having Gnus start using your new backend is rather easy---you just
21941 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
21942 enter the backend into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
21944 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the backend name and
21945 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
21950 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
21953 The abilities can be:
21957 This is a mailish backend---followups should (probably) go via mail.
21959 This is a newsish backend---followups should (probably) go via news.
21961 This backend supports both mail and news.
21963 This is neither a post nor mail backend---it's something completely
21966 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
21967 articles and groups.
21969 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
21970 true for almost all backends.
21971 @item prompt-address
21972 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
21973 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for backends like
21974 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
21978 @node Mail-like Backends
21979 @subsubsection Mail-like Backends
21981 One of the things that separate the mail backends from the rest of the
21982 backends is the heavy dependence by the mail backends on common
21983 functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the definition of
21984 @code{nnml-request-scan}:
21987 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
21988 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
21989 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
21992 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
21993 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
21996 This function takes four parameters.
22000 This should be a symbol to designate which backend is responsible for
22003 @item exit-function
22004 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
22006 @item temp-directory
22007 Where the temporary files should be stored.
22010 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
22011 performed for one group only.
22014 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{backend}@code{-save-mail} to
22015 save each article. @var{backend}@code{-active-number} will be called to
22016 find the article number assigned to this article.
22018 The function also uses the following variables:
22019 @var{backend}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
22020 this backend); and @var{backend}@code{-group-alist} and
22021 @var{backend}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
22022 @var{backend}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
22026 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
22027 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
22031 @node Score File Syntax
22032 @subsection Score File Syntax
22034 Score files are meant to be easily parseable, but yet extremely
22035 mallable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
22036 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
22038 Here's a typical score file:
22042 ("win95" -10000 nil s)
22049 BNF definition of a score file:
22052 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
22053 element = rule / atom
22054 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
22055 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
22056 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
22057 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
22059 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
22060 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
22061 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
22062 date-header = "date"
22063 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
22064 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
22065 score = "nil" / <integer>
22066 date = "nil" / <natural number>
22067 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
22068 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
22069 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
22070 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
22071 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
22072 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
22073 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
22074 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
22075 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
22076 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
22077 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
22078 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
22079 exclude-files / read-only / touched
22080 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
22081 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
22082 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
22083 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
22084 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
22085 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
22086 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
22087 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
22088 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
22089 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
22090 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
22091 eval = "eval" space <form>
22092 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
22095 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
22098 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
22099 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
22100 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
22101 one looong line, then that's ok.
22103 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
22104 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
22108 @subsection Headers
22110 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
22111 corresponds to the @sc{nov} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
22112 almost suspect that the author looked at the @sc{nov} specification and
22113 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
22115 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
22116 RFC 1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
22117 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
22118 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
22119 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
22120 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
22121 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
22123 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
22124 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
22125 @code{xref}, and @code{extra}. There are macros for accessing and
22126 setting these slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
22127 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
22129 All these slots contain strings, except the @code{extra} slot, which
22130 contains an alist of header/value pairs (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
22136 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
22137 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
22139 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
22140 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
22141 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
22142 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
22144 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
22148 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
22151 is transformed into
22154 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
22157 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
22158 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
22161 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
22164 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
22165 is slightly tricky:
22168 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
22174 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
22177 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
22183 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
22190 and is equal to the previous range.
22192 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
22193 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
22194 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
22198 range = simple-range / normal-range
22199 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
22200 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
22201 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
22202 number *[ " " contents ]
22205 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
22206 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
22207 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
22208 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
22209 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
22214 @subsection Group Info
22216 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
22217 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
22218 describes the group.
22220 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
22221 second is a more complex one:
22224 ("no.group" 5 ((1 . 54324)))
22226 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
22227 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
22229 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
22232 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
22233 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
22234 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
22235 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
22236 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
22237 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
22238 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
22239 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
22240 this section is about.
22242 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
22243 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
22244 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
22246 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
22249 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
22250 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
22251 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
22252 group = quote <string> quote
22253 ralevel = rank / level
22254 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
22255 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
22256 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
22258 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
22259 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
22260 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
22261 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
22264 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
22265 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
22268 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
22269 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
22272 @item gnus-info-group
22273 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
22274 @findex gnus-info-group
22275 @findex gnus-info-set-group
22276 Get/set the group name.
22278 @item gnus-info-rank
22279 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
22280 @findex gnus-info-rank
22281 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
22282 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
22284 @item gnus-info-level
22285 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
22286 @findex gnus-info-level
22287 @findex gnus-info-set-level
22288 Get/set the group level.
22290 @item gnus-info-score
22291 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
22292 @findex gnus-info-score
22293 @findex gnus-info-set-score
22294 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
22296 @item gnus-info-read
22297 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
22298 @findex gnus-info-read
22299 @findex gnus-info-set-read
22300 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
22302 @item gnus-info-marks
22303 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
22304 @findex gnus-info-marks
22305 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
22306 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
22308 @item gnus-info-method
22309 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
22310 @findex gnus-info-method
22311 @findex gnus-info-set-method
22312 Get/set the group select method.
22314 @item gnus-info-params
22315 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
22316 @findex gnus-info-params
22317 @findex gnus-info-set-params
22318 Get/set the group parameters.
22321 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
22322 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
22324 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
22325 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
22326 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
22327 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
22330 @node Extended Interactive
22331 @subsection Extended Interactive
22332 @cindex interactive
22333 @findex gnus-interactive
22335 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
22336 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
22337 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
22340 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
22341 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
22346 The best thing to do would have been to implement
22347 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
22348 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
22349 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
22350 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
22351 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
22352 @code{interactive}.
22354 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
22359 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
22360 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
22364 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
22365 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
22366 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
22369 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
22373 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
22377 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
22383 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
22384 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
22388 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
22389 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
22390 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
22392 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
22393 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
22394 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
22395 Gnus, that's very useful.
22397 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
22398 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
22399 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
22400 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
22401 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
22402 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
22403 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
22404 following function:
22407 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
22411 (,function ,@@args))
22415 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
22416 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
22417 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
22420 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
22421 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
22422 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
22424 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
22425 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
22426 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
22429 @node Various File Formats
22430 @subsection Various File Formats
22433 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
22434 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
22438 @node Active File Format
22439 @subsubsection Active File Format
22441 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
22442 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
22445 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
22448 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
22449 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
22450 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
22451 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
22452 no.general 1000 900 y
22455 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
22458 active = *group-line
22459 group-line = group spc high-number spc low-number spc flag <NEWLINE>
22460 group = <non-white-space string>
22462 high-number = <non-negative integer>
22463 low-number = <positive integer>
22464 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
22467 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
22468 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
22471 @node Newsgroups File Format
22472 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
22474 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
22475 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
22476 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
22479 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
22480 Here's the definition:
22484 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
22485 group = <non-white-space string>
22487 description = <string>
22492 @node Emacs for Heathens
22493 @section Emacs for Heathens
22495 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
22496 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
22497 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{M-C-a}'', ``kill the
22498 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
22499 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
22500 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
22501 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
22505 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
22506 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
22511 @subsection Keystrokes
22515 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
22518 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
22521 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
22522 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
22523 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
22524 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
22525 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
22526 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
22528 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
22529 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
22530 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
22531 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
22532 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
22533 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
22534 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
22536 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
22537 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{M-C-m}
22538 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
22539 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
22540 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
22541 ``Press @kbd{M-C-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
22542 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
22544 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
22545 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
22546 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
22547 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
22548 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
22554 @subsection Emacs Lisp
22556 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
22557 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
22558 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
22559 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
22561 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
22562 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
22563 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
22564 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
22565 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
22566 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
22567 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{.emacs} file
22570 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
22571 write the following:
22574 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
22577 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
22578 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
22579 you can go and fill your @code{.emacs} file with lots of these to change
22582 If you have put that thing in your @code{.emacs} file, it will be read
22583 and @code{eval}ed (which is lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
22584 start Emacs. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
22585 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
22586 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
22588 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
22589 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
22590 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
22594 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
22598 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
22601 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server} to
22602 @samp{nntp.ifi.uio.no}'', that means:
22605 (setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
22608 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
22609 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
22612 @include gnus-faq.texi
22633 % LocalWords: Backend BNF mucho Backends backends detailmenu cindex kindex kbd
22634 % LocalWords: findex Gnusae vindex dfn dfn samp nntp setq nnspool nntpserver
22635 % LocalWords: nnmbox backend newusers Blllrph NEWGROUPS dingnusdingnusdingnus
22636 % LocalWords: pre fab rec comp nnslashdot regex ga ga sci nnml nnbabyl nnmh
22637 % LocalWords: nnfolder emph looong eld newsreaders defun init elc pxref